Anyone using this? I wonder if anyone has foud any suitable loops for our kind of music…the only fiddle in the basic set is Nordic. I guess there are more Nordics than Celtic out there.
Lizzie
What is it?
Justine
Justine, it is a MAC programme where you arrange your own music using prerecorded loops and your own recorded music. It is very neat.
Spiel from Apple:
GarageBand has made it possible for musicians to have a complete recording studio on their Mac. And its made it possible for non-musicians to start creating music from scratch. GarageBand allows anyone to easily record a solo performance, duet, or an entire band with support for multitrack recording. GarageBand displays and edits musical notation in real time for people who know how to read and write music or just want to learn. The enhance tuning and timing features can quickly fix out-of-tune notes and tighten rhythms, making it even easier to create pro quality music on a Mac. And with Apple’s growing family of GarageBand Jam Packs, including the latest, Jam Pack 4: Symphony Orchestra, GarageBand users can create authentic sounding music in their favorite genre.
Sounds cool! Wish I had a mac.
J.
We’ve used Garage Band in live situations to run drum loop. It sounded pretty good. But I’ve never used loops for any traditional music.
P3
There is a ton of other stuff out there that will do the exact same thing on a PC. ACID leaps to mind.
Does it come free with your computer?
Hi Lizzie,
Garageband doesn’t come with the mac, unless it happens to be a promo through a mail order catalog like Clubmac, or MacMall. You can buy it alone for I think $29 or with a package called iLife that has iPhoto and other software that is designed to organize your “digital life” as in music, photos, and video (digital). I have heard that GarageBand also has additional “packs” you can add-on.
Does anyone know how the basic filters compare with Amadeus II? I know the programs are fundamentally different, but I know that Amadeus II has more filters than you can shake a stick at, and can save your recordings in Quicktime, AIFF, MP3, Wave, and several other formats. You can get a free trial version, which I did, but eventually you have to buy for $29 to keep using.
Garageband is fun. I love it. Unfortunatly since my primary computer is a PC laptop I don’t get to have much practice with it. I think you can use it for recording and arranging original music as well. 
Yep, Garage Band does sound a lot like Acid for us PC folk, which has the Acid Pro version, lets you do lots with loops. Get Sound Forge XP and you can easily build and filter your own stuff. I use it for all my postprocessing of music files and mixes.
None of this stuff is expensive. One program that leaps to mind that I’ve been using the heck out of is Noteworthy Composer, that is a really inexpensive alternative to Cakewalk. It’s from Noteworthy Software, and you can locate it easily on Google. I tried their freebie version, and it worked so well for me that I bought it. I seem to recall that it’s about $29. It’s a bit cumbersome to manage from the computer keyboard, but if you have a midi keyboard and hookup around, it rocks!
Sorry, didn’t mean to diverge so far from the original subject. I have the original Acid, Acid Rocks, and Acid Pro, and had heard there was a PC version of Garage Band. Is that so? If it is, where can I find it? I’d love to try it out!
Thanks!
Bill Whedon
I don’t think you can buy Garage Band yet for PC but you can download iTunes free…it is great for organizing your music and burning CDs. it also lets you purchase tunes from the iTunes store.
I forgot to add the website for iTunes in case anyone is interested.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
Hey Bill,
I have an Alesis QS8 keyboard with a midi out. How can I plug into my computer? I have a mac, and I’ver heard of the Griffin iMic, and almost bought it AND a mic for recording, but then found the MicFlex (DVForge.com) which is a USB mic. I love it. It would be fun to hook up my keyboard right where I work 
Matt
Garage Band is now bundled with all new Macs.
Thanks digbee..I thought so. Maybe PC users don’t recognize it as it bundled into iLIfe. I think they can’t stand that Mac users get all this neat, integrated stuff free.
liz
So here’s my question…
how useful are these tools for looping a 6/8 drum beat so that you can play some whistle over it? I’ve thought about getting something for that purpose..
Check out the Apple website, and you can get a bit of info, but it sounds like you could do what you just mentioned.
Garage Band came on my computer direct from apple.
The most I’ve used it for is to mix sound effects and music for use in an annual haunted house I do.
From what I heard the newest version (less than a week old) allows you to edit by notation as well. Now that is something that I want to see. I’m hoping to make it to the Apple store on Monday to see if I actually want to buy it just for that feature.
I did something like that while taking a break from editing my other music.
I’ve also recorded my playing right into garage band and then did all kinds of wierd things to it and ended up using it in one of my haunted house loops.