honest opinions on garage band

ok so for about 6 years iv been recording with acid pro (recording guitar[electric and acoustic]) on windows pc and now im considering a mac.
i was wondering how is garage bands sound quality is. do you have to pay for it? can i pan audio tracks i record . i see a type of USB adapter is available for microphone use . theres no mic on the mac???? if so ***. thanks so much. i think the mac is pretty beautiful and looks flawless except for the feature i care a lot more than others about. :spook:

Garageband comes installed on all new Macs. So I guess you do have to pay for the computer to get Garageband...

Yes, you can pan audio tracks.

There's a mic on every Mac except the PowerMac. The iBook doesn't have a line-in, you must buy a USB adapter. That's about all that's noteworthy.

I've used my Powerbook for music recording and it works flawlessly, Garageband is powerful enough that if the music sounds bad in the end, it's the user's fault. I would highly recommend it.

ok so for about 6 years iv been recording with acid pro

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theres no mic on the mac????

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So you've been using your PC's built-in mic to record for the last 6 years?


Most internal mic's are only really useful for rough demos or voice recordings...
For proper recordings you'll need an external mic.

thanks so much man, you helped me decide on mac for sure now. god i love apple

i wasnt sure whether mac had a mic outlet thats on every pc iv ever had . i know not very professional but when you mix it on EQ on acid pro it sounds great. for real. peace

btw do you have wireless or wired keyboard and mouse. im curious to see how they work for you. all reviews i see are usually mixed

I have one of each and can say I'd prefer the wired over the wireless anyday. The convenience of being free of wires is outweighed by the need to "sync" the keyboard and mouse every time the computer comes out of sleep or a restart.

surfwax95 said:

There's a mic on every Mac except the PowerMac. The iBook doesn't have a line-in, you must buy a USB adapter. That's about all that's noteworthy.

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Are you talking about the prodcut made by Griffin (ifire, or something)? I'm looking for a cheap way to record guitar with my ibook. I was thinking of getting some sort of basic mixer that will allow me to plug my guitar into. I used a guitarport when I had a PC, but that is not compatible with macintosh computers.

Any suggestions on what to do?

dude thats exactly what i was investigating on. i found this on musicians friend its 80 bucks , which sounds like a deal to me considering the prices for like mBOX and other stuff like that interface crap. blah everythings so expensive

Stuff like FastTrack can also be used also be used for audio input via USB. It's Just under $130, but a nice bargain leaning more towards the pro side
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrackUSB-main.html

I also use the Firewire Solo, which has firewire connections with my ibook. i got it from a guitar store for about $200.
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-main.html

there is also the simple Imic from griffin http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic2/

I have the wireless keyboard and love it.. the 4 seconds it takes to reconnect after sleep is fine.

I imagine a wireless mouse would bug me more though..
The iMic is great for getting a quick & simple mic/line input into your mac.