Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How Much Would You Have Paid for GB?

Squire

Squire

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 8, 2003
1,563
0
Canada
I was like a kid on Christmas Eve today, waiting for the delivery truck to bring my iLife '04 package (finally). After a few hours with it, I got thinking, I'd have paid 100 bucks for this easily...maybe even 2 or 3 hundred. I don't know yet.

So how much would YOU have paid for a program this cool? Just curious.

Squire

P.S. You can check out my first of many tunes here: http://www.macidol.com/jamroom/bands/22/music.php
 
I suspect you'll get your chance to spend that much over the coming months as more 'JamPacks' are released. Also, it won't be long before third-party expansion sets are on the market. Kiss your savings bye-bye. :D
 
Totally. I'll find plenty of ways to spend it. First it'll be a cord, then some kind of adapter, then a mic and an M-Box...
My wife isn't going to like this. ;)

Squire
 
I would have paid about $50 for it. There are a few things that would have brought that up to $100 (the ability to print of sheet music or a score being one).
 
Huh?

I don't know about you folks. But I paid $49 so I could put another 30 minutes on my DVD's with iDVD. GarageBand just happen to be a really nice bonus. :cool:

The fact is, because of GarageBand I ended up spending $175 on a digital audio interface, $20 for an adapter, $350 for a new guitar and another $50 or so on accessories. And if the price is right I plan to get a Roland GR-20 guitar synthesizer when they hit the streets.

So... at $2 per DVD. Divide that into $600, equals 300 DVD's that I need to save. For 6 hours of video I save one DVD. I need to burn 1800 hours of video to break even. No Sweat! :D
 
Maybe $150

It was 50/50 for me on why I bought iLife '04.

1/2 because of the new version of iDVD
1/2 because of GarageBand.

What surprised me was that my wife said if I really wanted to learn how to play piano/keyboard that I should get a good one instead of buying a piece of junk and getting upset when it didn't work very well.

I took her with me to gauge her expression at prices. And she didn't complain at all when I found an Evolution MK-361 61 key USB/MIDI professional keyboard with a store price of $239. Turns out they didn't have an unopened box. Only the display model and a returned unit. They said they would give me a discount. When I asked how much they said $179 _including_ tax. I didn't hesitate. I really like the keyboard. Good quality feel and everything seems to work very well with it.

She also didn't flinch when I paid almost $200 for an AU-20 MIDI/Audio input and about $80 for getting my old (early '80s) Hondo II Iceman electric guitar refurbished (electronics failing). The AU/20 is to hook the guitar and an old microphone I have (came with the guitar and amp) to my iMac.

So I ended up paying about $450 so far in addition to the $49 plus tax for iLife '04.
 
GarageBand is worth at least the price of iLife '04 (plus i wanted iDVD and iPhoto, and turns out new iMovie is not bad either, even though I use FCE) so I'm really pleased.

I'm not lying though that if it would have been twice the price of iLife I still would have got it. I was looking into Logic Audio 6 (£200 compared to iLife £39) but I didn't really need all of those features. So I suppose you could say GarageBand was worth at least £100 for me. (Hope Apple isn't reading this :D)
 
$80 after they add some features I would like to see.

But then I would like to see the Jampack(s) have some price drops to closer to $60-$70, IMHO.
 
Yep. I'm not bothering with the Jam Pack because I don't ned any of the loops or presets. The only thing of use to me would be the new software instruments, but whether they're worth £70...
 
I've got a buddy who is going to buy a mac because of garageband. He's a musician, and finds it really fun. He has been at my house almost every night since I got it.

I guess he's going to pay around $1500 for garageband, but of course he'll have a mac....which is awesome for him.

I tell everyone who scoffs at my mac ownership the same thing.... People switch from PC to Mac (and not the other way around) for a reason.

PC's are like chevy cavaliers, they get you from place to place. Mac's are like BMW's. They still get you around, but in style and comfort.
 
I paid $29 for iLife (education discount), but I would have gladly paid more.

I haven't used GarageBand for a week now, I've been so busy.....I'll get back into it soon.

I need at digital camera! I want to use iPhoto so, so bad.....and no projects have come up for iMove or iDVD.....:( hopefully some will soon.
 
I would have paid alot more, even with the $49 for iLife and $200 for the Edirol audio box. It is a bargain and it would have cost at least $500 to get a Cubase setup going.
 
I would have paid $70 for GarageBand. Maybe on up to $100, but I would have taken a look at Tracktion and any other potential alternatives first.

I am really enjoying this thread, about how happy we are to have gotten GarageBand so cheap, and then we went to the music store and spent several hundred on JamPacks and/or cables and/or MIDI keyboards and/or microphones and/or audio interface hardware etc. etc. Apple should make a cut from all this business they are inspiring!

