GarageBand Part of iLife 08 for Mac Part Two

Apple's latest version of GarageBand is referred to as a "Digital Audio Workstation." Looking at the program, it is difficult to tell exactly what can be done with it, but as with most Apple products, the simplicity is often just another feature of an extraordinarily powerful application.

One of the most popular and useful features of GarageBand is the ability to take recorded audio and apply any number of very powerful filters to process the audio into a different or more stylized format. For example, a voice could have a chorus filter applied to make the sound more dissolved, while an opposite effect could make the sound sharper. These are known as "real instrument" effects, and they can be combined with both standard voice recordings and software instruments or even MIDI playback in the main mixer interface.

The most recent version of GarageBand, which ships with the newest iLife Suite, iLife '08, provides external MIDI instruments with an interface through which they can process MIDI messages such as pitch, volume and modulation. This gives external instruments much more power within GarageBand. It is likely that future versions of GarageBand will allow MIDI instruments greater control over their sound and effects.