Band in a Box 2019 out now

Well abacab and kk1, it's complicated! PGMusic have a sale on the launch of their yearly updates every year around this time. Which package to buy is always a commonly asked question and a tricky one because it depends on your use case.
 
For a start they no longer do the EverythingPak (UPDATE: PG support have now told me that the current equivalent is UltraPak+) which I bought in 2014.  That gave me every RealTrack (RT) available at the time and every year I have upgraded via the PlusPak, 49 pak (this and bonus only available when you purchase during the sale) and XtraPaks available as they are released and at all times (the new one is Xtra Pak 6). So I should have every RT except for the ones available pre 2015 as bonus/49 Paks. These cover all kinds of styles, some of which I have never used and I'm not likely to, but it also gives you a wealth of options (my BIAB 2018 currently lists 6,068 styles in stylepicker). 
 
You can be creative with it. For example, once I have a basic song structure in place I will try lots of different/similar styles and sometimes use particular RTs from each version, or swap out RTs used in a particular style with others. You can bring all of them into CbB and have a lot of fun mixing and matching (Realband offers similar things but I just use CbB as I know it). In CbB I will often use some BIAB, some VSTis and blend them with real instruments which I have played and vocals.
 
I find myself using the RTs more than the MIDI although I have had some success with the MIDI and even exporting RT based songs as MIDI (there are dependencies though). For a lot of folk it's all about the RTs.
 
Have a look at that table at the bottom of the packages page abacab as it shows you what is included in each version. A good place to start if you don't want every RT but want a step up from Pro would maybe be the MegaPak. If you want all the currently available RTs then you are looking at UltraPak upwards. I have never found the need for the AudioPhile version but maybe one day :) Be aware of the disk space needed for all of those RTs - my current BB folder is around 145Gb which is largely due to the RTs (it was around 110Gb when I first invested in BIAB).
 
I'm waffling on but hopefully this helps in some way. Also worth mentioning that there are a lot of very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly folk over on the PGMusic forums. Some of them have been using BIAB since the DOS versions so know it inside out and they helped me a lot when I got stuck.

ZincTrumpet
 
I find myself using the RTs more than the MIDI although I have had some success with the MIDI and even exporting RT based songs as MIDI (there are dependencies though). For a lot of folk it's all about the RTs.
 
Have a look at that table at the bottom of the packages page abacab as it shows you what is included in each version. A good place to start if you don't want every RT but want a step up from Pro would maybe be the MegaPak. If you want all the currently available RTs then you are looking at UltraPak upwards.

That's helpful ZT, and after having a look through what all the Mega Pak upgrade contains, that looks like a nice bump up to the max MIDI styles side of BIAB.
 
I'm not sure I would need or use most of the Real Tracks, although some do sound very good!  And I am sure they would be fun! 
 
But I am comfortable working mostly with MIDI instruments elsewhere.  However, I did notice that a large percentage of Real Tracks are guitar tracks, so if you work with a lot of guitar based music, that might be handy!  Plus I will have to say that MIDI has not really replaced the real guitarist yet! 

Good point gmon72!
 
I usually wait until the middle of the month to buy it as there are often quite a few fixes after the initial release so I wait until it is more stable. Build 602 is here --> https://www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm 

The difference between the UltraPlus PAK and the former Everything PAK / now UltraPlus+ PAK is the addition of some tutorial videos that were made many years ago and which are now out-of-date.
 
If you use Band-in-a-Box and purchased the UltraPlus PAK, Everything PAK or Audiophile edition in 2018 then the most cost effective upgrade is the $99 PlusPAK.  The PlusPAK includes 2019 Band-in-a-Box and RealBand, sets 301 to 328 RealTracks sets (for a total of 202 RealTracks).  During December a bonus PAK is included which provides MIDI SuperTracks set 28, 15 MIDI only styles and Brent Mason 12-key CountryPop Guitar Licks (Instrumental Study # 7).
 
During December, a $49 addition named the 2019 49-PAK includes 50 additional RealTracks, MIDI SuperTracks set 29, another 15 MIDI only styles, Brent Mason 12-key Train-Beat Licks ((Instrumental Study # 8) and Geoff Kelly Celtic Flute (Instrumental Study # 9).
 
One new feature not mentioned so far is the addition of RealDrums midi transcription notation.  This means people wanting more control over the sound of the drums than previously offered with the stereo RealDrums tracks can export the finished RealDrums as a MIDI file and place each instrument component onto its own midi track.  21 RealDrums now have drum notation.  The notation was captured during the RealDrums recording by having the drummer use a drum kit with midi triggers.