[LEMONS] 1.07.2004
Nice Chops
Macworld Expo was, for many Mac fans, disappointing this year. No new notebooks. No new towers. No new iMacs. And the $100, 1GB iPod that everyone was expecting never materialized. Instead, Apple rolled out a colorful line of MiamiVicePods, the perfect accessory for any 80s guy from South Florida who drives a half-million dollar automobile and lives on his boat with a pet alligator. And the business card-sized anodized aluminum exterior is perfect for the doing lines on-the-go. (All kidding aside, I seem to be one of the few people who think the new iPods are a good value for the $$$, even if I detest the color scheme.)But I was okay with Expo. And I'm no Kool-Aid drinker, I hold Apple in relatively low-esteem, despite using a lot of their products. Of course, I've bought two new Macs in the last few months, and have no plans to buy anymore anytime soon. For me, Expo was all about the software, namely GarageBand. (And Apple even had the decency not to name it something silly like iBand or iJam.)
Before you poo-poo GarageBand, before you dismiss its $50 dollar price tag, or its inability to wipe your ass, put yourself in the position of the average 20 year-old musician. GarageBand is THE killer app for young musicians for two reasons: it's cheap and easy.
Music recording has changed immeasurably over the past couple of years. But some things are just as true today as they were over a decade ago, when I was a 20 year-old musician. Specifically, just about the only musicians who could afford really great gear were either old guys in their 30s and 40s with solid day jobs who would have already made it if they were ever going to, the independently wealthy, and professional musicians. When I was 20, my attitude towards all those types could be summed up in two words.
I've used (or messed around with, rather) Cubase and Digital Performer and a handful of loop-based audio apps. They rule. They own. And all of them that have any umph whatsoever tend to be far more expensive than your average young musician can afford, and have pretty steep learning curves to boot (with the possible exception of Reason on the latter). But in terms of the price, you can't compare it to one of the professional-level sequencing apps. For $50, the apt comparison is a used four-track that records to cassette.
The price is one thing. The kids these days--with their P2P apps and cracks and serial numbers and all that hooey--they tend to say "yar" and raise the Jolly Rodger rather than Master the Possibilities. But the learning curve is quite another. Sure, GarageBand won't (one would hope) do everything that some of the major VST apps do. But it doesn't look like Steve Albini's robot, either. If what we saw onstage yesterday was any indication of reality (and until the product arrives, who knows if it is), GarageBand has a simple interface, similar to one Mac users are already familiar with. And at $50 (which will get you the entire iLife suite), it's cheaper than a foot-pedal, and perhaps even easier to use.
So, no. It isn't for everyone. It isn't for professionals and older hobbyists who can afford six-thousand dollar packages. It's for kids. It's for garage bands. Just as no professional video editor wants to cut a broadcast commercial in iMovie, neither would you want to record your major label debut with in GarageBand.
But for a demo. For an Internet release. For something, (something!) to get the music out of your head and onto a CD, this is the killer app.
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