Band in a Box 2005 review:5 stars (Great software for musicians) - This is a great piece of software if you play any kind of a musical instrument or are a vocalist and want to practice playing songs with a virtual band. You just type in the chords, select a style and tempo and the software comes up with an arrangement in that style. Depending on which style you pick there will be different instruments in the arrangement. There are around 200 built in styles in various genres such as jazz, latin, country, pop etc. The arrangements are surprisingly good, especially if you can send the midi to an external keyboard. The software was very easy to install on Windows XP.

I'm using it to work on practicing jazz standards on the piano but playing them the way I would in a band situation which is very different from the way I would play them solo. I have been able to quickly enter the chords of the song by typing in their names (eg Em7b5), pick a style and have band in a box come up with an arrangement. I then mute out the piano part and play along with the program to try out different ideas for comping. If I want to practice soloing I just mute out more instruments. I would expect that it would be equally useful for many other instruments. I also use it to print out fake book type lead sheets and have found the transpose feature to be very useful as it transposes the chord symbols along with the music.

Band in a Box allows you to record an audio or MIDI track on top of an arrangement so you can play back and see how you sound but it isn't a multitrack recorder, for that you would want to buy some different software. What it does best is to allow you to practice playing in a band without requiring the rest of the band to be there.
Band in a Box 2005 Features:
Computer software (programs)
Music
audio
Creation
Sequencing
Midi
Sound Editing
Sound Libraries
Jazz Chord-Symbol Graphics are supported, with a Vocal Wizard that displays and transposes to the best song keys for your vocal range
New 3, 4, and 5-part Jazz Harmonies are added with voicing in Fourths
Non-destructive audio editing -- changes to the Audio Track only become permanent if you save the file
New Audio Harmonies with enhanced Vocal Pitch-Styles (automatic Vibrato and Scooping) that can be added to the vocal harmony parts
Full Stereo and Mono support for the Audio Track, with on-screen VU meters to monitor it

Band in a Box 2005 is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 69.88USD.