Learn GarageBand first or am I wasting my time?

msodrew · Post by **msodrew** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 9:05 am

I'm not really a musician, moreso a software engineer that used to play drums in highschool. I love electronic music and all the remixes out there of my favorite artists (MSTRKRFT, The Faint, Benny Benassi, Justice) to the point where I wanted to try my hand at this whole sequencing game.

I've been playing with GarageBand for about 2 weeks now and have become familiar with a decent amount of it's features. After asking some peeps on OiNK.me.uk if I should just jump the gun and goto Logic Pro instead of wasting my time, many of them suggested Ableton because of my desire to make electronic music (I had never heard of Ableton).

After spending about 10 minutes on ableton.com, I must say they know how to fucking sell their product with those testimonials.

I downloaded Ableton Live 6 (for mac) and went through 2 of the live tutorials. A half hour into it I realized that this app is far, far superior to GarageBand... but obviously it also looks extremely daunting and discouraging... with so many options and features.

So my question is... what should I do? I've made like 2 songs on GarageBand and I feel like I'm starting ALL OVER AGAIN with learning Ableton. Also, if I were to make the switch, how can I even be sure this hobby of mine is going somewhere before slamming down $600.00 just to be able to save my half assed tracks while learning the app?

Thoughts? Anyone been in my place? Thanks.

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 9:15 am

If you can,get Ableton Live.If not stay with garageband.
But with live you can do a lot more than with garageband.I would say save some money and get Ableton live.

brightonalex · Post by **brightonalex** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 9:25 am

If you just go through the tutorials you'll already be having more fun than with garageband. \just get Live.

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 9:54 am

Live is a huge leap forward, but as Garageband is free, and is not entirely unlike Live's arrangement page, i say have a good play with it, and then move on when you're bored and have the money for Live. Garageband is pretty powerful considering its a freebee..

subSonik · Post by **subSonik** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:17 am

Use whatever you have. Definately start saving for Live though. It'll change the way you look at creating music on a computer.

Idonotlikebroccoli · Post by **Idonotlikebroccoli** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:20 am

All new apps look daunting at first glance.

jez3122 · Post by **jez3122** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:28 am

Get Ableton m8,
It doesn't take long to pick it up and benifits of using ableton over something like Garageband are massive,
if your serious about making some tunes, your gonna have to make the jump at some point anyway, and sooner rather than later always makes sense..

Bombastic · Post by **Bombastic** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:29 pm

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:08 pm

Garageband is better for podcasting, but the buck stops there.

I'd say "you get what you pay for," but that would imply that Logic Pro is better than Ableton. This is not the case.

Ableton is your friend. It'll hang with you while you write, rehearse, perform, record, and even moonlight if you pick up extra gigs in sound design for video/film or live theatre.

Plus, since you're a software engineer, you'll get to dig deep inside of one of most user friendly apps out there.

msodrew · Post by **msodrew** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 8:37 pm

Bombastic wrote:Live isnt the only option. Reason is a good tool to learn with and you dont have to worry about finding samples. You can get a demo of Reason or Live and just try them out.. Once you get more serious and want to start using audio properly, LIVE is the way to go...i

What do you mean "finding samples" ?

dm_hawk · Post by **dm_hawk** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:11 am

msodrew wrote:
Bombastic wrote:Live isnt the only option. Reason is a good tool to learn with and you dont have to worry about finding samples. You can get a demo of Reason or Live and just try them out.. Once you get more serious and want to start using audio properly, LIVE is the way to go...i
What do you mean "finding samples" ?

Live does incredible things with audio files, but you have to make or find the samples yourself, or use the "factory content" provided with Live. Ableton doesn't come equipped with as many "noisemakers" as reason- synths, drum machines, etc. You'll want to flesh it out with some instrument plugins. search this forum and www.kvraudio.com, and you'll find links and info about a plethora of quality, free plugins for osx.

philipc · Post by **philipc** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 1:15 pm

I think Live has a few features to get your head around that if you don't make it extremely confusing but once you've got them understood its just about the easiest app going. Also very powerful. The relationship between Session and Arrangement views is puzzling at first but once you understand that tis plain sailing. Don't be daunted by Live, just do the tutorials

Oh and its oink.cd now, they're moving

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:10 pm

philipc wrote:I think Live has a few features to get your head around that if you don't make it extremely confusing but once you've got them understood its just about the easiest app going. Also very powerful. The relationship between Session and Arrangement views is puzzling at first but once you understand that tis plain sailing. Don't be daunted by Live, just do the tutorials

Oh and its oink.cd now, they're moving

Oink wha?? What're you talking about mang?

Live comes with lots o' noisemakers methinks. Tonz of content, all those presets for Simpler and Impulse, all the racks, all the effects chains. You can tinker around for hours and hours just listening to the presets. And now when you buy the boxed version you get the Essential Instruments Collection. I mean, you can't scrub through fifty "Anarchist" thin & trite sounding kick drum samples, but there are lots of sounds to mess with.

philipc · Post by **philipc** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:13 pm

Sales Dude McBoob wrote:
philipc wrote:I think Live has a few features to get your head around that if you don't make it extremely confusing but once you've got them understood its just about the easiest app going. Also very powerful. The relationship between Session and Arrangement views is puzzling at first but once you understand that tis plain sailing. Don't be daunted by Live, just do the tutorials

Oh and its oink.cd now, they're moving
Oink wha?? What're you talking about mang?

.

msodrew said that they were asking about it on a site called oink.me.uk. That site is now oink.cd. They've had some hosting problems or other.

Learn GarageBand first or am I wasting my time?

What should I do?

Learn GarageBand first or am I wasting my time?