Viz Lab Summer Grant 2005

2007 Reports 2006 Reports 2005 Reports 2004 Reports

Pursuing the theatrical design attributes of both GarageBand and ProTools

Mark Harvey MFA
Associate Professor of Theatrical Lighting and Sound Design

My work during the summer of 2005 involved the exploration of GarageBand software as a stepping-stone towards the larger, more complex ProTools software available in the VDIL. Both software programs involve digital audio editing, but GarageBand is free software packaged with every Macintosh computer sold with OSX or higher. Originally, GarageBand was a bit of a toy, a gimmick given away for free, but as interest in GarageBand grew, functionality also grew and began to develop processes mimicking ProTools.

I have been teaching ProTools to theatrical design students for several years, but observed that the steep learning curve made it difficult for anyone to actually use ProTools for theatre productions. This year I plan to teach GarageBand as an entry-level digital audio editor with the hope that students will make a seamless transition to the more advanced ProTools capability.

As part of the course for Sound for the Theatre, I developed a web site explaining the functionality of GarageBand. That site can be found at the following link:

http://www.d.umn.edu/~mharvey/th1551lab7.html