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!
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:


sign up for newsletter and get 50 more free sounds

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!
posted by jaggerdiggydog

Garageband Hints and Tips - Using Modulation

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!
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!
posted by jaggerdiggydog

Aug 3, 2012

GarageBand Hints and Tips QUICK TIP - Panning tracks and volume

Good morning!
It just came to me that it might be useful to send out posts that are just quick little garageband tips!
Here is the first GarageBand Hints and Tips QUICK TIP:

When you pan tracks from dead center, there volume will go down a little, so to restore that tracks volume in the mix, put it up just a little!

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!
posted by jaggerdiggydog

May 23, 2012

Garageband Tips and Hints - adjusting filter setting on EQ

Garageband Tips and Hints - adjusting filter setting on EQ

One of the coolest features in garage band is using the automation controls to change settings over time to create variation in your music over time, with one benefit being your song doesn't get boring to listen to over and over again.

Open up the VISUAL EQ...
Check the box for analyzer...
Now play music...
You will see a spectrum analysis of your music in real time... (this tells you a lot about what is going on with that instrument!)

Now grab your waveform in the visual EQ...
While the music is playing, move the waveform back and forth...
The effect is very cool!
(Apple... would be cool to be able to record these in real time!)

So, no go into track automation and simulate what you did in visual EQ.

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!
posted by jaggerdiggydog

Mar 17, 2012

Garageband Hints and Tips: Garageband Previews

Garageband Hints and Tips: Garageband Previews

When saving garageband projects, go to preferences and have GB save a preview of each song you create.

This allows you to preview songs in the finder by just selecting them and then hitting the space bar!

Another cool thing is that you can drag a GB song from the finder into iTunes, and it will instantly import it! (much quicker then the GB export function!

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!
posted by jaggerdiggydog

Mar 1, 2012

Garageband Hints and Tips: Garageband Aftertouch Instruments

Garageband Hints and Tips: Garageband Aftertouch Instruments

One way to get really nice expression into your playing is with a synth that responds to aftertouch. Most, if not all garageband synths do not respond to aftertouch ;-(
But I have a few aftermarket Audio Unit synths that do! One cool one is DUNE!! 
Try it out for some really nice expressive keyboard parts!

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!
posted by jaggerdiggydog

Feb 29, 2012

Garageband Hints and Tips: Using Mainstage with Garageband

Garageband Hints and Tips: Using Mainstage with Garageband

Apple's Mainstage is an awesome deal!!! For $29 bucks you get an incredible assortment of cool instruments and loops! Playing around with Apple's Mainstage is a blast!

Now since this is a blog for tips on Garageband, you might be wondering how you can use Apple's Mainstage with Garageband?!

The key is to get SOUNDFLOWER, which is a free mac audio plugin that let's you route audio from mainstage output to garageband input!!

This combination gives you incredible sound module for Garageband!!

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!
posted by jaggerdiggydog

Feb 23, 2012

Garageband Hints and Tips: Transposing song section in Garageband

Garageband Hints and Tips: Transposing song section in Garageband

There is a bug in Garageband that affects transposing, but the fix is easy...

Say you create a 4 bar recording of piano...
you then pull the right side of 4 bar section to repeat it over and over...
say you do this for 16 bars...
you now have a piano piece that is 16 bars long...
say you want to transpose song after 8 bars using the global pitch adjustment
you would simply move the pitch bar up a semitone, and you're done...
problem is... sometimes the pitch does not go up as it should (or down as the case may be)
the fix, is to take the 4 bar piano part, and pull it out to 8 bars...
then duplicate this bar and move it across to the right to create your 16 bars...
now the song with change pitch correctly at 8 bars, because the pitch change is at the boundary of a loop section!
hope this makes sense!

Give it a try!

hear my latest GB music...

Hope all you GB users are creating great music!
posted by jaggerdiggydog