Tunemedia’s Tuneup Loops for GarageBand Pack One
Review

Tunemedia’s Tuneup Loops for GarageBand Pack One
Company: TuneMedia
Price: $34.99
www.tuneuploops.com

I love GarageBand. It’s is one of the best and most fun products to spring from the minds at Apple in a long time. Just one little problem with it: (Well, actually there are more than one but this isn’t a review of GB) not enough loops. Apple gives us over 1000 loops to play with! Yes that is true. Those loops are spread across many different instruments and keys. Also, once you have made a few songs, it becomes harder and harder to come up with something original and fresh without reusing many of the same loops.

Fortunately, many different companies have begun selling music loops in Apple’s format. The nice thing about these packages is that they work with all of Apple’s audio editing software like GB, SoundTrack, and Logic.

The one I’m reviewing today is Tunemedia’s Tuneup Loops for GarageBand Pack Volume One. This is a collection of around 500 loops and there are some real doozys in here.

Installation couldn’t be easier. Startup GarageBand and wait for it to finish loading, insert the disk, double-click it from the desktop, and drag the icon labeled “loops” to GarageBand’s edit section and GarageBand does the rest. The loops will be indexed and ready to use after a short wait.

Want to find your new loops quickly? Tunemedia made it easy as a Jimmy Page solo (Well, it’s easy if you’re Jimmy Page). Every loop begins with “TU1”. Select a category, slide down to the “T’s” and there they are. I appreciate this since it makes my new eager to be used loops so effortless to get to.

Starting off with 120 Bass loops from Dark Bass to Sub Bass. Mostly geared toward rhythm and dance, but they are well put together and can be used in just about any kind of project.

Want drum loops? Tuneup Loops Volume 1 includes 127 of them. From mood changing Ambient and Electro Beats to the pumping R & B and Rock Beats, there is one to fill your mood. My only complaint about the drumbeats would be that too many of them sound artificial, which is fine for most dance tracks, but they don’t fit Rock or somber mood projects. I like a lot of natural sounding drums and percussions and if you do too, you might be disappointed by the drums and percussion loops in this package.

Next up, there are 5 effects loops. Not many really, but they sound good and make for good breaks. If you’re a Rap maker / lover, you’ll need to get your samples elsewhere. For the few times I use loops like these, these are well done and different enough from Apple’s selections.

My favorite part of this collection is next. Guitars! GUITARS! Well, before I get too excited, there are only 32 of them, BUT THEY KICK! Tunemedia, in your next collection like this, GIVE US MORE GUITARS! Just a suggestion. These loops will scale nicely into any rock or rhythm composition you make. If you need more acoustic or electric guitars than these, consider using some of the Bass or Piano loops from this collection. Many of them convert them quite nicely.

Melodies. There are 9 of them and they’re kind of difficult to describe. Some sound like Asian bells and others put me in mind of the Exorcist theme, they sound cool and I would use these as a background sound to break up repeated rhythms.

Only 5 organ loops in this package and two of those are from Clavinets. Not enough to really do much with unless you’re REALLY into making 70’s era police show theme songs.

There are 19 of what Tunemedia calls Pads sound loops. These are really neat. What these would be great for would be video projects for setting moods. Really good stuff.

20 Piano loops. All good and all different. The Chords and Melodies sets are particularly nice.

Do you use Rhodes organs? I don’t, but if you do there are 12 loops to choose from. Enjoy.

I DO however use Strings in my compositions. There are 30 Strings loops and they are not too bad. A little artificial sounding for my tastes, but can be used in tunes with no problem. I wouldn’t use them in the foreground, but for background they’ll work.

Last up, the Synth loops. There are 127 of them in this collection. Enough variety for most tastes. Synth loops are typically used to set rhythm and moods and there are plenty here to do both.

My opinion of this collection? I wish there had been more Guitar and Piano loops, and the Strings and Drums sounded a little artificial to me. The collection taken as a whole however is a tremendous value at $35. If you enjoy using GarageBand, don’t pass this collection up.

MyMac.com Rating 4.5 out of 5. High on value! I’m looking forward to the next set in Tunemedia’s collection.