“Some new features should make Apple’s GarageBand 2 more attractive to actual garage bands than its predecessor. Chief among them: The ability to record eight live tracks simultaneously, versus the original’s single-track limitation. Add to that capability a simple-to-understand menu and self-explanatory icons, and the application–part of Apple’s $79 ILife package–represents an easy introduction to multitrack recording. GarageBand is largely successful in its attempts to be an all-encompassing music-making machine. The Macintosh-only app offers numerous software instruments and loops–short audio snippets–for creating songs. Also, you can apply a variety of effects–such as compression, echo, and reverb–to each track… However, it’s a good thing that most of GarageBand 2’s functions are easy to figure out because documentation is scant: There’s neither a paper manual nor a digital one,” Eric Butterfield writes for PC World.
MacDailyNews Note: Windows PC users – sigh – usually looking for complicated answers to simple questions: try the “Help” menu when running GarageBand for documentation.
“GarageBand 2 (4 out of 5 stars) has a lot of impressive features considering that it’s part of a $79 suite. Beginnners should be thrilled with how easily they can alter the sounds of instruments and combine them to create songs. [It] helps beginners create multilayered tunes, but experienced musicians will find it too restrictive,” Butterfiled writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: GarageBand 2 is part of iLife ’05 which also includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and iTunes for US$79. Obviously, it is intended for beginners and priced accordingly. Experienced musicians already know where to look for Apple’s professional applications: Logic Express and Logic Pro.
