Others say...

"not happy"
it didn't come w/ the cdrom that is needed to learn these lessons. SUCKS.

"Fills a void"
Confidential to Mr Stiv - David Pogue has not written a "missing manual" for the current version of Garageband, which is currently 3 and soon to be supplanted by version 4, so would a book about Garageband 2 (which is as high a version as Mr Pogue's got to) really be better? I hope Mr Pogue or someone else over @ O'Reilly issues something for version 4 in that "missing manual" series, don't get me wrong.

After 7 years recording and mastering audio with Acid and SoundForge, I still consider them superior to this member of the iLife family. Garageband is simultaneously non-intuitive and rather primitive in comparison, but alas, there's no Mac versions of either Acid or SoundForge (please hound SonyMedia about this shortcoming, people) which I find easier to use by virtue of not having to need to perform many extra tasks, redundantly, as Garageband requires. And Logic is 'way pricey, even the Express version. So Garageband it is, and this manual has proven quite useful. I feel that the Apple computer currently has a shortcoming which needs addressing, too: there is no native program included that allows "what you hear" audio to be recorded, which Windows has facilitated since version 3.0 - the audio recorder applet.

"Excellent learning tool"
GarageBand 3: Create and Record Music on a Mac is encyclopedic in scope and of great interest to anyone with an interest in digital audio production, including podcasting. Although I use a Mac for work, this book and its accompanying DVD provided my first introduction to GarageBand 3--Apples' digital audio production software. Having heard good things about the program, I was already intrigued to learn more. However, as this was my first in-depth exposure to any type of digital audio software, I was also fairly intimidated-I was apprehensive that I would need to be a competent musician before I even began. Despite these initial apprehensions I quickly found GarageBand3, by Mary Plummer, to be extremely well-written. It is easy to read. The book is well organized--full of clearly laid out, easy-to-follow instructions and examples.

The book provides details on how to record, arrange and mix music using GarageBand. In addition, there are instructions for how to record your own instruments, as well as more than 1,000 loops (royalty free) that are included with the program. And, once the project is exported it can be easily integrated with other iLife Applications.

The book begins with an overview of GarageBand 3's interface, which I was surprised to find fairly intuitive. The Timeline is also easy to understand and its workings are the subject of Lesson 2. Lessons 3-6 cover arranging music and introduce how to use Software Instruments, Real Instruments and Apple Loops. Lesson 7 examines mixing and adding effects. Lessons 8 and 9 look at using the software for podcast creation and, even scoring movies. The final Lesson covers various information on exporting your completed projects.

Exercises are provided for each chapter. I found following along with them to be of tremendous benefit with learning the application. For example, the exercises for Lesson 8, Creating Podcasts, show you how to set up the voice tracks for your recording. Then the rest of the lesson builds on this initial project to show you how to work with multiple voice tracks, add markers and record sound effects to the Timeline. Learning more about podcasting was my primary motivation for reading this book and I was not disappointed. From the opening pages of this book I was spurred on to learn more. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about GarageBand and I would recommend GarageBand to anyone interested in learning more about podcasting.

"A nice primer for GB newbies"
Purchased this book along with the David Pouge's "Missing Manual" book.

Overall, the Apple Training series is good for those are unfamiliar with recording or the Apple interface for that matter. For those who are more experienced, Pougues book is more useful in a practical way.