Apple Garageband Jam Pack: Symphony Orchestra Review

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(More customer reviews)The day before I ordered this Jam Pack, I had received an M-Audio 88es USB velocity sensitive keyboard from amazon (reviewed separately) Keystation 88es 88 Key USB MIDI Controller and sustain pedal M-Audio SP-2 US65010 Sustain Pedal Piano Style Sustain Pedal for Keyboards
The standard Garage Band 'Grand Piano' sounded just "OK", and there was no harpsichord. Those were my prime reasons for ordering this Jam Pack... and to have fun with the other sounds, of course.
The Steinway Piano in this pack is substantially better than the standard Garage Band piano. Neither is perfect - but this Steinway is great for the price. The difference is more than the soft hammer sound of a Steinway vs a hardened hammer sound of the standard piano. The velocity response and the behavior of sustained notes is much more realistic. The default settings have a fair amount of reverb - to simulate a concert hall. Adjusting that and other sliders can give a sound more appropriate to other settings.
It still does not sound like a real grand piano of course - there are no induced harmonics when the sustain pedal is depressed, for example. But, not bad at all.
The harpsichord is pretty disappointing in comparison. The lower register is amplified way louder than the upper - roughly everything below middle C as I recall. I haven't tried adjusting bass reduction effects etc to make it sound more 'correct'. Also, considerable reverb in the default 'Orchestra Harpsichord' to reflect a large hall. Lower that to get a chamber sound.
The variety of attack modes that are adjustable by keyboard control are pretty nice for instruments such as the strings and brass.
The huge quantity of loops (over 3 GB) will be of less use to me, but can be handy for making some quick transitions or tracks for videos - since Garage Band is basically THE sound editor for iMovie and Final Cut Express now. I had expected that the loops would be performances on real instruments, but many (most?) sound like sampled digital instruments to my ear.
If you want a better piano, a harpsichord and/or symphonic instruments, this pack is a great deal.
PS Not in the product description, so I just noticed: The Jam Pack comes with a selection of 'demo songs' reached from the File > Open Demos menu. (If shared, these reside on disk at Users > Shared > Symphony Orchestra Demo Songs.) Five symphonic themes as an orchestra of MIDI instruments and 8 loop (wave) compositions. Fun to mess with and good for learning purposes.

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Apple Garageband Jam Pack: Remix Tools Review

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(More customer reviews)This Jam Pack just made my GarageBand fun again I was so tired of the limited loops and sound and now I have all these great loops and synths, worth it!

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Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar Review

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(More customer reviews)Pros:
- Improved performance (nearly matches the lightweight Mac OS Classic)
- Feature-laden Finder
- Rock-solid UNIX stability
- Stunning Aqua UI, easy to use
- Great network support (especially in regards to Windows)
- Improved font rendering engine (not as fuzzy looking as before)
- Great assortment of free iApps (iChat, iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes -- soon iCal and iSync)
- Virtually every applets have undergone upgrades (e.g., Address Book, Calculator, Mail, Sherlock, Terminal)
- Rapidly increasing number of native OS X applications
- Super easy upgrade from OS X 10.1 (but I recommend clean install for "freshness")
Cons:
- Internet Explorer is embarrassingly buggy and limited (upcoming Internet Explorer 6.0 should remedy most of its shortcomings)
- Limited customization (e.g., mouse pointer, color, limited number of "themes")
- Still buggy (I found several iChat, Finder, and Mail bugs after weeks of use; soon-to-be-released 10.2.1 free patch should fix most of these)
- Incompatibility with some 10.1 applications
- Skimpy manual
- Slow help engine
- Some free iApps or applets need more features (i.e., you cannot edit photos with iPhotos)
I've switched to Mac platform nearly a year ago, courtesy of Apple PowerBook G4 667 MHz (Gigabit) and Mac OS X 10.1. I've been computing under Microsoft platform for over 17 years, starting with PC-DOS 3.1 in 1995, Windows 2.0 in 1987, and continuing with most iteration of Windows ever since. I've also used various flavors of UNIX (Solaris, AIX, Linux), but mostly for academic and professional reasons.
For an OS only 3 years of age, the Mac OS X is surprisingly mature and complete. For most number of users (including Windows "switchers"), Mac OS X is highly capable. Just throw in few productivity applications (e.g., Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office v.X, Quicken) and download some freeware (e.g., Mozilla), you have nearly full-featured system.
Dare I say it? The Mac OS X is the best client operating system there is. Yes, it is not YET as polished and matured as older systems such Windows XP and Mac OS Classic, but on the plus side, it has little or none of the "old operating system" baggage. Mac OS Classic compatibility box is kept separate (so much that it no longer comes bundled with OS X), with modern Cocoa and traditional Carbon APIs to attract large number of developers (there are now more developers writing Mac software than ever before).
Although OS X takes a lot longer to boot than Windows XP, its rock solid foundation makes it a moot advantage. I've experienced some crashes under 10.1, but none with 10.2. My PowerBook frequently felt sluggish under 10.1, but with 10.2, it is quite speedy (still not as fast as my IBM ThinkPad with 1.6 GHz Pentium 4-m processor, however).
I highly recommend OS X to power users willing to explore new OS, students (particularly graphics and engineering students), or basic users looking for stable and easy to use platform.

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Referred to by its code name, Jaguar, Mac OS X 10.2 contains more than 150 newfeatures and provides significant enhancements to its modern, Unix-based foundation.From AOL-compatible instant messaging to advanced junk mail filtering and arevolutionary Web search tool, Jaguar is as innovative as the computers that run it.
With iChat, the AOL-compatible instant messenger, you can chat with your AOL andMac.com buddies through a fun, easy-to-use interface. Sherlock 3, the new Web searchtool, delivers stock quotes, maps, restaurants, and more without a browser. QuickTime 6supports MPEG-4, the new worldwide standard for playing and viewing pro-quality audioand video over the Internet. This new version also includes Rendezvous, a revolutionarynetworking technology that lets you link computers and devices instantly without anyconfiguration.
Another cool new feature is Inkwell, which lets you write on a graphics tablet, andJaguar turns your handwriting into typed text at the cursor in any application. Andwith new compatibility built into Mac OS X 10.2, sharing files, using Windows documents,and connecting to a Windows network have never been easier. And it easily runs MicrosoftOffice. For business users, Jaguar comes with Active Directory interoperability, and witha PPTP-based VPN (virtual private network) client that allows Mac users to connect remotelyto Windows corporate networks.
Jaguar's complete suite of professional-quality developer tools now features GCC 3.1, whichradically improves C++ build times and standards compliance. The updated Interface Buildermakes it easier to group, lock, and drag Aqua controls between windows for rapid user-interfacecreation. And, perhaps best of all, these professional tools are still included with everycopy of Jaguar, empowering Java, C, and AppleScript Studio developers to do their best workon the Macintosh platform.

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