Who doesn?t want to be a rock star? Think of the groupies. The gold records. The limos. Sounds great, doesn?t it? So why wait to take the stage? Every new Mac comes with iLife ?06, including GarageBand, the perfect software to start you on your road to fame.
GarageBand gives you dozens of instruments ready to play the first time you start it up. Strings. Drums. Horns. ?But wait, don?t I need a keyboard,? you ask. Nope. You already have one. Sure it?s got letters instead of sharps and flats, but turn on Musical Typing and your computer keyboard becomes a baby grand. Play the ?white keys? using the middle row, the ?black keys? with the upper row. Or use the resizable onscreen keyboard.
Of course if you want to add a ?real? keyboard, you can. Take any USB or MIDI keyboard and plug it in. GarageBand knows a keyboard when it sees one. No searching for drivers. No changing settings. No traveling that twisted road of: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds Tab before you can get going. It really is ?plug and play.?
Since it?s hard for new artists to go solo, GarageBand comes with loops that give you an entire band. To add these loops, you?ll need to have mastered two skills: cut and paste. From there, you can stretch, shrink, and layer music to your heart?s content. By adding a microphone, or using your Mac?s built-in mic, you can record your own vocals. Then record yourself singing backup and use the Vocal Transformer to change the tone or gender of your voice to create a chorus.
Not into keyboards? GarageBand has lots of love for all you guitar players, too. Plug in your electric guitar, select a sound, and let it rip. What would it be like to play that big arena? Add some screaming rock distortion and find out. Or maybe try a little swamp blues twang or a cool, clean jazz sound ? it?s up to you. After all, you?re the rock star.
