PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box VST and Pro Tools/AAX DAW Plugin (Windows) Add a seperate settings/preferences button

The file button is overloaded with settings and preferences. IMHO it is better to move them into their own menu.

The only reason not doing this right now is that there is not enough room because the BB-logo is way too big.

The solution is to use as smaller one:



Masi

LOL That is the very thing I thought yesterday, was going to say something then thought why bother the ToDoList is too long and may never get done !
I though of a Tab at the top for Prefs or a button.
YES that logo takes up sooooo much room, for a billboard like that the cost is too high !
Everything is so crammed that's why we don't have solo/mutes buttons but try to cram it all into to one icon instead of having solo/mute and drag the track name to export, also that Play button is useless it should be Sync to Host button.
When you right click on the chord sheet it should give the menu from the Master track but at the moment after a while the BBW4 F5 Bar settings comes up.
I think with the ToDoList it needs more Doers to Do it, as this could drag on for years down the track ?

This is IMHO what should happen. Right clicking should always invoke the context menu. As they name implies it is about the item you just have clicked.

OTOH, the menu of the master track available with the downward arrow is for me pointless. It just duplicates the settings and menus that belong elsewhere. But I donÄt mind as right-clicking does the right thing

It's hard to please everyone


This one is just "a nice to have". Though IMHO after fixing the bugs of existing features, there are a few tasks that need to be addresses to make the plugin shine.

Masi

Thanks Masi! I agree with the points you've made regarding the possibility of changing where the preference option is located. However, changes to any aspect of the GUI requires thoughtful consideration and development because users who are familiar with the current layout will have to adjust to these changes as well. I will add this to the to do list but I will have to discuss this change with my colleagues to determine if the change is worth the potential confusion that some users may experience. If we choose to implement this change than it will likely only be before a new major release.

The logo could be resized to make more room for a preference button however, I don't believe that the size of the logo has anything to do with getting solo/mute buttons working properly or that any of this has to do with keeping/removing the Play button (which actually has a very definitive purpose). I chose to launch the bar settings dialog by right clicking a cell in the chord sheet because at the moment there is no use in showing a context menu with one item that would launch the bar settings dialog. I appreciate all the great feedback!

potential confusion ?
that's all the plugin has been !
I have been saying this for over a year to get it right the first time, but I agree it's too late now to change things as it's so set in with guides and videos of the half baked ways of doing things, it has no skins where you can set the layout, buttons, graphics up how you like.
I don't think I have the energy to go through another year of it.
I can only blame myself, if I was not here there would be no Plugin in the first place. I tried really hard to get PG out of the past, it's all just too draining.
That's why I say about the RapidComposer Beta Testing Development forum, when I first went there I fell off the floor because suggested ideas where implemented overnight virtually, things that take up to 10 years in other forums. The energy flowed and was not blocked from idea to implementation, it was a pleasure, how things should be. But when you give out so much and it goes nowhere it is disheartening and draining.

Pipeline,

I felt genuine anguish reading this.

The time, effort, and sheer ingenuity you poured into this is immediately evident, and you deserve accolade upon accolade for it.

There's no conceivable reason you should be beating yourself up. You basically carried this whole thing on your shoulders. If BiaB had the audience, userbase, and forum participation of the type you have with Cockos Reaper, the sky would be the limit.

There are so many suggestions I have for the plugin, and its integration with yours, but I keep quite because I know that there is such a small incentive with the current userbase being what it is, instead of what it should be. And that will probably never happen, because, IMHO, BiaB is not being used the way that 95 percent of the active music producing community worldwide--professional, amateur, and hobbyist alike [although, tbf, I have over time come to agree with those in these forums who asserted that BiaB was a secret weapon employed by many a professional chart-topping producer).

It's funny. When I originally discovered BiaB, I was simply searching the internet for something to generate backing tracks to play guitar and bass along to. When I initially bought the entry-level version, I remember thinking that $140 (I think that's what cost then...) was expensive for just something to jam along with, but whatever. I enjoyed the program so much that I upgraded to the full version and kinda balked at the price, but whatever. I also upgrade every year--pretty much for the features, and used to think that was expensive as well.

A few years have passed since my initial purchase, and I have been getting much more into the production side of things with MIDI, VSTs, DAWs, and all that. And what I've discovered is that BiaB--at least in it's entry level version, is pennies compared to the amount of cash forked out by millions of users for plugins, software, and sample packs the majority of which may get used a couple times (if that). Hell, people will pay upwards of $200 for a freaking compressor plugin when they already have 2 dozen.

