WithiLife ’ 08 , GarageBand turns 4 . And in its quaternary looping , Apple ’s music creation / podcasting / movie - scoring app adopt improvements largely targeted to musicians and musician wanna - bes , though podcasters will find a couple of less - touted features to like .
Among these major new feature are Magic GarageBand , a modified backup - band - in - a - box ; arrangements , which lets you watch your music by sections ( rhyme , chorus , verse , for representative ) ; multi - take recording where you’re able to eyelet - record and automatically save “ need ” from each pass ; Visual EQ , a way to graphically line up frequencies in each of your rail ; support for gamey - result audio ; and an mechanization feature that lets you change a track ’s ( or the entire composing ’s ) EQ and effects ( and , in the case of the Master Track , tempo ) . Less detectable change are a Print statement for print notation from a selected Software Instrument racecourse , the Normalize export pick that attempts to raise the overall volume of a transcription if it ’s deemed too quiet , the power to apply a greater number of effects to a selected cut , configurable Compressor and Track Reverb effects , and a Fade Out instruction for step by step fading the last sec of your projection .
Certainly , a lot to compilation . So here ’s how the newfangled feature shake out .
Magic GarageBand
During the August 7 Apple briefing , Steve Jobs spent the majority of the clip allotted to GarageBand on the new Magic GarageBand , a feature that creates a virtual 5 - piece band ( bass , guitar , drums , keyboard , and extend instrument ) that plays melodic line in nine dissimilar genres — blues , rock , jazz , body politic , reggae , funk , latin , roots rock , and slow blues .
To exercise Magic GarageBand , just select a genre , choose to listen to either a snippet or an intact song , and click the period of play button . The professional - sounding band begins act as . Click Audition , a pall opens , and you could select each of the five instruments .
Once selected , you could change the specific kind of instrument that player toy . For instance , change a Straight leading guitar in the jazz ensemble to a Gypsy guitar . Changing instruments alters not just the sound of the instrument but the part it plays . For example , when you choose Drums and change from Bebop Sizzle to Funky Groove , you hear a completely different drum Seth and part — one that , well , groovesmore .
By selecting an instrument and select the None option , the cat’s-paw is drop from the mixing . This is useful if you want to play the sea bass part , for example , without one of the virtual instruments stepping all over you . When you drop a part and later export the undertaking , that part is missing from the mix . This is a secure thing if you require to pull out just the drum part from one of the line and leave the residual of the set behind .
Choosing instruments in Magic GarageBand
you’re able to also click the empty My Instrument area of the point ( front and center ) and choose an pawn . You ca n’t playact this instrument , you ’re simply selecting the kind of tool you ’ll play when you jam along with the band — either a veridical instrument ( that guitar in your arm ) or as a virtual tool when you export the transcription you ’ve create in Magic GarageBand to a GarageBand medicine project .
My guess is that job choose to show off Magic GarageBand because it demos well . The recordings vocalize smashing — they’re real musician play these parts rather than MIDI cut — the graphics for the virtual stage are precious , and it ’s fun to throw between parts . But in pragmatic software , Magic GarageBand quickly wears thinly .
To begin with , while it ’s great that you could change instrument ( and therefore the accompanying parts ) , the band always play the same air . Regardless of how you hoodwink instrument , you ’re left with just nine basic tunes . And that get old after for a while , particularly given that , because these are jam melodic line designed to be easy to keep an eye on , their structure is n’t very interesting . Far more utilitarian would be if you could select a genre — Latin , for model — and then choose a submarine - genre such as Salsa , Afro - Cuban , and Bossa , for instance , and get a whole new line .
While in Magic GarageBand , you ca n’t change the Florida key the band is playing in so if you ’re not skilful at playing along with a jazz blues onward motion in F , you ’d well figure it out . ( I will say that it appear efforts were made to not put the tune in impossible keys — no one is going to coerce you to flirt in C # major , for good example . ) Once you ’ve bring an arrangement into GarageBand , however , you could alter the key . So if you need to jam with the band but would feel better in E than F , you have to settle on an arrangement and then take that additional exportation step .
