Who uses garage band

[digital sequence]

Im just curious if anyone uses this, ive heard its a very basic daw but it was free on my Mac an its pretty sweet so far, but will it limit me in the future as i progress?

[Eskimo]

Might be limiting, never used it...
This was made in garageband though, so don't underestimate it

[Efrafa11]

I used it for a while in a song writing class, unless they updated it it's very basic.
Some simple synths, effects, presets, a small bank of samples and midi patterns, and you can still install au's.
Although you don't get buses or sends or much anything in the way of altering signal path.
There are a lot of free Daws that are far more complete Imho.

[Crimsonghost]

I just started using it recently and it's not bad. It's a fun way to just mess around when I get tired of looking at my main daw. It great because its so much simpler then the others. And if I get a good idea I can just export it to S1 for some serious tweaking.

[digital sequence]

Holy fuck that song was pretty sick! Mines very basic right now but its my first project

[syrup]

I used it for a while and it wasn't that bad, thing that pissed me off was that you couldn't have more than 2 fx per channel.

i think it could be good for basic songwriting, you're not distracted by tons of stuff

[Sharmaji]

i've got plenty of songwriting/production clients who use garageband. 100% of the time, they ask me if they should move to logic.

100% of the time i respond, NO. stay in Garageband. it's perfect for songwriting. In logic, every minute you spend figuring out an EQ setting or what a limiter does is time you're NOT spending writing the song.

I think GB is a great, great, great songwriting environment.

[fragments]

i've got plenty of songwriting/production clients who use garageband. 100% of the time, they ask me if they should move to logic.

100% of the time i respond, NO. stay in Garageband. it's perfect for songwriting. In logic, every minute you spend figuring out an EQ setting or what a limiter does is time you're NOT spending writing the song.

I think GB is a great, great, great songwriting environment.

The infinite possibilities of a modern DAW are like anti-creativity. And can be especially daunting for beginnings. I still create projects with specific limits for myself to keep my mind limber. Like only using 8 mixer tracks and 2 sends (just as an example) or only one of any given FX.

Limits often yield creative results. Electronic music actually used to be about breaking through the limits of the available equipment and making great music. It still amazes me listening to electronic music from the mid 90's and backwards what people were able to achieve with a few pieces equipment.

[Mad_EP]

^^^

This. I haven't played with Garageband much, but I do regularly try to make tracks outside out my normal environment to keep things fresh.


My earliest stuff was done in Deck II (do you remember that one Dave?) - quite limited compared to today's DAWs, but the second track I ever wrote ended up being my debut 12". The first song I wrote was later released on a different record. Also - I remember Deck II having one of the coolest multi-tap delays ever.

So yeah - I would never discount GB on principal. In fact, I might have a go at it next tune.

[Harkat]

GB user here!

I thought for sure I'd have to switch for a long time. Now, I'm not so sure. For chopping and editing samples I use Audacity on the side, and after I slotted a few (free!) plugins into Garageband, my setup is pretty OK. I'd really advise using Audacity to chop individual, short sounds out of songs you want to sample though, as merely cutting them in Garageband preserves the file in the RAM or something, and makes the program extremely slow to use very quickly, especially when you're running the audio tracks through live, CPU-hogging filters like EQ, distortion etc. Do that shit beforehand in audacity.

Also, most of GB's standard instruments ain't too good. "Hybrid Basic" and "Digital Basic" are kinda OK, but the degree of control still isn't there at all. But "Digital Basic" CAN give you nuff filthy wubs with a little resampling. I've managed to make a passable growl bass with it, although I don't really make the brostep stuff at all anymore, it speaks to the versatility.

A thing to remember with GB is the chain of automatic processes your project goes through when you export it. For example, it tries to make your project as loud as possible, which does not work well if most of your tracks are turned up beyond halfway. Turn everything down, turn up the master audio when producing instead. Go into "preferences" and have a look at this stuff.

Number one rule of Garageband is use the "AU"-titled plugin effects that don't look fancy, but come with the program. The ones below the bar on the drop-down menu, with no illustrative images of modular wires or shit. Good ones include "AUMatrixReverb" and "AUmultibandcompressor". Do not use the standard "Equalizer", "Master Reverb" or "Master Echo" functions, they are for noobs and sound shit. Use "AUGraphicEqualizer" instead. This took me far too long to realize.

Actually, the standard "Equalizer" is alright for the "analyzer" function, which shows you in real-time which frequencies a single track or your tune as a whole is hitting. Don't boost the frequencies with it though, use AUGraphicEqualizer for that.

Then, download every Togu Audio Line plugin synth ASAP, that'll teach you about synthesis in a more proper fashion. The standard Garageband synths do not give you an understanding of square/sine/saw/tri waves etc.

Good luck!

[syrup]

^ great post. and it's true you can get some nifty sounds of the stock synths

[digital sequence]

Thanks guys! Can anyone link me to any free inputs for gb, and if i plan on going far with this such as career, ill want to switch to maybe logic? Also, what are some cool instrument you've made for dubstep on it? Im still playin around but i feel like it sounds very basic

[Benji]

i've got plenty of songwriting/production clients who use garageband. 100% of the time, they ask me if they should move to logic.

100% of the time i respond, NO. stay in Garageband. it's perfect for songwriting. In logic, every minute you spend figuring out an EQ setting or what a limiter does is time you're NOT spending writing the song.

I think GB is a great, great, great songwriting environment.

That doesn't sound like the best advice, shouldn't you encourage musicians to broaden their horizons rather than try to restrict them to a comparatively limited DAW? The pros of Logic must outweigh the pros of GB by a ridiculous amount

[Genevieve]

An indie folk singer strumming a guitar is better off with a 4-track tape recorder or the digital equivalent (garage band), than a full fledged recording and production environment. It's not a limitation if garage band already does everything you need it to do. Why make someone get a truck license when they're only gonna be driving a car?

[Benji]

That's fine, but it's a very specific example and I'm sure there's a basic version of Logic also. Maybe it's just me, but I like to have as much freedom with my software as I can get