User Guide

Table Of Contents
Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 for Macintosh
22
DAW Plug-in Mode
There is a “Plug-in” mode for your favorite sequencer (GarageBand, ProTools, Logic, Nuendo, Reaper and
more). With the new plug-in mode, Band-in-a-Box is open as a small window, and acts as a plug-in for your
favorite DAW sequencer, so you can Drag-n-Drop MIDI and audio (AIFF, M4A) tracks from Band-in-a-Box to
your favorite sequencer. Work in your favorite sequencer, type a chord progression in Band-in-a-Box, drag the
track button to the drop station (blue rectangle) at top left of the screen, and then drag that to your sequencer's track
at the desired track and the bar location.
The DAW Plug-in mode is a mode within the regular Band-in-a-Box program. This mode allows you to transfer
tracks or parts of tracks, to other DAW sequencers or Finder.
You can enter and exit the DAW plug-in mode easily.
Press the [DAW Mode] button on the Toolbar, then choose the menu item “Start DAW Plug-in mode” (or go to
Windows menu and choose Plug-in Mode for Sequencer-DAW).
When you do this:
1. Window size of Band-in-a-Box changes to a small size (you can resize it to the size/position that you want, and it
will remember that).
2.
You can now easily drag tracks from Band-in-a-Box to your DAW in 2-steps. First, drag the track button to the
drop station (blue rectangle), and then when it turns green, drag that to your DAW’s track.
You can also drag files to other programs, besides DAW’s, if they accept a drop of audio files (AIFF, M4A) or
MIDI files. For example, Finder allows this.
Please see the DAW Plug-In Mode chapter for a full tutorial.
Freeze Tracks
Freezing (locking) MIDI or RealTracks/RealDrums
Any track (MIDI or RealTrack) can now be frozen. When frozen, it won’t be 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.
You can make tracks Frozen by pressing the Freeze button (snowflake) on the toolbar, and then choosing which
tracks that you want to freeze or unfreeze.
There are a number of reasons that you would freeze a track.
Reasons to Freeze a RealTracks track (audio):
- Frozen tracks will play back instantly, not requiring time to generate.