Apple GarageBand

Apple's GarageBand music creation software is the easiest way to compose and create music. It is so easy, anybody can use it. You now no-longer need a degree in IT to make music with a computer - just a copy of iLife '05 which comes complete with iTunes, iDVD, iMovie HD, iPhoto and of course GarageBand. Version 2 of GarageBand builds nicely on the original GarageBand app. Bringing new tools and features. Such as 8 tracks of simultaneous recording, music notation, pitch and time tweaking, guitar tuner and an Apple Loop creation tool.

GarageBand Rocks

You don't even need a music keyboard to make music with GarageBand. You can use your existing computer keyboard to compose. You can record audio using your built-in pin-hole microphone to create professional sounding music. It is not a professional app though, some features are deliberately disabled to encourage the pros to invest in Logic Express or the awesome Logic Pro. Yet Apple have cleverly enabled both apps to load GarageBand songs, so that you can master your work in a pro studio or when you are ready to step up to these high end audio applications.

GarageBand Recording

Recording with GarageBand is easy peasy. Just record-enable a track and press record. Simple as you like. You can even plug in external audio interfaces, keyboards etc to get real professional results from the program. I use a Digidesign M Box to record and I am more than happy with the quality of my audio recordings. GarageBand comes with a built in library of Apple Loops, which will speed up or slow down in time with the tempo of the track you are working on. They will also change pitch to suit too.

GarageBand Experience

To say that Apple GarageBand is popular, is like saying Elvis was a singer. Communities of GarageBand users have sprung up to cater for the needs and enhance the GarageBand experience. This is creating an incredible infinite loop of audio creativity. Inspiring and helping musicians of all levels refine and polish their art, to create original music. One such community - Macidol, builds websites for Mac musicians - for free. I started Macidol the day GarageBand was announced, en-fused with such a belief in it that I took a couple of weeks off work to get it off the ground. My faith in GarageBand has been rewarded, we are currently hosting thousands of mac musicians and are No 1 in google for Free iPod Music.

The future of GarageBand

I hope Apple will develop an online jamming feature like NimJam. To allow musicians to jam together in real-time. I would also like a built in sample player and 24 Bit audio export. As it stands, GarageBand is cheap, it comes free on all new Macs and the future of GarageBand is very bright. We are just waiting for the first GarageBand superstar to evolve, to cement GarageBand firmly alongside other groundbreaking musical instruments - like the Stratocaster, Moog and the Portastudio - I predict this little program will go down in history.

Learn more about GarageBand, listen to or download my music