|
| Apple iLife '08 | 
 enlarge | From: Apple
Category: Software
List Price: $79.00
Buy New: $58.99
You Save: $20.01 (25%)
New (8) Used (2) from $52.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  102 reviews
Sales Rank: 76
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Mac Os X, Macintosh
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Standard
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 5.3 x 0.8
MPN: MB015Z/A
Model: MB015Z/A
UPC: 885909167319
EAN: 0718908999677
ASIN: B000BX5JQG
Release Date: August 11, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New! Part # MB615Z/A. In sealed retail box! Ships fast, free expedited upgrade,next business day!
|
| Customer Reviews:
 GarageBand, GarageBand, GarageBand, GarageBand, GarageBand, GarageBand! August 21, 2007
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
GarageBand 08. That's what I bought iLife 08 for. I don't see any reviews here for this superb and yet unjustly, incorrectly maligned program, so I'm here to fill that gap, and tell other musicians why I think GB is worth the entire price of iLife 08 by itself. First, I don't use iPhoto - I use Adobe Bridge CS3. I don't use iMovie... nor do I have any need to make DVDs with iDVD. For web production, I use Dreamweaver CS3 and Photoshop CS3, not iWeb. And I don't need podcasting capabilities.
I payed my money for GarageBand alone, less than a tenth of the price of Logic Pro (which I also own), and GB has all of the essential bits and pieces that I need to play, mix and produce excellent quality music. I skipped upgrading to the last version of iLife, because GarageBand was suddenly turned into a Podcast program during the height of the Podcasting craze, and the musicians wants and wishes took a back seat. This version of GarageBand has been improved so much it is serious competition for the "Big Boy Pro Applications."
GarageBand 08 is now a home studio capable of recording a full blown CD with (new) 24-bit audio recording and playback. - You must have a 24 bit capable USB or Firewire audio interface to record Real Instrument tracks (guitar, vocals, mic'd drums ..etc.) to take full advantage of this feature. - These are abundant and affordable on the web. Some of the other features that I like (that are new) are featured below.
But first a word about "Magic GarageBand". When I first saw this I thought it was the lamest, most pathetic looking thing I had ever seen! A corny mock up of a stage spotlighting each instrument??? Come on! But then I auditioned one of the Blues "genres". And to my surprise... I liked it! I brought into the multi-track time line, plugged in my Les Paul and was jamming with a great band! This was a great treat for a home studio musician like me. It was really nice jamming with some one other than my self and loops.
Now for the new features that I love and are new in this edition of GarageBand.
1. Multi take recording. Say you mess up a Real Instrument part. Simply set up a loop over top of the track(s) you messed up and re-record another 1, 2, 3 ..etc takes. Then audition each take, pick the best one and throw out the rest. This feature has only been available in the high priced programs until now.
2. Visual EQ: If you have a track that has too much treble, you can adjust it, by making the EQ curves visible, clicking on the pencil and manually pulling the Visual EQ curves down into the correct range. You can also do this with bass and low and high mid frequencies as well.
3. Arrangements: For songwriters this functionality allows you to keep track of verse, chorus, middle eight and all the other bits and pieces that make up songs while composing. This means, that you can mark off the chorus, and copy and paste it in farther down the line. A brilliant time saver.
3. Automation: With this feature you can dig into the mix and speed up, slow down tracks, making a song pick up tempo on all tracks without making the singer sound like Mickey Mouse. And speaking of vocals, if they don't match the song's present key, simply click on the LCD and raise or lower the entire key of the song to fit your vocal range! Another nice touch previously only available on the "Pro" applications!
Finally, GarageBand 08 has an elegantly simple user interface that does not get in the way of me and my creative spark. No interface distractions, no I/O problems ... it just works. Buy it, it's worth every penny, and a bit more.
 Great consumer software August 21, 2007
56 out of 68 found this review helpful
It seems that some people are disappointed in the new iMovie, which is substantially different than the old one. The new one is much easier for most non-computer people to use, making it possible for just about anyone to make a movie quickly and easily. So what's wrong with that? That ease of use sacrifices many of the uber-advanced features that technical people love. Everything is packaged and ready-to-go to look good, but you can add advanced volume or video controls and filters. In the end, this will push the technical people to buy the more advanced Final Cut Express, and make the majority of the population able to finally make a movie quickly. What you think of this depends on what you want. Personally, I like it because I don't have a lot of time to satisfy my inner geek.
