GarageBand 3: First Impressions

After some initial impressions of iPhoto 6, I figured GarageBand should be next on my list, as it too seems to have received some of the most significant updates in the iLife 06 suite. As with the iPhoto impressions, it's the same drill here: I opened GarageBand, poked around in the Podcast Studio and thought I'd post some impressions as a prelude to a real TUAW review:

• Once again, it feels like Apple was able to add in a bunch of new features while at the same time making the app feel generally zippier and more responsive. Bake those code ninjas some cookies

• When scrolling back and forth in a track, GarageBand also has a popup/overlay, like iPhoto's, that displays a real-time scrolling track time. Awesome

• You can add a parental advisory to your podcast right within GarageBand

• The New Project window has both new "Podcast Studio" and "New Movie Score" options. I imagine the movie score works in tandem with iMovies

• I absolutely love the media browser. I don't remember if the previous version had anything like this, but it's present in the same form in all the other iLife apps, and it's incredibly handy

• GarageBand asks you to change the podcast track to a video track if you simply drag a movie onto it. Effortless swapping between the two. It also splits a video's audio into a separate track for you to do with as you please

• GarageBand has an "Export" preference pane with pre-set podcast export settings like mono, spoken, musical and higher

• That "ducking" feature Jobs demoed is about one of the coolest and handiest additions I can think of, especially to a podcasting app

So that's it for now. Stay tuned for more lengthy reviews from TUAW as soon as we can put them together.