My Geek Notes

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite music making programs: GarageBand. And some tutorials Apple has put together for it.

GarageBand has been one of my favorite programs to mess around with ever since I first discovered the program when I made the permanent switch to Macs. It is an easy to use music creation program with quite a few features. One of my favorite parts is that you can quickly create music using preinstalled “loops” and the songs come out great. Or if you get a little more indepth you can create or record your own music right inside the program and then chop it up any way you want to.

I recently stumbled across Apple’s tutorial site for iLife ‘06 (which includes GarageBand). All of the tutorials are Quicktime movies that you stream from Apples website. They are usually a minute or two long (some are much longer) and contain easy to follow step-by-step instrutions. The GarageBand tutorials can be found here. With topics ranging from a basic introduction to capturing live music to scoring your latest cinematic masterpiece, there is pretty much something for anyone.

Some of the tutorials are a little basic if you have used GarageBand before (or have any music editing experience in more advanced programs like Soundtrack Pro). But if it is your first time with the program or creating your own music in general, these tutorials are definately worth checking out. And while your there you can find tutorials on all of the other iLife programs (iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie HD, iDVD & iWeb).