The other software is generally improved. I am a big fan of the new iPhoto events, which groups your photos according to the days and times you took the photos. For this to work, you've got to set your camera's time and date correctly; otherwise, the events are grouped into odd clusters. iWeb is improved with better management for personal sites. Garageband has a new Magic Garageband feature that makes it much easier to generate your own music. All of this software is more efficient at handling today's huge data files.
One caveat to all of this software is that there are more bugs than I'd like. Apple does do a good job fixing bugs, though, and most things I do work fine. Also, this software appreciates a newer Mac - either a 2.0 Ghz or faster G5 or an Intel Mac are required to use the new iMovie. So if you're using a G4 or older processor, you might be disappointed by the speed of this software. On the other hand, with a newer computer, you'll probably be impressed by the speed.
Generally, if you like fast, easy-to-use software and you have a newer computer, you'll love the new iLife. If you're a technie and you like to have lots of features and options, this update might not impress you.
 Keywords in iPhoto is mangled August 18, 2007
12 out of 20 found this review helpful
While everyone is beating up on iMovie 08 (deservedly) there's other things people need to beware of before upgrading to iLife 08. iPhoto 08 has mangled the Keyword interface, making it less efficient and a pain to use.
I use iPhoto 06's keyword feature to organize and recall photo's totally. While 06 allowed you to have a single keyword interface up all the time for Assigning and Filtering (and allowed you to resize the Keyword buttons so larger keywords are shown) - this is all gone in 08.
Now you have two interfaces for keywords, one for assigning and one for filtering. Both interfaces have to be called up when you want them (you can't have them load up at app start), the filtering interface (the one you'd use the most) fades out after you move you're mouse somewhere else, then you have to call it up again. The button's with the keywords for both interfaces (assigning & selecting) are now rediculously small and won't get them sized much larger - designed for one word keywords obviously. Any keyword more than two small words is abbreviated. Have two keywords like "name 2006 birthday" and "name 2007 birthday" both look like "name 200..." now. If you have keywords with two names in it that aren't both short forget it, abbreviated so second name is non readable. You can't reorder the keywords in the interfaces, to group the related ones together, like you could before - alphabetical only now. In the Filtering interface you have an area to put often used keywords, but again it groups them alphabetically defeating the purpose if you have more than 5 you want to use there as you have to start scanning alphabetically to fine your keys.
The sad thing in all this is that the original area where the prior version keyword interface existed is still available - this update for keyword functionally was totally unnecessary. To think that alot of development effort was wasted to make a key feature more complex and less useful is a real downer - and should be a black mark for the project manager who did this.
If I could unload iPhoto 08 to get iPhoto 06 back I would. I want to keep the rest of 08 on as I like them (using iMovie 08 as video organizer with HD for edits for example). If Adobe updated Photoshop Elements for Mac to use its tag interface from Windows I'd be all over it now. In fact if they did this for Photoshop Elements and did a good port/update of Premiere Elements to the Mac, Apple would be in a bad spot with regards to iPhoto 08 and iMovie 08. Sad...
Keyword users, beware of iPhoto 08.
Excellent for the non-Tech August 17, 2007
9 out of 18 found this review helpful
I was a little surprised by the ratings I saw by some of the Apple / Mac "faithful", on this latest edition of iLife. I just received my copy, and found it to be a pleasure to work with, and was particularly pleased with iPhoto and its enhanced interface. This suite of software is, principally, geared to the non technical person, and is excellent for for my family and friends who don't work the WEB for a living, as I do. Of course, I work with CS3 and a number of very high-end packages, but it isn't fair to compare them to iLife, which seems to be what some of the other reviewers are doing (or wish it was). If you're looking for a package that will more than please the bulk of the Mac users, you won't be disappointed --- if you're looking for professional products with a great deal more features and flexibility, you'll have to spend your money elsewhere.
 They should have a zero stars option August 15, 2007
23 out of 35 found this review helpful
Let's say little Joey catches his first baseball. Want to slow it down. Sorry. A bunch of kids at a party running around and want to speed it up? You can't. Want to change a transition? Can't. Want to use some plug ins. Nope. Do not buy this software if you use iMovie. I should have read the reviews. The reason you can make a movie so fast is because there aren't those annoying features that get in the way. You can download iMovie 06 for free though! While you're at it go ahead and download OS 8, it's free as well.
|
|
|
Copyright
©
2006 Adminpal LLC | |
