I couldn't care less about computers—well, up until eight years ago. Before that, all I wanted to do was play music. Since being forced to take piano, violin, and clarinet lessons, and then rocking out on guitar on my own (much to my parent's disappointment), I've had my share of eclectic experiences—from playing a piano duet onstage with Count Basie to playing guitar and singing with Rob Zombie at a gig.
But recording demos was expensive—way expensive—and short of giving up my abysmal five-cups-of-coffee-a-day habit, I bought a Mac. I didn’t understand email or the Web back then, but I could record my band for nothing and make really stupid movies with a QuickCam. Fast forward a few years, and I found myself working here at MacAddict. Go figure.
This song, "Groove-E" is the first song that I recorded with GarageBand (plus Jam Pack) as I wrote this month's "Be Your Own Band" feature. The song traveled across four Macs—1GHz PowerBook G4, 400MHz Power Mac G4, 1GHz Power Mac G4, and Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5—during the recording process. The first three couldn't deal with my growing creative catastrophe (the PowerBook gave up after only three loops).
I used edited versions of 80s Pop Beat 07 and 80s Pop Beat 09 loops for drums, various Edgy Rock Bass loops, and Southern Rock Organ 04, which I split into two segments and reversed. The piano parts are Classic Rock Piano 06 and edited versions of Classic Rock Piano 08, Classic Rock Piano 10, and 70s Ballad Piano 04. The synth parts feature Video Game Synth 01, Edgy Synth 02, and Synth Array 02.
I recorded two MIDI parts using a USB keyboard and GarageBand's Orchestral Strings and Big Electric Lead software instruments, and recorded the real guitar parts using different mods of Amp Simulation—Arena Rock, Grunge, Barroom Lead (for the solo), and Classic Rock.
And like many projects, eventually I hit the creativity wall, so excuse the abrupt ending. I need more coffee...
