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GarageBand Rocks!

jimmiJAMM

By jimmiJAMM
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jimmiJAMM

jimmiJAMM

Posted
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Has anyone else basked in the glory that is Apple's Garageband? http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

 

My amp has been gathering dust since I discovered this program. It's really awesome! Simply plug your guitar into your computer's headphone jack (an adapter is necessary) and you're off. The amp mod combinations are endless and you can save your settings as presets. I've got custom presets like; AC/DC, Sabbath, Van Halen, Hendrix, etc. You get the idea. As if all that's not enough, it's also a fairly substantial multi-track recorder so you can lay down rhythm, bass, drums and a ferocious lead track then simply export it and you've got yourself a high-quality sound file. It's not the most advanced professional program out there but its easy, fun and it'll definitely get the job done. Just plug your headphones into your desktop speakers (providing you have a pair connected) and enter your own virtual recording studio without disrupting your neighbors, wife, girlfriend...

 

If you own a Mac, chances are you're probably hip to all this but just thought I'd share for those yet to dig in.

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Artie Owl

Artie Owl

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When I first got my Mac I was excited to try Garage Band, given that everyone keeps telling me Macs "just work"

 

Funny thing happened, the first program I opened crashed, ala windows style.

 

I'm not hating on Apple here, I like both, I just thought it was a tad ironic.

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Hall

Hall

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I have it on my Mac with the main buzz being Pro Tools LE.

P.T. is now so complicated it is no fun, just serious production. So for fun I use Garage Band to P. T. tracks and build.

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milod

milod

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RE: Apple vs PC, etc.

 

I'll never forget when I was running a magazine in the '80s, I got an invite from Apple and Quark to see the brand new latest and hottest "desktop publishing" program.

 

Here are these big wheels in a big fancy hotel meeting room; funny little sandwiches, goodies and drinks on the side tables, they set up for a projector screen which was a huge deal in those days.

 

They started the Mac. Okay.

 

They started the program. <Crash!>

 

They started the program again. <Crash!>

 

After a half hour or so, they gave up and I went home to my PC and an early "Ventura Publisher" version that worked, and worked within the same essential concept as later and more stable versions of Quark as opposed to the old Pagemaker that took twice as long to put pages together with.

 

Bottom line? You sell the steak with the sizzle whether it's a music or publishing program. The problem is, you've gotta have a steak for folks to eat after they've bought it.

 

m

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ShredAstaire

ShredAstaire

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This shouldn't be a mac vs pc discussion really....Garageband is only for the mac as far as I am aware....

 

But for the record, i've had my Mac Pro Desktop for almost 3 years now....rebooted it maybe 5 times and its never crashed on me. I have Windows machines too but I just dont use them as much.

 

And Groper, PT doesn't have to be complicated....you can do a very basic song with minimal (or no) effects without too much madness goin on...I think that sometimes people overcomplicate it for themselves. They feel that since the tools are there, you have to use them all.

 

I find navigation in Garageband to be awful compared to PT in my experience...

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Hall

Hall

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Shred:

 

I've been using Pro Tools since it was first available. I use computers for little besides music and Pro Tools. Each version I step up to is increasingly more complicted. But, you are exactly right; it's how deep one wants to go, or if the refinements and possibilities dazzle the user. I have always preferred Pro Tools. Had my first computer custom made for it exclusively when the 5th Floor was still my base for locals' mixes. At my residence, I still have it and my current Mac with Pro Tools 8. It's evolution has been unbelievable. But again, as you said, one can stay very basic. I maintain what is left of my sanity by doing so. And, I'm always learning!

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milod

milod

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RE: Mac v PC...

 

That wasn't my point; I guess allusion didn't work well.

 

I've used both platforms to make a living. My objection isn't to either Mac or PC or to any specific software. My objection is software and hardware combinations that often are purchased with best of intentions but don't necessarily work well together or else aren't the best for a given job.

 

I've also discovered that what I might find intuitive after nearly 35 years of using computers, and what others might find intuitive are not the same thing regardless what a sales person might say. Since my note, we've seen on this thread discussion of ease or difficulty of navigation within a program, etc. That's in part what I'm talking about.

 

It's also my belief that the paradigm of "desktop" pioneered at PARC years ago worked far better for Lisa and then Mac, later Windows, Xwindows, etc., when people knew what a desktop was. Now we've a generation or two that only know what they see on the computer screen - in short, the computer screen has become the reality and the "real" desktop has become the abstract concept rather than the other way around.

 

When one delves into recording of music and/or video, the human interface factors must take into consideration what recording equipment experience their market segment may have, and develop an artificial sort of "reality" to best reflect a given knowledge base. The OS per se to me is less important than the hardware that may or may not be most efficient to work with the OS and with the application program - and to work with external analog input.

 

Consider this scenario: AR glasses and gloves, people playing guitar, filing paperwork, recording music, writing letters and such all as they did a century ago - and then relearned by our culture in order to do them in a virtual reality exactly as they were done in 1919 in physical reality. I find it all rather ironic.

 

EDIT - an example just hit me. In spite of hanging out with generations of photographers, I'm the only one I know who actually had done an "unsharp mask" in a wet darkroom before encountering it in Photoshop. Needless to say, my concept of what it is and how to use it is a little different than some others' who only used the digital version.

 

m

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Witmer

Witmer

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Has anyone else basked in the glory that is Apple's Garageband?...It's not the most advanced professional program out there but its easy' date=' fun and it'll definitely get the job done. Just plug your headphones into your desktop speakers (providing you have a pair connected) and enter your own virtual recording studio without disrupting your neighbors, wife, girlfriend...

 

If you own a Mac, chances are you're probably hip to all this but just thought I'd share for those yet to dig in.[/quote']

 

I do, and I love it. Simple works great for me... [lol]

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pohatu771

pohatu771

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I record most of my tracks in GarageBand. I export the audio to Logic or Sonar, however, though I'd be entirely comfortable doing a record entirely in GarageBand.

 

I have Logic on my own computer, but use Sonar far more - it's Windows, which causes problems on a daily basis, but the hardware is much more powerful (which I fully expect a custom-built $5000 desktop to be over my $2000 notebook) and the extra processing power overcomes the delays in waiting for the system at actually start working (five minute boot times...)

 

Not to mention, three sets of monitors in an actual mixing room sound much better than my monitors in a dorm room - although I never publish anything without checking it here, in a "real life" environment.

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