Arrangements
A feature article that ’s been usable in digital audio recording workstations ( DAW ) forever , it ’s nice that GarageBand now lets you watch and edit your medicine labor in parts such as verse line , chorus , and nosepiece .
Just opt Track - > Show Arrange Track and a thin track appears at the top of your euphony project . Click the Plus push button and the first eight ginmill of your tune now have a blue Untitled bar over them . Double - come home Untitled to rename it and move the sides of the rails ’s edge to resize the part . All the material beneath the bar is now highlighted . you could now drag this bar to another location on the timeline and all the track under it move correctly along with it .
GarageBand 4 accommodate a feature long - available in digital audio recording workstations — the ability to see and edit music labor by plane section such as verse , chorus , and bridge .
You ca n’t copy and glue arrangement parts in the traditional fashion — by choosing a control from the Edit menu , for example . Instead , just Option - press an arrangement heading and drag it to make a written matter .
A drop - down bill of fare by the yellow Take marker lets you choose among the multiple take you ’ve recorded .
Multi-take recording
Another lineament that traditional DAWs have sported for a longsighted time , this lets you set a loop topology in your music project , hit Record , and GarageBand records what you wager and then creates an additional take every time the loop starts over ( it will tape up to eight takes ) . Switch off recording and you’re able to then press the yellow Take marker at the beginning of the track and , from the resulting menu , choose which take you ’d like to listen to .
Find the one you wish and choose Delete Unused Takes from this popping - up computer menu . you could also immix takes by splitting the caterpillar tread . Once split , the Take marker will seem at the beginning of each section , allowing you to choose Take 1 for the first subdivision , Take 2 for the second , and maybe Take 6 for a third .
Visual EQ
Peer into GarageBand ’s effect region ( click the Info button and then the Details Triangulum to see effects ) and you ’ll get word that the older EQ setting is gone and has been supersede by Visual EQ . This is a graphical equalizer ( an effect for boosting or cutting audio frequencies — call back the bass and ternary controls on your stereophony ) that ’s really easy to expend .
prefer a track and snap the Edit clit next to it to see it in action mechanism . Here you ’ll come up frequencies broken into four ranges — Bass , Low - Mid , High - Mid , and triple . snap within one of these mountain chain and drag the dingy dance orchestra up or down to increase or decrease oftenness within that mountain range .
Clicking the Analyzer push button in GarageBand ’s new Visual EQ feature article bring on a wave form of your sound so you’re able to see how Visual EQ is changing things around .
As with many of GarageBand ’s effects , Visual EQ includes common presets for everyday tasks — adding more punch to drum or brightness to vocals , for example . To get a better idea of what Visual EQ is doing to your sound , click the Analyzer button while your track make for — that will develop an ever - shift wave shape of your sound . As you adjust frequencies , you’re able to see the character of the waveform vary too . Visual EQ is a very visceral way to view EQ changes .
Higher-resolution audio
GarageBand now underpin transcription and export audio at up to resolutions of 24 - bit . 24 - routine audio recording offers a more accurate representation of auditory sensation than CD - lineament 16 - bit audio . This is controlled through an Audio Resolution pop - up card in the Advanced system preference . You ’re offered three choice : Good , which is 16 - bit audio for both transcription and export , Better , for 24 - scrap recording but 16 - bit exporting ; and Best , recording and exporting 24 - bit files . sampling charge per unit remains 44.1kHz for all three setting .
Automation
In previous version of GarageBand you could bring down a circumscribed amount of mechanisation by queer a track ’s Volume or Pan curves , adding ascendance points , and dragging those control points up or down to shift volume and panning . likewise you could set the Master Track ’s volume and pitch crook the same way . GarageBand 4 expands the number of things you’re able to automate .
