macband: collaborative garageband community site

February 6, 2004 11:26 AM

MacBand has just launched and looks like the perfect fit for budding Garageband musicians. The site hosts songs you've created in Garageband and everything's under a Creative Commons license, so music collaboration with loops, samples, and whole songs from people you've never met will be possible on this new community.
posted by mathowie (13 comments total)

There's also MacJukeBox which has been around a few weeks now. Listen to "Hot Dog Weiner Juice" if you dare.
posted by jmcnally at 11:31 AM on February 6, 2004

God, you're killing me matt. I'm trying to excercise patience and wait until I get my tax returns before buying a fancy new powerbook. My resolve grows weaker day by day. Until I get my money back from the Feds, or until I finally crack, I've got to sit around with my aging imac running OS9. This all looks very, very cool.
posted by elwoodwiles at 11:37 AM on February 6, 2004

Way cool, way cool. Out to the garage with ye!
posted by adamgreenfield at 12:03 PM on February 6, 2004

My first recording will be 4 minutes of silence. That, or some seriously extensive blaring of car horns, tastefully manipulated into an unrivalled symphonic monsterpiece.
posted by attackthetaxi at 12:55 PM on February 6, 2004

hey, I'm no Steve Jobs, but it seems to me that if Apple wanted to make an obscene amount of money, they'd make a windows version of this software. PLEASE!
posted by pejamo at 2:03 PM on February 6, 2004

attackthetaxi - that made the old man laugh
posted by Peter H at 2:18 PM on February 6, 2004

pejamo: Apple can't make a windows version of this software, as GarageBand appears to be a clone of ACID (for Windows)
posted by milnak at 2:43 PM on February 6, 2004

I took a look at ACID but at $400 for the download version, it seems like a big investment for someone just trying to get their feet wet. I've tried to play around with sound editing software before and was overwhelmed by all the controls and the geegaws. I think this is the the type of complex software that could use Apple's ui design genius.

This review from Ars Technica is positive about the software.
posted by rks404 at 3:24 PM on February 6, 2004

I would guess Fruity Loops FL Studio Express is more along the lines pricewise.
posted by O9scar at 4:06 PM on February 6, 2004

Oh, I first thought this was referring to garageband.com, a crappy little website in which my old band once rose to the top of the jazz charts! Mwahah!

This looks very cool, though.
posted by fishbulb at 4:46 PM on February 6, 2004

rks404: $400 too much? try ACID Screenblast for $70.

Disclaimer: I haven't used screenblast myself, and dont work for sonicfoundry or sony, but I love ACID
posted by milnak at 5:00 PM on February 6, 2004

Rsk404, download the demo versions of Rebirth and Reason from the www.Propellerheads.se website... they only work for 20 minutes each time you use them, but you can get your feet wet with the basics of synthesis and drum programming and so forth. Rebirth is much easier to use, its just a close of some old drum machines and monosynths from the 80's.
posted by Spacelegoman at 5:14 PM on February 6, 2004

Thanks for the pointers - I'll check them out!
posted by rks404 at 10:56 PM on February 6, 2004