GarageBand

And “give” is the right word. Every new Macintosh from Apple comes with a free copy of GarageBand already installed. If you have an older Mac, you can purchase a copy of Apple’s iLife software suite, which includes GarageBand, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD, all for a very modest $79. (You can learn more at www.apple.com/ilife.)

GarageBand is a great place to get started learning what you can do with music software. Using just this one program, you can record music that sounds surprisingly good. If you’re a songwriter, you can record your own songs and export them as high-quality AIF files, ready to burn onto an audio CD with the aid of iTunes. If you’ve imported digital home movies into your Mac, you can use GarageBand to add a soundtrack and then export your multimedia production to DVD. GarageBand is also a reasonable choice for more seasoned musicians who need a scratchpad on which to record ideas or quick demos.

GarageBand is a type of program known as a sequencer or digital audio workstation (DAW). Like other DAWs, it can record and play back music in two formats: digital audio and MIDI. Digital audio contains actual sound, such as a mandolin strumming, a beat played on drums, or a vocal. As explained in “What’s This For?” in July, MIDI is a performance control language that’s used to tell electronic instruments which notes to play, how loud to play, and so forth. In GarageBand, MIDI playback is handled by a suite of built-in software instruments, which can produce a wide variety of sounds.

You can build up full-sounding music arrangements in GarageBand by layering parts for different instruments. For example, your song might contain drums, bass, piano, a string orchestra, and a vocal. Each instrument is assigned to its own track, and the tracks run parallel to one another, with all of the instruments playing at once (unless you leave gaps — it’s up to you).

To record a vocal, or some other external instrument such as a guitar, you’ll need to connect a microphone to the computer’s audio input jack. (For better sound quality, you might want to consider adding a hardware peripheral called an audio interface to your Mac.) After recording, you can add effects such as reverb, which creates the echoing sound of a concert hall. You can also mix your computer-based ensemble by changing the volume level of various instruments.

Even if you have very limited musical training, you can produce stylish, intelligently arranged music in GarageBand thanks to the generous set of Apple Loops bundled with the program. Apple Loops come in various musical styles, such as country and rock/blues. Each Apple Loop contains a short musical phrase that can be repeated (looped) as often as needed to create a longer piece of music. Collections of Apple Loops containing more source material in specific musical styles are available for purchase from Apple and other companies.

An external MIDI keyboard is a desirable accessory. After connecting it to the Mac via USB, you can use it to play GarageBand’s software instruments. After recording a MIDI track, you can edit it to fix wrong notes and make other changes. If you don’t have a keyboard, though, you can record MIDI tracks by clicking the keys on GarageBand’s built-in screen keyboard with the mouse.

Let’s be honest: GarageBand lacks some of the features found in professional-level music software. But that’s okay, because you probably don’t want to deal with the headaches and hassles pro studios have to confront, or spend the kind of money they lay out for fancy accessories. As a way to get started with computer-based recording and experiment with the basic techniques of MIDI editing, mixing, and more, GarageBand is an unbeatable resource.