Is Band In a Box the best choice?

[Roger Andrusky]

I see on the Forum and hear in videos folks who have great accompaniment tracks behind them. Is BIB the best? I have to do some research on it yet as I don't even know how to use it or what it's capable of, but I'm working on it.

I'd really appreciate some guidance/tips/advice on what is the best way to do this. I play in my basement most of the time now, so I need a band!
Suggestions MOST welcome! Thanks again to all!

[Greg Cutshaw]

Band In A Box is great and probably a lot less work than creating your own tracks with real instruments although BIAB does have real instruments now! There are of songs already done in BIAB and its easy to change the key and tempo to suit your personal needs. Also a very modest computer will do the job.

If you're only interested in a few songs you could also buy very professional tracks for specific songs.

I use a variety of tools including BIAB to make tracks. You'll have to decide what your budget is, what your goals are and how much of a hobby you want to make out of creating tracks.

[Tony Prior]

Roger, if you are playing at home in your basement then you are prime to be a BIAB user/owner.

IF you know the chords to the songs you wanna play and understand even somewhat the order of verse, bridge chorus, etc...and can actually type the correct CHORD letters..( ha !) you will be quite pleased with the results.

You will however have to spend a few minutes learning how to set it up and select which instruments you want in your song, which is all pretty dang easy.

There is some minimal up front set-up and learning, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. YOU direct the activities
of BIAB.

The Tutorials are excellent and this forum has it's own BIAB section where you can ask questions all day long !

I personally use BIAB for most drum tracks on my own recordings and if there is an instrumental song I need to work on, I create a simple song in BIAB and practice to it.

I say go for it.

[Joe Wheeler]

BIAB is the best practice tool I have . I make my own tracks and use them at Church and Community singings along with my fiddle and banjo . I am not a professional musician so they work fine for me .

[Ken Lang]

I have had Band in a Box for years. It's a good program.
However Youtube has a bunch of Karaoke tunes that serve the same purpose and are better, as long as they aren't some old obscure songs which they don't have. Look at that as well. As long as you have the capability of turning them into MP3 or wave files, you can use them as well.

[Sonny Jenkins]

I ran across a website called "chordify",,,small membership has every song I've ever thought of,,,members have many options as to key, speed etc,,,

[Douglas Kinney]

For any of you still checking this thread, I have Band In A Box Pro 2017, but I found another program I like and use as well. Only draw back is it is iPad or iPhone only, but the price is right. Check out SessionBand, (Google). For those wanting backing tracks with a real sound, but don't want to break the bank! (I am not affilated with SessionBand in any way.)

[James Mayer]

For any of you still checking this thread, I have Band In A Box Pro 2017, but I found another program I like and use as well. Only draw back is it is iPad or iPhone only, but the price is right. Check out SessionBand, (Google). For those wanting backing tracks with a real sound, but don't want to break the bank! (I am not affilated with SessionBand in any way.)

I've purchased several of the Session Band apps. They are real studio recordings of musicians and they take up a lot of drive space which is limited on my iPad. If it wasn't for that, I'd use them more often.