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Patrick Chinn
Distributed Network Computing Consultant
pchinn@uoregon.edu
Apple brings the simplicity of cut, copy, and paste to music creation with GarageBand, a new component of iLife. GarageBand lets you assemble songs from supplied snippets of music, garnished with your own work.
Creating a song in GarageBand is simple: grab an audio loop from the loop browser and drag it to the track window. Each loop or instrument gets its own track (a track is a graphical representation of a timeline).
For instance, to create a drum line, pick a drum loop and drag it to the track window. Since the drum loop will need to play repeatedly, click and drag the end of the drum loop. GarageBand will automatically extend it, repeating the loop as many times as necessary to fill the time you indicate.
To augment the drums by adding, say, a cowbell, locate a cowbell loop in the loop browser. Drag the loop to the track window. GarageBand will place that loop in its own track. To play the cowbell loop at particular intervals, copy the loop and then paste it onto the timeline where you want the cowbell to play.
To hear the song, click the rewind button and then the play button.
Apple has taken steps to help prevent novices from creating a cacophony. GarageBand filters loops by tempo and key, reducing the chance that the selected snippet will clash with the composition. This feature is helpful for those of us short on music theory. Advanced users can disable the feature.
The inclusion of these musical snippets, called Apple Loops, is the fundamental difference between GarageBand and its more expensive competitors. Other programs rely on users to provide their own material. Apple's approach with GarageBand is similar to selling a word processor that includes pre-written paragraphs, leaving the “author” to assemble the paragraphs into a coherent document.
GarageBand supports recorded audio (samples) and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Apple refers to MIDI tracks as “software instruments,” since the sounds produced by those tracks are software-generated rather than sampled. GarageBand also records live audio through the microphone or audio input. With the right cable or adapter, any instrument or sound source can be used to add audio to a song in real-time.
GarageBand also offers a collection of configurable effects like gate, compression, equalization, echo and reverb, which can be configured and applied to any track. For guitar players, Apple includes built-in guitar effects, including a variety of amplifier types (metal, scorching solo, seventies rhythm and ultra clean, for example). These amplifier settings effectively turn your Macintosh into a guitar amplifier.
The volume of each track can be adjusted over time. Each track has a volume line graph that can be manipulated to increase or decrease a loop's volume at various points as the song plays. Panning, on the other hand, has one setting per track and cannot be adjusted automatically.
To aid real-time recording, GarageBand has a metronome with count-in capability to keep you on the beat. The program also offers a rudimentary on-screen keyboard that can be played with the mouse cursor. This feature is of limited use; it's impossible to play fast passages of music and chords.
Apple also offers GarageBand Jam Pack. Jam Pack adds 2,000 loops, over 100 software instruments, over 100 effects presets and 15 guitar amplifier settings. These add-ons are integrated into Jam Pack during installation and are available through GarageBand's interface.
GarageBand is compatible with most any MIDI keyboard. To ease novices into digital music, Apple has been pushing an entry-level MIDI keyboard called the M-Audio Keystation 49e. The Keystation is a 49-key USB keyboard with full-size, velocity-sensitive keys (though 49 keys is far short of a full-length keyboard). The keyboard can be powered by USB, which allows you to conveniently leave the power adapter at home.
While GarageBand offers tools to edit MIDI data, these tools are rudimentary. The MIDI track editor allows a note to be moved left and right (through time) or up and down (in pitch). Pressing the command key turns the cursor into a pencil that lets you add notes by drawing them in the edit window. Strangely, there is no eraser to remove errant notes, and there is no convenient way to shorten or lengthen a note.
GarageBand's ability to edit sample loops is even more limited. You can split a loop into two pieces (set the cursor to the split point and from the Edit menu select Split). That's the extent of sample loop editing. If an imported sample needs more in-depth adjustments, you'll find it best to use another program like Audacity or SoundStudio.
Once you are finished with your song, GarageBand will export your creation to iTunes. (See “iTunes: Free Music Download Software is Much More than a Music Player.” in the Winter 2004 Computing News at http://cc.uoregon.edu/cnews/winter2004/itunes.html) iTunes can be used to create a collection of your songs as an album and will burn that album to audio CD to share with friends and family.
To run GarageBand you need Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later and a DVD drive. Apple suggests a minimum of a 600MHz G3 processor, but to really use the software you will need a G4 processor. The more complex your composition, the faster your computer will need to be.
While GarageBand lacks some of the high-end features offered by its competitors, it is a great application to test the world of music--especially given its affordable price.
GarageBand is also a great solution for creating royalty-free music for class or iMovie projects. Overall, its an easy and fun program to use.