Garage Band

[Nathanael]

Originally posted by Bob Olhsson
Today music has become an upper middle-class avocation that is about as accessible as playing golf.

But for art music, that is a major paradigm shift. Go back two hundred years and art music was only for the mega-wealthy. You were either born into a musical family, or you were born into the nobility (either wealthy merchant or actual royalty).

It may be less available in public schools. No argument there, but for someone with DESIRE, it has never been easier to learn. There are so many schools, grants, etc. Most of the community orchestras still have instruments for students to play.

[grahluk]

Hmmmnnn.... Gar(b)age Band ain't nothing to be scared of. I see it as the iMovie for music. iMovie won't threaten Hollywood or even the serious independant film & video professionals. Garage Band isn't going to turn bedroom Jimmy into George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and the Beatles rolled in one either. Just as a poster before mentioned that there was much more widespread basic music instruction in the past it didn't necessarily prove to make legions of Bachs, Segovias', or Ellingtons. Garage Band is just what it's name implies. The greatest bands started in someone's garage or house where they took it from there is another story. The same may prove for the production talent. It may start with Garage Band but real talent and ears will probably move on from there. We've already seen our craft's base of skills move several times. From the days when an AE was a white coat electrical engineer or garage radio enthusiast with his trusty RCA circuit design handbook to the heirarchal trade model studios have employed for the last 40-50 years to now. Now you have more audio production courses, degrees, and workshops than there are jobs fill. Not all of these people will find an established business to work in. They will have to make a hobby of it or go it alone. Add to that the legions of Guitar Center Mbox equiped enthusiasts who soak up all they can from the myriads of books, trade mags, and sites like this one. This democratization just spreads the avenues of where one can learn the basic concepts. The commodification of the tools decentralizes where, how, and who can produce audio. Talent and experience still is something that doesn't come bundled with an imac.

[filarion]

I also can't see what the fuzz is about - GarageBand is not even meant to be a prosumer app, consumer all the way- it's just a preset-hauling, self-contained looper with a nice library, a bunch of preset-software instruments and a recording feature. It's Magix Music Maker on stereoids. As long as we don't know whether it's at all possible to use AU plugins, multitrack or basically anything apart from what was demoed.. pff. I know I won't be using my Powerbook's Line In for recording.. dfegad

For what it's worth it is a very well developed tool for amateurs - my guess is that it's completely closed without support for plugins or basically anything that would threaten stability.

Maybe a bad comparison, but since Propellerheads dropped ReBirth electronic musicians have been in that boat, so nyah.

[BrianT]

I think you guys are missing my point. Songwriting, producing, artistry, musicianship......I was talking about none of those.

I'm talking about engineering, as a vocation. Tracking, and especially overdubbing. There was a time that a recording engineer, plus an assistant and possibly also a tape op, were a necessity in making records. First, the autolocator deep sixed the tape op. And I guarantee that with DAW based rooms, there are far more sessions done today with no assistant than there used to be, since recall and setup are a mouse click, for the most part. See the trend?

Next up is the main engineer. Because technology is gradually rendering him a luxury, rather than a necessity, for most of the project. Not in all cases, and in all genres, but the trend is obvious. That is what I am saying.

Of course technology is not going to give someone musical talent, create another George Martin and the Beatles, etc. Doh! Who said it would?

But technolgy will allow someone with little engineering experience to record music without a trainwreck more consistently and more easliy than they could in the past. And that trend is accelerating. To think otherwise is kidding yourself. Technology is gradually taking over more and more of what used to be specialized skills, as well as lowering the price of gear to the point that there is less need to attend an expensive school to access and train on zillion dollar gear. For the price of Full Sail, you could buy yourself an HD rig and learn it far better, woodshedding in your own bedroom studio.



Regards,
Brian T

[Johnny B]

I'm excited by what Apple did with GB. Now, you don't need to spend 1000's of bucks on software or outboard equipment to do your composing and demos. You will be able to lay a track or 2 down for someone else and send it to them or take it into a pro studio equipped with Apple's rumored PT Killer. I think the future looks bright. It may look even brighter after NAMM.

[GearGuy]

Originally posted by Johnny B
I'm excited by what Apple did with GB. Now, you don't need to spend 1000's of bucks on software or outboard equipment to do your composing and demos. You will be able to lay a track or 2 down for someone else and send it to them or take it into a pro studio equipped with Apple's rumored PT Killer. I think the future looks bright. It may look even brighter after NAMM.

