[macvoiceover] New GarageBand Observations
- From: Bryan Smart <bryansmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 03:09:45 -0400
Hi everyone. I've spent some time tonight playing with the new GarageBand in
iLife 11. Decided to write a bit about what I've discovered.
Just a preface to say that my comments are colored by the fact that I'm a
fairly high end user. My typical working environments are Sonar on Windows for
sequencing, and Pro Tools on the Mac for editing. Each of these apps has
profoundly complete accessibility as compared to anything offered in GarageBand
or Logic, so it is easy for me to point to ways where they fall short.
Nevertheless, the improvements are significant in the latest version.
The most important part of the new GB is that it is finally possible to
actually select something to edit it. Previously, the largest problem with GB
was, regardless of the features, we couldn't edit anything. The situation is
far from perfect in the new GB, as compares to Sonar or Pro Tools, but, at
least now, it is possible to edit. More on that in a moment.
What most people will notice right away, though, is the improved UI
organization. Apple has reworked the organization of GB's user interface to
better take advantage of groups. After the time that I've spent with Pro Tools,
it is easy to imagine that Apple took a lead from the decisions that Avid made
when designing its interface. It would take a lot of time to explain what is
easily understood through use, but, it is enough to say that the main GB window
is much more hierarchically organized than before. Areas of the window, such as
the loop browser and track editor, show up as their own group. Interacting with
those groups reveals a group of controls, often containing other groups of
related controls. It does seem that, for some tasks, I spend a lot of time
moving up and down through layers of interaction. That takes a bit of time,
but, at least the layers, and controls in those layers, are well organized now.
When you look at the new GB interface, you'll find that concepts haven't
changed, but the organization, at least from VoiceOver's perspective, has
changed.
Now, on to what is newly possible.
The arrangement group now contains many controls. In particular, these controls
now include layout controls that represent the regions of audio or MIDI data
that have been recorded to a track. It is therefore possible to select a region
(such as an existing loop on a track, or a recorded MIDI region), and
copy/paste it to other locations on the time line. Since you can select
individual regions, it is also possible to do things like enable looping for
them,, or to delete them from the track. Selection, in my mind, is the most
important advancement in the new GB. Since we can actually select something, we
have the option of deleting or editing it. Previously, GB was not too much more
than a glorified multitrack tape recorder with included softsynth. Now, editing
is possible, and, without using the mouse.
Next, the track strip interface has been completely reworked. Track strips are
accessed as a group of the arrangement group. The new strips make it possible
to edit all track strip parameters, including the pan control, directly from
the keyboard. Now, thankfully, a control surface is no longer required to make
this change.
I'm not sure yet if it is through direct integration with VoiceOver or not, but
the new GB seems to speak many things automatically. One of them that you'll
immediately notice is navigation by time. When using the left and right arrows
to move the play head in the song, VoiceOver will speak the new position. Since
we can select regions now, and can copy regions to the clipboard with
Command+C, it is handy to navigate with either arrows or Option+arrows,
listening for VO to speak the correct time, and then drop in the copied region
with Command+v.
The old method of moving loops on to the time line is no longer required.
Besides the new loop browser's full redesign, which works great with VO,
selected loops in the browser can now be copied with Command+C, and then pasted
on to the time line with Command+V. There is no longer a need to mess with
manually positioning the mouse. I made a new song tonight, entirely out of
loops, without having to depend on the old methods.
Generally, GB has received lots of VO attention. Most every control now has a
help message. In many cases, the help messages not only explain the purpose of
the control, but provide specific values. For example, when editing a synth
generator's parameters, the help tag will now speak the real world values that
are indicated through modifying a slider. Changing a volume, for example, might
say 80% through VoiceOver as the position of a slider, but the help message
will helpfully tell you that the real world value is -6 DB. This has happened
literally all over GarageBand.
In summary, this is the largest improvement to GB the I can ever remember, as
applies to accessibility. If you use GB, I suggest the upgrade, hands down! It
is absolutely worth the $49!.
GB still has several limitations that prevent it from being anything like Sonar
or Pro Tools. Of course, GB is a taste tester for Logic, which matches Sonar
and Pro Tools in features. However, I mean that GB still lacks accessibility
features that prevent it from being as useful to blind users as Sonar or PT.
Even still, Apple has really done a great job with the improvements in the new
GB. I hope with sincerity that they take the same approach with Logic. In
Logic, a big problem is the same problem that has existed with GB, being the
lack of the ability to select anything The same approach in Logic, with
exposing regions in the arrangement view, would remove most of those
limitations.
I expect that many of the home-based users with few requirements in a digital
audio workstation package will be very excited about the new GarageBand. I
wholeheartedly suggest the upgrade, and hope that Apple continues to carry
these great ideas over in to their professional packages like Logic. Bravo to
everyone at Apple that worked to improve GB accessibility in iLife 11. I stand
eagerly waiting, credit card in hand, to support similar efforts in Logic.
Bryan
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