The Mac Observer

Skip navigational links

DealsOnTheWeb Daily Deal: 80GB iPod Classic: $209 Delivered

GarageBand 3: First Look

by

Episode 52
January 20th, 2006

I received and installed my copy of iLife '06 yesterday. I have only played with GarageBand so far, so I'm not ready to give you a real review of any of the iLife '06 apps just yet. Instead, here's a "first look" at some of GarageBand 3's new or improved features and my first impressions.

When you launch GarageBand 3 you'll immediately notice some of the new features, namely Podcast Episodes and Movie Scores, as shown in Figure 1. Now, in addition to creating music with GarageBand, you can also create a podcast or add an audio track to a movie.


Figure 1: GarageBand 3 has two new project types: Podcast and Movie Score.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image)

Let's see what happens when we click each of the buttons, shall we?

Clicking the New Music Project button opens a project that looks almost identical to a project in GarageBand 2 with three notable exceptions:

1. There's a new "Share" menu that lets you: Send Song to iTunes, Send Podcast to Web, Send Movie to iDVD, or Export as QuickTime Movie as shown in Figure 2.


Figure 2: The new Share menu.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image)

2. The floating Track Info window in version 2 has been replaced by a much more convenient Track Info pane attached to the right side of the main window as shown in Figure 3.


Figure 3: The Track Info button and pane.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image)

3. There's a new media browser pane that appears in the same place as shown in Figure 4.


Figure 4: The Media Browser button and pane.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image)

So that pretty much wraps up the new features you'll see when you create a Music Project…

Now, let's take a look at the two new kinds of GarageBand projects you can create-Podcast Episode and Movie Score.

When you create a new Podcast Episode, rather than finding a Grand Piano track you'll find five tracks-Podcast Track (for artwork), Male Voice, Female Voice, Jingles, and Radio Sounds-created for you as shown in Figure 5.


Figure 5: The five pre-created tracks you'll find when you create a new Podcast Episode.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image)

There are two more things to notice in Figure 5:

1. You'll find new loops, namely jingles, stingers, and sound effects, designed specifically for podcasting (or radio).

2. You'll find a new control for ducking (a double-headed arrow) on each audio track.

What is ducking? Glad you asked... Ducking is lowering the volume of some tracks to make others easier to hear. In other words, you'd want to duck (lower) the volume of your jingles, sound effects, or background music when you start talking. The ducking control arrows allow you to have all the ducking done for you automatically. Quite frankly it wasn't that hard to do a cross fade in GarageBand 2 (and you still can in GarageBand 3), but having it done for you -- automatic ducking -- is quite cool.


Figure 6: This is a cross fade-the music gets softer when the voice gets louder.
In other words, ducking performs a cross fade for you, automatically, which is pretty darn cool.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image)

Other new features worth noting are the track for building artwork into your podcasts and the ease of exporting your podcast directly into iWeb as shown in Figure 7.


Figure 7: I selected Send Podcast to iWeb in GarageBand 3's Share menu and this page was the result.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image)

Notice that the hard stuff -- subscribing to my podcast or RSS feed -- was all taken care of by iWeb. That's WAY cool.

Now let's look at a Movie Score project. In GarageBand For Dummies I spent nearly five pages showing a kludge for adding a score to a movie by opening QuickTime Player and GarageBand at the same time. Now, with GarageBand 3, you merely create a Movie Score project and place your video on the Video Track as shown in Figure 8


Figure 8: With GarageBand's new Movie Score projects synchronizing audio and video is painless.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image)

But wait, there's more... For example, there are over 200 sound effects you can use to augment your podcast or movie. And you can record audio right from iChat AV so creating audio interviews is easier than ever before.

I've only played with GarageBand for a few hours so far and I'm already in love with the new features. If you ask me, upgrading to iLife '06 is a no-brainer for anyone who dabbles in podcasts or movies.

And that's all he wrote...

Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus has been a Macintosh user for a long, long time and has written 49 computer books including Mac OS X Tiger For Dummies and GarageBand for Dummies. He also offers expert technical help and training to Mac users, in real time and at reasonable prices, via telephone, e-mail, and/or unique Internet-enabled remote control software. For more information on Bob and his services, visit www.boblevitus.com.

Send polite comments to

Send impolite comments to DeleteWithoutReading@boblevitus.com, or post your comments below.

Most Recent Columns From Dr. Mac: Rants & Raves

Dr. Mac: Rants & Raves Archives

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Billy K Posts: 297 Joined: 06 May 2004
Subject: Yet...

Yet it makes GB03 more bloated for someone who only records music.

I'm disappointed.

View Name:Guest
Subject: Egads
Close Name:Doctor Mac -   TMO Staff Posts: 25 Joined: 26 Sep 2003
Subject: GB 3 seems to perform well on my G5 desktop

Quote
Billy K wrote:
Yet it makes GB03 more bloated for someone who only records music.

I'm disappointed.


I have yet to really stress it but so far I think GarageBand 3 performs as well as or better than GB2 on my desktop G5 machine. I've yet to try it on my PowerBook but will soon.

Regards,

Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus
--
Raconteur, wordsmith, columnist, and author of nearly 50 books

View Name:Guest
Subject: A little way off on a tangent, but...
Close Name:hangtown Posts: 109 Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Subject:

I haven't actually tried uploading the pages I created to test them, but if you set iWeb to publish to disk rather than .Mac, it will create the pages and files for you and dump them in the specified directory.

In theory, you should just be able to upload it to your site and have it work, assuming you gave it the correct url for your site.

Again, I haven't actually tried this but at least they made it possible.

View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject: Can anybody confirm that the 30 minute limitation is removed
View Name:Guest
Subject: 30 minute limit HAS NEVER EXISTED!
Comment on this Article


You cannot edit your comments.   You cannot delete your comments.
Log in | Register | Having Problems? Reset TMO Cookies & Try Again
Username:   Password:   Log me on automatically each visit   

You are not logged in, and this post will appear as "Guest." Log in with your username and password from the TMO forums. If you do not have a username, you can register here.
Please note that guests are limited to including a maximum of two URLs per post.


Post A Comment
  Subject


  Your Comments



Please enter the word exactly as you see it in the image above. Registered users aren't prompted for this. Having trouble reading the image get a new one.


Recent Headlines - Updated Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Tue., 5:00 PM
iPodObserver - CW: AT&T's 3G Network Leaves Verizon, Sprint in the Dust
4:00 PM
Montage 1.5 Gets New Styles System, Scene Navigation Enhancements
3:45 PM
RIM's Empire Strikes Back at Apple
3:00 PM
C|Net: Remote Possibilities for Apple
2:55 PM
Mac Gaming News - World of Warcraft Patched to 2.4.2 - Class Changes, Mac Fixes
2:20 PM
Apple Publishes Details on WWDC Keynote
1:40 PM
Office 2008 for Mac Sales Soaring
11:50 AM
Apple Gives Retail Store Site a New Look
11:10 AM
Mac Gaming News - Friction Games Ships Penumbra: Black Plague
10:40 AM
Hot Forum Topic - The Mighty-dirty Mouse
10:05 AM
Adobe Updates DNG Specification with Camera Profiles
9:35 AM
iPodObserver - HBO Joins iTunes with Two-tier Pricing
8:35 AM
Apple Rolls Out "New Get a Mac" Ads
8:10 AM
PageSender 4.3 Enhances Menu Options, More
7:40 AM
Podcast - Apple Weekly Report #125: iPhone Expansion, NBC and Zune, Apple's Eco-stance
3:10 AM
MS Office 2008 SP1 Improves Stability, Security, More
3:05 AM
Microsoft Says Visual Basic Returning to Office
 

The Mac Observer Reader Specials

Apple Stock Quote

  • AAPL: $189.96. Change Today: +1.80.
  • (Prices delayed up to 20 minutes.)
  • Discuss in our Apple Finance Board

Hot Topics

Top Deals From DealsOnTheWeb