| 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 instrumnets 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 refering 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 wannabee 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 1 divides over 500 loops into 11 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) and a clutch of demo songs are included so that you can see what it's possible to achieve using just the loops in this collection.
When it comes to price, the £19.99 tune-up 1 will cost you compares very favourably with the competition. Power FX sells similar collections for $49 each and samples4 charges £30 for single CD-ROM's, making tune-up 1 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.
Better still, by purchasing tune-up 1 you will also acquire membership to the tuneuploops.com website. This gives you additional benefits, such as the ability to download free collections of loops and the chance to make a saving on future tune-up releases. Not only a great way of building additional value into the product, but it also encourages customer loyalty.
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 1. There are definately enough decent grooves here to help you get the party started. | |
