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Alternatives to Band IN a Box

PauFerro

PauFerro

Jun 8, 2008
3,361
4,204
United States
#1
I'm tired of Band in a Box. The only thing I use it for is typing in chords so I can then improvise over them. I use only a fraction of their total features. The manual was written by aliens. And I'll confess, the discs are not well labelled and for some reason, I can never seem to find my original disc after I buy the software and then years later, have to transfer the software to a new computer.

Does anyone have a simple, cheap, chord-playback application you can recommend. It should allow me to type in chords, select a style of music, and then play it back. Suggestions?
 
#3
PauFerro said:
I'm tired of Band in a Box. The only thing I use it for is typing in chords so I can then improvise over them. I use only a fraction of their total features. The manual was written by aliens. And I'll confess, the discs are not well labelled and for some reason, I can never seem to find my original disc after I buy the software and then years later, have to transfer the software to a new computer.

Does anyone have a simple, cheap, chord-playback application you can recommend. It should allow me to type in chords, select a style of music, and then play it back. Suggestions?
Click to expand...

Hi PauFerro,

Did you find a solution that works for you? :)
 
#6
JEBassman said:
With a 14 day trial that's a decent way to test the program before buying. The actual price is very reasonable as well.

Deacon Blues, have you tried this app yourself? What were your thoughts if you did?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I tried it. The fact is that I just love Band in a Box for so many reasons, but Chordpulse has the really neat features such as "preset" common chord progressions that you can trnaspose/slow down etc...

However, you don't get to see transcriptions of notes and get good ideas for bass lines etc, like you do with BIAB...
 
#7
JEBassman said:
With a 14 day trial that's a decent way to test the program before buying. The actual price is very reasonable as well.


One more thing I should mention,...I'm pretty sure that the 14 day trial version only contains maybe a third of the total styles that you would get in the full version (although I'm not 100 percent sure about that)

Also, and this is the beautiful part, there are 2 programs they have with limited fautures (limited in different ways...) which are totally, 100 percent free...forever!!!


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The lite version is kinda hidden in the sub menus but it ROCKS!!!! The 4 chord, as the name so obviously denotes, is restricted to 4 chords, "lite" is not so restricted but it has less available styles...

Mix-and-match I suppose...
Click to expand...
 
#8
Ooops. My last bit got hidden under the reply. Re-posting

One more thing I should mention,...I'm pretty sure that the 14 day trial version only contains maybe a third of the total styles that you would get in the full version (although I'm not 100 percent sure about that)

Also, and this is the beautiful part, there are 2 programs they have with limited fautures (limited in different ways...) which are totally, 100 percent free...forever!!!


Invalid Link Removed

Invalid Link Removed

The lite version is kinda hidden in the sub menus but it ROCKS!!!! The 4 chord, as the name so obviously denotes, is restricted to 4 chords, "lite" is not so restricted but it has less available styles...

Mix-and-match I suppose...
 
#9
+1 for iReal Pro. You can get it for your computer and there are versions for iPhone and iPad, others too I suspect. Only $20 and it will do all you need it to do without a lot of frills you'll never use. Creates piano/bass/drums backgrounds over any changes you want, and you can mute the bass or whatever you want to play along. There are thousands of songs (changes only) available from their forum to download for free and it is easy to type in your own changes. You can email changes to friends so they can load them on their iPad, for example, to use on a gig. Easy to adjust number of choruses, tempo, transpose key etc. Not as many style choices as BIAB, but probably enough to get you through practicing your songs in a variety of styles (about 50 different styles). Hint: To share a song between platforms, like if you have it on your computer and need it on your iPad, you email the song to yourself and then open it from the email and it will load on that device.
 
#10
+1 with some others here. I really like ChordPulse. It does what it's designed to do. And it's surprisingly versatile for such a simple program once you get into it. I've used it to do almost all the music (intro theme, segment switching, exit theme, etc.) for a friend's podcast. And that was just with the freebie, which I strongly suggest you try first since I know people who love this program as well as people who strongly dislike the way it works. (I've since bought the full version btw.)

Definitely worth a try. Cool tool! :thumbsup:

FWIW, I have iReal Pro and don't care for it at all. My guitarist GF, on the other hand, swears by it and can get it to do almost anything she wants.

Like Band-in-Box (which we also have and use) ChordPulse, iReal Pro, and virtually any other music software (e.g. Ableton, FruityLoops, Notion, etc.) can only give you back as much as you're willing to put into it.
 
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