For tracks , you’re able to now automatise parameters of effects you implement . Just take a track , cluck the downward pointing trigon in the Tracks area , and take Automation from the pop - up menu at the bottom of the instrument track . In the Add Automation sheet that appears , select the element you want to append mechanisation to . For illustration , if you ’ve applied a Phaser gist to a clavinet part you ’ve place down , you’re able to align mechanization curve ball for its speed , feedback , and loudness preferences . To avoid ocular mare’s nest , you may see only one curve at a time . Choose the setting you require from the Automation pop - up carte to automatise another argument .
mechanization capabilities have been spread out in GarageBand 4 .
The Master Track offers a new orbicular automation pick — Master Tempo . Yes , you could at long last change tempo within your GarageBand music project . Thank you , Apple . The Master Track offers its own Add Automation control to the Automation pop - up menu . It work just like the cartroad Automation pop - up menu .
Notation printing
Previous versions of GarageBand allowed you to view Software Instruments ( read : MIDI ) cut across as notational system . This version of GarageBand let you impress a runway ’s notation . For bare parts , this is a skillful feature . If you ’ve played something a little funky , the notation may not be very accurate — GarageBand takes its sound guessing at what you think but a account where you ’re asking GarageBand to show annotation at a 64th note resolution is potential to be a little mussy . ( For model , GarageBand really seems to like notate my playacting with triplets . )
Scores let in the title of your file , the instrument track you ’ve selected , your name as the composer , a tempo mark , cardinal and time signature , and pedal markings . Scores do n’t include any chord gallery and everything is notated in concert pitch . ( Musician Minutia : So if you ’ve recorded a cornet part , for representative , which is show by those players a whole - step higher , do n’t look your score to be transpose up that whole step . For creating transposed section , temporarily adjust the Pitch slipper in the track ’s editing window while reckon at Notation purview . )
The rest
While Apple say this version variation improvements for musician , there are additional benefits in GarageBand 4 for podcasters as well as player . The programme ’s advance druthers now includes an Auto Normalize alternative . When enabled , the programme increases the overall book of your file cabinet when it exports your projection . mark the wordoverall . Unlike utilities such as GigaVox Media ’s freeThe Levelator , it does n’t search out really restrained parts , advance them , and lead the loud share alone . Instead , it treats the project as a whole and increase the loudest part to the power point just below distortion and arouse the rest of the undertaking ’s volume proportionally .
GarageBand 4 lets you adjust Track Reverb configurations .
When you pick out a track you now have the ability to apply not only Compressor , Visual EQ , Echo , and Reverb effects , but you also have four extra selectable effects to choose from — the previous interpretation of GarageBand included two . A couple of GarageBand ’s gist have become more configurable . The Compressor effect , which , in the past , offered nothing more than a 0 – 100 slider , now has manual controls for Threshold , Ratio , Attack , and Gain . This makes for a much more useful compressor . And you may now select a Track Reverb effect , which lets you adjust Reverb Time , Reverb Color , Reverb Volume , and Original Volume slipper .
And there ’s now a global Fade Out dictation available from the Track menu that affect the Master Track ’s bulk . This melt out everything , not just the select track , and slowly fades the final 10 seconds or so of your project .
Coda
As Apple claims , GarageBand - using musicians will gain the bully good from the latest version of the curriculum , but podcasters will be anything but offended by more conciliatory upshot and an auto - normalize feature .
The magic trick of Magic GarageBand was quickly lost on me , but you may like it . As a instrumentalist , it ’s possible my expectations were rig too high . I need a backup band with a bigger al-Qur’an than the nine charts Magic GarageBand ’s band capably bodge through . Apple has been anything but timid about liberate novel GarageBand instrument sounds and closed circuit in the human body of add - on Jam Packs ( a newVoices press packwas expel to coincide with iLife ’ 08 ’s release ) so perhaps we ’ll see a GarageBand Charts Jam Pack some day .
At first glance , this is a nicely - refined , if not earthly concern - shaking , update . We ’ll have a more definitive take on GarageBand 4 , as we complete the full revue .
[ older editor Christopher Breen is the writer ofThe iPod and iTunes Pocket Guide , 2d variation ( Peachpit Press , 2007 ) and host of the Macworld Podcast . ]
This article was reposted at 12:50 p.m. Eastern on August 13 , 2007 , to clear up information about 24 - chip sound recording .