Every post you make is about your love affair with a mythical Apple "PT Killer." What exactly is your beef with PT? I don't care for Digi too much, and my studio is based around a Nuendo set-up. This is great for my needs...I don't need a HD system. But I have no qualms about an mbox connected to my same computer. PTLE is handy to have... so why do we need a "PT Killer?" I don't see the value of killing off PT. To counter the end of your last post, I didn't realize the future was so dark.

[De chromium cob]

Originally posted by Johnny B
Now, you don't need to spend 1000's of bucks on software or outboard equipment to do your composing and demos.

And you do now? There are dozens of cheap multitrack programs out there. The thousands of dollars are if you want to do it professionally(you know-quality). Every jackass and their brother can compose their music on the cheap right now with no help from apple.
Its good for a laugh, but I dont think any new ground is being broken....

[Johnny B]

Hey, I have no beef with Digi, MS, Apple, et al. I just like to see the technology get better for less money so we can all have more toys to play with. I also like it when the compatiblity problems go away, and when you don't need a rocket science degree to interface stuff and make stuff work.

I'm sort of the "more, better, faster, cheaper" kind of guy, that way more people can benefit from all this wonderful technology and you can then spend your money on mics and pres.

Say, Robotnic, now what kind of mic or pre would YOU use on bongos. I don't have the bongos, but I do have some Congas next to the drum kit, next to the Hammond Organ, next to the Leslie, next to the Piano, next to tons of guitars and amps, across from the desk...near the racks of outboard....and I might sqeeze something else in there....ah nevermind.

Seriously, Robotnic, do you expect this PT Killer app to come out at NAMM, I see Apple has a booth there?

[ttauri]

Originally posted by BrianT
I think you guys are missing my point. Songwriting, producing, artistry, musicianship......I was talking about none of those.

I'm talking about engineering, as a vocation. Tracking, and especially overdubbing. There was a time that a recording engineer, plus an assistant and possibly also a tape op, were a necessity in making records. First, the autolocator deep sixed the tape op. And I guarantee that with DAW based rooms, there are far more sessions done today with no assistant than there used to be, since recall and setup are a mouse click, for the most part. See the trend?

Next up is the main engineer. Because technology is gradually rendering him a luxury, rather than a necessity, for most of the project. Not in all cases, and in all genres, but the trend is obvious. That is what I am saying.

This discussion has had me reflecting on my own passage into doing more myself, and what's interesting to me about my own experience (and some other people I've known who likewise came up on the indie label boom of the 80s) is that the trend had already begun for me before even the inkling of the technology was there. Mostly I think it was because understanding ears for the kinds of music that were exciting me (hip-hop, early-phase electronica & club music) were hard to come by. As well as: a lot of the music coming out of the more luxurious studio contexts (much glossy 80s major label R&B particularly) didn't really set my ears on fire, so the aspiration was more like--what can I do to avoid that sound?

Peece,
T. Tauri

[GearGuy]

Originally posted by Johnny B
Hey, I have no beef with Digi, MS, Apple, et al. I just like to see the technology get better for less money so we can all have more toys to play with. I also like it when the compatiblity problems go away, and when you don't need a rocket science degree to interface stuff and make stuff work.

I'm sort of the "more, better, faster, cheaper" kind of guy, that way more people can benefit from all this wonderful technology and you can then spend your money on mics and pres.

The concern I have is when a big player like Apple gets into the ring and can unfairly compete with the "little" guys. When this happens it doesn't push prices down it pushes people out. It actually has the reverse effect of strengthing the audio industry. Little guys like Steinberg, Digi, Magix, Cakewalk or whoever now have a really hard time selling their entry level products when Apple decides to give an equivalent program away for free. Digi is the giant in our industry and they are like 200 employees... major plug-in companies are 10 people or less...

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally posted by BrianT
...Next up is the main engineer. Because technology is gradually rendering him a luxury, rather than a necessity, for most of the project. ...

Indeed the main emgineer is already a luxury.
Certainly I agree that the number of jobs is shrinking dramatically however my point is that the entire middle-class of production is what's REALLY going away and not just engineers.

For many years the bread and butter for both studios and session musicians was advertising music for radio and television. Record work was glamorous but never a big profit center. At this point most agencies have a salaried in-house composer and studio. About the only role left that's profitable is the actual voice-over talent and most of that is now done by a few superstars from their home studio in another city using a net connection.

