Review of the
Apple Jam Packs
for GarageBand
There
is no doubt that Apple considers the computer musician as an important member among their users.
GarageBand, as I have mentioned several times through the site, is an
outstanding way to get started making music with your computer. Before
GarageBand, one needed to buy expensive plugins and software samplers if one
wanted to have even a basic DAW for music and sound. Its closest
competitors on the PC, the Ableton Live and Sony's Acid, come with relatively
few sounds out of the box. You add loops, software synths separately.
The Jam Packs from Apple change that.
Important note: The jam packs
listed here now come bundled with Logic Studio. For a little more than
the price of these jam packs you can get the whole Logic Studio Bundle,
which includes Logic! -rich 2/08
In a typical Jam Pack you get loops AND audio
instruments. The "blue" loops are straight audio loops and are typically
of high quality. They can be stretched, compressed, effected, like any
other audio track. But the "green" loops in the browser are actually an
audio instruments with a MIDI track associated. You can edit these tracks
on a grid in fine detail or simply delete the midi file and record and play new
notes on your keyboard controller. This is a major innovation over the
typical VSTi/audio instrument. Don't know how to program up a drum
pattern? No worries. Load one of the "green" drum kits and it shows
up on your track with a pattern ready to play. You can then just move
notes around on the grid, add more, delete some, till it "hits the spot".
Then copy, paste, extend, edit again, make variations. Get the idea?
In minutes you have a professional sounding drum track. You can do this
with any of the green instruments in GarageBand. None of the other
sequencers on the market do this yet. Yep, not even Logic, Cubase,
ProTools or Sonar have this implemented.
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GarageBand out of the box gives you lots of
loops to get started with, but soon, you want more. Enter the Jam packs
There are 5 total as of this writing and we are going to talk briefly about each
one.
1. Apple Loops for GarageBand Jam pack
Apple
GarageBand Jam Pack Software (Macintosh)
 Apple Garage Jam Pack opens a
new door of musical creativity with its diverse set of prerecorded loops,
software instruments, and audio effects for iLife '04. |
This was the first Jam Pack and its main
purpose is to round out the collection in all categories. There are about
2000 loops and 100 software instruments. Many of the instruments are the
core stuff you need to build songs--basslines, keyboard and electric piano
comps, synth lines, all sorts of guitar riffs and arpeggios (which are tough to
create in MIDI). And of course there are drum kits you can play. Lounge,
Motown, Funk, Rock, Pop and even Hip Hop basics are here. Remember these
are not all audio loops but a midi pattern playing through a software
instrument. Tweak's bang for the buck grade on this collection A
2. Jam Pack 2- Remix Tools
Apple
GarageBand Jam Pack 2 Remix Tools
 If your beat is club dance,
urban or electronics you’ll find myriad ways to extend your dance floor
vocabulary in Jam Pack 2: Remix Tools. |
The aim in Jam Pack 2 is to provide club
musicians--DJs and Producahs with stuff they need to build beats, basslines and
effects for many genres--hip hop, trip hop, R&B, techno, DnB, trance, downtempo,
house, 2-step and others. There are 1211 drum loops and many of
these are MIDI-editable. These patterns are tight and club ready!
Some of the kits feature kick drums so looooow that I can't even play them after
midnight knowing my neighbors are going to feel the love, if they don't hear it!
You get samples by the ton of vintage drum machines like the cr-78, TR606, and
of course the obligatory TR808 and 909. Lots of glitch stuff too.
Its the drums that are the main feature of this jam pack. Plenty of
basslines. Surprisingly there are only a few turntable effects.
Tweak's bang for the buck grade on this collection A+
3. Jam Pack 3 Rhythm Section
Apple
GarageBand Jam Pack 3 Rhythm Section
 Songwriters and vocalists
take note: Jam Pack 3: Rhythm Section provides you with the ultimate
backing band, one that will never get tired. Of the 2,000 Apple Loops that
come in Jam Pack 3, half consist of drum beats you can use to introduce
variations on grooves -- with fills, alternate patterns and numerous other
innovations. And the remaining 1,000? Guitarists and bass players will
find bass lines, chord progressions, guitar and keyboard riffs designed to
support and enhance the performance of the singer/songwriter.
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If any of the Jam Packs were mis-named, it was
this one. Jam Pack 3 has a strong focus on distinctly rural American
music. Lots of Acoustic and Electric Guitars, strums, pickin' and grinnin'.
Banjos--southern and backroads--are well done. Basslines galore. The
drum kits here are clean overall. Jazz, shuffle, 70's, bar band, basic
rock, Big Hair, funk, a few in 12-8 time. They put Motown kits in here too.
