Independent Musician Roger Adler Releases ‘The Garage Album’

January 2005 - Roger Adler just released "the garage album" at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. The innovative new pop-music album was created entirely and exclusively within Apple Computer's GarageBand software application.

Adler, a Chicago-based independent composer, performer and producer, explored and used GarageBand's guitar amp simulations, built-in loops and included virtual instruments and effects to create a compelling mix of sound and style. Containing tracks reminiscent of traditional rock, R&B, blues, instrumental, electronica and funk, Adler conceived and created "the garage album" in a seven-week timeframe.

The author of Mac Design Magazine's September/October 2004 cover story on GarageBand, Adler has quickly become an expert on Apple's groundbreaking software program, which effectively turns Apple computers into fully featured recording studios. He is a frequent presenter at Apple retail stores, giving GarageBand demonstrations and answering questions.

"Educating people about GarageBand is one of the purposes in doing this album, and people can also visit the album's companion Web site (www.thegaragealbum.com), where they can download the actual GarageBand tracks used for each song completely free," Adler said. "Provided they have GarageBand on their computer, visitors to the site will be able to explore in detail each track, loop, effect and instrument used to create the album. Many users of GarageBand are amateur musicians who have little to no recording experience, and they can gain insight into how to best put their musical aspirations to the task."

Adler created "the garage album" on a Power Macintosh G4 tower. He was generously assisted on this project by Other World Computing (OWC), a leading provider of computer upgrades and peripherals, which provided Adler with a Mercury Extreme G4 processor upgrade and an OWC Mercury Elite FireWire 800 drive, in addition to upgrading the computer's Random Access Memory (RAM). Adler is a frequent collaborator with OWC and moderates OWC's Mac Music Forum. In addition, he has written the popular "Music on the Mac" column for OWC's widely circulated "Tips & Deals" e-newsletter for the past two years.

"We at OWC are thrilled about the opportunity to contribute to 'the garage album' by providing Roger with our processor, storage and RAM upgrades in order that GarageBand's performance might match his own," said Larry O'Connor, president of OWC. "His talent is obvious and well-represented on this fantastic and diverse collection of music."

In addition, M-Audio supported Adler's project by providing a Fast Track audio interface and Nova Condensor microphone. Adler also endorses the iGuitar by Brian Moore Guitar, which he used extensively throughout the project not only as a guitar, but also as a MIDI controller to play all of the "keyboard" sounds on the album.

For more information, please visit www.thegaragealbum.com. Pricing and availability of OWC's high-quality upgrades can be found at www.macsales.com.