Product Reviews

GarageBand is brilliant, an insanely great idea. Anyone who buys a Mac instantly acquires a multi-track audio and Midi recording environment. What's more, it doesn't take six months to learn how to use it: more like six minutes. However, as with any sequencer, what you get out is only ever as good as what you put in, and there's no getting round the fact that having superior signal-processing tools generally guarantees better results. The plug-ins supplied with GarageBand aren't bad per se, but you could do better.

Now, thanks to Metric Halo, we can all do a lot better. The company has released a GarageBand-only version of its world-famous ChannelStrip software. Amazingly, this is the exact same rock star-fabulous, ber producer-preferred, Grammy award-winning package as the $700 Pro Tools TDM ChannelStrip, only hugely cheaper. Its sole limitation is that it will only run in GarageBand. We can live with that.

ChannelStrip is based on the functionality of large console-style mixing desks, where signal processors are provided inline on each channel, each tool interacting with the others. Accordingly,

ADVERTISEMENT

ChannelStrip for GarageBand provides three such core tools: Gate/Expander, Compressor and EQ.

As the plug-ins work together, they all share a single interface. However, the GUI is as efficient as the coding and algorithms behind the scenes, so it doesn't appear overcrowded. The graphs can also be folded away, effectively halving ChannelStrip's on-screen demands, while any unused tools or EQ bands can be deactivated to save even more CPU power.

Each processing block is an excellent example of its kind. The EQ is a six-band, fully parametric model, with controls on each band for gain (dB), frequency (Hz) and Q (BW). The curve displayed in the appropriate graph can be manipulated directly using the mouse. The Compressor, meanwhile, has three modes - Smooth, Warm and Fast - and both it and the Gate/Expander have all necessary controls to fine-tune their behaviour.

You can also swap the order of the Compressor and EQ, and the Sidechain function has both the Gate and Compressor with six filter types, so you can pinpoint specific frequencies for the processor to respond to. The overall effect is that everything that runs through ChannelStrip emerges greatly improved.

Metric Halo has also created GarageBand-specific presets, combining the application's own software instruments and plug-ins with ChannelStrip to give the stock sounds another sonic shot in the arm. The plug-in is also already a Universal Binary release, so will run on every GarageBand-compatible Mac. For around £50, this is without a shadow of a doubt the most effective, aurally delicious way to instantly improve your GarageBand recordings. Every GarageBand user should buy - or at least demo - this software.