GarageBand
Jan. 16th, 2004 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solipsistnation...a quick overview, based on half an hour of messing around:
+ supports AudioUnits!!! All of 'em! Effects, instruments, everything! Wheee!
- uses strange terminology. Actually, it might only be strange to me because I'm used to calling presets or patches presets or patches, not "Instruments." What GarageBand calls and instrument is actually a patch for a software synth or sample-playback instrument, like the piano (referred to here as a "generator") plus several effects, plus presets for them. This probably won't bother anyone who hasn't been playing with synthesizers for years and years.
+ AudioUnit synthesizers show up in the Generators menu here, along with the basic GarageBand instruments-- Piano, Strings, Bass, Horns, Woodwind, and a selection of analog and digital synths. The Analog synths are characterized as Basic, Mono, Pad, Swirl, and Sync, and the Digital Synths are Basic, Mono, and Stepper (which appears to be some kind of strange harmonic sample munging thing. I haven't played with it yet). Each has a slighly different set of parameters. There are also a few different drum kits.
+ lots of decent-sounding effects. It has a simple compressor, EQ, Echo, and Reverb built in that can be switched in and out for each track. It has a selection of other effects, too, including the much-touted Amp Simulation and a lot of the usual suspects-- Distortion, Overdrive, Chorus, Flange, Phase, and something called a Bitcrusher that effectively reduces the sample rate and resolution of an instrument for hip lo-fi effects. Two of these effects or any AudioUnit effect plugins can be picked for each track.
+ Lots of fairly interesting loops. A better selection than I expected.
- CPU intensive. This thing beats up my 800MHz TiBook (1GB RAM) like no other software I've used. It's rougher than Reason, even.
+ volume automation, implemented MUCH more sensibly than, say, Deck II did it. I used to have to just mess around with that until I got it right. Apple appears to have learned from the mistakes of Macromedia or Bias or whoever originally made Deck...
- you don't appear to be able to detach the editor window from the main track window. Looks like they didn't learn from the mistakes of Reason 1.0. At least you can make the window really wide, unlike Reason 1.0.
- It assumes a LOT of screen real estate. It manages to feel a little bit cramped on my (1280x854) TiBook. Some of this is due to the...
- goofy fake-wood sidebars on the window. Although maybe somebody will figure out how to extract them and apply them to other OS X windows instead of brushed aluminum.
Overall, I'm impressed. This is FAR better than any 30-dollar piece of music software has any right to be. This could keep anyone pretty happy for a good long time. Even if it's just a sketchpad/4-track replacement, it still fills a good niche between, say, Logic or ProTools and just kinda recording to a tape deck and hoping it comes out okay. It's got MIDI sequencing (which I do still have to play with more, but which seems pretty reasonable from looking at sequences as they play) and can do timestretching and so on with ease, and entirely transparently. I'm playing a 120bpm loop at 80bpm right now, and it sounds pretty good-- it's definitely got that timestretched sound to it, but it's not painful in any way.
It was 30 bucks because I got the educational discount. At 50 bucks, it's _still_ well worth it. Software that does this kind of thing tends to cost between $200 and $1000, depending on who makes it and how much it does. I'm sure there are home users who would buy it but don't, because it's way too expensive and does, actually, too much. There are functions in Deck II that I've never used. They aren't in GarageBand.
It'll probably make me want a faster laptop...
+ supports AudioUnits!!! All of 'em! Effects, instruments, everything! Wheee!
- uses strange terminology. Actually, it might only be strange to me because I'm used to calling presets or patches presets or patches, not "Instruments." What GarageBand calls and instrument is actually a patch for a software synth or sample-playback instrument, like the piano (referred to here as a "generator") plus several effects, plus presets for them. This probably won't bother anyone who hasn't been playing with synthesizers for years and years.
+ AudioUnit synthesizers show up in the Generators menu here, along with the basic GarageBand instruments-- Piano, Strings, Bass, Horns, Woodwind, and a selection of analog and digital synths. The Analog synths are characterized as Basic, Mono, Pad, Swirl, and Sync, and the Digital Synths are Basic, Mono, and Stepper (which appears to be some kind of strange harmonic sample munging thing. I haven't played with it yet). Each has a slighly different set of parameters. There are also a few different drum kits.
+ lots of decent-sounding effects. It has a simple compressor, EQ, Echo, and Reverb built in that can be switched in and out for each track. It has a selection of other effects, too, including the much-touted Amp Simulation and a lot of the usual suspects-- Distortion, Overdrive, Chorus, Flange, Phase, and something called a Bitcrusher that effectively reduces the sample rate and resolution of an instrument for hip lo-fi effects. Two of these effects or any AudioUnit effect plugins can be picked for each track.
+ Lots of fairly interesting loops. A better selection than I expected.
- CPU intensive. This thing beats up my 800MHz TiBook (1GB RAM) like no other software I've used. It's rougher than Reason, even.
+ volume automation, implemented MUCH more sensibly than, say, Deck II did it. I used to have to just mess around with that until I got it right. Apple appears to have learned from the mistakes of Macromedia or Bias or whoever originally made Deck...
- you don't appear to be able to detach the editor window from the main track window. Looks like they didn't learn from the mistakes of Reason 1.0. At least you can make the window really wide, unlike Reason 1.0.
- It assumes a LOT of screen real estate. It manages to feel a little bit cramped on my (1280x854) TiBook. Some of this is due to the...
- goofy fake-wood sidebars on the window. Although maybe somebody will figure out how to extract them and apply them to other OS X windows instead of brushed aluminum.
Overall, I'm impressed. This is FAR better than any 30-dollar piece of music software has any right to be. This could keep anyone pretty happy for a good long time. Even if it's just a sketchpad/4-track replacement, it still fills a good niche between, say, Logic or ProTools and just kinda recording to a tape deck and hoping it comes out okay. It's got MIDI sequencing (which I do still have to play with more, but which seems pretty reasonable from looking at sequences as they play) and can do timestretching and so on with ease, and entirely transparently. I'm playing a 120bpm loop at 80bpm right now, and it sounds pretty good-- it's definitely got that timestretched sound to it, but it's not painful in any way.
It was 30 bucks because I got the educational discount. At 50 bucks, it's _still_ well worth it. Software that does this kind of thing tends to cost between $200 and $1000, depending on who makes it and how much it does. I'm sure there are home users who would buy it but don't, because it's way too expensive and does, actually, too much. There are functions in Deck II that I've never used. They aren't in GarageBand.
It'll probably make me want a faster laptop...
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Date: 2004-01-17 06:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-18 08:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-19 06:23 am (UTC)A full (exhaustive!) review will be showing up on rocknerd.org in a bit, I think...