GarageBand as my primary Digital Audio Workstation

[b0b]

I play bass in CopperMill. We have an 8-track recorder that we set up now and then at rehearsals. I took the SD card home and loaded the WAV files into GarageBand to polish up this song, one of the few that I sing in the band. GB is free on every Mac. It isn't widely respected as a DAW, but I think it does a fine job.

http://soundhost.net/2014/02/the-old-man/

[Jim Smerk]

GB is a very capable DAW. Most ANY modern DAW can produce absolutely great recordings as long as the engineer understands EQ, Compression, & Balance.

A great place to get some fantastic info is The Recording Revolutions 5 Min Tips Series. Easy to understand & easy to implement.

Did I mention that it is at Our Favorite Price Point?â„¢? In this case Free is NOT inferior!

[Tony Prior]

I think it sounds great, I don't think GB is a non respected package, it's just not a full production package like those that may cost hundreds of bucks.. Great song Bob..!

[Barry Blackwood]

It isn't widely respected as a DAW, but I think it does a fine job.

Generally I agree b0b, but I did have some degree of difficulty getting the snare to play quarter time on a 4/4 ballad..

[b0b]

I've heard that you can "manufacture" drums from canned sounds in GarageBand, but I always prefer using a real drummer. The drums in "The Old Man..." (above) were recorded with a single overhead mic and a mic on the kick drum.

Sometimes I'll pull in drum tracks from BIAB to use as reference, but they never quite capture the groove. Listen to the difference:

Several tracks of BIAB drums in GarageBand:
http://soundhost.net/2012/11/fuse-blue/

Same song in GarageBand, with a live drummer (3 mics):
http://soundhost.net/2013/06/fuse-blue-revisited/

I've never tried to make drum tracks from scratch in GB. I don't know the art of drumming well enough to attempt it.

[David Mason]

"The Drummer’s Bible" by Mick Berry and Jason Gianni is a book very, very well worth having. It shows the basic beats and then explains the further additions to them, grouped in categories (some of this is surprising!) Even if you don't use it to "write" beats on a machine, it lets you hear and perhaps shape what a real live drummer is doing to your stuff - whether good or bad.

You can, actually, communicate with drummers! Whoa.

The greatest revelation I got from it was that, for all intensive porpoises, EVERYTHING a drummer does to music is divided by only three building blocks: snare, hi-hat and bass drum. That's what drum notation is written as, that's what drummers play, and no matter what kind of cymbal Mahavishnuisms and junglebeat tom-tom action they get going, at the heart of it, it's all just "tch-tch", "crack", and "boom." I think it was Robert Fripp who coined the term "the tyranny of the drumset"(?) And now you know...

[Tony Prior]

if it's any consolation , programs such as Sonar and Pro Tools are not intended to create drum beats or tracks from scratch either . Can it be done, sure, I suppose...But that's what 3rd party packages / loops are for. Now , can you edit midi in the higher dollar packages,? sure...The quantize edit features are very deep.Edit and adjust time to your hearts content..something I do not bother to do.

I think GB is a very fine package but it should not be compared to a hi dollar full production package is all I am saying. For home recording and even making nice demo's it's really good, but you will not find it in the big house studio's, thats not what the intent was or is.

I do much like Bob does, BIAB for reference drum tracks then if I get around to it Loops or EZ drummer. But there is nothing like a real drummer counting time and maintaining groove.

I have a hard enough time finding time to sit and record some tunes on guitars, I don't want to sit and spend that time creating drum tracks which at the end of the day will not be all that good anyway !

[Daryl Thisdelle]

BoB I cut my teeth on Garage Band as far as starting off in recording. I now use Logic Pro X. My complete recording studio is based around the iMac and Logic Pro. I am not a professional recording producer or recording technician but have been doing it in my own recording studio for over 10 years. When I moved on from Garage Band To Logic Pro I asked myself many times, why did I make things more complicated for myself. For most and myself Garage Band is all what I needed. I am glad I now use Logic Pro and have been using Logic for over 10 years and yes I am glad I switched over. I love a Mac and its recording program as it so easy to use and you get high quality recordings with not allot of experience starting off with them.

Daryl

[b0b]

Thanks for the insight, Daryl.