No electronica here. There's some wonderful electric guitar stuff
though--Monster Truck Guitar--Hah! Awesome. The GarageBand Amp
simulation (which is fantastic BTW) really gets a workout here. Yep I said
rural. You get Mandolins, Pedal steel, Slide Guitar, Dobro, Fiddles, Steel
drums. Harmonica, not a lot of them, but the loops they have are about as
dirt road as you can get without recording in a pickup truck. Tweak's bang for
the buck grade on this collection: A-
Jam Pack 4 Symphony Orchestra
Apple
GarageBand Jam Pack 4 Symphony Orchestra
 With a symphony orchestra in
tow, you just may have to spring for bigger quarters. But if you’re
planning to conduct your own orchestra, you’ll want better acoustics
anyway. Using Jam Pack 4: Symphony Orchestra and GarageBand (or Logic
Express 7, Logic Pro 7), there are virtually no limits to the types of
sophisticated music you can create. Taking advantage of the prerecorded
Apple Loops (more than 2,000 in Jam Pack 4), you can compose everything
from classical music to movie soundtracks. Or you may want to lend some
symphonic power to your pop, rock or hip-hop arrangements.
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Perhaps the most ambitious of the Jam Packs, #4
captures an entire symphony orchestra. Its so well done, I am at a loss
for how they could sell this thing for under 100 bucks. I would have paid
three times that for the Orchestral Kits alone as they blow away the ones on my
Fantom and Triton. But there is so much more here. 169 Brass files,
96 Cellos, 63 Clarinets, Double Bass ready for Soundtracks, 107 Harps, Lots of
harpsichords, a beautiful Pipe Organ, a rather avante garde Whole Tone Piano.
Strings? How are the strings?! Do you really want to know?! They are
gorgeous. They will surpass most sample libraries that cost five times
$99. You guys! Apple is spoiling you with great material. Two
years ago you'd have to spend thousands to get this kind of orchestral quality
and it would be a PITA to work with on a hardware sampler.. Doing Film?
This Jam Pack is your $99 secret weapon. No, don't buy it. The more of you
that do, the less I will be able to fool people with it. I am kicking
myself for letting this secret out. Tweak's bang for the buck grade on this
collection A+
Jam Pack 5 World Music
I've said many times, you cannot capture all
the tonalities of World instruments in any synth, any sampler, or any software
sample library. Its just too big of a world. Those with samplers
would get dedicated cd roms for Orient, India, Africa, Europe, Ireland,
Indonesia, Cuba, South America, etc. You get the idea, right? Well this
library is no exception, but they do give you a good taste of everything.
This set was particularly interesting to me as i am a samplist of world
instruments and have a large collection here at the TweakLab. Plenty of worldly
guitars from the Greek Bouzouki, a Russian Balalaika, many Latin, Brazilian,
even Bosnian pick styles. Pianos! Latin El Clan Piano--my fave.
This jam pack can do Latin with authority. Into the new Middle Eastern
Vibe? I am, big time. Check out the Turkish Morning Oboe, the
Sanskrit Shehnai and throw on a Dholak drum, Darbouka and Mridangam drums, the
Persian Dayereh. Don't forget the Zils on top. Of course you get all the
Kalimba, Marimbas, Mbiras, you could want and the audio loops are flavorful.
Listen to African King Gyl, in the Xylophones. You can almost taste the
earth. You get a couple of African Choirs that will remind you of Paul
Simon in South America. I was not expecting any choirs. A nice
surprise. Strings--lots of gotta haves. The Erhus are well done.
You can smell the beer in Irish violins. The Turkish violins do those
amazing trills that no one can do on this side of the ocean. Ok, I've said
enough. Tweak's bang for the buck grade on this collection A+
Who's Packin'?
Ok, I have given them all a glowing
review. Am I biased? No. Look. If I stacked up all my
sample CD Roms, it would probably tower over 6-7 feet. I have felt ripped
off by many expensive disks throughout my history of building a library.
I'm hyper critical in this area. Everyone of the Jam Packs is a
non-rip-off product of exceptional value. If you have a Mac, you need
iLife. If you have that, you have GarageBand, my recommendation is to
get all 5 jam packs. If you have Logic its a no brainer as well.
Don't even think because they are so cheap they can't be good.
Links
Review of
iLife '06
Review
of GarageBand
About Soft Synths and Samplers
Kore 2
Logic Studio
Ableton Live
GarageBand
Cubase
Reason
Sonar
Project 5
Digital Performer
Sony's Acid
Kontakt
Kore
Sound Forge
Waves Platinum
UAD-1
Komplete 4 and 5
Massive
FM8 and FM7
Absynth
Battery
Korg Legacy
MiniMoog V
Stylus RMX
Atmosphere
Trilogy
Garittan Orchestra
Stormdrum
Altered States
Motu MX4
Motu's Etno
Symphonic Choirs
Albino
Guru
Soundtrack Pro
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