I  read over some older posts on Band-in-the box and gained some insight into the program. I downloaded a demo years ago and it didn't sound much different than my Yamaha keyboard backup drums at the time.
 
 This still seems like cheating to me.....I have always played everything with the exception of drums, I mean, a person can load up some stuff and have a kind of  robotic helper that is now sounding pretty decent.
 
  The strengh I see BB possibly having for me would be to chain an idea together from start to finish and maintain the flow of the song.On the other hand creating apart from a tool like this means that you never use  ideas that are not yours.

everybody has a different tolerance level for what they deam as 'cheating'


i think it's great as a demo writing tool......


but i don't think you'll find any magic in there.

and after all, that's what we're all after, in our recordings.

I think of it as a session musician.  Is hiring a session musician cheating?

well, no, it's not the same.

how could it be?

there is no interaction, which is the heart and soul of music.


otherwise, just buy a computer program that can randomly create music in real time, and call it 'performance art'

LOL


imagine if Led Zeppelin had tried to use B ina B to record 'whole lotta love'

Bonham AKA Jamstix.

I don't think it's cheating at all.

It's unlikely to generate much or any that you will end up using, unless you like the vibe of an ol' fashioned Casio playalong keyboard.

I find it's a cool aid for writing and prototyping progressions and fleshing out a song structure.  I use it quite a bit in various ways.

BIAB is quite tweakable.  Is that not interacting?

If you think it's cheating it is.
If you don't think it is, it's not.

Diversity; it makes the world go 'round.

I use it as a template starting point, and tweak the actual Midi data, and always replace the instruments , using its plug in mode to Sonar and assigning my soft synths to its midi tracks.

BB, for me is not cheating. I really like the ease with which I can demo up a song and try new ideas and chords and change the key in seconds.  With the thousands of styles, you're sure to find something that fits what your're writing.

You must understand the limitations of BB to work effectively with it.  As Bat said... Zep would have had a hard time writing Whole Lotta Love on it. You can do stops and holds and other cool stuff but you gotta really know that program.... and even then... it's limited.  

As far as it sounding "MIDI"...  the majority of the styles are midi. So expect it to sound midi. There are hundreds of "real styles" with sampled tracks. They sound better. But even using the midi styles..... save the project and re-open it in Real Band ( a program that comes with the full versions of BB) and use Real Tracks. I bought it based on the demo songs and samples I heard, not on what the demo sounded like. I saw they had a 30 day MBG on the program, so I figured I'd try the full version with the RT's which is NOT in the demo version. Since then I have upgraded a few times and will likely upgrade again next year. They are constantly coming out with more styles and more sampled instruments. 

When I write a song in BB, I move it to RB and use RT's in it. Listen to my music and the dobro, steel guitar, and fiddle among others are RT's rendered from the original BB midi in many cases. 

Band in a Box, while it is good, and quite amazing in what it can do for you, is no substitute for writing talent. It will only do what you are able to tell it that you want, and if you get too fancy or creative, you will run up against it's limitations pretty quick. Anything under the Audiophile version does not use waves for it's samples, and that can show up in some crappy sounding notes in your tracks. More than one time I had to scrap the track and go in a different direction. 

I write pretty standard country music and it works well, for the most part,  in that situation.

The full versions of BB are quite pricey, but there's just about nothing else that I am aware of that does what BB does, at the level it does it, except for studio cats, and they are very pricey when you write and demo a lot of songs.  

This song> Emerald Eyes    http://www.soundclick.com...&q=hi&newref=1  is a good example of what BB/RB/RT can do.   It's composed in BB and moved to MC4 where I added the electric & Acoustic guitars.  Everything else...bass, drums, trumpet, piano, pads, were all BB/RB tracks.    To write this, I had to select the tempo, the style, and write the chord progressions.... So that is my creativity being enhanced by technology. 

Just about every song I write these days has my "Upper Room Studio Band" playing on it.