http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

I watched Steve's keynote and when they got to GarageBand, I couldn't help but think what Prince could have done with a tool like this over the years.

Did nobody here see the GarageBand demo? Or even click on the link and check it out - GarageBand is phenomenal. Apple is replaying the keynote if you missed it.

http://stream.apple.akadns.net/

If you don't have a Macintosh, don't assume you shouldn't take a look at GarageBand - this product is revolutionary for musicians. Musicians and aspiring musicians will buy Macintoshes just to run GarageBand.

i clicked on it... but i'm not interested. i'm not a musician. (or haven't been in about 10 years).

I don't have a MAC, and I really don't like the idea of not playing a single note on a musical instrument. It's not the same.

VinaBlue said:

GarageBand is a digital recording studio.

http://www.apple.com/ilif...ecord.html

You can do anything from create music totally using the built in loops for all instruments using GargeBand as the band to create music totally from your own playing of your own instruments and your own vocals using GarageBand as the recording studio.

You really need to see the demo from the keynote. They had John Mayer on stage. First he was playing stuff with a Midi keyboard that was going through GarageBand - GarageBand turned the midi keyboard into any of many different instruments, including a $20,000 grand piano. After the keyboard demo, he plugged his guitar into the mac and could use one of many different "amps". Finally he created a new song - some of it he pre-setup in garage band, but the guitar track he did live on stage.

Sounds cool, but for now I'm just workin with Cakewalk on a PC. Still a beginner.

now you can easily see what GarageBand is all about. Apple has posted the full keynote speech here

http://www.apple.com/quic...tv/mwsf04/

Start it up and then advance to the 1 hour 8 minute and 45 second mark (you can just drag the location arrow) - that's where he starts talking about GarageBand. The demo starts at the 1 hour, 11 minute, 45 second mark.

Yeah the new Version of Cakewalk that came out about 6 months ago does the same thing on my PC.

The loop editing feature will take ANY loop and match key and time with drag and drop. It really is amazing and maybe it will help some people realize that they can do everything themselves on their computer. I'm all for everyone making music but...

It all sounds way to perfect. IMO, music is about the slight imperfections that computers can't reproduce when creating a beat. Then there's the whole live thing, are you going to set-up your laptop in the bar and play guitar with it? Yawn.

Slave2daGroove said:

I hear you. I don't think programs like this will ever replace the real thing. I see it simply as a tool for easy recording. Yeah, when you're live, you're on your own!

we all know Prince has recorded many, many songs where he is the only musician on the song. Now he, or anyone like him, no longer needs a studio to do that - if you ignore the loops - GarageBand is a complete 64 track digital recoding studio. Use the built in backing band (which includes loops from actual motown drummers) if you want, ignore it if you'd rather do it all yourself.

I'm not familiar with cakewalk - is there anyone here who has used it who also watched the GarageBand demo? How do the products really compare? I have to think Altivec lets a digital music program on the Mac do things just not possible on a PC.

Its just a tool. You still need talent to make anything good come out of it. No one needs 64 tracks to make a song. 24 absolute tops. I make due with 16.