This article shows some typical setups for home audio equipment for use in Band in a Box. There are many different ways you can set up your equipment. Which one you choose will depend on what you want to do with BiaB.
Playback Only[]
PC to Powered Speakers
If all you want to do with Band in a Box is compose songs and listen to playback then all you need is some audio output. This can be as simple as a good set of powered speakers connected to your PCs Speaker Out connector.
PC to Powered Speakers[]
This is probably the simplest possible system that's of any use at all. The Speaker Out connects to a pair of powered speakers of decent quality.
For Live Play[]
For Live Play
A simple setup for live play would have mic's, instruments and your PC audio out all connected to a mixer. The output from the mixer would go to powered PA speakers or perhaps a power amp EQ and un-powered speakers.
Single Track Recording & Playback[]
If you wish to record a single audio track into Band in a Box while listening to the accompaniment then you need audio input and output. This can be as simple as a jack adaptor to plug a mic or instrument into your PCs Line In connector. Better setups will include input mixers, DIs and pre-amps.
Direct Audio Connection[]
Direct Audio Connection
The simplest setup for recording is to plug your instrument directly into the Line In connector of your PC sound card using a 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch adaptor. For playback there are decent powered speakers. This setup works but isn't considered particularly good primarily because of lack of control over the audio signal.
Single Track Recording & Playback plus MIDI[]
This setup is the same as above but includes a MIDI controller. The MIDI controller adds the capability to record MIDI information simultaneously with an audio track.
Multi Inputs - Single Audio & Single MIDI track[]
Multi Input - Single Audio & Single MIDI track
The setup shown at right uses a mixer (Behringer UB1222FX-Pro Eurorack) to allow multiple audio inputs to be mixed to a single output. This audio out goes to a cardbus adaptor (Echo Indigo io) attached to a laptop PC. All instruments and mic's can have independant FX, EQ and gain giving a good control over the signal going to the PC.
There is also a MIDI keyboard controller (Edirol PCR-M80) attached by USB to the laptop.
Audio Output from the PC is handled by a pair of powered studio monitors (TapCo S5) giving excellent, uncolored, flat response.
Multi Track Recording & Playback[]
Multi Track recording is, perhaps, the pinacle of home recording. It is arguably unneccessary for Band in a Box use as BiaB can only record a single track. However, many BiaB users desire multi track recording capability because they render BiaB output and use it in other more sophisticated DAWs such as RealBand.