10.0.2 update removed instruments
I installed the update 10.0.2 for GarageBand X, in order to purchase extra in app content, and it removed a lot of the key instruments that were formerly available in 10.0.0 as recently as a day or so ago. Example: 10.0.0 Instrument Library for PIANO offers ... "Boesendorfer Grand Piano, Steinway Grand Piano, Yamaha Grand Piano and Experimental" which sub-includes "Backwards, Bowed Piano, Before Talkies, Daylight Piano, Ghost Piano, Nylon Synth Piano, Piano Motion, & Transistor Radio Piano." Wow!
But guess what? The "new update" 10.0.2 wipes away ALL of that and only gives the user "Steinway Grand." That's it for pianos.
Under the "Orchestral" menu, 10.0.0 offers in Brass: "French Horn Solo, French Horns, Full Brass, Trombones, Trumpets, & Tuba." !0.0.02 wipes most of that away and gives the user "French Horns, Trombones & Trumpets".
Strings! 10.0.0 offers "Basses, Cellos, Cinema Strings, Full Strings, Modern Strings, Session Strings, Smart Strings, String Ensemble, Studio Strings, Violas, Violins 1 & Violins 2." New updated GarageBand X 10.0.2 takes most of that away and gives user a choice of exactly two: "Smart Strings & String Ensemble."
Woodwinds! 10.0.0 offers "Bassoon Solo, Clarinet Solo, Clarinets, English Horn, Flute Solo, Flutes, Oboe, Piccolo & Saxophone. Update 10.0.2 reduces that to "Clarinet Solo, Flute Solo & Saxophone."
And so on and so on and so on.
Downloading the "add-on" app of extra sounds, loops, etc for $4.99 from the app store did NOT restore these taken away instruments which are basics for any serious musician. And yes, the "Legacy" instruments from GarageBand '11 do fill in a few gaps, but very few. It seems Apple, in the guise of "updating" the newest GarageBand for Mavericks, must have decided their original offering was too kind to its customers and quickly moved to disable — deliberately — as much as they could in terms of GarageBand X's usablitly in order to force musician clients to migrate to the $200 Logic Pro X, which is overkill in many songwriting situations. Hence the raison d'etre of GarageBand in the first place.
Over the years, Apple offered, then took away, whose wonderful Jam Packs. Then they offered Mainstage 2, which also gave users the Jam Packs libraries, then decided to take that away too. And now this deliberate crippling of an earlier product. There is a pattern here, and it is not kind to the actual musician who can make musical magic with GarageBand because it is .... make that was .... so good.
For the record, I bought one of the first Macintosh computers (128K) sold in Southern California — literally one of the first — on that very day back in 1983 when Mac was introduced. I have bought and used nothing but Mac, Mac, Mac ever since, and my household currently has an 24" iMac, a MacBook Air, a MacBood Pro, 2 Macbooks, an iPad 2, iPad Retina and iPad Mini, four iPhones and countless peripherals and Apple software & apps. I think I qualify as a loyal customer. Why is Apple treating me and other loyal Mac users with such disdain? I don't get it. And HOW can I possibly get back the first (and good) version of GarageBand X since the App Store will now only make the newer, inferior 10.0.2 available instead?
It's a tilting at windmills question, sure. But is there anyone at 1 Infinite Loop who thinks a problem like this needs fixing? Or realize that a problem exists?
BTW, no complaints about the telephone Apple Technical people I've talked to by phone, or the geniuses in my local Apple Store. Apple's staff people have been great. But the software.... Whew. Sometimes newer is not better.
Oh to be a personal friend of Tim Cook or Phil Schiller at this moment. But since I'm neither, I'm just putting this info out there into the world, and hoping something changes at my favorite computer company. (P. S. I'm not deleting my GarageBand '11. I need it now more than ever.) -- Respectfully, LEEINLA
OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)
