[BEGINNER] Basic questions about GarageBand / Live LE

[LStelie]

Hello,

My questions can easily seem stupid (tip : they are) so I’ll start by a little background :

I’m not a young DJ style guy. I’m a old guy playing bass (not in a group, at home for my personal pleasure).
Fed up to play alone or to cover Cds, I decided to try to set up some accompanying tracks with Garageband (I’m a Mac user).
GarageBand is said to be a nice application so very likely it is a nice application, but I failed to get it. I struggled each time I wanted to do even very simple stuff.

Having problem with my MacBookPro keyboard I ordered a M-Audio Oxygen V2 (very cheap music keyboard) and it is bundled with Ableton Live LE.
The Oxygen is not yet arrived at home (it’s on its way) and in the meantime I went to Ableton Website and downloaded the trial version of Live LE to start learning the software while waiting for the keyboard.

I am very impressed by Live LE, in a few hours I succeeded to do things I never succeeded to do with GarageBand. More , Live LE did something Garageband failed to do : inspire me the idea that the software could be a tool to do some music, and not only some back track for my bass sessions.

All this to say that Beginner in this message title is not a joke, I’m a total beginner.

So let’s go for my question :

Garageband comes with a set of virtual instruments. In Live LE I see some Apple Audio components in the left tab, but no instruments.
I downloaded mda VST piano.. pretty impressive, but it’s the only virtual « analog like », classic, instrument I have. Is there a way to have in Live the ones that are integrated in GarageBand.

If I drop a classic instruments (not synth) midi file in GarageBand, for example « hey joe » form Jimmy Hendrix , I can play it directly.
If I do the same in Live LE, no sound is produced because no instruments are affected to the tracks.

Is there a way to have some default setting for basic instruments (let’say, guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, piano..) in order to have them directly affected to the tracks of a midi file dropped in Live ?

If it’s impossible to access GarageBand virtual instruments set, is there somewhere a free set of VST/AU plugin for that (the only one I found is mda piano, that is pretty good sounding).

Thanks in advance.

Luc

[j2j]

Hi,

First off..

I'm going to guess you are talking about Live Lite, and not Live LE.

Live has four basic version. The first basic version of Live, "lite," has many variations. ( more on this in a second )

After Live Lite, you have LE, FULL, and SUIT.

Live Lite version functionality depends on the hardware you bought. For example, Live Lite Maudio, will differ from Live Lite APC40.

Live LE, FULL, and SUIT, all have different functionality as well.

Read the product page ---> http://www.ableton.com/products

That will explain the differences between the versions.

You do get a very nice discount, when you upgrade Live Lite, to a new product. When you have a minute, I suggest you purchase Live FULL or SUITE.

Live SUITE, will be an, "in the box," solution, giving you a suite of instruments, and drums, and just about everything a beginner, or even a professional would need, to get started.


Things are further complicated, by AU and VST plug ins, but I just gave a mouthful of typing, and I am going to let others handle some more bits and pieces, that are answers to your question.

Cheers...



PS... I use mac as well. IMHO, Garage sucks balls.

[maomao]

Hi Luc

You can always enter Live's demo mode in the Prefs (no saving, no export) and try out the Ableton instruments (Drum machines, Sampler, Operator, Analog, Electric, Tension). They all come with loads of presets (some of them modelling "real" instruments)

[Kilroy]

I have had no luck bringing apple instruments into Live. Not that it can't be done, but myself and a friend (noobs both) tried for a couple hours.

An inexpensive alternative would be Sonik Synth 2. I picked this up recently from musiciansfriend.com for $99 and it is well worth the green. It has a variety of "bread and butter" instruments you can use to make backing tracks. The sounds are not spectacular and pristine, but very usable for "screwing around at home" purposes.

K.

[contakt321]

Hello,

Garageband comes with a set of virtual instruments. In Live LE I see some Apple Audio components in the left tab, but no instruments.
I downloaded mda VST piano.. pretty impressive, but it’s the only virtual « analog like », classic, instrument I have. Is there a way to have in Live the ones that are integrated in GarageBand.

If I drop a classic instruments (not synth) midi file in GarageBand, for example « hey joe » form Jimmy Hendrix , I can play it directly.
If I do the same in Live LE, no sound is produced because no instruments are affected to the tracks.

Is there a way to have some default setting for basic instruments (let’say, guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, piano..) in order to have them directly affected to the tracks of a midi file dropped in Live ?

If it’s impossible to access GarageBand virtual instruments set, is there somewhere a free set of VST/AU plugin for that (the only one I found is mda piano, that is pretty good sounding).

Thanks in advance.

Luc

Hey Luc,

I agree that Garage Band is a great powerful tool, and it's super cool that it's free but I also agree that it's not very inspiring or intuitive. In fact, it's a bit of a pain.

There are plenty of places to download free VSTs, (also just a note, Live has a bunch of instruments built in via the brower) the easiest place to find free VSTs is KVR Audio. You can do a search for Vsts (or AUs, they are the Mac version), and FREE and get a whole list.

As for dropping in a midi file - yes, you can do this. The reason you are getting no sounds is that the midi file is just the notes, you then have to assign instruments to all the tracks. It usually just takes a bit of trial and error to get it sorted but I find this a fun thing to do.

My last note - I think it takes about a month of tinkering with Live to really understand how to get around. Once you get over that hump you will be good to go. I highly recommend using the built in lessons and watching videos on Youtube. Live ends up being incredibly intuitive once you figure out how incredibly powerful, yet simple it is.

[LStelie]

Thanks a lot everybody !!!

[jonny72]

Is there a way to have some default setting for basic instruments (let’say, guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, piano..) in order to have them directly affected to the tracks of a midi file dropped in Live ?

No. For this to work you need the app to implement / support the general midi instrument set, GarageBand does (as does QuickTime) but Live doesn't. I've raised this a few times and from the response I'd say the chances of this being implemented any time soon are zero.