What is your honest opinion of Garageband for MAC?

I bought a new Macintosh this past July after my old one (a bulky and boxy eMac from 2002) was working like a slug and there was no possible way to upgrade it anymore. To this date, I don't see any severe problems with using GarageBand, although my feeling is that how good a song you produce is largely a function of how well you know how to manipulate the program. I don't have any examples on me, but my feeling is that GarageBand is very much equipped to enable a professional producer to produce professional quality material.

My general philosophy on a DAW, or any AU or VST plug-in you download, is that the program is only as good as how well you know the program and the ways of music. Buying super expensive software isn't going to just punch out a great song for you, although if you know how to do something, and that software enables you do that something, then you may well be on your way. As far as GarageBand is concerned, I'm still trying to get all the juices out of it. GarageBand is not nearly as amateurish as some would come to believe. First of all, it's not a free program (either you buy it with iLife or you get it by buying a Mac), and its expansion packs are often about $100 a piece. I have personally never bought any expansion packs, so I don't know how good they are. That being said, GarageBand has some limitations.

The built-in effects are decent, but I often feel very limited in what I can do. For instance, the AUReverb effect isn't the best choice for claps (and probably a lot of other sounds), which I resolved by downloading some great AU plug-ins (which can be found all over the web) that have many different parameters. There are many complex features for most built-in AUs as well, but some are clearly better than others. The Visual EQ works just fine and comes with a helpful spectrum analyzer, however the analyzer does not have an option which lets you see average values, for instance. The AUGraphic EQ is something I use very often and can get you some precise changes. The AUDelay feature is kind of a joke. You can only use delay effects based on time counts (i.e. in terms of milliseconds) instead of having delays that are effected by the beat count. So unless you're really into adding some mathematics into your production, the AUDelay can be a bit frustrating, unless you plan to use AUDelay for some other aesthetic purposes. But alas, no problem, you can still download AU plug-ins that resolve this. In general, Logic (which has all of GarageBand's features and then some) and GarageBand are both capable of using the same AU plug-ins are that are available for download. As far as I know, both Logic and GarageBand are incapable of using VSTs. They are one in the same in that regard, even though Logic seems to be more prevalent in the studios of producers than GarageBand.

In other news, generating instruments is another iffy topic. While I do love the many different available instrument features that make it relatively easy to understand the workings of how to produce a bass, or lead, or pad, the built-in features of GB are hardly the best choice. And for me, it's not even a satisfying choice. I am using the instrument generators that came with Garageband less and less for my projects, although I think you can rock out some great pads with the hybrid instruments feature. And because I use an endless ocean of percussion samples, I don't use the built-in Drum Kit that much either. I don't even touch the built-in Loops, for the sake of creativity.

GB does not have a feature to generate your own sound waves from scratch either, which I again resolved by downloading plug-ins that can generate oscillators that you can tinker with to your heart's desire.

So, to be honest, as of current, except for using some of the effects (such as the pretty solid EQ functions, the AUDistortion, the Echo effect, and several other pretty good built-in effects) and the interface (which is really easy on the eyes) most of my work is based on using downloaded AUs and samples. GB on its own is pretty packed and offers many opportunities for great work, but it's easy to feel limited as you develop, and you can expand your possibilities only by getting plug-ins and, if you wish, some percussion samples.

I have also worked with Ableton Live 7 (only a demo, however.) The interface is less intimidating on GB, but of course this is somewhat because GB is not as complex and diverse. For instance, you can generate sound waves on Live, and the effects (like flanger, chorus, phaser, etc.) are all crammed into the same mini-window, which you much scroll across to see, whereas GB let's you open and close the effects window as you need whilst not taking up so much space.

And I still use GB, although now I'm researching Logic Express 8 ('cause Pro isn't worth the extra $200 to me) to see if it's worth the purchase.