The fact that BiaB does not have millions of users (yes, millions!), used to astonish me--especially because there is nothing like it around.

I realize now what the issue is, and PG Music can only be blamed up to a point, because the program and its users (and, more importantly, USES) have become a closed loop of sorts.

For a dozen reasons I'm not gonna even bother going into now, I think that the plugin, with yours, along with a few enhancements can change absolutely everything. EVERYTHING!!!

I admit, when the plugin came out last year I thought it was pretty much pointless because I would simply export individual fragments/track sections into Reaper as needed. But now I realize that it is capable of so much more. Sooooooo much.

So please keep your chin up, Pipeline, and be proud of all you've accomplished.

Pipeline, I think I see the source of the confusion. Although I am very surprised I did not notice this in the past. It may help explain why you are getting frustrated with your slow progress in effecting change here in BIAB. So please clarify or correct me if I am wrong. But could this picture be true???

Heck, if so (and with all respect) - you are a relative newbee here . Stick around guy and keep up the good effort, after a few more years you will come to realize what you are up against, find peace and learn to just enjoy this place and BIAB for what it is and what it does. Oh and if I forgot to tell you in the the past... thanks for bringing the BIAB chord sheet to my Reaper projects . <<all commentary said with a big smile>>

The Play button has a purpose but it's the Play Demo Button that serves no purpose, you don't go into the Style picker, pick a style, close the window, Play Demo, go back into the style picker, pick the next style, close the window, Play Demo.......

But if you want to leave it there just put the Sync to Host button on the head of the sax player in the Big Logo, so when you double click his head it will turn green and when you double click the head of the double bass player it will turn yellow and solo sync/play the current selected slightly darker track.

I have been through this a thousand times over the year
I must be pretty darn stupid to keep at this I will have to try a cold turkey with it I think.

I made a new Reaper Skin with the single mute solo button, just got to upload it and see how popular it is

Pipeline, I sincerely apologize for any frustration that this development process (or myself) have caused you. I am doing my best to address all the issues and suggestions that you and other testers have made, and I believe that in most cases I try to include user requests in the following build.

Some suggestions or bugs can be fixed by myself relatively quickly and in those cases I always ensure that they are fixed in the following build, others such as the suggestions about design and specifically the track table design/functionality have taken longer because they require an overhaul of certain components and such drastic updates should only be included in major releases. Every point you mentioned is something that I agree with and plan on fixing. I agree that the demo button can be removed and plan to replace it with a "sync to host" button. I plan on reworking the whole track table to function more like a traditional mixer, keeping in mind all the suggestions you and other testers have made regarding the solo/play/mute buttons, etc. I will reiterate that I do not believe the logo size interferes with any of the UI and that everything (IMO) fits nicely in the space. If there is a need to update that then I am open to hearing about it but for now I believe that once we fix these more important features, the layout of the plugin will be fine and allow for a logo of that size. All of these changes, and others you've suggested are coming but at the moment I am prepping for the 2020 mac release while also sending out updates for the windows version.

All this to say that I am hearing all of your suggestions (which I completely agree with) and I am doing my best to implement user requests but these features will take time to update so please continue to be patient while we work things out.

Adar, thanx for this input. It is nice to know that PGMusic is listening to its customers.

It's interesting to see how a small feature requests evolves into ... something else, something very emotional.

Anyway, I understand that there are some top priority issues for the plugin at hand. Yet I don't think that this means we should not bring up new ideas for the plugin. Or at least we should take notes and post them when the time is ripe. Whenever this will be

Masi

Adar, you are a great asset to PG ! what you do is great thanks !
But if you had some help it would be great as it seems like so much to take on yourself with all that massive ToDoList, and you need to wait for Peter when he has spare time away from the main BB to work on the BBW4 helper for your plugin to communicate. I feel powerless as the only thing I can do is make suggestions and nag, nag, nag if I could do something to help I would be right in there but I can't as I have no C++ know how. I can make AutoHotKey GUI's for Biab and reaper scripts but that's about it.
In Reaper a lot of users contribute to create functions and things get done pretty quick.
It's just stressful when day in day out you have to sit and wait and watch over the year the very slow progress, and I know you are flat out on it and back n forth from Win<>Mac but as I said if you had a twin..
The beta was just dumped with a few days to test and everything I said would happen has happened, there was no pre-beta feedback.

It's like Ardour DAW it's open source but I have no C++ know how so I suggested for them to have GUI elements for their Lua scripting as they have a vast amount of Lua bindings. I know I push a bit hard and nag a lot but maybe good things come out of it https://discourse.ardour.org/t/is-open-source-a-diversion-from-what-users-really-want/