Abstract said:
I have Garageband but have never played with it. Can I just make a virtual band and make up a bunch of beats and put a song together and make it sound however I want, including piano, drums, guitar, bass, etc? I can't play any instruments, but if I can muck around like that, I'm keen.
Sure! One of the great things about Garageband is that you don't even need to be a musician to use it.
Garageband comes with a huge assortment of pre-recorded sound snippets called instrument loops. Drum parts, bass parts, percussion parts, piano, organ, guitar, horns, strings, synthesizer and much more. Garageband has them all organized by instrument (drums, bass, guitar, etc) and you can refine the choices further by choosing a particular style (rock, blues, jazz, etc) and mood (cheerful, dark, etc). Just about every loop is designed so it can be played back repeatedly and the part will play seamlessly, over and over again. You decide how many times it will repeat, or you can set it to repeat indefinitely.
So you can build songs right from the start by selecting the various loop parts you like; just explore, mix and match. Garageband takes care of the technical stuff in the background, such as making tempo adjustments and key changes. And it's all done with drag and drop simplicity. Everything is represented graphically in Garageband and it's very easy to pick up and understand.
As time goes on and you want to get even more adventurous, you can start recording your own parts, using the virtual instrument of your choice, to go along with the pre-recorded loop parts. Garageband has a virtual keyboard that you can use your mouse to tap in individual notes, and as of Garageband 2, you can use your computer's keyboard to play parts.
Before you know it, you've just written your own song. A star is born, lol.
