It's that time of year again, and PG Music Inc. is welcoming the new year with Band-in-a-Box 2012, the latest version of the intelligent music accompaniment software (Mac / Win), which adds over 50 new features and 101 more RealTracks by top session pros.

What is Band-in-a-Box? This intelligent automatic accompaniment program allows you to type in the chords for any song using standard chord symbols (like C, Fm7, or C13b9), choose the style you like, and then generate a complete professional-quality arrangement. Arrangements can include piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings or horns in a wide variety of popular styles plus optional live audio tracks with RealDrums and RealTracks -- audio instruments that replace the MIDI track with actual recordings of studio musicians.

Band-in-a-Box 2012 allows a different VSTi or DXi softsynth to be assigned to each track for multiple synths playing on a song. Up to four VST or DX audio plugins, such as reverb and delay, can be applied to each individual track. The AmpliTube CS guitar amp simulator is included, along with over 150 “Direct Input” guitar based RealTracks. These clean DI guitar recordings can be customized, so all of the added effects come from the guitar amp simulator or any other VST or DX plugin.

The new Loops feature plays an audio loop on any track, and individual MIDITracks can now be taken from any Band-in-a-Box style and played on a track in your song. Other new features include updates and streamlining for features such as StylePicker, Notation, and more. In addition, there have been updates to the “BB Remote” app, which controls the desktop version of  Band-in-a-Box from an iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

As a nice bonus, Band-in-a-Box 2012 for Windows includes RealBand 2012, a full-featured DAW and Band-in-a-Box accompaniment generator with over 40 new features, including MultiRiffs -- the ability to generate up to seven “same but different” versions of a RealTrack at once and use one or all of them in the arrangement. For a full list of new features in Band-in-a-Box and RealBand 2012, visit the PG Music Web site.

Band-in-a-Box 2012 List Prices:

• Band-in-a-Box Pro with RealBand: $129
• Band-in-a-Box MegaPAK with RealBand: $269
• Band-in-a-Box UltraPlusPAK with RealBand (Hard Drive): $469
• Band-in-a-Box EverythingPAK with RealBand (Hard Drive): $569
• Band-in-a-Box Audiophile Edition with RealBand(Hard Drive): $669

About the 2012 version of the software, program author and creator Peter Gannon said, “Band-in-a-Box 2012 is more powerful than ever. Now users can  apply their full array of VST and DirectX plugins and softsynths to Band-in-a-Box tracks, along with the backing of 101 new Jazz, Country, and Pop / Rock RealTracks recorded by top studio musicians.”

For more information, please visit pgmusic.com.