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How much space does GarageBand take when you use it a lot?

A

Aucun Express

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 30, 2009
187
0
When the first iPad was released, I bought the 32GB version and after a while, I thought that it would have been better to buy the 16GB model, because I mainly used it for browsing or using apps, but not for putting movies on it. And I don't need to have all my songs on it.

Anyway, now I'm thinking about buying the 16GB iPad 2, but I wonder. Does GarageBand takes a lot of space when you use it a lot and compose many projects with it?
I wonder if GarageBand creates sort of an mp3 file for each song you compose or does it play it live with kind of text files, if you see what I mean.

Anyone?
 
NutsNGum

NutsNGum

macrumors 68030
Jul 30, 2010
2,856
367
Glasgow, Scotland
GarageBand shouldn't take up huge amounts of space. The tracks are just midi files with software instruments playing 'em out. Obviously if you then want to export to MP3, it's going to take up more space.

It's not going to dramatically affect your iPad, Apple hasn't ported Logic Studio.

It's GarageBand.
 
Last edited:
ovrlrd

ovrlrd

macrumors 65816
Aug 29, 2009
1,384
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NutsNGum said:
GarageBand shouldn't take up huge amounts of space. The tracks are just midi files with software instruments playing 'em out. Obviously if you then want to export to MP3, it's going to take up more space.

It's not going to dramatically affect your iPad, Apple hasn't ported Logic Studio.

It's GarageBand.
Click to expand...

There is both a sampler and a microphone option to record tracks. Those will take up space depending on how long the track is. In general you will use up some space when you have a longer track, even when using the built in instruments. The fact that they limit you to 8 tracks helps a lot though, but you can expect some space to get used from GarageBand still. It will vary on a lot of variables.

I like to keep at least 4GB free at all times on my iPad, because anytime you update a larger app it requires twice storage space required for the app. This is because it downloads the entire app in order to update it, then it has to extract it. So a 1GB app will require 2GB to install or update. Might as well have 4GB+ free always, plus if you use the camera on the iPad 2 you might want around 8-10GB free for storing videos and such.
 
A

Aucun Express

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 30, 2009
187
0
Thanks for your quick replies, guys.
I guess for the next few days I will keep thinking about 16GB vs 32GB. :)
 
nightfly13

nightfly13

macrumors 6502a
Jul 17, 2008
679
0
Ranchi, India
I have little to add to this helpful thread except to say that Garage Band is AWESOME. Everyone loves it. Moms, kids, everyone who's touched it loves it. Not that the iPad lacked killer apps, but this is wowing.
 
jclardy

jclardy

macrumors 601
Oct 6, 2008
4,161
4,373
If you are just using MIDI instruments like the smart instruments or the keyboard then the files will be pretty small.

If you use some kind of guitar input or record with the microphone then the files will get a bit larger depending on the length of the clips as it has to store all of those audio waveforms separately.

And it probably records them as some kind of uncompressed WAV file as well, so those can take up a bit more space. I don't know this for sure, since you can't import the projects to the Mac version of garageband or logic yet (They need to update them.)

How much space did you have free on your first iPad?
 
NutsNGum

NutsNGum

macrumors 68030
Jul 30, 2010
2,856
367
Glasgow, Scotland
ovrlrd said:
There is both a sampler and a microphone option to record tracks. Those will take up space depending on how long the track is. In general you will use up some space when you have a longer track, even when using the built in instruments. The fact that they limit you to 8 tracks helps a lot though, but you can expect some space to get used from GarageBand still. It will vary on a lot of variables.

I like to keep at least 4GB free at all times on my iPad, because anytime you update a larger app it requires twice storage space required for the app. This is because it downloads the entire app in order to update it, then it has to extract it. So a 1GB app will require 2GB to install or update. Might as well have 4GB+ free always, plus if you use the camera on the iPad 2 you might want around 8-10GB free for storing videos and such.
Click to expand...

True dat, as they say. I bow down to OvrLrd's superior knowledge. D'oh!
 
M

M87

macrumors 65816
Jul 18, 2009
1,259
290
Anything you do with smart instruments is midi, so unless you're recording lots of audio it shouldn't take much space at all.
 
9

9OOYO

macrumors regular
Dec 15, 2010
207
0
:apple:

Does it have a metronome? Just wondering!

Can't wait for my iPad 2!!!!!!!!!
 
A

Aucun Express

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 30, 2009
187
0
jclardy said:
How much space did you have free on your first iPad?
Click to expand...
Actually I did put as much of my songs I could on it, so 0GB. But if we don't talk about the songs, I guess I used about 5GB for apps and data (photos, PDF, books and such). So about 10GB free.
But now I have ripped all my DVD's on M4V files with Handbreak. So I'd like to put a few films and tv series episodes on it, because I travel a lot with the train.

In the end, I still think that 16GB will be enough for me.

I cannot wait to use GarageBand! I have heard a few songs done with it and the result is far away from the old midi files.
 
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