PG Music releases Band-in-a-Box 2010 for Mac (Intel)

PG Music has announced the release of Band-in-a-Box 2010 for Mac OS X with new features like a new "Plug-in" mode, faster RealTracks Generation, RealTracks Shots, Holds, and Pushes and more. PG Music has also released 101 new RealTracks (Sets 67-82), and 3 New RealDrums Sets (27-29) for Mac Intel, which are included in every Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh UltraPlusPAK and EverythingPAK.

Pricing starts at $129 for new customers and $49 for upgraders. This includes a free bonus 10-PAK until April 30, 2010.

If you already have Band-in-a-Box 2009 and you "want it all," the Band-in-a-Box EverythingPAK is for you. This package ships pre-installed on a 160GB USB HD. This is plug 'n' play, and has the program, all (previous and new) RealTracks, RealDrums and MIDI styles. Run it from the hard drive, or install it to your PC's hard drive. During the Macintosh launch special, this can be yours for $159 (upgrade from 2009), or $179 (upgrade from 2008 or older) or $399 (first-time purchase).

There are over 50 new features in Band-in-a-Box 2010 for Macintosh:

• There is now a "Plug-in" mode for your favorite sequencer (GarageBand, ProTools, Logic, Nuendo, Reaper and more). With the new plug-in mode, BB is open as a small always-on-top window, and acts as a plug-in for your favorite DAW/sequencer, so that you can Drag-n-Drop MIDI and audio (AIFF) tracks from BB to your favorite sequencer. Work in your favorite sequencer, type a progression in Band-in-a-Box, and then simply drag the track from Band-in-a-Box to your sequencer's track at the desired track and bar location.
• No more long waits for RealTracks to generate. RealTracks generate much faster, 4X faster on average. A typical song with RealTracks that took 20 seconds to generate will generate now in about 5 seconds. And if you freeze some or all tracks in the song (see below), playback of RealTracks is almost instantaneous.
• Time for generation of MIDI arrangement is much faster - now 'instantaneous (less than 1 second).
• Freezing (locking) MIDI or Real tracks/RealDrums. Any track can now be frozen (MIDI or Real track). When frozen, it won't get changed or re-generated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like. If you freeze the whole song, you don't have to wait at all for the song to regenerate. Next time you play, it is ready to go. (Note: this new freeze feature is different than the previous limited freeze feature that renders the whole arrangement to the audio track)
• All Tracks can be Edited and Saved. MIDI tracks for bass, drums, piano, guitar and strings can now be edited, and saved with the file. If you freeze a track, edits can be still made to it, because it is only frozen from BB making changes to it (you can still edit it), so that the MIDI track will be saved to the file. So you can customize the bass part to match a certain song, and save it with a Frozen bass part, so that BB won't overwrite your edits. This includes RealCharts – if you wanted to edit the notation of a RealTracks solo for example.
• Soloist generated RealTracks are now saved with the song, so you will hear the RealTracks play the same solo when you reload the song. RealTracks now support new features, including Shots, Holds, and Pushes. Simply type in the chords as you normally would, adding periods (…) for shots and holds, and the RealTracks will play them. Note for this, you need the installer that creates a Library\Holds folder in your RealTracks folder.
• RealTracks endings have been enhanced, and are now 4 bar endings instead of 2 bar, allowing time for a natural decay of the instruments.
• Multiple Undo support. Up to 999 levels of undo (configurable).
• Always Save all song settings. Now all settings are saved with songs, including patches, reverbs, volume etc., so that the song will play the same way each time, without having to set this in the Save With Patches dialog.
• Reverb control added for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily add reverb (0 to 127) for any RealTrack. Reverb type also settable, and saved with the song.
• Bass/Treble Tone Control added for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily adjust the bass/treble EQ for any RealTrack. Settings save with the song.
• Band-in-a-Box window is now sizable, when size changes, chord sheet, notation, and other windows redraw in proportion to the new size. This allows you to have BB open as a small window on screen with other programs, and you still see a full chord sheet. The screen size is remembered between sessions.
• New favorite songs/styles dialog, with separate lists of 'recently played' and favorite songs or styles. The previous 'favorite' songs/styles dialog was a list of recently used songs/styles. Now there are 2 tabs in this dialog, showing you both recently used songs/styles, and a new list of 'favorites' that you select as a favorite songs or styles. You can add an unlimited number of favorites.
• Double time and half-time support for RealTracks added. Now you can play any RealTracks at half-time or double time. This allows you to, for example, in a ballad at tempo of 70, to add a RealTracks Sax solo with tempo of 140, and play it as a double time, which will match the ballad tempo of 70. So now all of your existing RealTracks can be used at 3 different tempos. (normal, half-time, double time)
• Tempo swapping of similar RealTracks. This feature happens either automatically or manually. If you set "Auto RealTracks substitution based on tempo" to true in RealTracks Settings dialog or Additional Song Settings dialog, BB will automatically choose the best one to use. For example, if you have a ballad loaded, with an Acoustic Bass RealTracks at tempo of 60, and you speed up the tempo to 140, and press play, BB will automatically choose an Acoustic Bass RealTracks closer to tempo of 140, if it is the same genre and feel. This means you can use a simple Jazz style, and play it at various tempos, without having to set the best RealTracks based on tempos. If you don't want this feature to work automatically, set "Auto RealTracks substitution based on tempo" to false. The RealTracks that support the Tempo Swapping are listed in the next to last column of the RealTracks assign dialog.
• Rendering now has a Normalize option, to normalize individual tracks or the complete arrangement. Normalizing boosts the volume to a maximum level without distortion. Most professional music tracks are normalized.
• RealDrums picker dialog has been enhanced, with information about Artist name, Artist bio, and Real Drums Set number.
• Songs 'Saved-As" a different name now have the new name added to the Recently Used song dialog.
• Support enhanced for non-concert instruments (Bb/Eb sax, trumpet etc.). Now when chord sheet is transposed, you can type in chords in the transposed key, and they will show up as you have entered them, instead of requiring you to enter the chords in the concert key.
• More Soloists are now available, up to 2000.
• RealTracks Picker dialog enhanced: Opens up faster; New Columns added (tempo swappable, holds type)
• Many messages changed to "yellow alerts" at top right of screen, so that you don't have to respond to the message, interrupting work flow.
• And many more.