Bringing Music to Life!

GarageBand 3 is one of the five applications that come as part of the iLife package from Apple. If you don't have any kind of music knowledge, it is easy to brush off GarageBand as something that you wouldn't need. But with very little exploration of the application with the help of the getting started guide and tutorial videos, GarageBand reveals itself as a powerful music and media creation tool for people from all walks of life.

Among the many capabilities of GarageBand, music composition takes precedence. There are a number of ways to create music using GarageBand and depending on your musical skills you may find that some or all of these methods are useful for you.

GarageBand Main Window

GarageBand comes pre-loaded with more than 1000 loops ranging from drums and percussion to various other instruments. A loop browser allows quick and efficient search and audition of loops with drag-and-drop functionality onto the timeline.

Loop Browser

In addition to loops, there are real and software instrument tracks, a video track and Podcast track. Real instrument tracks can be used to record instruments such as a Guitar or Voice. Software instrument tracks are used to play and record the various software instruments that come built-in. Video from iMovie or QuickTime can be imported to do an audio for video project and Podcasts can be created directly from GarageBand. A project could contain a combination of all these elements, and when you launch the application you are presented with 4 options; New Music Project, New Podcast Episode, New Movie Score and Open an existing project. By choosing any of the first three options, you can open a pre-formatted project with basic tracks and settings in place.

GarageBand has a simple and easy user interface. Track, instrument and media information are displayed on the right hand side of the screen. The left hand side displays the track pane with track name and track controls while the bottom has the track editor or loop browser depending on the selection. All controls and data can be accessed without leaving the main page making the workflow streamlined and simple.

The track editor allows accurate editing including split, cut, copy & paste operations. Software instrument tracks can be viewed either in graphic or notation view in the track editor and correcting tuning, timing etc within the track editor can enhance recorded music.

Each track has its own effects in addition to the effects applied to the master track. The built-in effects collection includes EQ, compressor, noise gate, ambient and modulation effects. In addition to this, Audio Units plug-ins can be used within GarageBand. Adding reverb and echo is as simple as moving the slider between 0-100 in the track info pane. Each track has a level meter, pan and volume controls and automation to assist in mixing. There is also an easy to use ducking function to make Podcasts and video projects sound professional. Tracks can be set to be ducked or to duck other tracks by simply clicking on a down or up arrow that appear next to each track.

There is a built-in instrument tuner to check the tuning of real instruments. In addition to recording audio, AIFF, WAV, MP3, unprotected AAC and Apple Loss-less audio files can be directly imported to GarageBand.

The Loop, instrument and effects collection can be expanded by purchasing and installing Jampacks. If you are buying a new Apple computer, you don't spend anything extra since GarageBand comes as part of iLife. However, Jampacks cost US$99 each. If you have an older Mac, iLife can be bought at US$79 and is an excellent value for money.

Installation and configuration is a breeze. I hooked up an EMU X-Board 25 MIDI controller via USB and it was instantly available within GarageBand and software instruments could be played without further configuration. Apple has thought about those who are new to music and has provided "Musical Typing". Musical typing enables users to play software instruments using the computer keyboard

Musical Typing Window

GarageBand is intended for use by anyone who is interested to create music. Ranging from expert musicians to students to someone who has never played music can take advantage of the many features of GarageBand. GarageBand can be used to teach composition, sequencing, loop editing, recording and production and could be an excellent solution for music technology needs in schools.

On the flipside, GarageBand is a Mac only application. The mixing and editing features are also limited compared to some high-end applications. GarageBand would run on most of the recent Macs, but like any application, a faster processor and extra memory makes operation smoother. The basic installation takes less than 5GB of space along with other iLife applications. However, installation of Jampacks may take up an extra 30GB and spreading the loop collection into more than one hard drive can improve performance.

GarageBand (iLife) and Jampacks can be bought at any local Apple dealer or through the online Apple store. The software has a well written getting started and help file as well as online tutorial support.

On a scale of 0-10, I'd rate GarageBand at 9. The fundamental feature of GB is music composition or creation and it can also undertake a broad range of media creation tasks making it a versatile media compilation software. The CAI value of GarageBand is not to be ignored, as GB can be a great tool to teach music & media creation to students of all levels. GarageBand is one application that has addressed music creation needs from a consumer level to professional applications irrespective of the skill level of the user.