Has a hit song ever been written or produced using Apple's Garageband software?

March 15, 2006 9:58 AM

Has a hit song ever been written or produced using Apple's Garageband software?
posted by sntamonica to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

I'm willing to bet no, the software just isn't sophisticated enough (although a few certainly sound like they were) and it is a relatively new piece of software in the producing market. It's probably only a matter of time, though.
posted by cyphill at 10:09 AM on March 15, 2006

Probably not, it's really limited into what it can do. But Apple's Logic software has produced plenty of dance music hits :)
posted by empath at 10:10 AM on March 15, 2006

Yeah, it's pretty much an introductory app from what I have heard. Still, you can have a lot of fun with it! :)
posted by smallerdemon at 10:11 AM on March 15, 2006

Garageband is a really nice starter program, and if a person was crafty, I think they could put together something fairly solid in it (as it seems that people already have). I know that several big-name artists (starting with Nine Inch Nails, I believe) have distributed packages of their songs to be remixed with Garageband.

As mentioned above, though, Logic seems to be the way that people go once they realize the limitations that Garageband has. A friend and I are doing an album in Logic Pro and I'm saying right now it's totally going to be a hit. :)
posted by almostcool at 10:17 AM on March 15, 2006

The Big studios own the industry. So I would say no.
posted by spakto at 10:21 AM on March 15, 2006

Not really an answer to your question, but Nine Inch Nails offered one of their songs as a GarageBand file. This doesn't mean that they produced it with GarageBand, only that they put it up to be remixed with the app.
posted by revgeorge at 10:36 AM on March 15, 2006

I think, btw, that a hit song COULD be written using only garage band. Certainly songs have been made with less.
posted by empath at 10:45 AM on March 15, 2006

Hit songs? No.
Though, I would bet that more than a few mixes have made their way into clubs.
More than a few popular podcasts, however, are recorded and mixed in Garageband.
It really is a fun little app. And a good intro to audio production.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:49 AM on March 15, 2006

If someone had done it, it would almost certainly have been as a stunt just to show it could be done, not because it's a professional tool.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 12:02 PM on March 15, 2006

I get the impression that the people saying "No, it's not a professional tool" are answering the "produced" part. "Written" is certainly a realistic possibility, though.
posted by mendel at 12:56 PM on March 15, 2006

interesting question though, is there any place to see what artists have used what software?

i know some artists have used old atari and amiga computers, and i know beastie boys and some other big bands have used propellerheads reason, and pro-tools is almost omnipresent it seems.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 1:26 PM on March 15, 2006

The "hit" part is really key. People like Ariel Pink, Daniel Johnston, The Mountain Goats, etc have used far less sophisticated methods. Good question - I am very curious.
posted by ORthey at 1:30 PM on March 15, 2006

Dunno about Garageband, but hit songs have been written on a Playstation (a lot of grime stuff).
posted by 31d1 at 2:14 PM on March 15, 2006

In an interview in Rolling Stone, Fall Out Boy admits to using GarageBand to record their demo.
posted by itchie at 4:58 PM on March 15, 2006

Best answer: I'm not sure if this song is a hit, or just a song onthe album, but I know Fort Minor has made it pretty big on the shoulders of Linkin Park's success. Anyway, here are the details of the garageBand loop on a song on their record.
posted by Chuck Cheeze at 9:10 PM on March 15, 2006

The NiN track was, if memory serves me correctly, mixed in Apple's professional audio app Logic Pro and exported to GarageBand format so people could tinker with it.
posted by jeversol at 10:08 PM on March 15, 2006

It's not impossible for someone using an "entry" level app like GarageBand to have a hit, even a #1. Why not? A great song isn't defined by the medium it's recorded in. The way it's recorded has an impact, of course, but not the medium. How many hit records are recorded that are out of tune? How many hit records have been recorded that speed up or slow down? How many hits are badly recorded, analog or digital? a mediocre song can sound amazing...even perfect, who cares?!
posted by vurnt22 at 1:27 PM on April 19, 2006