The Song Fight Bulletin Board

i'm getting a mac pretty soon since my laptop died and i refuse to go back to windows. but i really don't want to use garage band unless i can be sure that i'm able to create my own beats and whatnot. also i want as many tracks available to record upon as possible, and it doesn't say much about that in the product description i found on the apple website (this is all assuming that garage band comes already loaded on all macs). i just basically want to know the pros and cons of the product and what other recording software i should get on a mac (i'm getting an ibook most likely).

fluffy uses garageband...
-bill

So does Jack and Caravan Ray (certainly both do on occasion, anyway) and Fishboy Rex, Dan, so you could always ask him about it ...


PS Does this mean a return to songfighting soon? I hope so. I miss your music round these parts. I was also thinking just the other day, I'd love to have a go and producing / mixing one of your songs ...

j$

yeah, i should be returning to songfight, and songwriting in general, soon. i've been held back by technological woes, but this should be the end of that. i also posted this on the dcm board, but i don't think that he'll be around as much anymore, with the big changes going on now. i haven't seen him online lately.


and i'd love to work with you, johnny.

so dan, i personally think garageband is pretty solid, and like j$ said, i've been using it a fair amount lately for sequencing. if you want to hear some of what i've done with garageband, check out the jet eye's "don't break my heart again george lucas", or my "courage" tune.

or check out a remix i did of the JBB's "systematic panic". all the strings were set up with garageband. pretty easy learning curve. huge soundbank. and lets not forget the best part.

free with purchase.

jack wrote:garageband...free with purchase.

Man I just got a new OS (not the latest, but one of the newer OSX's) on my system at work (i work in publishing) and it CAME with Garageband. Now my boss is gonna wonder why I bring my guitar in all the time and sit there playing in my office. hahaha
But really it looks very pretty and is ridiculously easy to use as far as I could see from a brief glance. When you choose to add a new track, it actually prompts you for what kind of instrument the track will be. I thought that was interesting, but wasn't quite sure of the significance of it. It must really be "standard equipment" on the newer Mac OSX systems!

jack, the songs sound great. the only thing i'm worried about is the drum machine/loops part of the program. does it allow you to construct your own beats? the impression that i get is that it gives you already made loops to use, which i prefer to make my own.

i'm not too worried about it. i'm still going to purchase an ibook. i'm sure i can make do with whatever i get. i haven't recorded in almost a year, so i'd probably record into my phone if that could be easily transferred to mp3 format. i've been desperate. why is there no equivalent to masturbation for recording?

You can make you're own beats in Garage Band. The cool thing about the program is how it seamlessly combines midi and loop files for only $50 or free with a new mac.

Having said that the drum sound bank is a little weak and the amount of effects that can be applied to them simulaneously is limited.

I would suggest Reason for this. For an extra $250 you can get a great library of sounds and effects. Then using the ReWire capability you can rout the song into Garage Band to record vocals and instrumentation.

I've had a Mac now for about a month - and I'm bloody impressed.

Still finding my way with Garage Band - but it is so easy to use right from the word go.

You may be disappointed with the beat making capabilities - but I'm sure there is other software around you can make beats with and import in. I've just downloaded a cool little program 'Midikeys' which lets me play drumbeats (or any other sounds) with my computer keyboard - I'm hoping that will satisfy most of my beat-making requirements.

Main drawback I've noticed is that I don't seem to be able to change key or tempo of song easily, like I could on the old version of Cakewalk I used to use. I can make changes to computer instruments, but not 'real' instruments - like voice or guitar. Minor problem though really

Final word - buy a Mac. GB comes for free - so you may as well use it, even if the beat-making isn't what you want - there is a lot that is good about the program that I'm sure you'll like.

Has anyone found any decent free Mac drum machine/sequencer software? Starting to get a bit bored with the GB loops.

Caravan Ray wrote:Has anyone found any decent free Mac drum machine/sequencer software? Starting to get a bit bored with the GB loops.

Reason

while Reason is great (i've become a self confessed slave to it), last time i checked it wasn't free.

okay.

GARAGE BAND'S BEAT MAKING CAPABILITIES.
it's nowhere near as nice as, say, fruity loops, but it's do-able. (i've never used reason) it's more work and a bit more frustrating. you have to hit record and play the notes, then place them where you want to. and you have to be sure to get more notes than you need, otherwise you have to do it again. it's frustrating, but if you don't have much money then it works. you just have to deal with it.

one annoying thing about garage band: you can't change tempos in the middle of the song.

oops

fodroy wrote:okay.

GARAGE BAND'S BEAT MAKING CAPABILITIES.
it's nowhere near as nice as, say, fruity loops, but it's do-able. (i've never used reason) it's more work and a bit more frustrating. you have to hit record and play the notes, then place them where you want to. and you have to be sure to get more notes than you need, otherwise you have to do it again. it's frustrating, but if you don't have much money then it works. you just have to deal with it.

one annoying thing about garage band: you can't change tempos in the middle of the song.

Yeah - I'm starting to work out the beat thing too. I also just discovered I was given iLife4 by mistake, not iLife5 (it only took me 4 months to work it out . went back to the shop and they gave me iLife5, with GB2 - which seems to be a bit better

After I get a badass bass, classical, telecaster, bass amp, guitar amp, monitor, sound-proofing, and PA gear, I'd like to get a mac.

A laptop would be my choice. Also, presonus makes a little case thing that's got two rackmount units and a space for a laptop. So, I could have a Firepod with 8 inputs going to the laptop and maybe an fx unit or something. Pretty neat. The true mobile recording studio.

The Sober Irishman wrote:After I get a badass bass, classical, telecaster, bass amp, guitar amp, monitor, sound-proofing, and PA gear, I'd like to get a mac.

Ha! That's pretty funny!

The Sober Irishman wrote:Also, presonus makes a little case thing that's got two rackmount units and a space for a laptop.

Ooooooh. Have a link/product name? Couldn't find it @ presonus' site. That sounds awesome, dude.

does anybody know of any freeware text-to-speech programs for macs?

i found one called iSpeak, but that stays on the dashboard and doesn't allow you to save wav files or anything. i have an idea for sort of a text-to-speech comedy/drama, if you will. i just need a good program for that.

fodroy wrote:does anybody know of any freeware text-to-speech programs for macs?

Macs do that by default. But there are better programs out there as well. I'll dig up the email of the NASA podcast dude I met last month, who puts out a couple shows which are essentially text to speech readings of certain project webpages (full access, etc.). They get reasonable results. I can't stand it but I'm sure if I lost my sight tomorrow I'd get to like it.

I use Logic Pro myself and I think for the kind of flexibility that you are looking for it may be worth paying a bit to get a decent software package. There's Pro Tools of course which does require digi's own hardware, but now there's the whole M-powered thing with some of m-audio's hardware. Motu's digital performer, Ableton live, etc. Depends on how much you want to spend and the hardware that you intend to use. How much midi and how much audio? It's a shame that Pro Tools free doesn't work in osx. You have to reboot in os9, use oms and all that.

I was torn between Pro Tools and Logic myself, but opted for Logic because of all the free plug-ins and I didn't have to shell out for new hardware.

http://www.doggiebox.com/intro.php

some other options . . .

Logic Express is great for mac, and fits in between the freeness of Garage Band and the expense of Logic. Definite beat making capabilities, reads soundfonts, great for looping, multitrack, etc. Love it.
I've never used Reason, and I found Garage band to be a fun toy but not great for what I wanted to do. And Logic Express reads the Apple loops that come with GB.