Mac OS® X Leopard™ All‐in‐One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 6. Becoming a Superstar with GarageBand

In This Chapter

• Navigating the GarageBand window

• Adding tracks and loops to your song

• Repeating loops and extending your song

• Building arrangements

• Adding effects to instruments

• Exporting your work to iTunes and iWeb

• Burning your song to an audio CD

When I was a kid, I always thought that real rock stars trashed their instruments after a hard night's worth of jamming — you know, like The Who, Led Zeppelin, KISS, and the Rolling Stones. Guitars got set on fire, or pounded into the stage, or thrown into the crowd like beads during a Mardi Gras parade.

I can make my own music now, but you'll never see me trash my instrument because I compose music on my Mac with GarageBand, Apple's latest addition to the iLife application suite. You can solo on all sorts of instruments, and even add horns, drums, and a funky bass line for backup …all with absolutely no musical experience (and, in my case, very little talent to boot)!

Oh, and did I mention that GarageBand '08 also produces podcasts? That's right, you can record your voice and easily create your own show, and then share it with others from your iWeb site! Heck, add photos if you like. You'll be the talk of your family and friends and maybe even your Mac user group.

This chapter explains everything you need to know to create your first song (or your first podcast). I also show you how to import your hit record into iTunes so you can listen to it on your iPod with a big, silly grin on your face (like ...