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GarageBand Roundup
Wired covers the GarageBand revolution. Matt Van Horm writes "MacBand.com is an online directory of songs and loops created by users of Apple's GarageBand software who submit their work. Songs are organized by category and loops are organized by genre, instrument and mood, and are rated with a system similar to the one in iTunes." franklinrh writes in about the free loops available from Access, and others note free loops from Bitshift Audio and Drums on Demand. And if you want to import MIDI files into GarageBand, check out Dent du MIDI. What other software -- and equipment -- are you using with GarageBand? I've got my setup pumping out tunes.
Has anybody found a good place to buy the M-Audio Keystation 49e? The King of Prussia Apple Store never has it in, and the estimated ship date from the online Apple Store is 4-6 weeks. I want that keyboard, God Dammit! For $99, it's a nice USB Midi keyboard.
He doesn't give GarageBand enough credit. First, the sounds: yes, the horn sounds are weak, and the string sounds are not much better, but the piano sounds are very good, and so are the guitars. Also, I don't think he really stresses how GarageBand is good enough for the music recording needs of most people. All most people need is what it does very well.
That said, I am grateful to him for his plea against people pumping out elevator music crap. Loops should be used sparingly, if at all. The only time I really use loops is for drums.
It means "I am better than you and because it is becoming harder to assert that by virtue of my crummy music, I shall now assert it by virtue of the tools I use to create it, because it is the only way I can bolster my pathetic self image."
I've been using an Oxygen-8, which works fine, and I've been hanging around with a friend who is using a 49-key machine.
I also have plugged a bass directly in (electric bass guitar) when I teach lessons, then had my student play along with a keyboard MIDI and drum loop. I record it, then burn it to a CD and have them listen critically to what they've done. As always with recording, they notice good and bad that they don't hear when they're "in the moment."
I also use Garage Band to make other practice loops for myself and my students. Most of them don't have macs, so they get burned CDs, where they can't change the tempo as they could with an original GB file. But they do love them.
A great teaching tool. Now all they have to do is some optimization so it isn't such a CPU hog!