Garageband Help, Hints and Tips by Svend

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!

Svend

posted by jaggerdiggydog

Mar 18, 2013

Garageband Hints and Tips - Using the notepad for songwriting

Garageband has a great feature which is a little notepad where you can write things about the song you are working on...

Use it to brainstorm ideas....

Like...

- do a key change on 12 measure

- try a new drum beat

- use a tempo change on measure 4

etc....etc....

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!

Svend

posted by jaggerdiggydog

Jan 9, 2013

Garageband Hints and Tips: Tighten up bass tracks in Garageband with VISUAL EQ

Garageband Hints and Tips: eq levels and solid bass and reducing muddy bass

When creating a song or piece of music with lot's of tracks, the overall mix can get muddy !

Look at each of your tracks and see if there is too much action / energy in the bass region when you don't really need it.

Use Visual EQ to lower bass energy so your tracks don't get muddied up with bass...

Adjust your bass track to emphasize the bass track EQ with Visual EQ

On recent project, I had 10 tracks... 2 were bass tracks... these I eq'ed for power

8 tracks had bass energy I did not want and was mudding up my song.

Visual EQ to the rescue!

NOTE: Click so that analyzer is on!!! So you can see the actual spectrum analyzer of tracks

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!

Svend

posted by jaggerdiggydog

Dec 5, 2012

Garageband Hints and Tips: when justifying and aligning tracks is not enough

the trick here is to go from measure view to time view...

zoom in really close...

slide track to left slighty to bring it into the groove with no delay

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!

Svend

posted by jaggerdiggydog

Nov 23, 2012

Garageband Hints and Tips: To much reverb or delay

Here is a quick tip...

You're working on a song... and you have lot's of tracks going on...

and you lay on the reverb and delay and effects....

Here is something to try...

in the middle of the song... hit the STOP button ... and LISTEN!

listen to how much delay lingers on....

listen to how much reverb lingers on...

it may be too much... and this might muddy up your song...

and while listening to your song... you can't always hear it...

but when you stop song mid stream... you can really hear how much you have applied across all your tracks...

sometimes when my song is done... i save a copy... and remove all reverb and delay to see how it sounds...

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!

Svend

posted by jaggerdiggydog

Nov 19, 2012

Garageband Hints and Tips - Recording Music

Here's something to try when recording your next piece of music...

Normally, when writing music, we listen to speakers in our studio.

Try writing your next piece of music wearing headphones the entire time.

When you are pretty much done writing and adjusting your song... then listen through your studio speakers/monitors.

I found this to produce a really nice sound that came alive!

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!

Svend

http://www.camelaudio.com/AlchemyPlayer.php

posted by jaggerdiggydog

Oct 12, 2012

Garageband Hints and Tips: Camel Audio Alchemy Player

Garageband Hints and Tips: Camel Audio Alchemy Player

I just discovered an extremely cool FREE garageband Synth you can download and it comes with TONS of super cool sounds!!

BT says it is the best synth ever!!! Powerful words from a talented synth guy!!

Go to:

I downloaded this the other day and have had a blast playing these new exciting sounds!!

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!

Svend

posted by jaggerdiggydog

Garageband Hints and Tips - Using Modulation

Here is a cool garageband tip...

Pick a cool sound that has a cool effect when you apply the modulation wheel on your keyboard.

Now record a new track with this sound.

Next... hit the record button again on this track and DO NOT play any notes, but just play with the modulation wheel...

Garageband will record these mod wheel changes and overlap them with the notes you played...

This gives you a chance to focus on the notes when recording, and then after, focus on just the modulation wheel...

This also works great for the PITCH WHEEL!

Sometimes it is tough to play a great line while also doing pitch bend!

Now you can play back a recorded keyboard part, while adding really cool pitch bend modulation!

Also, Garageband has a cool feature when you double click on a recored track to see your notes... but what is really cool is when you select the drop down button to see modulation, or pitch, or sustain pedal, etc... AND you can tweek the curves to make corrections!

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!

Svend

posted by jaggerdiggydog

Sep 11, 2012

Garageband Hints and Tips: Playing Apple Mainstage in Apple Garageband

here is what you do...

0) install SOUNDFLOWER on your Mac

1) get mainstage up and running and producing sound

2) got to mainstage preferences and select AUDIO button at top of pref's

3) select SOUNDFLOWER (2ch) for AUDIO OUTPUT

4) Click APPLY CHANGES button

5) close pref's

6) open GARAGEBAND

7) go to preferences and select AUDIO/MIDI button at top

8) for AUDIO INPUT, select SOUNDFLOWER (2ch)

9) create a new RECORDING TRACK in garageband (not a MIDI/instrument track)

10) show the info panel for this new track... and click BROWSE panel. Down below on this panel, you will see import source SOUNDFLOWER (2ch) and make SURE MONITOR is ON

you are done...

you should now hear the mainstage instrument in garageband and you can record it.

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!

Svend