Garageband Hints & Tips: Listening to multiple instruments in Garageband

One of the things I miss the most in Garageband is the ability to play
multiple instruments at the same time while recording or just playing.
If you want a very layered sound, you record your piece, then make a
copy of that track and assign it a new instrument.

The problem with this approach is that when you can record something,
it is nice to play all the layered sounds together while you record,
because it effects the way you play your piece... (you know... when
you play a piano sound, you play it a certain way, because as you hear
what you're playing, you immediately change how you are playing it...
and if you are playing strings, that will be played totally differently)

Here is my workaround to make this a reality. (This assumes you have a
program like logic studio, that allows multiple instruments to be
played )
** this also assumes you like composing in garageband better than in
logic... I do... Garageband is much more "conducive" to me for
recording music.

So, open Logic, and set up your layered instruments...
open Garageband, and set up just one of the instruments above, and
record...
as you play, you will get all instruments playing, and your playing
will be based on this layered approach :)
then in Garageband, duplicate tracks and replicate the logic layered
sound and mix/balance sounds...

Let me know what you think!

Svend

(posted by jaggerdiggydog April 2008)

Garageband Hints & Tips: recording a part when you have a complicated "master pitch" key changes

I love using the master pitch function to make key changes in my
instrumental compositions. Makes the songs more interesting,
especially with my music which uses a lot of repeating motifs...

When recording a new track with all these key changes, it can be hard
to play the part with all the changes, so what I do is temporarily
turn off "master pitch" and then record my part, with no key changes,
and also, I am in my favorite key which is Em, so the parts play easy
for me (and I am not a trained keyboard musician... I just play by ear
with the playing ability I inherently have)

Ok... once your part is recorded, turn your master pitch back on and
you have a great new part, that will automatically change pitch as you
have set it up in your master track!

Let me know what you think!

Svend

(posted by jaggerdiggydog April 2008)

Garageband Hints & Tips: Can External Hardware AU be used with Garageband?

Can External Hardware AU be used with Garageband? Or can Garageband
tap into and use the synth engine of an external keyboard?

(posted by jaggerdiggydog)

Garageband Hints & Tips & Help: Using Garagebands Visual EQ Analyzer

One of the cool new features in Garageband is the automation of effects! I open up the visual EQ and click the analyze function so I can see the frequency changes as the effect changes over time! Give it a try!

::: Svend (posted by jaggerdiggydog )

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Garageband Tips and Help: Create an Apple Garageband Master Template File To Speed Composing!

One of the great things about Apple's Garageband is the ability to
compose songs quickly. The program doesn't get in the way of creating
music, which is why it is my favorite music creation program of all
time.

To make creating new songs on Apple's Garageband even faster, I
create a Garageband file I call master. This file is preconfigured
with a variety of instruments I use often... piano, bass, a simple
drum loop, strings, percussion, vocal, guitar, etc... and I also set
up a master track with FX set the way I like (for me, long reverb, a
slight amount of compression and visual EQ set to reduce heavy bass
from entering output)

When I want to create a new song, I pull up this master file, and am
then ready to roll instantly!
Give it a try!

Svend (posted by jaggerdiggydog)

A Garageband User Needs Help

Can anyone out there help Ember? I bet you can!

"Hi Svend,

I'm loving working with Garageband, but lately the program is SUPER slow. I have done all the optimization tips, cleared space on my hard drive (I keep loops and finished songs on my external HD) and I still find that when I click on the record button, it takes up to 3 minutes for it to engage. Do you have any tips for fixing this? I'm using the ILIFE update for Garageband and I have a Macbook that's less than a year old: 1.83 GHz Intel Core / 512 MB 667 MHz. Up until the two months, this program was working like a dream. 

I would love some feedback! Thanks,

Ember - email: ember@emberswift.com "

posted by jaggerdiggydog

Garageband Tip: Using many different speakers and headphones for mastering in Garageband!

You may have noticed like I have that your music sounds radically different when listened through different speakers and headphones. Make sure and listen to your music through various speaker systems and headphones. I have a high end stereo surround sound system I use, in addition to small USB speakers for near field monitoring as well as apple headphones and BOSE quiet comfort headphones and lastly listening through my AUDI A8 car stereo system!

Using all these various systems from simple low cost speakers to state-of-the-art stereo systems will let you make adjustments to your master recordings so you get "good" sound from all peoples systems. A typical issue/problem is to monitor your recording only with a state-of-the-art stereo system is you tend to crank up the bass because your system can handle it AND deliver it! But, when you listen through a small system it overloads small speaker systems. 

The opposite can also be true! If you monitor your masters on a small, bass deficient speakers, then you will tend to pump up the bass, and when you listen to your mix on a bigger, full bass system, the bass will be way too heavy.

Another issue is putting a lot of stereo panning effects into your tracks, which may sound great when listening through speakers, but will sound terrible when listening with headphones, which is much more common with all the millions of Apple iPods out there :) - so give your final mix a good listen with headphones too.

Enjoy! Create! Share!

- svend 

(posted by jaggerdiggydog)

Garageband Tips: Mastering Your Songs Using Apple's Garageband for CD & Online Distribution

Mastering is the art and science of creating a 2 channel stereo master that is used to create a commercial CD, or to upload to a site like Apple iTunes. This "master" is produced in such a way that it's sound quality is excellent on a variety of sound systems, from a car radio, to a state-of-the-art stereo system to an Apple iPod. Great bass (but not too heavy!), good balancing bewteen all instruments, and clean, sparkly highs.

Here is how to create great masters from within Apple Garageband.

When mastering... export your final multitrack song to itunes, then create a new garageband file and inport the stereo master. This is the file that you will "tweek" and master for final output!

Take 4-5 great commercial songs that you like the production and sound quality of, and import them  into garageband. Then look at the analyzer function of the visual EQ. look to see where the audio spectrum falls...

now compare this reference song with your composition to see where your audio spectrum falls

I like to use songs by steely dan and the doobie brothers which were really well produced

load both your stereo mix, and say, AJA by steely dan... and see how the spectrum compares!

I usually find that my bass is too heavy! so I have to adjust carefully to keep a full bass sound withone having a muddy bass.

Use a parametric EQ for adjusting small areas, since a parametric will let you fine tune exactly how much of the audio spectrum you are adjusting.

As to the reference songs you pick, make sure they are of similar style of music... and an artist who is known for great audio recordings... for instance, if you were writing a new age song, listen to some tunes by a respected new age artist and producer like will ackerman.

if you write a lot of different styles of music, select various great songs that match the different styles of your songs, and import them all into your Garageband "Mastering Master" as I call mine... you can then mute all songs except the one you are using as reference and then ofcoarse your composition.

Hope these help :)

- svend (SEO WEB HOSTING )

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GARAGEBAND TIPS: Cool Half Time and Syncopated Drum Loop Tip for Garageband

One of the tools in a composers tool box when writing music in
Garageband is to change drums so they are running in 1/2 time. Once
in a while you can find drum loops that have a half time version, but
this is rare. And the half time drum loop should "fit" with the full
time loop. Here's what you do... Create a track with your drum loop.
Create a duplicate track of the drum loop, and slide the loop
forwards or backwards creating a double time or syncopated loop!!
Give it a try and always experiment! - svend / www.svend007.com