I just got a mac

so for my 11 year anniversary I was surprised with a Macbook...
its been a bit if a challenge going from a pc to a mac but so far so good

I noticed it has a program on it called "garage band" and looks like it has some lessons and stuff....was wondering if anyone had any comments on it...I havent really explored yet...still trying to get the basics set up first

any mac users out there with any mac newbies advice?

Hey Itsmesilly,

I'm a Mac person and I use Garage Band a lot.

The newer version has some sort of a link to lessons, but I don't have experience with that version.

I use Garage Band for creating practice tracks, backup tracks, song arrangements, songwriting, etc.

If you access the lessons, let us know what they're like. (can't POSSIBLY be better than GT!)

-Lisa

Originally Posted by: Itsmesillyso for my 11 year anniversary I was surprised with a Macbook...
its been a bit if a challenge going from a pc to a mac but so far so good

I noticed it has a program on it called "garage band" and looks like it has some lessons and stuff....was wondering if anyone had any comments on it...I havent really explored yet...still trying to get the basics set up first

any mac users out there with any mac newbies advice?

I just got a new iMac about 3 months ago. The new version of Garageband is really very good. Skip the lessons, not that I have paid for them but the sample they gave was pretty blah since it's not really keyed to in depth learning (in other words, stick to your GT lessons ;) )

That said, Garageband is surprisingly robust in the recent version. Also, there are lots of great loops out there for drum kits and even some inexpensive ones that really good. It does come preloaded with kit loops already but I found those to be pretty unexciting (note - for a cost, I'd suggest: Beta Monkey ). If you don't have a full band, this stuff can be very useful.

Reality is, I'm still in experimental stage so I have little to show for my playing around but what I have messed with has found that it's pretty good. Certainly not a pro-tools but a great thing to get you feet wet and get some pretty high quality things.

So, I like it thus far.

The opening interface has a number of 'how to use' tutorials and I'd suggest working through those. Very informative.

Good luck.

thanks you guys
a lot to get used to....like I want everything full screen like the pc and apparently it isnt that way?
I know the green button makes things bigger but not full screen....

now im in the process of making sure I have everything copied over....save all my favorites and make sure I have everything all set

thanks again for the info on garageband
sounds like its going to be fun
just need time to play with it.....this weekend hopefully

Originally Posted by: Itsmesillythanks you guys
a lot to get used to....like I want everything full screen like the pc and apparently it isnt that way?
I know the green button makes things bigger but not full screen....

now im in the process of making sure I have everything copied over....save all my favorites and make sure I have everything all set

thanks again for the info on garageband
sounds like its going to be fun
just need time to play with it.....this weekend hopefully

Give it a little time, the 'full screen' deal on a PC will annoy you and you'll wish you were working on your Mac. I work PC by and Mac by night. I hate to admit that those insipid Mac vs PC ads are right but they are. At some point you're going to realize that a work flow not all covered up by one app is really handy. Since I do some freelance graphic design, the work flow is soooo much better and I can just jump between Illustrator and Photoshop with greater ease. No waiting for the app I switched too's screen to render. Granted, I have a 24" screen so having the large real estate is certainly handy with multi apps.

Also, if you have programs that only work on PC and have the disc as well as a registered copy of a Windows OS (XP and up), you can get a program called Parallels that allows you to run the PC OS too. While Macs can do that in Bootcamp mode, Parallels allow you to run XP at the same time and open apps from the PC as if they were in OSX. So, if you think you need to re-buy some stuff, it's worth considering. Parallels only costs $100 and really works very well.

So, a few more things :)

I've used windows since it came out in the early 90's and DOS before that. This past April I broke down and bought a Mac-Mini and I haven't used windows since. The Mac is so much easier to use and it handles media files a hundred times better then windows - no blue screen of death anymore! John

Funny I should read this now..I am testing Windows 7..on my Mac! Ha ha..

Actually the guitar lessons in Garage Band are what led me to Guitar Tricks. They were ok, but I realized that learning on computer is a pretty decent way to learn. So far so good!

Originally Posted by: Itsmesilly
any mac users out there with any mac newbies advice?

I think you'll really enjoy your new mac. I use garage band for creating the music for my lessons.