I got a microphone, cables, and an audio interface, and I shudder to think what the total will be by the time I get a MIDI keyboard as well. Well, no I don't -- 20 years ago I would have loved to have a modest project studio, but it was a crazy dream. Now, I can have it, with my Mac at the center.

This is fun, but the lack of sleep is starting to get to me. ;-)

Cheers,


Crikey
 
Re: How Much Would You Have Paid for GB?

Originally posted by Squire
I was like a kid on Christmas Eve today, waiting for the delivery truck to bring my iLife '04 package (finally). After a few hours with it, I got thinking, I'd have paid 100 bucks for this easily...maybe even 2 or 3 hundred. I don't know yet.

So how much would YOU have paid for a program this cool? Just curious.
Click to expand...

Garageband is a nice start... but in it's current form, I wouldn't have bought it seperately.

It's buggy and very sluggish... even on my dual G5. And there is absolutely no reason for it to be so slow... I get perfectly acceptable performance running Digital Performer on a lowly G3.

I'd also like to see a lot more loops added. Garageband seems to include a lot right out of the box, but many of the loops sound the same, with only minor variations. The expansion pack is way overpriced, IMO.

I was also surprised by the limited number of instruments. You would think Apple would have at least included the general midi soundset. If your "garageband" does anything other than rock (and Tekno, obviously), you are out of luck.

Finally, my biggest pet peeve as a synth player... Apple needs to add the ability to save and load midi sequences.

If Apple fixes all of my above complaints, then yeah, I'd probably spend more than $50.

Even better, add all of Garageband's features to Logic (mainly ease of use and expandable loops), and offer a competitive upgrade to all us DP owners... I'd definately spend $500 on it.
 
Keyboards

One more thing... those of you buying keyboards might want to check out www.sweetwater.com.

Last I checked, they were selling the Fatar 61 key Master Keyboard for only $260. This is a great price for a keyboard with weighted keys (which means it feels more like a piano, less like an organ).
 
Re: Re: How Much Would You Have Paid for GB?

Originally posted by Torajima
It's buggy and very sluggish... even on my dual G5. And there is absolutely no reason for it to be so slow... I get perfectly acceptable performance running Digital Performer on a lowly G3.
Click to expand...

I haven't experienced many bugs, but I think it's certainly slower than one would expect. Yet another case of 'throttle the consumer product so they'll upgrade to the pro'...


I'd also like to see a lot more loops added. Garageband seems to include a lot right out of the box, but many of the loops sound the same, with only minor variations. The expansion pack is way overpriced, IMO.

I was also surprised by the limited number of instruments. You would think Apple would have at least included the general midi soundset. If your "garageband" does anything other than rock (and Tekno, obviously), you are out of luck.
Click to expand...

Have to agree here too. If I buy the Jam Pack, it'll just be to get the MIDI violin! I wouldn't mind if they bumped the price of iLife and just included all the basic MIDI 'instruments' as standard.

The fact the expansion pack costs twice as much as the original app plus 4 others is a bit bizarre..
 
$0. I have no use for it, and just wish that GB was sold separately so that the rest of ilife could continue to be free upgrades. :(
 
Re: Re: How Much Would You Have Paid for GB?

Originally posted by Torajima
...I'd also like to see a lot more loops added. Garageband seems to include a lot right out of the box, but many of the loops sound the same, with only minor variations. The expansion pack is way overpriced, IMO.
Click to expand...

My initial Wow factor has worn off slightly since the first few hours of ownership. ;)

Good points there. I totally agree. In addition, the majority of the loops (about 98%) only seem to work in 4/4 time unless, of course, I'm doing something wrong.

I was also surprised by the limited number of instruments. You would think Apple would have at least included the general midi soundset. If your "garageband" does anything other than rock (and Tekno, obviously), you are out of luck.
Click to expand...

I was surprised at that, too. I've only explored the "looped" instruments so far, though. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make some interesting sounds out of it once I get a MIDI-USB adapter.

Squire
 
Most of the loops are recorded in 4/4 time as this is the most common, so they will not work at other time signatures. It would have been nice to see a few 3/4 loops as that can be quite a common time signature. Still, you can make your own drum loops quite easily.

It would be nice to be able to just buy the extra software instruments of the Jam Pak. I like to create my own original music, and if it is mainly made out of loops, it deosn't feel like my own. I make an exception for general drum loops though, although (when I get my keyboard up here) I will be mainly creating my own. And so I can't really justify spending the £69 for the extra loops and stuff.

(Of course, my MacIdol tunes are made out of the loops, but they are made just for fun. They would not be going on any of my 'albums').
 
iLife '04

I bought it for two reasons: being able to put 2 hours on a dvd...and GarageBand.

Definitely worth the price of admission.

I popped for Jam Pack, as well. But I got mine on Ebay for $80.

Why pay retail?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back