Band-in-a-Box for Windows Download and Install Manager Help

The Install Manager can be used to download and install all of the files in any product that you order at pgmusic.com, with one click. This is a simpler alternative to manually downloading and installing all the files individually that are listed on your 'downloads' page or 'My Products' page in your account.

This is particularly useful for "download-only" (e-delivery) versions of the Band-in-a-Box Pro, Mega, and UltraPAK, since there are a lot of large files to download.

• Do I need to use the Download and Install Manager?
• Where to find the Download and Install Manager
• Choosing the Product to Download
• Download Preparation
• Downloading and Installing Band-in-a-Box Content
• Running Band-in-a-Box for the First Time

Last updated:  Wednesday, 23 August 2023

Do I need to use the Download and Install Manager?

You do not need to use the Download and Install Manager. There are several options for you to download and install files. The Install Manager is available as of November 2021, but any method that you have used in the past to download your files will still work the same. For example, if you prefer, you can download the files individually by clicking them one at a time as you may have done in the past. Or, you can copy your download links into your preferred third party download manager.

Where to find the Download and Install Manager

After you place your order, click on the link(s) in your order confirmation email to go directly to your Downloads page for each product. Note: The Install Manager will only work for orders placed on March 2021 or later. For any order (including orders placed prior to that), you can still access the downloads on your 'My Products' page by logging into your account at www.pgmusic.com and clicking on [My Products]

If the Install Manager is available for the product, there will be a link to download it at the top of your download page list (Note: Download the 64-bit version unless you have an old computer with a 32-bit OS - not very common).

Once this setup file is downloaded, run it to install the Download and Install Manager on your computer. By default, it will be installed into your Band-in-a-Box Data folder (e.g. C:\bb\Data\InstallManager) and will create a desktop shortcut icon. It is ok if you don't yet have Band-in-a-Box installed on your computer. Note - there is an older 'download mananager' that you may have in your 'bb\Data\downloadManager' folder; this is an older program that works differently.

Choosing the Product to Download

Open the Install Manager after you have downloaded and installed it:

You need to find the "Download URL" for the product that you want to download. You can find this listed at the top of the actual download page for that product, or from your order confirmation email.

Click on the [Enter Download URL] button, paste your URL into the product URL field, and press OK. Note: the url should look similar to this:
https://www.pgmusic.com/download/abcdef-abcdef-abcdef-abcdef-abcdef-abcdef

If the URL is valid, the Install Manager will retrieve the file data, and this may take a few moments. The product is added to the "Products" section on the left and selected automatically, showing the files available for download in the main "Available Downloads" section.

For Band-in-a-Box packages, the first file listed is the Band-in-a-Box program installer itself. This installer will require you to click through the Setup Wizard to agree to the license agreement and confirm some install settings. Once you have done that, no intervention should be required until the product is completely downloaded and installed.

Preparing to Download the files.

Prior to downloading, decide on a drive and location to store the downloaded files and make sure you have enough hard disk space there. The default is C:\BBDownloads, however you can choose your regular downloads folder or whatever location is best for you. The complete download size is shown in the top Product Information area. Taking installation into account, you will need a little more than double the download size. Verify your download settings:

• Download folder: This is where the installer files will be downloaded to.
• Automatically install downloaded files: The Install Manager will automatically run and install the file "silently" when the download is finished. One exception is the Band-in-a-Box program installer file, which will run visually and requires your input.
• Automatically remove downloaded files once installed. If an install finishes successfully, that file will be deleted. This could be helpful if you are low on hard disk space... for example if you had only a single hard drive with 100GB space and you were doing a 100GB install. Deleted files can be re-downloaded again in the future if need be. NOTE: most people would not benefit from enabling this setting. You can always delete or move files manually after downloading.

Verify your Band-in-a-Box folder install settings:

The default install location for Band-in-a-Box is C:\bb, or the last folder that you installed a Band-in-a-Box file to. Band-in-a-Box can also be installed and run from an external USB hard drive. The drive that you install Band-in-a-Box on should be NTFS formatted, which is normal for modern computers (FAT32 is sometimes used for flash drives and will not work well for an UltraPAK install due to inherent file limits).

