Apple’s relationship with music and its creative process has grown stronger in recent years with Apple Music, various models of AirPods, and more. Logic Pro, an established, high-quality, professional-grade environment for audio producers, arrived years ago, but GarageBand has grown steadily.
GarageBand comes installed on every new Mac and it might make you think it’s not powerful enough, but make no mistake: it’s a Software fully capable, ideal for emerging artists and podcasters, as well as those new to music creation or production.
We tested GarageBand version 10.4.6 on the latest 16″ MacBook Pro with M1. It should be noted that the application takes advantage of the Apple Silicon architecture. In fact, it has surpassed it since version 10.4.1.
While there are no Apple Silicon-specific features (we also tested it on a 2019 Intel-based 16-inch MacBook), it’s worth mentioning that it runs very fast and export times are likely to be a bit shorter. Material newer. You’ll also likely be able to do more recording and editing without having the laptop plugged in thanks to the improved power efficiency of the M1 chip.
If you h aven’t used GarageBand in a while, you’ll be glad to know that those weird, wood-paneled instrument icons are really all that’s left of Apple’s scheuomorphic fascination, and at first glance GarageBand looks a lot like to any other digital audio workstation (DAW). It is sharp, with a large working space and many tools.
You can stack up to 256 tracks in a single project, and depending on your setup you may need Material extras to record your own instruments. We used a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 connected via a Thunderbolt dock, a Blue Yeti X microphone, and even the laptop’s microphone array.
All the Material it is set when you start a project for the first time. If you unplug something, like output speakers, and plug it back in, GarageBand will default to the built-in options.
Tracks are displayed with their own waveforms, just like in Logic, and it’s quick and easy to drag items around to make sure they sync up where you want them.
The timeline itself can be zoomed in or out to find those bad notes or scratches, and cutting and changing segments is as easy as placing the playhead where you want to split things up and then adding and deleting as good seems to you.
At the start of each track, you can adjust volume per instrument, as well as panning between stereo outputs, while muting or soloing to focus on a track.
If you double-click on the recorded items, the smart editor will appear at the bottom of the screen, which means you can add effects, equalize, transpose and much more. You’ll find a metronome and countdown option at the top, as well as a screen that tracks tempo and key.
All of these are relatively basic, but are presented in such a way that they are easily accessible to anyone who is relatively new to this world. GarageBand is that application in which a beginner can add a large number of audio files and have fun moving fragments around.
Drums are particularly fun to use, with AI-controlled drummers that can be customized per note, or let them do their thing guided only by sliders. You can even find templates to get you started.
GarageBand 10.4.4 also added royalty-free sounds from various producers, including Mark Ronson, joining a library that includes a huge number of vintage and digital instruments. It’s true that you’ll find more stuff in Logic, but what’s on offer here is amazing considering it’s free.
A big advantage of using Logic over GarageBand is mixing. GarageBand lets you change audio levels through the panel we mentioned earlier, but that’s cumbersome without a digital mixer that lets you change volumes on the fly.
Instead, you’ll have to scroll section by section, which can take a bit of time. Fortunately, smaller projects, like a podcast or a song with acoustic guitar, can be exported with the Auto Normalize feature.
As you can imagine, Apple has been very focused on integrating GarageBand into its ecosystem of Materialand that means you can also recover your GarageBand project on iOS or iPadOS.
While the interface isn’t as easy to navigate without a mouse, the iPad’s keyboard shortcuts help a lot, and both platforms have the advantage of using a more tactile input process, including “sessions”. Remixes” which allow users to modify the songs as they wish. . Free woman by Lady Gaga.
You can also directly share your audio to SoundCloud, as well as AirDrop your creations to other devices or even to a friend for further work. Mac users with disc drives can also burn to CD, but for most of us the ability to export to MP3, AIFF, WAV or AAC will be more than enough.
You can also send your creations directly to Apple Music to play or sync with your library.
For those just starting out on their musical journey (or looking to deepen their knowledge), GarageBand has a series of guitar and piano tutorials featuring Fall Out Boy, Death Cab for Cutie, Rush, and John Legend, among others. . . Each of them can be downloaded and played at your own pace.
Setup and setup
Do you want to know how to get GarageBand on your Mac? GarageBand is available on the Mac App Store, where you can download it for free as part of the Software included with the purchase of a new computer, such as Pages, Keynote and Numbers.
From here, when you first open GarageBand, you’ll be prompted to install a massive library of GarageBand instrument sounds. Software
When opening a project without a tool Software chosen, a blank timeline appears for you to work in, with the metronome, countdown timer, library, and smart editor open by default.
verdict
Between its impressive audio editing suite and extensive sound library, GarageBand is a good first step to creating music on the Mac.
Plus, it keeps getting better with regular free updates, and while Logic Pro offers a number of extras, GarageBand is great for beginners and surprisingly powerful too.
And all of this is complemented by an interesting, albeit short, list of music tutorials that can be downloaded, as well as templates that users can use to get started.
Original article published on igamesnews.
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