Music makers, rejoice. Band-in-a-Box 2013 for the Mac has arrived. It’s a MIDI music arranger software package that allows a solo musician to play along to a computer-generated accompaniment with adjustable tempo, adjustable key, and a choice of musical styles.
It’s easy to use. Just type in the chords for any song using standard chord symbols (like C, Fm7, or C13b9), choose the style you’d like, and Band-in-a-Box does the rest. It automatically generates a complete professional-quality arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings or horns. And the 2013 version has over 50 new features and enhancements.
Among them is RealTracks, which adds the human element of great session musicians to your tracks. Plus, Band-in-a-Box 2013 gives us new R&B horn section RealTracks, so there are 101 new RealTracks in all, plus high quality MIDI instruments.
Band-in-a-Box 2013 also introduces Performance Tracks. Artists Performances showcase the Band-in-a-Box RealTracks demos playing along to an artist performing the melody. This is handy for learning from the pros — or, heck, just for listening.
Updated Notation features include enhanced Notation Windows, a Lead Sheet window, note-based lyrics, Jazz font notation and chords, guitar and bass tablature, and a Big Lyrics window, and more. There are 50 more MIDI SuperTracks, including Piano (Classic, Traditional Jazz, Modern Jazz, Celtic, New Age), Strings (Pop, Jazz) and more.
Plus, Band-in-a-Box offers SoundCloud.com and DropBox integration, Notation and RealTracks enhancements, and more. Band-in-a-Box 2013 costs US$129 for new users for the Pro edition. Upgrades start at $69. For more info go to http://www.pgmusic.com/bbmac.new.htm .