MacUser UK

"...500 tasty samples designed for looping and grooving"

Wanna dance? If Tune-Up for GarageBand doesn't make you the next Norman Cook, you only have yourself to blame. Designed for looping and grooving, with names such as Dark Bass (soul-shaking bass lines), Guitar Rock, Electro FX, Sub Bass and more. Usefully the Tune-Up loops are all prefaced with a 'TU' code, making it easy to track down the loops from each collection. Until Apple makes a better loop management system for GarageBand, this is about the only way you have to find things by source, so give it up for the Tune-Up team.

MacWorld UK - 5/5 stars

"...this product could reignite your creative juices"

I Like GarageBand – it’s a great product: if you want to make country, rock, and movie soundtrack-type music.

However, if you want to create some kicking, banging and ‘avin it techno or Glade Festival-type breaks, you’ll be a little disappointed.

Don’t be. These collections of loops fills the gap, and you’ll find a good selection of basic dance-type sounds to help you create club culture in your living room. Sure – this isn’t everybody’s musical cup-of-tea, but if you were disappointed by the lack of modern relevance of some of Garage Band’s US-centric sounds this UK-born product could reignite your creative juices.

Installation is very easy – just drag-&-drop the loops into GarageBand’s browser window. While some packages like Apple’s Jam Pack require a bit too much effort, this collection makes it easy to find the loops you’ve just added, simply by searching with the ' TU' code, which are included in each sample name. After that, well, you could be well on the way to making your new club classic.

Macworld’s buying advice,if you like country as well as western, this collection won’t work for you – but if you want some classic club compositions or retro 1980’s synth sounds, try the demos on the cover CD or splash out a measly few quid to put the garage in GarageBand.

Copyright Jonny Evans, MacWorld UK

iCreate Magazine - 90%

"...pretty much every kind of sound that you would need"

It's a mark of the success Apple has enjoyed with GarageBand that so many third party developers have sprung up to cater for mac music makers and their insatiable thirst for additional Apple Loops.

GarageBand, as many mac users will already be aware, is a home recording application that provides two ways of making music. Budding musicians have a choice of either recording their own instruments and vocals and using the included Apple Loops to provide a backing track for instruments they lack, or they can create a song entirely by using Apple Loops. Whichever method you favour, there's no doubt that Apple Loops are an essential part of the creative process.

The strength of this collection from UK outfit tunemedia lies in the fact that it mainly specialises in loops for dance music. When we say dance music we're referring to what our US readers might be more familiar with as electronica - an umbrella term for genres like house, techno and drum'n'bass. Although there are several guitar loops and rock drum sounds included with tune-up 1, the majority of the loops are aimed at wannabe producers of urban-style sounds. This is a good move because these are areas where the loops bundled with GarageBand are deficient. Obviously the priority for Apple has to be to cater for as many different genres of music as possible, so more comprehensive collections of sounds that offer greater authenticity to dance music-based projects are often required to fill the void.

Tune-up has categories, which include bass, drums, effects, rhodes, strings and synths. Pretty much every kind of sound that you would need to recreate the deep sounds of Detroit techno, laidback ambient vibes or the relaxed jazz-tinged grooves of deep house are present and correct. Each of the loops is recorded in high quality audio (44hz stereo)...

When it comes to price...Tune-Up's cost compares very favourably with the competition.... a whole 50 per cent cheaper than both of its main rivals.

Another area where this collection offers value is that you're not confined to just using the loops with GarageBand. Because the Apple Loop format is compatible with both Soundtrack, the loop based music creation software included with Final Cut Pro, and Logic, Apple's high-end sequencing software, these loops will work with several programs. For example, if you're starting out with GarageBand it's distinctly possible that you might want to upgrade to Logic Express at some point. Buying this collection means that it's a simple case of transferring your loops to your new program and carrying on from where you left off.

If you looking for a good value collection of high quality loops for electronic music projects there's no need to look any further than Tune-Up. There are definitely enough decent grooves here to help you get the party started.

* All the reviews were based on Garageband Tune-Up Pack 1 and 2, our previous range that was mail order only. Our new range of downloadable packs, Tune-Up Select, are carefully blended from the same loops and therefore of the same quality. Reviews have been edited to reflect these changes.