It happened.

Meetup #1.

Here’s the proof. LOL

Thanks to Jeremy, Lingfeng, Senthil, Chinmay.

We did a quick demo of how to create software tracks in Garageband, custom drum loops, effect settings. Some discussion about Measures, Metronome.

I learned about disabling the “Auto Normalise” feature, which may help in my playback volume problem.

My converted MP3 tracks always sound softer than what I hear in GB, so Chinmay suggested that disabling the Auto Normalise feature may help. It did for him.

We have a few ideas on what we might do at the next meetup. More ideas at the discussion forum.

Thanks folks, for turning up.

Alright, after two rounds of false starts, I’ve decided to just decide on a date/ time, and see if anyone turns up:

Date: Thursday, 17th July 2008
Time: 7pm
Venue: McDonald’s (McCafe)
3 Temasek Boulevard #B1-026, Suntec City Mall, S(038983)
[see: www.map.gov.sg/StreetMap]

Actually I’m killing two birds with one stone here. Siva’s called for a Mac Meetup. I thought we might as well have our first ever GarageBand Meetup at a Mac Meetup.

Apart from ensuring that there will be some people attending, it’ll also be a nice way for members from this group to interact with the other one. I can assure you that we’re not PC-phobic in anyway, heh.

See ya.

p.s. You might want to leave a comment, so that I have an idea who’s turning up.

Philip posted this to the discussion list:

I’m new to songwriting and don’t know if my songs are any good. I’ve uploaded 4 songs to myspace and would appreciate any comments, good or bad, from you. I played all the instruments and recorded using SONAR 6.

http://www.myspace.com/philphree88

They are pop/rock kind of songs.

“Love our Only Earth (The Environment Song)” is about saving the Earth.
“Hello Hello” is a fun ring tone I wrote for my handphone.
“Moonwalk” is a short guitar instrumental.
“Night Drive” is a silghtly jazzy acoustic instrumental.

Cheers!
Philip

Well Philip, it sounds as if you’ve been writing songs for a while! They sound good to me, especially the guitar riffs in the songs. Subtle and yet sophisticated to my ears.

If I have to pick a favourite track, I’d say it’s “Night Drive”.

Philip’s brand of music reminds me of Country Rock, with a Bluesy feel.

Is that a Fender Stratocaster you’re playing?

Nice work, Philip! Would be keen to see how you mix your stuff (if we do get a meetup organised, hahaha).

Check out Philip’s songs at www.myspace.com/philphree88

BTW, Philip uses Cakewalk Sonar (PC-based, right?)

Not everyone here uses GarageBand, which is perfectly fine.

Learned about this resource via Murm. It’s called Soundsnap.com:

From the website:

What is Soundsnap?
Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD’s.

It was originally started by a small group of sound people from all over the world. Our common belief is that sounds and samples should be free for everyone to use in their projects, commercial or not.

Our users are a diverse mix of sound designers, sound artists, web game developers, filmmakers and music producers. Hobbyists and home video makers are welcome too.

What Soundsnap is NOT:
* An alternative to Myspace, Limewire or BitTorrent.
* A place to upload your band’s songs or your favourite mp3’s. Soundsnap is only for sound effects and loops.
* A place you can upload or find sounds from commercial libraries. All sounds here are original- made or recorded by its users.

We encourage everyone to upload high quality sound FX and samples, helping us make every kind of sound available on Soundsnap.

Check it out. Seems like an excellent resource for GarageBanders looking for free sound clips to incorporate into your tracks.

This demo, by Herbert Midgley, was made in March 2006. The GarageBand version seems to be from iLife ‘04 but the basic principles are the same. Nice demo for those who want a quick start to using GarageBand.

If you’ve come across similar useful tutorials, email me and I’ll post it here.

I posted this message to the group recently:

This message kept showing each time I start GarageBand on my Mac. I think it started when I forcibly shutdown my Mac and might have ruined my preferences file or something… I don’t know. Any ideas?

BTW, it doesn’t appear to cause serious malfunctions. I just click Cancel and it goes away. The GB app works OK as far as I could tell.

Vanessa’s reply:

I Googled your error message and found this:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6439272

which led to this suggestion: http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/FAQPages/OddBallProbs.html

The solution was to delete the GarageBand preferences file. Then restart GarageBand and reset the Preferences. Worked for me.

To delete the GarageBand preferences file, locate and delete these two files on your Mac:

• com.apple.garageband.cs
• com.apple.garageband.plist

This page has screenshots to show you how to locate the two files.

Thanks, Vanessa! Ah, now I know… the error message indicated that something’s wrong with the Preferences file (i.e. “com.apple.garageband.cs”).

Thanks to Linda, lead singer/ bassist of Singapore Gothic rock band Lunarin, for giving our group a plug.

Check out their MySpace page.

Since I’ve mentioned Lunarin here, can I just tell the world that they are my No.1 favourite Singapore band?

I’m not saying that because they plugged this group (but having done that, Linda just about sealed it for me… there can be no other “No. 1 favourite Singapore band” for me liao, LOL!)

To the folks at Tomorrow.SG: Thanks for publishing!

“(Garage)Band of brothers. And sisters.“

I had to laugh at a title like that!

Thanks to Lai Chow, who gave us a plug at Youth.SG.
Funny gal, that one.

Woah, Vanessa was really fast. Right after I emailed a few folks about the list, she was the first to sign up and to give the blog a plug. What’s more, her post led to a question being posted (and answered — both in the googlegroup and her blog).

Jason asked:

“I’m currently deciding between Logic Express 8 or GarageBand 4 + 1 of the Jam Packs, and am leaning towards the latter because I think I will get more loops and software instruments at a cheaper price? Do you have any advice that might tip the scale to Logic’s side?”

The responses are at the googlegroup thread (sign-up required to read the postings). Or you can refer to the comments at Vanessa’s post.