Anybody here use Garageband?

[Soundhound]

Can you really go to town with it? I have Digital Performer, Machfive, etc etc. But I'm doing it all on a Powerbook G4 and it's a little underpowered for those programs it seems.

I'm imagining that Garageband (and the new one Garageband 2 that just came out) could be smoother to use/less of a resources hog?

With Garageband can you loop record, have plenty of sends, busses and decent effects, etc etc.?

thanks!

[chad c]

I have Logic, Garage Band and Pro Tools. Garage Band 1 is a cpu hog compared to the others, I hope 2 will be better. I know it has a lock feauture which might be similar to the freeze function in Logic which saves a ton of CPU and makes working on my 867 mhz powerbook really nice. I guess well see when it hits the market.

[trisonic]

I've got the latest edition (which came) on my new Powerbook. How the heck do you use it? When I try getting into it it asks either for an old tune name or new one and that's it. Any tips gratefully accepted!

Best, Pete.

[dreadheadhaha]

How well would Garage Band (1 or 2) or any other recording software run on a 500mhz G3 iBook? Would I be better off upgrading to a faster G3, same mhz G4, or just a faster G4 all together?

[Scumback Speakers]

dreadheadhaha, you're somewhat UNDER the absolute minimum for processor power there, bud.

My Ilife '04 box says that GarageBand 1.1 needs a minimum of a G3 600mhz processor, and 256mb of RAM. Your laptop drive is also a slow one, more than likely a 5400 rpm model. You should really have about a 120gb 7200 rpm drive to use this software.

In fact, I find using a laptop with higher end processor/storage speed hungry software to be highly prohibitive, and frustrating. YMMV, but I think it's time to get a new G4 or G5 tower, put in an extra hard disk for your audio files, and then get going with this audio stuff.

[dreadheadhaha]

thanks Scumbag.

I do have a dual G4 tower at home, but was looking for something portable to play around with. Point taken - UNDER powered. I'll see what kind of discount I can get through my school. Thanks a ton!

[C.B. Hebb]

Originally posted by chad c
I have Logic, Garage Band and Pro Tools. Garage Band 1 is a cpu hog compared to the others, I hope 2 will be better. I know it has a lock feauture which might be similar to the freeze function in Logic which saves a ton of CPU and makes working on my 867 mhz powerbook really nice. I guess well see when it hits the market.

I'm glad you mentioned this. I thought it was just my system. My Powerbook G4 667 DVI does way better with PT 6.x

[Unburst]

Originally posted by Soundhound
Can you really go to town with it? I have Digital Performer, Machfive, etc etc. But I'm doing it all on a Powerbook G4 and it's a little underpowered for those programs it seems.
I'm imagining that Garageband (and the new one Garageband 2 that just came out) could be smoother to use/less of a resources hog?
With Garageband can you loop record, have plenty of sends, busses and decent effects, etc etc.?

thanks!

Garageband is a great app for scratching ideas down and quick demos but it has nowhere near the capabilites of DP, there are limited fx/sends, no crossfading of edits, no mixer and it is a cpu gog.

If your powerbook supports it, you'll probably find that booting in OS 9 will give you better performance.

[Unburst]

Originally posted by dreadheadhaha
How well would Garage Band (1 or 2) or any other recording software run on a 500mhz G3 iBook? Would I be better off upgrading to a faster G3, same mhz G4, or just a faster G4 all together?

For Garageband?
Forget it.
Despite what they say, to get any kind of performance using instruments etc. you need a G4 and at least 1gig hz cpu.

However, like I said above, a 500Mhz cpu is fine for running say DP/Logic/whatever in OS 9.

My main recording mac is 400mhz G3 running OS 8.6 and I've recorded hundreds of songs on it.