GarageBand: The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box [Paperback]

David Pogue (Author)

Book Description

Series: Missing Manual | Publication Date: July 2, 2004

GarageBand lets you create music of your very own. If you're already a musician, you'll probably flip over GarageBand; it combines the CD-quality samples of Apple's Soundtrack software with the hard-disk recording features of Digital Performer and the canned rhythm tracks of Band in a Box. But what's really mind-boggling is the way this program can turn the inspiration of musical novices into commercial-sounding demos. Imagine how many thousands of singers and instrumentalists, though blessed with enormous native talent, remain undiscovered because they lack recording studios and backup bands. For them, GarageBand may open a lot of doors--or just offer a lot of fun.

GarageBand: The Missing Manual is an authoritative, witty guide to constructing digital recordings with GarageBand.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Pogue, Yale '85, is the weekly personal-technology columnist for the New York Times and an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News. His funny tech videos appear weekly on CNBC. And with 3 million books in print, he is also one of the world's bestselling how- to authors. He wrote or co-wrote seven books in the "For Dummies" series (including Macs, Magic, Opera, and Classical Music). In 1999, he launched his own series of amusing, practical, and user-friendly computer books called Missing Manuals, which now includes 100 titles.

David and his wife Jennifer Pogue, MD, live in Connecticut with their three young children. His web site is www.davidpogue.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Pogue Press (July 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596006950
• ISBN-13: 978-0596006952
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #712,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Pogue is the personal-technology columnist for the New York Times. Each week, he contributes a print column, an online column and an online video. His daily blog, "Pogue's Posts," is the Times's most popular blog. David is also an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News and a frequent guest on NPR's "Morning Edition." His trademark comic tech videos appear each Thursday morning on CNBC. With over 3 million books in print, David is one of the world's bestselling how-to authors. He launched his own series of complete, funny computer books called the Missing Manual series, which now includes 60 titles. David graduated summa cum laude from Yale in 1985, with distinction in Music, and he spent ten years conducting and arranging Broadway musicals in New York. He's been profiled on both "48 Hours" and "60 Minutes."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Manual for a Great Program, July 27, 2004

By 

John A. Suda (Rochester NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: GarageBand: The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box (Paperback)

Garage Band may be the coolest and most powerful of the Apple iLife applications. It allows virtually anyone to create an at least decent-sounding musical composition. However, it is not simple and its many features allow for quite sophisticated and complex compositions suitable for professional level use. Yet, Apple provides only minimal on-screen help material.

Hence, the need for a book like Garage Band: The Missing Manual. This is another of the O'Reilly Media Inc. Missing Manual series, and like all the many others I've read, this is a well-written, content-filled volume. O'Reilly should write manuals for creators of all full-featured applications as they have the formula down for doing it right.

This volume is written by David Pogue with his usual combination of substance and style. The presentation is systematic, yet friendly, and with handfuls of wit. The book has two main parts and an appendix containing a mini-music crash course, a menu-by-menu description of Garage Band, and a list of keyboard shortcuts.

Part 1 covers the basics of using and understanding Garage Band - how to install and set up, and how to understand the concepts of tracks, loops, editing, and recording. Emphasis is made of the two types of data input used by the program, so-called digital recordings and MIDI. Each is handled differently by the program and care is made throughout the book to explain how to deal with each. Like the rest of the Missing Manuals he's authored, Pogue uses a hands-on approach to describe and explain how to produce quality output from the program, He weaves music theory concepts with program feature descriptions and gives helpful suggestions to the typical user how best to use the program's features to make music your family will be proud hearing.

In Part 2, Pogue explains how to publish your output and use the results with iMovie, iPhoto, and iDVD, He covers more advanced topics as well, like troubleshooting and extending the program with available plugins and compatible software. References to the more professional level features of Garage Band are noted but not covered in any detail, as most users will never touch these features.

O'Reilly's website (www.missingmanuals.com) has tutorial samples and shareware programs to download and use while going through the chapters. This book is a fine value at $19.95.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sophisticated compositions, August 4, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GarageBand: The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box (Paperback)

I have several friends in the Los Angeles amateur music scene. Amateur because none of their bands are financially self-supporting. One perennial complaint is the cost of recording a professional, high quality demo CD. Which they can then take to a label or directly sell copies of.

GarageBand offers a way for them to drastically lower the cost of recording. It gives them a means of becoming digital composers as well as actual musicians. While Apple proudly released GarageBand with little hardcopy documentation, Pogue shows us here a convenient supplement. He pitches it squarely at musicians, not programmers or sound engineers.

Thus, there is nothing discussing signal to noise ratios, oversampling or the maths behind sound compression algorithms. Whereever possible, he tries to speak the language of musicians. He does not patronise you just because he has a technical background and you might not. But be warned that the book is not trivial. GarageBand is shown to offer a lot, but only if you concentrate and visualise the possibilities it gives your music.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tight and well organized, July 28, 2004

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: GarageBand: The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box (Paperback)

This book is small, but you can't fault it for that. The coverage is thorough, the exposition is tight and the use of graphics is restricted to just what is necessary to support the text. I particularly liked visualizations like the one on page 70 where the computer keyboard is related to a piano keyboard in a clever and effective form. Nice going on this one. The Missing Manual books can be inconsistent but this one is great and definitely worth it for the price. A must buy for GarageBand users.