RealTracks and Drums folder locations are also C:\bb by default. These folders are very large relative to the main program files, since they contain large audio files. This is the reason that they can be installed to a different location than the main program. You can think of the RealTracks folder as requiring about as much space as the total download size.

Note that the Install Manager does not check if you already have each file installed in your Band-in-a-Box folder. When you start a new Install Manager session (i.e. open the program), it assumes that you will need to install the entire product. However, if you already have downloaded the product and the correct files exist in your download folder, it will not re-download them. You can move the download files / change your downloads folder any time. For example, some people might want to back up files on a different hard disk once they are downloaded.

Downloading the files

You can download and/or install files individually, or you can press [Download and Install All] button at the top of the screen. In the case of "Download-All", you should not need to do anything further while the program downloads, (except for step through the Band-in-a-Box program install wizard). The Install Manager will block some power-saving features of your computer while downloads are in progress, so that the computer doesn't go to sleep (the display can still be turned off). This feature can be turned off in [Edit | Settings] menu, however you would normally want to leave it turned on.

The length of time the download takes depends mainly on how fast your internet connection is, so varies widely. If you are curious, there are lots of websites that will test your download speed - e.g. Google search "internet speed test". As a ballpark, the UltraPAK can be downloaded in 2-3 hours with a fairly fast connection (100 mbps). Installation time (as opposed to "download" time) varies greatly between computers, a full UltraPAK taking anywhere from 20 min to a few hours.

Running Band-in-a-Box for the first time.

Here are a few useful pointers to get you started.

• When you launch the program for the first time, you are prompted to activate. Use the serial number displayed in the top section of the My Products page, and paste it into the activation dialog. It is best to do online activation if possible.
• Assuming this is your first time running the program, you will be prompted to rebuild the StylePicker. Open the StylePicker (hotkey s + <enter>) and click the Rebuild button ('fast' rebuild is OK; 'slow' rebuild will also search for third party and user styles). This allows the program to determine which PG Music styles and other content you have installed. If you are running the program prior to installing the RealTracks content, you will likely notice that there are many MIDI styles available, but no RealStyles. RealStyles use RealTracks instruments so they sound much more realistic than MIDI styles, and you can tell them apart because the style name starts with an underscore. You will have more RealStyles once you've installed the additional RealTracks content from your purchase. Double-click on any style in the StylePicker to hear a pre-made demo for it.
• There are options under the "Other" button in the StylePicker to "Show only styles that are Found/Not Found (N/A)". Since the program knows about all available styles, you can use these options to determine if you are missing any styles, and see what Sets they are from.
• Check the RealTracks Preferences and RealDrums Preferences dialogs to make sure that the folder locations are as you expect. If you have opted to store your RealTracks files on an external hard drive while the Band-in-a-Box program is installed on the C: drive for example, the RealTracks "Custom Location" setting will need to be set. Band-in-a-Box also tries to determine the best folders automatically, so it is a good idea to double-check the setting either way.
• The RealTracks Picker is another window you will probably use frequently. One way to open is to right-cick on a track and Select RealTracks. If you have any RealTracks installed, you will be able to choose them from this window. Note that you can view available RealTracks even if you don't have them, by clicking the "Show N/A" button, and you can even double-click them to hear what they sound like. As with the StylePicker, Showing "N/A" RealTracks is a good way to determine if you are missing anything.
• The information about the RealTracks Picker above also largely applies to the RealDrums Picker, except to open the RealDrums Picker, right-click on the Drums track specifically.
• There are two different GUI (user interfaces) for you to choose from depending on your preference - one has a large toolbar with many buttons and Mixer window on the top half of the screen, then other has a minimal toolbar with a larger chord sheet. To toggle between them, you can press Ctrl+T or find the buttons at the top-left side of the toolbar.