GarageBand: The Missing Manual (Missing Manuals) (Paperback)

by David Pogue (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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.

About the Author
David Pogue, computer columnist for the New York Times and creator of the Missing Manual series, is the #1 bestselling Macintosh author.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Pogue Press (June 25, 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: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #543,525 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  Books > Entertainment > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > MIDI, Mixers, etc.

• This item is part of The O'Reilly Missing Manuals Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 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

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 (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.