1.+Why+GarageBand?

1. WHY GARAGEBAND?

There are many audio editing solutions out there that will allow you and your students to work with audio and recordings. Some of you might be familiar with Audacity, the open source audio editor: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and there are also quick, fun solutions for Mac like Voice Candy: http://www.potionfactory.com/voicecandy/ Voice Candy allows students to record single-track audio with fun effects, and it does the same for audio that Apple's "Photobooth" does for video.

iMovie also has the capacity to work with basic multitrack audio, but if you'd like to work with a richer palette of sound, and to extend your recordings and give them deeper multitrack complexity and goodness, then GarageBand is a very good place to start.

GarageBand comes preloaded with thousands of loops, audio effects, and sound effects. You can start with the sounds that come with GarageBand '09 or GarageBand '11, and then if you want to go deeper you can also add Apple's "JamPacks" or additional loops and effects from 3rd party providers.

GarageBand is designed as Apple's "starter" into the world of multitrack audio recording. It offers demos, piano and guitar lessons, and the software can "be all things" to students and teachers: a podcast studio, a recording studio, a music and notation editor, and so much more. Once you understand the basics of how GarageBand works it opens up a very exciting world of audio production to... just about anyone.

I have worked with DigiDesign's ProTools, Apple's SoundTrack Pro, Audacity, Reason, and a variety of other audio editors. However, GarageBand is my favorite piece of software of all time. I've spent thousands of hours playing with this software, because it's fun and it simply never gets "old"... there's always something new to learn and discover, and I hope that you find that no matter what your level of comfort is with GarageBand, that you and your students will become fans, and that you'll learn how to extend your creativity and your expression through this software.