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By Bob LeVitus
OK, it’s official: Apple’s
newest iLife application, the appropriately named
GarageBand, rocks. It may be the
coolest piece of Apple software since, well, since forever.
It’s that neat. Apple says, “It’s the
easiest way to create, perform and record your own music
whether you’re an accomplished player or just wish
you were a rock star.” Having used it for a week now,
I have to tell you, folks, this time they’re not overpromising.
How do I know? Consider this: I have had an audio production
setup running on my Mac for years. I have recorded guitar
and keyboard tracks until my family begged for mercy; I’ve
sung until my vocal cords were raw; and I’ve sequenced
MIDI tracks on my screen until my fingers bled and my eyes
grew bleary. The difference was, that wasn’t fun and
GarageBand is.
I’ve used Logic Platinum, Pro Tools, Cubase, Deck,
Peak, and tons of other professional audio apps in my day,
but every single one of them, wonderful as they may be (and
they are wonderful), was far too complicated and offered
far too many features for what I wanted to do. I don’t
want to create professional multi-track recordings for CD
release. All I’ve ever wanted was to be able to record
guitar, keyboard, and drum tracks and to record myself singing
and playing my acoustic guitar. (Kind of like James Taylor,
only without the talent.)
I could do all that and more with the aforementioned programs,
but I rarely did. I didn’t have the time to learn
the software well, and all of those programs have a steep,
albeit rewarding learning curve. So mostly I didn’t
record much music and when I did I often spent more time
wrestling with the software and hardware than playing.
GarageBand is the antithesis of all that. First of all,
setting it up was a breeze. I installed keyboard and audio
interface drivers in under 15 minutes, plugged in my guitar,
keyboard, and microphone, and was able to lay down my first
track immediately. Everything just worked and worked the
way I expected it to work. In less than 4 hours I wrote,
recorded, produced, engineered, and played all the instrument
parts on my first ever track recorded in GarageBand. It
was so much fun that the very next night I recorded and
mixed my rendition of the Ramones classic Rockaway Beach.
In just one evening I completed the song, with two tracks
of guitar played through GarageBand’s remarkable guitar
amp models, giving them both a crunchy Ramone-like sound,
plus triple-tracked harmony vocals (and I use the word “harmony”
very loosely), just like the the Ramones had. Kind of.
I’m going to stick my neck out here but I feel that
you have to hear it to believe it. So both songs are now
available for your (free) downloading pleasure at: http://homepage.mac.com/boblevitus/FileSharing16.html.
Under ordinary circumstances I would polish these songs
until every sour note and flubbed chord sounded perfect
(or at least not stinky). But that would defeat my purpose.
These are not in any way final, finished, polished works,
but rather, these are examples of what I was able to do
in one day, using a program I’d never seen before.
If you sing, play an instrument, or enjoy karaoke, GarageBand
is cheap, easy to use, and gives you ever-so-gratifying
results almost instantly.
GarageBand rocks.
iLife includes
GarageBand, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD, and is available
for $49
(and bundled with all new Macs).
P.S. Check out Dr. Mac’s Rants
& Raves
Hands-On With GarageBand http://www.macobserver.com/columns/rantsandraves/
2004/20040116.shtml for additional details and pictures.
Bob LeVitus
is a leading authority on Mac OS and the author of 41 books,
including The
Little iTunes Book and
Mac OS X for Dummies, 2nd Edition. E-mail comments to
doctormac@boblevitus.com.
Copyright © 2003 Bob LeVitus
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