MacJams.com has done the first review of Apple GarageBand Jam Pack that I’ve seen. The Jam Pack is an add-on to GarageBand, one of the components of
Apple iLife ’04.
The Jam Pack includes 2,046 new loops (synthetic instruments playing phrases from a musical score). Many of these loops could be considered members of families with some of the loops that come with GarageBand in the iLife ’04 package. Jam Pack also includes a number of new synthetic instruments and effect pre-settings.
MacJams’ review is quite interesting because it contains several screen shots, as well as a detailed explanation of how the GarageBand application is structured and how add-ons are installed.
The reviewer liked the Jam Pack enough to recommend it. The conclusion reads, in part:
After playing with the Jam Pack for some time, it seems to be well worth the expense. Very compelling are the nifty new guitar amps, which allow you to make some truly cool sounds. And, you don’t even need a guitar to get them — any instrument capable of outputting an analog sound can be run through GarageBand’s guitar amplifier to get a very convincing guitar sound….
And, of course, adding over 2,000 loops to your collection greatly decreases the possibility that your songs will sound like everyone else’s.
It’s reasonable to expect that there will be quite a few add-on packages for GarageBand, but it may take a while for them to come to market. Apple’s first add-on, the Jam Pack, looks like its worth the money, and its release comes quite quickly after the initial shipment of iLife ’04.