SeriesApple GarageBand

If you're a Mac user this is a free DAW that will come pre installed on your machine. It's very easy to use and has good instruction and how to tutorials built into it. If you have problems there are always youtube videos out there that you can use to further educate yourself with (for free). It recognize usb devices that are plugged in automatically. So, if you are using a midi controller or USB mic (for recording vocals) it would pick it up. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE As far as stability it's pretty stable although if you have a problematic plugin installed it may crash garage band (which is not the fault of the DAW itself). Garage Band is just as good as any of it's competitors out there in terms of audio quality. I will admit it's not as flexible as some of the others but again we are talking about a FREE application here. Can't complain much when we're talking about free tools. I've been using this DAW since July of 2012 (that's when I purchased my MACBOOK) OVERALL OPINION The only thing I don't really like about Garage Band is it's graphic look (the GUI). Don't get me wrong, it's clean and really nice to look at I just wish it looked like some of the others on the market (maybe I'm just being picky). It's one of the best DAWS out there in it's price range (again FREE you pay nothing for it.) Audio quality is good, customer support is good (if you every contact customer support about anything). I've tried a lot of DAWS out there: Cubase, Sonar, Pro tools, Logic Pro and I can say I'd still fire up garage band over most of the DAWS I've listed because if it's simplicity. It's just an easy program to use. In all honest if this program were not free I probably would have never tried it, so good marketing on Apple's part for including it with the MAC purchase

Well first and formost I want to say that using Garage Band will only get you so far, Garage Band is Apples bottom line software and comes installed on most of the machines for free. So before investing into any of the Jam Packs that Apple puts out you should invest into get another sequencing program. Something you can further your ability with and get more in depth with music and really start to understand how digital music works. Garage Band wont allow you to do that, I say go with Logic. With that being said, if you still want to use Garage Band and want to get the Jam Pack, you would need to understand that you arent getting vst instruments. Jam pack will only give you loops, now you will get a lot of them, actually I think there are over 1,000 of them total which is a great value for the product. But paying 99 bucks for a bunch of loops when you could spend a little more and get a way better program to create music in will be your best bet. I say hold on on purchasing Jam Pack and purchase logic. Get away from using Garage Band unless you want to be a beginner for ever. I have never purhase Jam Pack and never will, but a friend of mine has and told him the same thing im saying in this review. Its not worth spending that money on a pack of loops. You need good quality vst. If you are going to invest, get a good sequencer and start from there. Jam Pack will work great with your Garage band but only because there can be no issues, they are only loops. Apple has just paid a bunch of musicians to record a bunch of loops and then they put them on a disk and sell them to you for 100 dollars. Do not buy this. It is not worth the money , spend your money where it will matter.

Apple has various Jam Packs available for GarageBand that's meant to help extend the overall functionality of the program. This Jam Pack contains what they call World Music. These are basically just various loops they have of all kinds of different African and Middle Eastern styles of music. The loops themselves aren’t too bad. However, keep in mind that these are loops. You’re not going to be able to do a ton of customization with them like you would with VSTs. The main issue I have with these Jam Packs is that they’re meant for use with GarageBand, but GarageBand isn’t powerful enough to fully utilize and remix these into completely unique songs. The best you’re going to be able to do is drag and drop these loops into the DAW, maybe blend in some effects and hope everything turns out all right. It lacks the versatility and customization that Logic Pro has, and that’s a bit of a negative to me. That said, the sounds themselves are very nice, and I could easily see myself utilizing these in a mix that requires it. As with all Apple products, they're rock solid. I haven't experienced a single crash with Waveburner, and that's part of the magic of OS X. You're dealing with one of the best and most stable OSes out there. Everything is optimized for your hardware (assuming you're not using some sort of Hackintosh), and everything meshes like it should. The program doesn't use up too much memory, but it is a pro app, so it'll use more memory than certain other apps out there. If you’re looking for some sort of Worldly music loops, these could be just what you’re looking for. I just wish these would be marketed better and for use with all DAWs out there.