The Garageband Studio

Drums on Demand: Downloadables

I don't think you can ever have really enough drump loops. While I'm mostly not into purely loop based music production , I do find that putting a few loops together as a starting point can really ignite the creative process. It is important to keep your loops collection fresh though. Auditioning the same old stuff over and over again really isn't much fun. That's where Drums on Demand's (DOD) Downlodables come in.

Downloadables are song packs that contain a bunch of loops that are availble for direct download from the DOD Yahoo! Store. All the packs are avaible in several formats: Wave, REX, and Apple Loops. As of now there are several sets availble in two genres: Reggea Jammin' and Organic Session.

Reggae Jammin'
These sets offer "six super-deep Song Sets inspired by some of the best-selling reggae grooves of all-time. The traditional sound and mix feature higher-pitched snare, toms as well as a drier overall mix." Each song set contains about 60 loops and costs $6.95. You can also download single hits to feed your sound-hungry sampler for $ 6.95.

Organic Sessions
Organic Sessions offer something slightly out of the the ordinary. Organic natural sounds which are less punchy but ideally suited for "acoustic and harmonically rich productions." There are 4 song sets available and each costs $4.95.

I think these are pretty neat and they offer instant gratification. Very important if you just want to get going and not wait for your order to arrive.

Expanding GarageBand, Part 1: Fission

A good audio editor is like the pocket knife in your audio production toolbox. It's something you'll return to time and time again. Why? Because you want to quickly slice up beats and load the individual sounds in a sampler. Maybe you want that bass drum on the first and third beat. Maybe you want to use a sample from that killer jazz record you discovered in the secondhand bin at your local record store. Youl'll need to cut that bit from that aiff-file somehow right? Audio editing in GarageBand isn't really up to scratch so you might need a dedicated tool for these tasks.

Fission by Rogue Amoeba is a basic but elegant audio editing application that may fit the bill. Fission allows you to losslessly (meaning without quality loss) edit MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless and AIFF files.

It just saw a 1.5 release that adds numerous useful features for musicians and podcasters on a Mac. Among others:

• Full audio insertion support


• Copy and paste audio within a single file


• Combine audio from other files and between audio formats


• Increase and decrease gain of audio selections

Fission will set you back a very reasonable $32, and you can also get it in a bundle with the acclaimed Audio Hjack Pro for $50. Not a bad deal I reckon.

Native Instruments releases Elektrik Piano 1.5

Native Instruments has just released Elektrik Piano 1.5. The most interesting aspect for the Mac user is that it's finally a universal binary. Good news for those that have been craving lush electric piano sounds on their Intel Macs. Soundwise there haven't been any changes; the samples are still the same. There are, however, a slew of other new features. More information on those after the jump.

Expanding GarageBand, Part 0: Introduction

The great thing about GarageBand is that it comes free with every Mac and allows for a nearly effortless introduction to the world of digital music production. The downside to this ease of use is that you give something up in terms of power and options. Luckiliy because of the Audio Unit plugin architecture it's easy to expand GarageBand's abilities. Also, some other applications may not integrate directly with GarageBand but do fill essential bits in your music workflow. This series takes a look at those tools, plugins, and sounds that'll help you to get more out of GarageBand. First up: Basic audio editing with Fission.

A new toy to play with: Edirol PCR-M50

I love my new USB Midi controller! The PCR-M50 has 49 full-size keys, begging the question why they call it the M50, and a whole bunch of knobs and faders. The knobs are more than decent (though not the endless rotary knobs that I prefer), but what I really like is the keybed. These are great very playable keys that don't feel cheap at all. There are 12 different velocity curves to pick from. While this is definitely a synth action keyboard, it is easy to pull of some  convincing piano sounds as well. I'm still working on a full review, but this is a controller I would definitely recommend.

So how are these universal plugins coming along?

While the switch to Intel is great performance-wise, one of the problems is that lots of software needs to be developed as a universal binary. Software like GarageBand and Ableton Live is already universal, but you also need your plugins to be a universal binary. And where would we be without plugins?!? It is encouraging to see that many high profile companies are hard at work at providing UB's of their software ASAP. This article at the Apple Developer Connection gives a good look at how some of these companies are dealing with the transition, and the problems they encounter. Here are the main issues:

1. It is urgent to get started and bring your universal product to market ASAP. It takes some planning. Your QA effort will go up. But having a universal version can demonstrate your commitment to the Mac and differentiate you from the competition.
2. The gain in general product performance that comes with running on the Intel processor is significant. Many applications immediately benefit. Customers are made very happy quickly.
3. More speed means you may be able to consider new features that were previously not feasible.
4. If your are compiling on the Intel-based Macs, your own productivity goes up as well, even if you have previously been using CodeWarrior.
5. If you are using CodeWarrior, you need to bite the bullet and change over to Xcode ASAP.
6. The transition from CodeWarrior to Xcode can be relatively easy, or it can be more time consuming, depending on things like how youre projects are set up.
7. Addressing the endian issue is a chore rather than a major engineering problem.

I certainly hope we'll see more universal plugins soon. In the meantime keep a close eye on Create Digital Music's Mactel watch.

[Via: CDM]

Free Apple Loops, Part 7

The good folks of iZotope, who make the fabulous iDrum plugin, have put out a free expansion for their XRB  iDrum drumkit and  loops collection. The good news is that XRB Free does not only feature 16 drumkits, but also 74 beats that are also rendered as Apple Loops. So you don't even need iDrum (it is a very nice drum machine thoug, you might want to pick it up). Nice!

For more free loops see: Free Apple Loops, compiled.

Apple Loops becoming big business?

I know it has been quiet around here, I've been trying to revive this blog so I will start to post more in the future. I found this article on the Apple Loops economy from German Magazine PC Welt quite interesting. It argues that:

The release of Apple Computer Inc.'s GarageBand brought the art of music creation to the masses. The consumer-friendly application also opened up business opportunities for new and long-time music loop creators looking to expand their business.

It gives good insight into the business and how these loops are made. Interesting stuff. Besides pointing out free loops, I'm also looking into reviewing commercial loop packages.

Miscellaneous links

• Apple posts a profile of prolific Dutch producer Junkie XL. He loves his Mac.
• Ableton announces Live 6. They allso announced a new Sampler called, wait for it, Sampler.

First GarageBand 3 impressions at the Unofficial Apple Weblog

Some initial impressions of GarageBand 3 at TUAW. Here's the bit I really like:

Once again, it feels like Apple was able to add in a bunch of new features while at the same time making the app feel generally zippier and more responsive. Bake those code ninjas some cookies.

This sounds very promising. GarageBand 2 is great but it is a little lacking in performance and responsiveness.