GarageBand: My Affection For Affecting Music With Effects.

by Andy  |  November 27, 2011  |  General  |  4 Comments

GarageBand comes with your newly loaded Apple computer whether you like it or not, and you should like it because it's great.

First of all it makes the creation of music and sounds INCREDIBLY easy through its intuitive menus helpfully guiding you to what you'd like to create and record. Whether you'd like to create a podcast you've scripted, a pop song you've composed or some score for some video you've filmed; GarageBand can do it all! It includes built in software instruments that can be controlled either with a USB musical keyboard, or even the computer keyboard at the your fingertips! The aforementioned software instruments range from synthesisers, strings, horns, pianos and keyboards and many more - all of which sound a damn sight better than your standard built in keyboard sounds.

GarageBand also contains a vast range of loops in various different music styles to help you create the right sort of feel for your tracks. There are drum beats from all over the world - electronic and acoustic, brass horn lines, cinematic strings, country guitar loops, experimental synth loops and hundreds more! You can exclusively build a complex composition using nothing but loops, or cleverly blend and combine a mixture of loops and recorded instruments to create rich, satisfying music.

Mmm.

Secondly, you have a large amount of control over the editing of your now freshly recorded or sequenced audio. Now, unless you're a young re-incarnation of the virtuoso violin player Paganini, it's likely that you won't play precisely in time. Normally that's a good thing - it gives music a very human and natural feel. Of course, if you do play a perfect take but unfortunately scuff up 3 beats GarageBand can save you the time of re-recording the whole thing and instead just nudges your playing in time! You can do the same for pitch too, and before you know it you'll have morphed your playing into that of a brilliantly rehearsed musician.

Another lovely addition to it's editing power is in the form of plug-ins! Plug-Ins are audio effects that you can apply to individual tracks or the master track and are a powerful tool in both touching up and enhancing your music. Included are guitar and bass amplifier simulations, reverb, overdrive, echo, chorus, flanger, phaser and many others. With these effects you can transform a relatively ordinary guitar, vocal or piano recording, into somtething closer to what you would hear on commercial pop records, and before you know it you've transformed yourself from a casual song writer into a casual composer, engineer and producer without even realising it!

GarageBand is available for the iPhone and iPad too, both just as fun and usable as its brethren program who lives inside the Mac family. If you really get caught up in the excitement of GarageBand don't forget you can upgrade to Logic Express for more control, instruments, loops and effects. Even further is the full Logic Pro, used by many producers who work successfully in the music industry - The Killer's latest album was recorded, mixed and produced entirely in Logic Pro, and it is what I favour over other music production software.

For a free application that is preloaded on your Mac, GarageBand is daylight robbery. give it a go and I assure that you will be surprised and amazed at just how EASY it makes making music.

Go on, try it.

I dare you.

See?

I told you so.

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