GarageBand really needs a jamming feature.

[phatcactus]

I plugged my bass into GarageBand last night, set up some funkay funkay drums and horns and banjo (for ROCK POWER) flipped the loop on, and just went to town on it for a few hours. Every once in a while, I'd have to stop playin', delete some tracks, replace them with new tracks, and then get back into it. BOOO.

What I want is a way to group some loops for my drums, horns, banjo, whatever, and automatically have GarageBand randomly switch 'em around every once in a while, so I can space out with the bass out. The ultimate practice tool: a band with perfect timing that does whatever you want and doesn't get tired!

Although, I'm not sure I'd ever leave my bedroom if this happened, so maybe it's a terrible idea.

 

[karavite]

Hi phatcactus! No, it is not a terrible idea at all! Years and years ago there was a piece of software called "Band in a Box" and it would let you set up the chords of a song, and a style (jazz, swing, bebop, bluegrass, rock, blues, salsa - you name it) then BAM - instant band where you could turn on and off tracks for drums, bass, piano, guitar - whatever you wanted. Sure it was a little cheesy sounding, but it was plenty more reliable than trying to get a few musician friends to all come over to practice with you on a regular basis! I used it as a guitar player and in learning to play over numerous jazz standards where I got the chords from fake books. YOu could even set up codas, repeats for various sections - verse/chorus and it was really easy to set up any song as long as you knew the chords.

Oh my God - it is still out! http://www.pgmusic.com/ then choose "Online Store" - "Macintosh Products" - $80ish. There is a demo too: http://www.pgmusic.com/biabmacdemo.htm

I wonder if it will use internal QuickTime instruments. I would hope so. I used this thing in 1993 with a Classic II and midi out to a few synths and a drum machine. I'm downloading the demo right now and will check back in with you.

 

[karavite]

Oh my God - it runs in Classic!!!

Band-in-a-Box version 11 runs on Mac OS9, or OS8 and requires 16 MB of available memory.
Band-in-a-Box version 11 runs under OS X but may have timing problems using QuickTime, so we recommend OS X users reboot under OS9 to run Band-in-a-Box version 11 without playback timing problems.

You want to see how far UI design has come in ten years? Download this thing, install it and see for yourself! Also, I thought I had it set up to play QuickTime instruments, but I get garbled noise that is somewhat rhythmic. I'm not sure I am willing to take the time to sort through this! I thought a trip down memory lane would be fun, but this is a nightmare!!!

Oh well. Still, it seems like GarageBand could be modified by Apple to do this sort of thing by selecting specific loops for various styles and transposing each loop to a chord or key for however many beats is required for each chord. I mean, it is all almost there and there are SOME people who would like to use the computer to practice. We need GarageBand in a Box!

Until then, at least you are a bass player. Everyone needs a bass player unlike us dime a dozen guitar players! Then again, I play banjo too and there is nothing like the banjo to make silly egotistical speed conscious guitar players feel soooooo slooooooowwwww.