No midi import or export in GarageBand

[jfg@forum]

GarageBand does not allow midi import or export. With it, is would be a very useful musical tool. Without it not much more than a play toy. Any thoughts on this matter?

[yamabushi]

How do you know that GB will not have midi import?

[tjwett]

GarageBand IS a toy. of course it's a toy, it's free. if you need a real sequencer you should buy Logic. GB is not a sequencer, nor does it pretend to be.

[sethypoo]

I thought that GarageBand could support a USB MIDI keyboard. Do you mean that you can't play on a keyboard and have GB notate it?

[jfg@forum]

Someone who was at the show asked someone at the Apple booth.

[Flowbee]

Saying GarageBand is a toy is like saying iMovie is a toy. It is an entry-level recording/sequencing/loop program geared toward musicians who are computer-recording novices.

Just as a good editor can put together a very nice project using iMovie, a good musician will be able to make decent recordings with garageband. If you know how to import and export midi - and need to do so regularly - then you're not who this program was created for.

As others have said, I'm sure Apple intends to add many more features as the product matures. Just don't expect it to ever compete with a "Pro" music tool.

[Flowbee]

Originally posted by sethypoo
I thought that GarageBand could support a USB MIDI keyboard. Do you mean that you can't play on a keyboard and have GB notate it?

You can use a usb or midi keyboard to input music into Garageband. The original post is about importing files of midi data which has previously been recorded using other software.

[sethypoo]

Originally posted by Flowbee
You can use a usb or midi keyboard to input music into Garageband. The original post is about importing files of midi data which has previously been recorded using other software.

Thanks for clearing that up, this whole MIDI thing is new to me. I've been a musician since childhood, but digital music is a whole new frontier for me.

Seth

[supercres]

Darn. This is something I was looking forward to -- taking existing sequences and playing them with GB's virtual instruments, then overlaying my own live tracks.

Oh well. Guess I can just input the songs by hand.

[Flowbee]

Originally posted by sethypoo
Thanks for clearing that up, this whole MIDI thing is new to me. I've been a musician since childhood, but digital music is a whole new frontier for me.

Seth

And you're exactly who Apple had in mind when they came up with GarageBand. I think it will open up a whole new frontier for a lot of people.

[Harald4]

Apple had in mind selling as many G5 dual x.x units as possible.
If they were really concerned about their future customers they would have refined Digidesign's idea of ProTools Free - an 8-track unlimited
functional Logic

[Flowbee]

If they were really concerned about their future customers they would have refined Digidesign's idea of ProTools Free - an 8-track unlimited
functional Logic

Which most people would have absolutely no idea what to do with. :rolleyes: Look, if you're going to dredge up a thread that's nearly a year old, at least post something that makes sense.

[evil_santa]

Darn. This is something I was looking forward to -- taking existing sequences and playing them with GB's virtual instruments, then overlaying my own live tracks.

Oh well. Guess I can just input the songs by hand.

Dent de MIDI (http://homepage.mac.com/beryrinaldo/ddm/) will convert your midi files to GB.