Friday, June 10, 2016

Working with GarageBand

GarageBand isn't as cool as it once was but neither is Apple and things may improve when Tim Cook moves along from endless repeats of the iPhone but we don't think that will ever happen and the Apple train has just about hit the end of the line.  It was the same phenomenon eating them which took down Communism as Apple started waving its paws in the air after a good taste of capitalism and the big bucks.  Innovation stopped and now they're just a toy company.


The software approach goes back to the traditional recording of working up sets of tracks with different instruments with a mix down to make the final result.  Using tracks is anathema in many places in Second Life as a satanic influence but that's mostly because you can't do it with an acoustic guitar.  Either that or they think you bought the tracks and will only do cheesy covers of Celine Dion or Adele songs.  Therefore tracks are instruments of the devil and that kind of thinking goes back to 2006.

(Ed:  you got bored with using loopers?)

Looks that way, Twenty-Minute Jammer Man.

(Ed:  is that like a Viagra commercial?  Get medical attention for an erection lasting more than four hours after taking Viagra??))

Nah, twenty minutes jams are what make people need Viagra.  Liberals didn't need Viagra before Bill Clinton, see.  Now we're ashamed of having functioning whangers so they don't work anymore.

(Ed:  so now liberals are just like Republicans!)

You haven't been around here long, have you, Sherlock Holmes.


The biggest gain from using tracks is I get tremendous freedom in exploiting sample drum tracks which are infinitely more interesting than anything a drum machine can ever do.  This likely is the biggest attractant to making music this way since that freedom affords the capability for dynamics which are impossible with real-time performance techniques unless there are real jammers in the room, something I miss more than a full set of teeth.  Musicians aren't worth much of a crap at any other time but, dayum, we do get beautiful when we play.

This way even permits (gasp) drum fills and these are extras which go over the basic 1-2-3-4 beat so, say, every fourth bar there's a drum 'fill' with some variation on the primary beat.  Listeners probably won't notice you are using drum fills but they will almost certainly notice you are not because the rhythm will be dull.


That was mixed with watching "School of Rock" and music stopped altogether after that but the first movie was "Clear and Present Danger" which goes to great lengths to make a feature out of the cold-hearted brutality and merciless lack of morality in American political leaders.  That leads to protest music every time and has done likely for centuries.

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