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Author: David Pogue

Publisher: Pogue Press/O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

Edition: First - June 2004

Pages: 304

Price: $19.95

Like many high school boys and the bulk of the cooler high school girls, I played in many garage bands. Actually, they were mostly basement bands, but it's still rock and roll to me. I joined my first band on keyboards in ninth grade, moved on to bass throughout high school, college and my five years in New York City, and still play bass in a band that's either an alt rock band, an 80s cover band or a Queen tribute band, depending upon which rehearsal you attend.

All of my bands have been doomed by lack of drive, lack of funds and lack of commitment. As the guitarist/lead vocalist of Flat Stanley explained to me, "There's no point in getting serious about this. We'll never make as much money playing music as we do in our regular jobs." Seeing that I made about 1/3 as much as the other band members, I was inclined to disagree, but so be it. I wasn't self destructive enough to be a rock star, anyway.

The unfortunate drawback to all of this is that we spent all that time rehearsing and wrote quite a few really good songs and have absolutely nothing to show for it. Now, we're all married, have children, and live in different states. So, what of all those songs? I had hoped that Apple's GarageBand would be answer, but I found it easier to try to teach the songs to my new band mates than to try to figure out GarageBand. It may be part of Apple's iLife suite, but it sure doesn't feel like an iLife program. Of course, there's no manual to help me figure this out, so where do I turn? I'll let you guess.

I knew David Pogue knows a thing or two about filming and editing movies, as he clearly showed in his fantastic iMovie 4 & iDVD: The Missing Manual. But music? What are his credentials there? Well, aside from writing a couple of those "For Dummies" books about Opera and Classical Music, he's also a former Broadway show conductor and declares himself an "incorrigible pianist." He's also apparently a magician, but I don't think iMagic will be the next addition to iLife, so we'll leave that one be.

GarageBand: The Missing Manual (GB:MM) is surprisingly short. Considering the complexity and capabilities of the program, I expected more than 304 pages. I feel it could've been longer, but I also acknowledge that David made a smart choice here. The first 100 pages run through the process of "building a hit," as the book calls it. This is pretty much all you'll really need to complete your song and share it with others, and it's covered in a clean, direct way. After getting through this, I was happy the section was so short. I was intimidated by GarageBand, but the brevity and clarity of the process as outlined by David made me see once again that Apple knows a thing or two about simplifying complex tasks; you just have to get into their flow to "get it."

Breaking it down, part one of the book teaches you how to set up GarageBand and learn the interface. The bulk of the information covers Regions, the element of GarageBand that makes it possible for musicians and non-musicians alike to put together their own song, and David lays this out cleanly. You'll know what each element of the interface does, how it's supposed to used, and when to use it.

Software instruments are also explained, and again, this is quite helpful for those who never even picked up a recorder in fourth grade, as it allows you to create music without having to play an instrument. If you don't have the slightest idea of what you're doing, this section will allay your fears. I do know what I'm doing musically, and it still allayed mine.

Part one goes on to explain editing the "software" music you've written or utilized, how to record and edit live audio and how to add effects and get different sounds from the included software instruments, but it doesn't end there. If GB:MM contained only instructions and diagrams, it would be helpful enough. The most useful part of this section, though, is the tutorial at the end of Chapter 3: Regions. Using loops included in GarageBand, David step-by-step guides you through the process of creating a song. Suddenly, the manual is hands-on, and its usefulness rises dramatically. Just as I found it easier to learn Flash MX 2004 and other such programs by creating real-world examples, so it was with creating Funky Graham as guided by David Pogue.

After all this, we get into part two, which covers the kind of stuff that accomplished musicians and accomplished computer users will want to learn. Mixing and publishing will be relevant to everyone, but beyond that, David gets into "power user" features: SoundFonts, creating Apple loops, using the iSight as a micro...wait, what? The iSight as a microphone? Uh, well, David tells you how to work around GarageBand's inability to record audio through the iSight, but even he admits that the reason iSight is not accepted is because it's just no darn good for this purpose. Dave's a problem solving guy, though, so the solution's in here if you really have nothing else.

For the rest, some of it appears to just be padding, while other information is quite helpful. For instance, the chapter on how to squeeze better speed and performance out of GarageBand isn't all that necessary. On the other hand, the three appendixes—The GarageBand Music Crash Course, GarageBand - Menu By Menu and The GarageBand Keyboard Shortcuts—are all worth the read. I think perhaps the music crash course is a bit too basic, and could have easily been twice as long. Perhaps, though, most GarageBand users don't really want to learn about music, they just want to make loops. Fair enough. Sad, but fair enough. The keyboard shortcuts are helpful, but would be moreso if they could be torn out or were placed on the back of the manual. Obviously, in a paperback, it's too hard to keep the manual open to the keyboard shortcuts page.

As with the other books in the Missing Manual series, there is no CD-ROM. However, just about everything of note mentioned in the book is available at [url=http://www.missingmanuals.com]http://www.missingmanuals.com[/url].

This is a great book, and although those familiar with GarageBand may benefit from some of the power user tricks and techniques, it'll mainly be useful for those who've wanted to learn GarageBand and didn't know where to start. On the other hand, I also feel there could've been more: more talk about music theory, more tutorials to get people started, more discussion on the various resources available to GarageBand users, more about optimizing your rig to get the best sound from external instruments, etc. Certainly, David knows all of this, so perhaps he purposely took it easy in this edition of GarageBand: The Missing Manual, saving that for the next edition when most of his readers will come in with a better beginning knowledge of the program. If so, I'll be there, too, and I'll be ready to learn.

And who knows? By then, I may even have "(Lost In) Pharaoh's Tomb," "William Fairchild is Looking for His Parachute" and "Obligatory Love Song" ready for the world to hear. Programming them won't be as fun jamming to them in John's basement, but I can't imagine he would be happy if I invited you all down there to watch a rehearsal. Think of the beer costs alone!