RealBand Setup (paths for BBW, RealTracks, RealDrums)

In order for RealBand to generate songs using Band-in-a-Box^® (MIDI) styles, RealTracks, and RealDrums, it needs to know the location of three folders on your computer: the Band-in-a-Box^® folder (BBW), RealTracks folder, and RealDrums folder. Usually it can locate these folders automatically, but you may need to set this up manually and it's a good idea to verify that the locations are correct in any case.

RealBand 2009.5 and higher also allow you to select your PowerTracks folder - this is optional and is only applicable if you happen to have PG Music's PowerTracks Pro Audio installed on your computer. The default location is C:\pt. Setting this correctly will allow you to use the TC-Helicon audio harmonizer in RealBand.

Last updated:  Thursday, 08 November 2018

To set this up, go to Options | Preferences | Song Generation, and click on [Paths for BBW, RealTracks, RealDrums]. You can click on the [Select...] buttons to browse for each of the folders, OR you can just type in the paths manually or copy and paste them in. If you have installed everything to the default locations, this will be:

C:\bb\
C:\bb\RealTracks\
C:\bb\Drums\

If you are running RealBand from an external USB hard drive that you purchased from PG Music, the locations should instead look like one of the following depending on when you purchased the hard drive:

If purchased September 2009 or later...

X:\bb\
X:\bb\RealTracks\
X:\bb\Drums\

If purchased Prior to September 2009...

X:\PGMusic\Programs\bb\
X:\PGMusic\Programs\bb\RealTracks\
X:\PGMusic\Programs\bb\Drums\

Where "X" is the drive letter of the external USB hard drive. Replace X by your drive letter, which you can find by double-clicking on (My) Computer. The drive letter is commonly F,G, or H, but it depends on your particular computer setup.

Note that if you uplug the USB drive, then add or remove other USB devices you have, then plug the drive back in, a different drive letter might be assigned; you would need to change the letter in the RealBand preferences in this case.

Another common setup is to have the RealBand and Band-in-a-Box^® folder on your C: drive, while the RealTracks and RealDrums are on a different hard drive with more storage space. In this case, the setup might look something like this... note that while they can be located anywhere, the RealTracks folder always must be called "RealTracks" and the RealDrums folder must always be called "Drums".

If you also use Band-in-a-Box^®, and your RealTracks and Drums folders are located outside the bb folder, you will need to specify the 'custom' folder locations in the RealDrums and RealTracks Settings dialogs in Band-in-a-Box^®. See this FAQ topic for more information on how to do that in Band-in-a-Box^®.