So, I finally went and bought iLife, or as I call it, GarageBand. I may, at some point, make use of iPhoto, but mainly I considered it spending $50 on a well-reviewed entry-level sequencer/loop/recording app.

I haven’t yet had much time to truly test its capabilities by hooking up my keyboards to it or recording anything from them, but it looks fairly capable for something that’s $50 bucks.

It clearly rewards those who like dance music with lots of loops. In fact, much like the people who produce the music Schnippy listens to, you need not have any musical talent. Just throw some loops on there, maybe, if you’re clever, do a bit of editing.

GarageBand keeps you out of trouble by adjusting everything to your current tempo and key. You can transpose, shorten, or loop a sound you put in. However, you can’t elongate, slow, or speed up a sound. Editing controls quantize to the nearest measure, to 16th, but no triplets.

How easy is it? Well, the last time I saw the inside of a recording studio or did sequencing or audio editing on a Mac was 12 years ago, and I did this:

Dit-dit, duh duh

That consists of me using the mouse-activated keyboard and the rest messing with loops. I tried creating a loop using Apple’s free Loop creation SDK, but GarageBand sped it up horribly on import, and trying to import it again lost the file. If anybody knows how to uninstall and reinstall a loop, let me know.

That took me maybe 3 or 4 hours, much of it just messing around with the library.

So it’s great for hobbies. I suspect as I get into it I’ll find out that it’s really capable for something that costs $50 bucks, but too limiting.

Just what I need, more things to spend my money on.

P.S. Go easy on the downloads, I don’t have unlimited bandwidth.

<Nelson>Ha, ha!</Nelson&gt

<Nelson>New virus causes Windows users pain. Ha-ha!</Nelson>

OK, the thing that had been holding me back from recommending Mac OS X for the corporate desktop has been fixed.

You can, as of OS X 10.3 (since updated to 10.3.1), drag a SMB-mounted shared volume (equivalent to the shared drives assigned to higher letters like U:, N:, or S: on DOS-, I mean, uh, Windows-based systems) to the Startup Items window in the Accounts system preference panel, and it will mount on login. In 10.2, this worked for AppleShare (afp://) and NFS systems, but not Windows-standard SMB (Samba) systems.

Way to go Steve! Now fix the UI problems in iCal and give us an open-source shared calendaring solution for it compatible with Mozilla, and there will be no reason to use Windows for anybody. 😉

So I got my copy of Panther a day early, but took my time backing everything up and installing it due to the general crappitude of a cold that preceded it. Nonetheless, there are a couple of cool things I’ve picked up from the various sites.

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(Now Playing: Bi Kyo Ran, “Ran Part II”, Go-Un–I love my collection)

Funnily enough, I’m not even that into iTunes. I think it’s a swell jukebox player, but I haven’t gotten sufficiently involved that I’ve actually bought anything from the music store or an iPod. Nonetheless, as the Mac Person of Note for several of my friends/colleagues/relatives/countrymen/lent ears, I’ve been getting a lot of feedback about it.

Some of it even positive.

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MacMinute is reporting that an article in a paid subscription music industry rag claims Apple will be releasing “iTunes Producer” to make it easier to submit music to Apple.

Whoah? Apple making iTunes the vehicle for my garage band to get, like, totally out there?

Nope. It is being reported that way in some circles, but if you read carefully, the software is for music labels to submit their songs. So it doesn’t circumvent the legal process of authorizing Apple to distribute your music, and that is being carried out only (for now) with relatively major labels and select indies.

Still, this should make it easier for smaller labels in the big companies to get their catalog encoded, categorized, and on Apple’s system for your buying pleasure. Slowly, but surely, the complaints about lack of selection are being heard and dealt with.

Stay (i)Tuned, it will get better.

(And don’t forget to check out their Just Added link, which includes new releases as well as older catalog stuff that has come online, each Tuesday. Unfortunately this Tuesday it included Willie Nelson (*gag*), but it included something that sounds unpleasant and filthy enough to be some sort of Indie crap that you people will claim to like. And if you still aren’t satisfied, then take this musical message to heart.)

This report on MacNN confirms what everybody’s known but for whatever reason have been reluctant to shout from the rooftops: iTMS is to sell iPods.

I would also suggest that the Aqua-like feel of iTunes for Windows is not coincidental, either, and is part of a deliberate strategy to give Windows users a taste of a truly lickable user experience, and thus create some more switchers.

Especially since the new accessories for the iPod from Belkin will make the most sense on a Mac, particularly the digital camera card reader, which integrates with the Mac-only iPhoto–a handy utility that I’ve been surprised to find myself using more and more, and would use even more if I got a digital camera. 😉

Another entry on MacNN reveals that the Savoy Music Group will increase iTMS’s woeful jazz selection. Classics and modern stuff included.

Over at his long-established blog (I’m such a second mover), Jason Lefkowitz, friend, colleague, and raconteur extraordinaire, has downloaded, tried, and reviewed the much-ballyhooed iTunes for Windows that swirled out of the mists of the RDF (not that RDF) today from a very cold Cupertino (well, actually the Moscone Center). Continuing our he-said, he-said blogminton, I’m going to riff on his vamp.

He has a couple of gripes, which have been similar to ones I’ve had. However, I’m not ready to write it off just yet. Let’s review, shall we?

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