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GarageBand

Connecting an Electric Guitar to your Computer for Recording in Garageband

Connecting an Electric Guitar to your Computer for Recording in Garageband

GarageBand allows you to connect external instruments, such as an electric guitar, to your computer. Then, you can use these instruments to record songs in GarageBand. There are two options for this type of real-instrument recording, and both are discussed here.CREATE A NEW TRACKTo create a new electric guitar track in GarageBand, choose Track ... read more

August 23, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Using the Metronome in GarageBand

Using the Metronome in GarageBand

GarageBand’s metronome function provides a way to keep track of a specific rhythm during recording or playback. It plays a consistent click track that helps you play to a steady beat. You can easily turn the metronome on or off, and control whether it plays during recording, playback, or both. Here’s how.TURN THE METRONOME ... read more

August 19, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

How to Loop a Region in GarageBand

How to Loop a Region in GarageBand

Once you’ve taken the time to create a region in GarageBand, you can easily loop it to fill as much time as you’d like in a song. This prevents you from needing to re-create the same musical sequence multiple times when songwriting. The steps are simple; here’s what you need to know.SELECT A REGIONPlace ... read more

August 16, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

How to Copy and Paste Regions in GarageBand

How to Copy and Paste Regions in GarageBand

GarageBand’s Regions are the building blocks of your projects. A Region is created every time you record an instrument or drag a loop to the Timeline. You can avoid duplicating your efforts by duplicating your Regions; you can simply copy and paste Regions that you want to repeat in a project. This quick tip tells ... read more

August 9, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Organizing Tracks with the Grid in GarageBand

Organizing Tracks with the Grid in GarageBand

GarageBand uses a grid system to help you automatically align tracks, measures, and beats. When the Grid is turned on, GarageBand automatically aligns new loops, regions, control points, and the playhead. You can set the Grid to nearly any note value, making it a useful tool with a lot of range. Here are the basics ... read more

August 2, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Using the Visual EQ in GarageBand

Using the Visual EQ in GarageBand

GarageBand’s Visual EQ (or equalizer) helps simplify your audio editing by letting you use your eyes instead of your ears. You can optimize the sounds of your projects by using this tool to analyze and “see” your track frequencies and adjust the bass, low mid, high mid, and trebel bands of your tracks. This tutorial ... read more

July 26, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Using the Level Meters in GarageBand

Using the Level Meters in GarageBand

The Level Meter is an essential tool for recording in GarageBand. There’s one for each track, located above the volume slider. As the volume of a track increases, the meter colors move from green, to yellow, to orange, to red. When the meter lights up red, the volume has reched the highest possible level for ... read more

July 19, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Setting Track Volume Levels in GarageBand

Setting Track Volume Levels in GarageBand

When you build a song in GarageBand, the possibilities for mixing are nearly endless. One simple option is to set the volume level of each track independently, which allows you to balance the volume of the instruments in your project. It’s easy to tweak the volume of each track; here’s how.USE THE VOLUME SLIDERIn the ... read more

July 16, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

How to Optimize the Performance of GarageBand

How to Optimize the Performance of GarageBand

GarageBand is a memory-intensive program; it eats up a lot of your computer’s processing ability because it takes a lot of power to run the program. Sometimes, you might notice that GarageBand locks up or loads very slowly. Occasionally, your computer’s processor may become so taxed that you cannot play an entire project. Don’t fear–here ... read more

July 12, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Downloading Learn to Play Lessons in GarageBand

Downloading Learn to Play Lessons in GarageBand

As covered in previous tutorials, GarageBand has built-in lessons that can teach you how to play the guitar or piano. If you’ve completed the introductory lessons that come preinstalled on your computer and are ready to further your education, you can do so by downloading additional free basic lessons. You can also purchase artist lessons ... read more

July 5, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Moving the Playhead in GarageBand

Moving the Playhead in GarageBand

One basic element of GarageBand is the Playhead. It’s the red vertical line that moves across your tracks as they play. It serves as a visual marker of where you’re at in your song. When you use the paste or split functions to make changes to a track, those edits appear in the spot that ... read more

June 28, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Connecting a Microphone to Your Computer for Recording in GarageBand

Connecting a Microphone to Your Computer for Recording in GarageBand

How can you record without a microphone? To capture vocals, acoustic instruments, and other sounds in GarageBand, you’ll need to hook-up some hardware. You have two options for microphone recording in GarageBand: with a stand-alone microphone, or with an audio interface. Learn more about each option in this tutorial.CONNECTING A MICROPHONE DIRECTLY TO YOUR ... read more

June 28, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 3 comments

Printing Musical Notation in GarageBand

Printing Musical Notation in GarageBand

GarageBand offers a great little function: you can print out the musical notation for any software instrument loop in sheet music form. With your print-out in hand, you can easily teach others the parts of your songs or perform your music live. Just a few clicks will get your music out of your Mac and ... read more

June 21, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Saving Edited Loops to the Loop Library in GarageBand

Saving Edited Loops to the Loop Library in GarageBand

GarageBand’s Loop Library provides a wealth of musical options for building songs. The loops are a great starting point, but as you get more advanced in your composing you might find that you’d like to customize certain loops to fit your tastes. Not only are you able to tweak loops from the Loop Library to ... read more

June 14, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments

Adding an Automatic Fade Out in GarageBand

Adding an Automatic Fade Out in GarageBand

One simple effect in GarageBand is Fade Out. This is commonly used to gradually reduce the volume of a song until it can no longer be heard, thus ending it. Fade Out creates a more-appealing close to a tune than simply stopping the song short, and it’s easily accomplished with GarageBand’s editing tools. You can ... read more

June 7, 2010 in Tutorials by Nicole Klemas 0 comments