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My first week with a Mac Computer.. After years using a PC. And how I’m learning to use Garage Band!

Well since around 1995 I have been using PC computers. As I stated in my previous post I recently bought a Mac-Mini. Ya, I bought the cheapest mac-mini available. The Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A Desktop (NEWEST VERSION) and the Corsair 8GB (2x 4GB) 1333mhz kit. I bought the Corsair ram kit since most of the reviews I read said that the new Mac-Mini sucked if you didn’t increase the ram.

So far the transition has been pretty painless. I used my existing DVI monitor, pc keyboard and pc mouse (this mac mini comes with a hdmi to dvi adapter so I didn’t have to buy anything else to get it up and running). Which is working out quite well. One problem I had was the way the mouse wheel moved text in a browser, but that was easily fixed by unchecking “Move content in the direction of finger movement when scrolling or navigating” in the “General Settings/Mouse” applet. The second issue for me was the control and windows keys being switch. So I went in the “General Settings/Keyboard” and swapped control with the window/apple key.  Now, its almost like a PC but it’s a Mac. And, to be honest the iLife software that comes with a mac is nothing short of incredible so I’m not jonesin for a PC at the moment. In this post I will cover my Garageband ’11 experience so far.

GarageBand! Oh YEAH – I SO LOVE THIS PROGRAM!!

I watched maybe three or four YouTube videos on Garageband 11 and made this simple tune:

GB Test 1

Using GarageBand really piqued my interest. So, I fired up the my Chrome brower and searched for Garageband tutorials, sure YouTube is good. But I wanted more! Finally I came across a website that had free examples of their tutorials. After watching the free tutorials I was extremely impressed. So I researched the product to see what kind of reviews other people had left for it. The reviews were all good, so I pulled the trigger! =)

I bought MacProVideo.com’s GarageBand Core 101 by Scott Freiman.

For a great price it comes with over 74 videos in bite size chunks that thourghly teach you how to use Garageband. What is really cool, if you are in the middle of a GB project you can go back to over the 74 lessons and find a topic that has the info on what your trying to do. Give it a try, as of this writing this tutorial set is less than 20 bux. Ya can’t beat that.. Most courses I have found on other products run in the $99 plus range.

Rock on and keep checking back!
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Songwriters and musicians.. Register your stuff!

Tonight I had a conversation with Laypig over at Layzpig.com.

We found out, after pouring over the legal verbiage of various Performing Rights Organizations (PRO). It appears you need to be careful when you publish your music online, and realize that what you post to various sites on the internet might become property of the public domain. Sure you will get exposure which could mean BIG BUCKS, but ya just might lose out if your stuck in a rut and can’t come up with new material.


So, if you have a song that you think is really good, and you did all the work on it yourself (or really love your band mate’s or co-writer’s and have that trust thing goin on) – ya just might not want to start showing your wicked new jams off till you have fully researched the details of what you might be losing.  In case you want to do a bit a researching yourself I have provided the links below:

Performing Rights Organiztion that I know of in the USA:

BMI
ASCAP
SEASAC

Self Publishing Sites that I know of so far (or feel like digging up at the moment):

Bandcamp
Soundclick
Riffworld
Ourstage
Public Record
Jango Online Radio
Songcast

OK, Im not Aesop, But! The moral of this post is: Read all the terms and services agreements you are getting ready to click before you click em… =)
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New song release! Mustangs wild and free…

Yep, thats right.. I released yet another song. Mustang is a collaboration I did with a great bunch of great guys at Riffworld, using Riffworks. I started this song over 20 years ago, riffcasted what I had to riffworld and invited the four musicians listed below to see what would happen.. Take a listen.. It turned out quite well if I do say so myself.

“Mustangs are wild and free” Comment & more at RiffWorld.com


Hal, Josh, Jim and Ron helped make this song what it is, and are all excellent musicians.. Below are links to their Riffworld pages and a description of the work they did on this song.

http://www.riffworld.com/Members/Rotund
The excellent main vocals, lyric help where needed, backing guitars and some lead guitar(Co-Writer).

http://www.riffworld.com/Members/Joshua001
Bass, One of the best bass players I have ever heard..

http://www.riffworld.com/Members/pooterpatty
Intro lead guitar, and all the really hot solos, and some of the cool backing guitar fills

http://www.riffworld.com/Members/Stymie
Drummer extrodinaire.. yes those are real live drums on this song, not the electronic never ending drumloops most of my songs have. Ron has a really good ear and helped with the mixing too..