Band in a Box

[Guest Yachtsman1]

The latest edition of the "Film & Video Maker" magazine popped through the letter box this morning. Being the official magazine of the Institute of Amatuer Cinematographers, which I joined to get the UK licences discussed in other threads on copyright music, it arrives FOC as part of the membership. It only usually contains 2 or 3 pages relating to AV, and these are usually results, therefore it isn't of much interest to AV'rs. However, this month there is the first part of an article about "Band in a Box" the do it yourself music production software. The reviewer enthuses about it's benifits, so I did a little checking and have the following information. It's available in various packages from the basic system on DVD at $129 to the top of the range set up supplied on a 1.5TB hard drive at $669. It uses royalty free midi files that can be downloaded from the internet, or self composed music using various features which I would assume only owners could fully explain. The article says it would cut out the need to comply with Royalty law, providing your home produced music doesn't infringe copyright. It would be interesting to hear from any forum members who use BIAB. The second part of the article will be in the next issue. For anyone really into composing or adapting, it sounds like a dream come true.

Yachtsman1

[fh1805]

I, too, received my copy of "Film & Video maker" today and was equally intrigued by "Band in a Box". Just to clarify one point mentioned above...

The product does indeed import midi files but the output is, I believe, a full toned WAV file.

See here for more details: http://www.band-in-a-box.com/

regards,

Peter

[Ken Cox]

I still have the copy that came with my windows 3.1 setup

14 yrs ago we up dated to win95 and when i had my stroke in Nov i had my computer in my hosp room and band in a box sure amused the nurses etc:)

It has come a long ways since then

ken

[Barry Beckham]

I wouldn't touch this with a bargepole.

I know the theory sounds great but I tried the Sony version a while back and the results are exactly what you would expect, adequate, good quality music, but lacking in the very ingredient we need for Audio Visual. Its the same ingredients that make some music dire and other music delightfull, same notes, different order.

I would love to be proved wrong, but this software has been around for quite some time and if it is so great, how come we never see it used?

Anyone got a sample they have made that they can post on Mediafire to make me eat my words?

Ther's a challenge

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Barry your reply is somewhat one sided as you sell music. I don't know what the product is like & comparing it to another manufacturer's kit can't be considered unless you've tried them both. Ken is the only one to date who has tried it & he seems happy. I would assume the reason for it not being mentioned much is- 1.the cost & 2.it is a little specialised and to get the most out of it needs some musical knowledge I believe. Personally I have no opinions, thats the reason for the post, to find if anyone had used it and how they found it. It has come up on here before I believe about 18 months ago.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1

[Barry Beckham]

Yachtsman1

Barry your reply is somewhat one sided as you sell music.

That is making an awful big assumption and sort of suggests that because I sell royalty free music on behalf of the record labels my views cannot be trusted, or am I now making too big an assuption too

I wasn't being critical of you or the post, but from my own experience music generated in this way lacks the very ingredients we need for a sucessfull slide show. I doubt the cost would be a big issue to most people if the product was good, but just think for a moment how can it be. I also believe (not sure) that these packages are aimed at those with no musical knowledge. Those that do would choose something completely different.

In our hands (ie those of us who do not play a musical instrument) the music we produce will not have that impact we need. If it did there would be thousands of smart kids in bedrooms churing out superb music. Apart from an odd isolated case there are not.

As I think I have said before AV is made up of two core ingredients, visuals and sound. We have to work darn hard to get visuals right, don't let the second part slip through your fingers by using substandard music.

Having said all that and with the numbers of people visiting the forum, can someone prove me wrong. I would be delighted to be able to write another post soon saying, I was wrong in my earlier views, but I doubt that will happen will it.

There is an old saying for fisherman that much of the shiny tackle and lures in the tackle shop is more to catch the angler, rather than fish. Why is it my thoughts turn to that saying when I think of this type of software.

[Ken Cox]

BACK IN WIN 3.1 DAYS anything new was amazing, bb was neat and amazing -- i was never able to compose music tho'

when the first windows based computers were installed at our company [likely >500 systems on first install] they all came with MS installed games - the games were for a purpose - so people would become familiar with the system and have some fun -- before i retired they would give a you a complete MS office suite if you had a computer -- again a method in their madness - -you could learn the software at home. After i retired the company bought 25,000 like for like systems and replaced all existing systems - -the reason -- if we had a visitor from a division from the Netherlands and they wanted to look something up, they had the same system back home and they were familiar with it

band in the box was a novelty but you began to understand things by playing with it -- Synthesized music has been around longer than most of the people with home computers -- I would likey be safe in saying that Yamaha keyboards were around long before the home computer

ken

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Unlike Barry, I have played a number of musical instruments, including clarinet, saxophone & trumpet & was in a band in my mis-spent youth along with a number of choirs. So after reading the IAC magazine article and checking out the BIAB website, thought it might be an alternative to having to be a member of a society with little AV interest to obtain the licences in order to comply with UK law.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1

[davegee]

Barry,

You are, basically, correct.

It takes a VERY high standard of musicianship to construct a MIDI sequence and to make the listener even wonder - "Is that MIDI or is it real".

DG

[Lin Evans]

Hi Barry,

Actually, this package is more designed for those "with" musical experience. With the right skills and understanding of music, Band in a Box can be used to create very useful music in a wide gamut of genres. If you go to the site and listen to some of the compositions, you will find that a skilled user can produce music virtually indistinguishable from that created by some talented musicians who depend primarily on synthesizers to create their primary backgrounds - not unlike some of the music by the talented composers such as Medwin Goodall, etc.

I would not suggest this software for someone with no musical training or background, but if you have the requisite background you can produce some very good and quite useful music with this software. Of course, like much of the royalty free music, it's entirely instrumental and there are significant costs to get the necessary "packages" which allow various types of rhythms and styles. What it does is allow a reasonably good musician to have "cheap" backup to perhaps produce his/her own compositions.

snip...

I wasn't being critical of you or the post, but from my own experience music generated in this way lacks the very ingredients we need for a sucessfull slide show. I doubt the cost would be a big issue to most people if the product was good, but just think for a moment how can it be. I also believe (not sure) that these packages are aimed at those with no musical knowledge. Those that do would choose something completely different.

In our hands (ie those of us who do not play a musical instrument) the music we produce will not have that impact we need. If it did there would be thousands of smart kids in bedrooms churing out superb music. Apart from an odd isolated case there are not.

As I think I have said before AV is made up of two core ingredients, visuals and sound. We have to work darn hard to get visuals right, don't let the second part slip through your fingers by using substandard music.

Having said all that and with the numbers of people visiting the forum, can someone prove me wrong. I would be delighted to be able to write another post soon saying, I was wrong in my earlier views, but I doubt that will happen will it......