Robyn Having Fun With
"GarageBand"This section of this page is being put together
January 25, 2009. I bought a
MacBook on January 7, 2009.
It has been an incredible learning experience. I bought a
B.L.U.E. "Snowball"
microphone that works with
GarageBand on,
January 17, 2009. "GarageBand" is a program that came with the MacBook.
It allows you to make recordings. It is like a very fancy tape
recorder, or a very basic recording studio. There are "loads" of
things you can do with GarageBand. You can record speaking voices.
You can record singing voices. You can record live musical
instruments. It also comes with a built in piano and lots of
synthesizer sounds. It even comes with "sample" loops. (That is,
pre-recorded samples [snippets] of music that can be incorporated into a
larger piece of music.) I have been experimenting with GarageBand.
Some of what I have doesn't sound very "good". I am learning. "Good" is
relative I guess. I am heavily influenced by some of the
"electronic"
music that I have heard via CBC
Radio 2. Especially what I hear on "The Signal," and
"Nightstream" programs.
Here I go putting this part of the page
together with "digital" sounds; as I listen to analogue radio via Radio
Exterior d'Espaņa. I'm listening to what I assume to be a "La Liga"
(soccer, football) match in Spanish. ["La Liga" = the League.
Don't ask me who's playing/winning, as I don't know Spanish well
enough.]
Another side note, I was recently watching a
documentary
about the Helvetica
font. In the shots where they were interviewing eminent graphic
designers, I kept seeing the Apple
logo on all the computers seen in the background. Before I saw
this, I was thinking that to be "compatible" with the wider world, I had
to do things in Windows. When I saw those Apple computers, I was
very happy to think, "Wow! I have one too.".
Some of these do not qualify as "music" probably. At least not
"music" in any "traditional" sense of the word. Douglas doesn't like any
of these. I like some better than others. I do listen to
some pretty strange stuff that is commercially available at times.
Most of it is rarely Douglas' cup of tea. (If you want a play-list
of what I mean by "strange stuff"
click here.)
I will stick these in the order I remember recording them. One
or two were recorded over two days or so. The thing with
GarageBand is you can record things in layers. You can put sound
on top of sound. For example, with the music feature, you can record one
instrument and then another. One person can play a whole band if
they want to. Then when you save it, it melds the various
instruments into one song.
You can read my comments and decide for yourself which ones you want
to listen to. These are fairly short files by the way.
The ones recorded with sounds found around the
house, need a louder volume in order to be heard properly.
The ones made with sounds from GarageBand, need to
be heard at a lower volume probably.
Experiment 1
1:08 (one minute and eight seconds
long)
This is the first one I did. January 16, 2009 It is really
not very good. It sounds very gloomy. This one will give you some
idea of what can be done with GarageBand. These are sounds built
into GarageBand. I am playing them on the piano that comes with
it.
Experiment 2
1:38
From, January 16, 2009. I like this one a lot better.
Somehow I wonder if the "melody" isn't copyright. It almost
reminds me of the 1970's song, "Rollercoaster" in some way. I am
not meaning to violate anyone's copyright. These are sounds built into
GarageBand. I am playing them on the piano that comes with it.
Hello Number 1
0:29
January 16, 2009 I was clowning around with the Sony microphone,
and Professional Walkman (see below). This one is a bunch of layered
sounds from around the house. There is my voice, a tea kettle, a
typewriter. In case you were wondering, I'm typing, "H E L L O"
repeatedly. What I did was, connect the tape recorder
(Professional Walkman) to the computer. I set the tape recorder to
record, without a tape in it. I used the microphone connected to
that to get the sound onto the computer. It was a very simple
thing to do. I don't like doing it, as it seems like it could be
"hard" (difficult) on the motor. I still have a couple boxes of blank
tapes. I want my tape recorders to last as long as they can.
That's why I invested in the "Snowball".
The Assault on the Sense of Hearing
1:31
January 17, 2009 This one was recorded with the Snowball. It
is a bunch of layered sounds that can be heard around our house.
I'll list the sounds in the order I recorded them. You won't be
able to hear them in this order though. I stuck the quieter ones
near the end, and others near the front. How many of these do you
hear? (One item was removed.) It is advantageous
to listen to this one with the volume up louder than the rest.
Squeak of two hot water bottles; a small
transistor radio playing Radio Havana Cuba as the listener tunes the
radio to produce a squeal; price sticker on a can of soup (very faint);
a knife sawing through cardboard producing a squeak; twisting the
stopper of a "fancy" perfume bottle to produce a squeak; plastic wrapper
opening; knife against a bottle; heavy plastic wrapper and wet fingers
producing another squeak like sound; a thick glass singing; small metal
Christmas "charms" in a glass rattling; a thin glass singing; bubble
wrap with small bubbles; floor squeaking as I walk on it while I allow
the faucet to drip; faucet dripping 1; faucet dripping 2; (I was trying
to get it to drip loudly)-- water in steel cooking pan (stewer);
stirring soup in can + cat meowing; plate and spoon;
loud chewing; slurping of soup; fork against a plate; spoon scraping
against a bowl.
2The Assault on the Sense of Hearing
1:31
January 23, 2009 This is pretty much the same as the one above.
The only difference is the way I "saved" this version. I "saved" it in
such a way that it has better sound supposedly. It is a larger
file. I was trying to boost the volume a little bit. Don't
know that I accomplished anything by "saving" it that way.
Experiment
No. 3 0:32
January 23, 2009 This is another one made with the sounds in
GarageBand. I used one of their "sample loops". It is the
string orchestra part you hear repeated.
Experiment No. 4 January 23, 2009
1:01
January 23, 2009 This one is from the sounds in GarageBand too. I took
the rasping sounds I recorded for Experiment No. 3 and stuck that on
here. This one always sounds like it needs something. The
rasping doesn't help it any. (see next one)
Experiment No. 4 January 23, 2009 Two
1:01 (probably)
January 25, 2009 This is essentially the selection above with the
rasping sound removed. This one isn't too bad.
