Edit: This problem has been fixed with the update to GarageBand that Apple just released.
As I’ve said in a previous entry, I recently upgraded iLife from version ’04 to version ’08. The I really do like the new versions of every application included in iLife: iPhoto, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb (which I didn’t have in my previous version of iLife). I can’t include iMovie in my list because the iLife installation program didn’t install it since my computer doesn’t meet the minimum computer requirements.
Although I really like the way the new GarageBand acts and feels, there is one annoyance that I can’t seem to get around. I am a power user of GarageBand. In fact, I originally bought iLife ’04 because it included GarageBand and I wanted to use it. In most of my musical creations, I have electronic effects to spice things up and in order to create these electronic effects, I use a separate application, Propellerhead’s Reason, which connects to GarageBand via a technology called ReWire (also developed by Propellerhead).
For those of you who don’t know what ReWire is, it is simply an software technology that allows music programs to connect to one another via a “master program”. When you press play or stop in the master program, all of the tracks from every program begin to play. When you export your final creation from the master program, it will export all of the tracks from every program into one, playable file.
Generally speaking, GarageBand tends to serve as the master program. As I’ve said before, I’ve never had any problems with it up until I upgraded to GarageBand ’08, however with the new version, all ReWire applications will only play through the left channel. When I open the file I created in Reason by itself, it plays just fine in stereo. When I connect Reason to other programs via ReWire, it also plays in stereo. I don’t know what Apple did with its ReWire compatibility, but it’s really irritating.
Basically that leaves me with two options: I can either sit around and wait for Apple to come up with either a fix or a solution for this problem or I can downgrade my version of GarageBand back to ’04. Until one of these happens, my music creation is basically at a stand still.
If you have any suggestions or comments, it would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: This problem has been fixed with the update to GarageBand that Apple just released.
i am having a problem similar to this where reason syncs up garageband in rewire and the timeline is controlled correctly but i get no audio output from reason.
have you solved your problem? if so, what did you do?
I did solve the problem. Just download and install the update that Apple released for GarageBand. That fixed the problem for me. You can get the update by clicking on the Apple menu, then “Software Update…”