APPLE GARAGEBAND 2
May 1, 2005 12:00 PM, BY MARKKUS ROVITO
To some people out there coding away in Cupertino, Calif., GarageBand is their baby. To them, these are special times: the formative years of development that will determine the program's character throughout the remainder of its life. This is not to say that the original GarageBand was immature. In fact, you could say that the all-in-one audio/MIDI/loop recorder with built-in instruments and effects was as precocious as a studio full of Dizzee Rascals. In its infancy, GarageBand wielded considerable potential; its limitations (which were understandable considering the $49 price) were its only drawback.
But, ah, they grow up so fast. GarageBand 2's rapid growth spurt includes so many new recording, editing and work-flow improvements that it's nearly twice as impressive as the original and well worth the price nudge to $79. (The price includes Apple's entire iLife package.) Still, many regard GB 2 as an entry-level DAW — Apple's intended upgrade path is GB 2 to Logic Express to Logic Pro. However, GarageBand 2 is indispensable to beginning computer musicians or anyone who needs multitrack recording, and it can serve as a wonderfully easy-to-use recording environment for high-level producers, who can then import their GB 2 projects into Logic Express or Logic Pro.
WHAT'S NEW
Some of the key additions to GarageBand 2, to be discussed later, include eight simultaneous tracks of recording (up from one), a Notation view that writes editable notation in real time from software instruments, tuning and timing enhancements for recorded tracks, and Apple Loop creation. Dozens of other additions pepper GB 2's profile, as well. For one, it can now import MIDI files, which, aside from opening parts composed in other programs, is great for its ability to open MIDI files of songs found online for later remixing. You can now also import Acid loops.
No matter what some marketers want you to believe, unless you're high-rolling it up in first class, you cannot use even the tiniest MIDI keyboard and a laptop on a plane. That's why I think GarageBand 2's Musical Typing window is ingenious. Call it up with a keyboard shortcut, and you can play slightly more than an octave of notes with your QWERTY keyboard as well as apply pitch bend, modulation and sustain. The Z and X keys move the octaves up and down. This is, of course, not as natural or elegant as playing on a MIDI keyboard, but it could be a lifesaver for composing on a long flight, in a park, at a coffee shop and so on.
Although automation is still one of the areas that GarageBand could improve greatly, it's at least nice that GB 2 adds a pan curve for every track, along with track volume. There's also a Master Pitch curve to go along with Master Volume. Drawing the automation curves is a standard process of creating points and dragging them where you want them. Unfortunately, you cannot copy and paste regions of the curves, so if you want the automation to repeat, you have to repeat the drawing process.
If you're still clinging to an aversion to guitars, it's time to let go and enjoy the fall. The program not only includes some sick simulations of guitars in the instrument section but also makes it easy to lay down real guitar tracks with a large variety of amp simulations and the new instrument tuner. Best used with a guitar or bass, the instrument tuner shows up in the time display next to the transport controls. With a guitar as the audio input, just play a note and adjust it until the green light in the center stays lit through the sustain.
Other notable additions are as follows: The Keyboard window (for inputting notes through mouse-clicks) is now resizable; a Lock button in the track header renders a track to the hard drive as one audio file, which saves processing power that was previously used on the track's synthesizer or effects; and in addition to velocity sensitivity, GB welcomes a few new instruments and effects, including some pianos, synthesizers, amp simulations and a Vocal Transformer effect for making a male sound female or vice versa.
EIGHT IS ENOUGH
With a capable audio interface, GarageBand 2 allows you to record eight simultaneous audio tracks, as well as one software instrument track, at a time. (A project can have as many total tracks of any kind as your CPU can handle.) I applied this feature using both USB and FireWire audio interfaces, with no problem. After selecting the audio interface in Preferences, GB 2 recognized the number of audio inputs available, and I could record-enable as many tracks as possible. Double-clicking on the track header opens the Track Info window, where I could select the input number, set the input volume and turn monitoring on or off for that track. With all of the inputs selected, you can audition a take to get levels on all the tracks that are record-enabled. Clicking on Record in the transport controls starts the recording, and you can utilize a metronome and a one-measure count-in if you wish.
Once audio tracks were recorded, the original GarageBand didn't offer much in the way of editing besides deleting unwanted segments. Although GarageBand 2 won't have any of the big-time DAW manufacturers nervously biting their fingernails, it does offer some valuable audio manipulation, most notable its Enhance Tuning and Enhance Timing features. Neither are miracle workers — as the saying goes, you can't polish a turd — and GB 2 won't be able to resurrect tracks if they're dead on arrival.
To use either Enhance Tuning or Enhance Timing, click on an audio track and open the Editor view. Enhance Tuning will work best for single-note instrument tracks that are a little out of tune, such as a single vocal or horn. When playing the track and then moving the slider to the right, GB 2 begins to move notes to the closest note in the 12-note scale. By checking the Limit to Key box, the tuning will be restrained to only the notes in the key of the song (selected in the Master Track).
The Enhance Timing feature works in a nearly identical fashion. Select a track, play it and then move the slider until you have the desired effect. The time enhancements are based on the note value chosen from the pop-up menu, either 16th note, eighth-note triplet, eighth note or quarter note.
APPLE, THE ONLY FRUIT LOOP YOU NEED
With your audio tracks finalized, you can save portions of them in the Apple Loop format, which includes metadata descriptors that make it easy to share. Software instrument tracks can also be saved as Apple Loops. The advantages of Apple Loops are numerous. If you have an audio track that repeats but only a couple of the measures are dead-on, you can trim the clip, save the good part as an Apple Loop and then repeat it as much as you want. Of course, you could do this by just duplicating the audio, but by saving something as a Loop, it is added to your library, where it can be recalled from the Loop Browser.
Before the Loop is saved, the Add Loop dialog opens; there, you can choose a name, genre, scale, instrument category and all the appropriate mood descriptors for your Loop. You can also designate whether the sound is a one-shot or a Loop, in which case the tempo is saved so that the Loop will adjust to the tempo of your song as it changes.
CLOSING THE DOOR
When speaking about GarageBand 2, I have an overwhelming urge to fall into infomercial conventions: “How much would you expect to pay for 8-track digital recording, dozens of professional-sounding instruments and effects and thousands of stylistically diverse loops? $200? $300? $400? But wait, there's more!”
The program's comprehensive production abilities for such a low price make it an absolute standout; however, certain limitations can be frustrating. GB 2 is still a bit of a processor hog. Before rendering tracks to disk, my Apple PowerBook G4/1.67GHz with 512 MB of RAM started to choke up on 13 tracks — almost evenly divided between software and audio tracks. Nevertheless, these growing pains are hardly cause to balk at GarageBand 2. I'm looking forward to its teenage years.
APPLE
GARAGEBAND 2 > $79
Pros: Multitrack recording. Piles of great-sounding instruments, effects and loops. Apple Loop creation. ReWire and Audio Units support. Many more new, helpful features.
Cons: Processor-hungry.
Contact: www.apple.com/ilife/garageband
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Mac G3 (G4 or G5 to use software instruments)/600; 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended); Mac OS 10.3.4 or higher
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