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Apple GarageBand
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Apple GarageBand

Loop Sequencer from Apple belonging to the GarageBand series

MGR/Coreen Leclerc MGR/Coreen Leclerc

« Apple Garageband »

Published on 06/17/04 at 15:00
This peice of software was given to me as part of an iLife upgrade. It was 59.00 cdn or 49.00 US for the bundle of 5 iApps thrown in.

The first thing I noticed abot this software was the lack of tecchnical ability needed to use it. I have some ability but had been completely out of the industry for 10 years. This fact alone is significant. You could almost say that Garageband is what sucked me back into a world I swore to leave behind. After playing with the loops for a couple weeks I could not bare it anymore. My friend loaned me his guitar and I plugged it directly into the stereo line in jack on the 2 years old eMac.

one of the best things about GarageBand was the nice amplifier simulators. Some may balk at them but it was just like plugging in to my old fender chorus tube amp. The guitar I borrowed was an old rivera with these pickups that you could find on the old Harmony guitars. Its in bad shape but I'm no guitar technician. I can barely play really.

I'm told it works with most digital audio workstations but this is something I have yet to find out for sure.

Very little is bad about this software. Mixing down songs could be done at higher bitrates. It does abuse the computer processor more than other packages like cubase ot abelton live. right now I am workign on an eMac G4 700Mhz with one gig of pc133 ram. Right now my only limitations are my lack of computer and a good tactile DAW.

A great user interface that mimics apple's Soundtrack software with audio controls that are very easy to learn. The midi capability is great and seems to intigrate with any unit I ask about.

With a more powerful mac (say a dual G5 with a couple gigs or more of ram) I could probably break the 8 track barier that has been hedging my creative juices. There are many people out there using this software on older iBooks and making great music. Perfect for recording live performances. For 49.00 US you just can't go wrong if you own a G4 or G5 Macintosh with OS X running. Oh and it actually comes free with all new Macs.

you can hear some evidence from me and thousands of others at http://www.icompositions.com/auditorium/
my tracks are listed under the artist BlackLily.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com