Is GB the most anticipated and significant Apple app...ever?

[ChrisH3677]

I've only closely followed Apple for a couple of years but the excitement generated by GarageBand (including myself) is amazing.

Has any other Apple app ever created this much excitement and been so eagerly awaited? (I mean app too - not OS's)

And given the excitement, it would appear to also be the most significant Apple app ever.


edit: Did FCP and other pro apps generate this much excitement? Or FCE? I can't imagine they could have given the wide appeal of GB and it's price.

 

[zimv20]

i'm not sure who exactly is excited. apple, via its emagic acquisition, already has a much better music-making suite of programs.

other programs, like Mark of the Unicorn's Performer, have been around since the mid-80s.

it shouldn't be musicians/engineers already making music on macs who are excited, it must be people who have wanted to make music but for some reason couldn't. is there something special about GB that suddenly makes it possible?

what am i missing?

 

[Counterfit]

Anticipated? I don't remember anyone talking about it beforehand. However, it does make it much easier for the average Dick/Jane/Spot to record and produce music. This will probably do for audio what iMovie did for video.

 

[zimv20]

Originally posted by Counterfit
This will probably do for audio what iMovie did for video.

see, that's what i'm wondering.

i don't think it'll work that way, 'cuz video and audio aren't analagous to each other in that way.

e.g. one gets a nice osx screensaver simply by fading from one photo to the next. do that w/ audio (e.g. 10 second samples from songs in itunes) and it'll be a mess.

i believe people are more attuned to visuals than to audio. whereas iMovie can turn anyone into a half-decent editor, i don't think GB will suddenly turn someone into either a musician, composer or audio engineer. i just think we, as humans, process them completely differently.

but i'm ready to be wrong.

 

[Kingsnapped]

It's too late, I've been typing for the past 20 minutes for a coherant post... I think I failed... going to bed.

I agree with Zimv20, as long as you're not worried about composition (jump cuts, etc.) it's easy to cut together a video with iMovie. Shoot.drag.drop. Much the same way that my random picture screensaver looks good.
With GarageBand, you have how many hundred loops to work with, with 64 tracks. ((64!) if you flatten them) The combinations are nearly limitless, while iMovie limits you to what you have shot, and maybe a crappy title. It's a lot quicker and easier to be satisfied with an iMovie project, but a good GarageBand project will take a lot of tinkering and fine tuning if you want to listen to it more than once.

GarageBand is pretty big, but I don't think it'll revolutionize audio (read, my school bought 30 eMacs just for iMovie classes) in the same way iMovie did video. People don't have hours of audio laying around looking for a good composition, and that seems to be one of iMovies biggest draws. Pair that with the time it'll take to make something nice, and GarageBand will have a much smaller base of serious users than iMovie.

 

[ChrisH3677]

Music is different. It's not like photos or movies.

A very large majority of people have tried there hand at music. A large majority of people have dreamt of being a "rockstar".

Through GarageBand - because of its availability and ease of use - it will help them try to live out that dream.

A very large number who try will play with it for a short time and lose interest.

A large number will create something they're happy with and probably play with from time to time but their creations will never be heard outside their own houses.

A very small number will actually create something decent and attempt to distribute it (probably through one of the many GB sites that will pop up)

And in a few years, a quite a few rockstars will credit GB with having an influence in their development as a musician.

People love music. It is one of the universal languages. It is why iPods, iTunes and iTMS are a success. The music industry is probably bigger than the PC industry.

Yeah sure GB is to music making what iMovie is to movie making but a lot more people aspire to be rockstars than movie-makers.

And with GB you don't need any special equipment whereas iMovie requires a DV camera. iPhoto needs a digital camera or a scanner.

A lot of lot of people are going to try to live out a dream thru GarageBand.

PS I say "anticipated" because that's what it is when you are waiting for something - even if it is only 10 days.

 

[FightTheFuture]

i remember back in '99 when i was cutting it up on an avid that i heard over the grapevine apple was coming up with something fierce to shake up the video editting industry (ie... buy macromedia's product off). but i don't think anyone was really excited about final cut pro. no biggie. 3 years later, FCP took a chunk out of avid's marketshare and things took a little twist. now people love cutting on a FCP system! i think after reviews, lots of people migrated to FCP, but i don't think they eagerly built a line to purchase it. desktop editing wasn't a big deal back then.

hopefully garageband will be marketed well, and it'll generate some vibe, but living in the hole that i dwell - i really couldn't care less.