I was lucky enough to begin my career at the very end of the era before overdubbing became SOP. This was an era when musicians needed a very different skill set however it was a skill set that related directly to live performances as well as recording. Totally apart from style and songwriting quality, live music was a lot more engaging than most of what we have today. Our modern tools are amazing but they have become a crutch in too many cases. Now that the crutch is available in every home, I suspect somebody is going to set off a musical explosion using pure performance.

In a sense, music has turned into a video game however that doesn't mean that professional athletics or musical performance is going away anytime soon. We've just come full circle to where everybody's got their eye on the songwriters and the producers while ignoring the critical role the performer can play.

[Berolzheimer]

To me music, when it's any good, is made by people's hands on instruments, there's that direct connection from brain/soul to hands/sound that bypasses intellect and analytical thought. And better still when it's several musicians each doing that & interacting in real time. I go for that as much as possible in the music I record & co-produce.

[blesscurse]

iMovie and iPhoto will not put Hollywood, Bollywood, Sundance, Cannes or the Museum of Contemporary Photography out of business. The advent of the hand-held film camera and later the video camera changed the industry, but the industry survived. Garage Band will not put recording engineers out of business. If anything threatens professional recording engineers and their studios, it has been the growing availability of ever more affordable digital recording and storage technology -- hardware and software -- over the past fifteen years, not some thoughtfully designed new suite of affordable media software applications for the hobbyist. See http://www.apple.com/ilife/ - this suite of applications is not intended to obviate the need for more precise and sophisticated tools used by professionals. Apple may prove a positive force in prodding higher priced applications to be become better and more reliable in order to justify their price. At least that's the way the capitalist marketplace is supposed to work....It's not like Apple has some sort of monopoly. Don't they have only a small market share of the hardware/software industry?

[Nathanael]

Originally posted by Bob Olhsson
live music was a lot more engaging than most of what we have today.

I am genuinely curious as to why this is, though I don't doubt it is true? Are audiences jaded by overproduced TV concerts and live shows? Less live music, so not as much opportunity to get good? Live opportunities aren't organized into a "scene" to breed healthy competition? Musicians have become too narcissistic and focus on "expressing themselves" rather than entertaining an audience?

[GearGuy]

I agree that GarageBand will not put pro studios out of business... nor will it hurt professional engineers/ producers/ etc. I do feel that it could put some great software companies out of business or at least make them much smaller than they already are...

[David R.]

Garage Band will threaten all those who own a Digi 001 and call themselves a studio. It will nip into lager studios a bit, and may also increase business for those who started their project at home and want to give it a "pro" makeover. That is my guess.

Hollywood did not collapse after iMovie and iDVD came out.

[Kenny Gioia]

Garage Band is to Pro Tools as IPhoto is to Photoshop.

Am I crazy or is Steve Jobs introducing a Korg M-1 in a computer. Big Deal. Oh, we're all gonna be out of work.

All I need is a Tool like John Mayer sitting in my Video Editing suite and I can compose music for my video.

Oh, John Mayer doesn't come with the package. Steve was recording Mayer with the attitude like he just invented Multi Track Recording.

Apple has not created anything. They just repackage others work and think they are Einstein. They are the Behringer of the Digital Music World.

[eskay]

Amen brother!!!Amen!!!!!!

[Berolzheimer]

Originally posted by David R.
[B]Garage Band will threaten all those who own a Digi 001 and call themselves a studio.

Let's hope so.

[cannikin]

Originally posted by Produceher


They just repackage others work and think they are Einstein.

Unfortunately thats "big business" in the USA....repackage

[All4Him]

Apple and Digi are just following the Bill Gates Success Model...

[BevvyB]

screenshots

http://www.chaosmint.com/macintosh/a...-screens.shtml

[Renie]

Woah, is that mock wood on the sides?!

Touch of Logic graphics too...

[Noah]

Yeah, Those weeners stole our fake wood down the sides look...

Buncha Honkies if you ask me...

I ordered one just to see what it was like and how it works. Hopefully I will get it before the plane trip out to NAMM...

It looks like it could be fun to practice with as well.

Noah

[Johnny B]

If you have not already done so, I'd suggest you go to Apple's website and download the iLife 004 vid.

It may or maynot take a while to download the iLfe 004 vid, but it is well worth watching. Awesome, easy to use, and fun. Sheryl Crow looks hots too.

After seeing it, I'm betting a new version of Logic and a PT Killer will come out at NAMM.