Time Magazine: ‘Apple’s GarageBand puts a full-scale recording studio at your fingertips’

“Music, as any teen in a garage band will tell you, should be as simple to make as it is to listen to. That hasn’t always been the case with musicmaking software though. Turning your computer into a recording studio with programs like Pro Tools and Cakewalk Plasma means splashing out hundreds of dollars and slogging through dense instruction manuals. There had to be an easier way. Now Apple has found it with GarageBand, part of its $49 suite of Mac-only iLife applications released last week. As the name suggests, GarageBand is aimed at amateurs. You don’t need to read the manual to put together a pretty professional-sounding tune. You don’t even need much talent,” Chris Taylor reports for Time Magazine.

“At its simplest level, GarageBand lets you lay down loopsprerecorded short riffs by drums, bass, piano and so on. There are 1,000 loops to choose from on the basic software and 2,000 more on the $99 add-on, Jam Pack. Here’s the clever bit: the loops are arranged not just by instrument but also under mood-based headings like ‘Relaxed,’ ‘Intense,’ ‘Cheerful’ and so on. Click and drag your loops into the score, and they become interactive. You can stretch and splice them like lumps of Play-Doh. In just 10 minutes I found I could intuitively assemble a thumping dance ditty that would not disgrace most deejays’ decks,” Taylor reports.

Full article here.