Bournemouth — Apr 19th 2011

Tuesday’s meeting was well attended with a dozen people assembled to learn about music making on the Mac and to meet and question the editor of the premium Mac magazine, iCreate.

A presentation by Nick from Solutions took us, at some speed, through the wide range of abilities of GarageBand. This turns out to be a very competent program with a terrific range of options, of pre-recorded short pieces of music for any one instrument, or loops, and a similar method of assembling individual sections of a piece to that used in iMovie.

GarageBand’s big brother, LogicPro is a whole degree of magnitude above the amateur program, as it is clearly designed for professional use. Consequently the options are many times multiplied in every area, with a resulting degree of complexity and of possibilities that leave absolutely no area of making music uncovered. One thing that is available in GarageBand, and not, as far as I could see, in LogicPro is a series of tutorials teaching beginners how play a variety of instruments.

The vast area to be covered in so brief a time naturally led to an over view rather than a detailed examination of both programs, and it is obvious that they would both handsomely repay closer study and use. Nick was a real expert and quite at home in either arena and gave us a good demo.

After the break we circled (literally!) around Jimmy Hayes, who had given up his evening to come and be quizzed and to give us an insight into the manner in which iCreate works. Fortunately his offices are just around the corner from Solutions, so he hadn’t too far to come. We started off by asking him how he sees the role of the Mac User group in today’s world. He was very aware, as are we, of the changes in digital technology that have altered our position, in that information, guidance and tutorials can now all be accessed online. Gone are the days when information and programs were downloaded by the techie few and passed around on (legal) 3.5” floppy discs. However the benefits of meeting people face-to-face, making useful contacts and friends too, and of being able to see how a variety of computer activities are carried out, effectively in the flesh, add up to compelling reasons for coming to a meeting.

iCreate’s place in the Mac magazine market is, Jimmy said, really almost a question of walking a tight-rope, as there are two main groups who have to be catered for - the beginners, be they newbies or switchers, and the more experienced. This is done by a cycle of article on the Mac basics - iWork and iLife etc., and also by articles that show a new twist on using these programs. He was pleased to say that iCreate is very successful in the USA, where it is regarded as a premium magazine, in part because of its content, but also because of the quality of its production - superior paper, excellent colour reproduction and informative articles And it certainly commands a premium price there - $16.00!

We were taken aback to learn that this 150 page monthly magazine is produced by a full-time staff of just three people - Jimmy as editor, a staff writer and a designer. Naturally many articles are commissioned from freelances, but iCreate keeps a strict control over the way in which these are written, briefing the writers on the angle to be taken, the areas to be covered and any specific points to discuss.

All in all an interesting and informative meeting.
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Comments

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Roy Rainford said…

An interesting discussion with the Editor of iCreate magazine, helped by the informal seating 'circle'.
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