Software: Page 150

Song introductions can foreshadow more complex song activity later on. Garageband makes it easy to create an introduction for your song.

After you've created a song you're happy with, you'll probably want to use it with your other projects, including iPhoto, iDVD, and iWeb projects, or just listen to it on your iPod. You can easily export your song from Garageband to your iTunes library.

When you've chosen a sound to use with your USB or Midi keyboard, you'll want to record a performance. This new track is easily edited in GarageBand.

What if you've recorded a great jam that feels right but doesn't sound quite right? With GarageBand, it's easy to change real instrument tracks to alter the pitch or timing of the track.

Many professional radio programs make their shows available through podcasts so that people can listen anytime they want, but listening to a professional podcast is just part of the fun. You can create your own podcast using Garageband and iWeb.

Podcasts can be more interactive than radio programs. If you want listeners to be able to move around in your show, you can divide it into chapters. You can also enrich your podcast by adding artwork throughout the chapters.

Now you're ready to start scoring music for your movie. When you click "Play," the movie plays. It's synchronized to the music timeline so you can add sound to play at exactly the right moments. In addition, you can see the movie frames in the same timeline as your music.

With iTunes, you can quickly find any song in your library and start listening to it in a matter of seconds using the search bar, alphabetization tools, and browse pane.

Authorization allows you to copy your music store purchases to other computers and burn them to CD and protects the artists. Each computer you use to play your purchase must be authorized using your music store account. You can authorize up to 5 computers; yours is automatically authorized.

With AirPort Express and AirTunes, you can play your iTunes music on your stereo wirelessly.

Playing audiobooks and podcasts is a lot like playing your music, but there's a couple of nice features iTunes offers to make it easy. For example, you can bookmark an audiobook.

iTunes makes it easy to make a backup copy of your iTunes music store purchases to a CD or a DVD. A CD will hold about 100 songs; a DVD will hold about 500 songs.

A OneStep DVD is a great option if all you want to do is create a DVD that plays a single video with no menus or navigation.

After you're previewed your iDVD project and made any necessary changes, you're ready to burn it to a disc and share it with others. All you need is iDVD and a blank disc.

As your DVD gets more and more complex, there may be times when you want to view or make changes to the entire project. The iDVD map view makes this easy.

After you've published your site, you might decide you want to add additional pages over time. To add an additional page to my site, all I have to do is click the "Add Page" button in iWeb.

You already know you can create photo pages by selecting a photos template and dragging in individual photos from your iPhoto library. Now there's an easy way to add entire photo albums to your site, each with their own dedicated photo pages.

Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Server work seamlessly to give you a smooth and integrated work flow. To upload a Final Cut Pro project into Final Cut Server, drag the project file into the Final Cut Server asset pane.

iMovie 08 is a great way to keep all your videos organized and quickly make a rough cut. You can import your projects into Final Cut Express to fine tune your edit with the same tools the pros use.

Final Cut Express provides easy setup options for a variety of video formats, but if you're not sure what format you're working with, Final Cut Express can automatically set the sequence to match the size and frame rate of your clips. When adding the first clip to a new sequence, the program will ask if the sequence should be changed to match the new clip. You don't have to work with all the same format, either, thanks to Final Cut Express' powerful open format timeline.