Sep 26, 2019 GarageBand offers easy music recording for novices and pros alike, and it comes free with every Mac. The app is still the best way to learn piano or guitar on a computer and easily earns an. If you can't record audio after a macOS Mojave update. After installing macOS Mojave on your Mac, you might not be able to record audio in Logic Pro X, MainStage, GarageBand, Final Cut Pro X, or third-party audio and video apps.
Apple GarageBand 10 (for Mac)
Editor Rating: Excellent (4.5)
Pros
- Streamlined, professional interface.
- Makes it easy to record and mix music.
- Enjoyable instrument lessons.
- Works with Logic Remote on the iPad for wireless control.
- Supports 24-bit recording and third-party plug-ins.
Cons
- Podcast features have disappeared.
- No PC version.
Bottom Line
GarageBand is more powerful than ever, and now gives novices and pros alike easy recording built into every Mac. It's still the best way to get started recording or to learn piano or guitar on a computer.
There's been a seismic shift in how records are made. A couple of decades ago, it took a mountain of gear to make an album. Now, you can do it with the built-in software that comes with every Apple computer, thanks to the free GarageBand. Unlike the cartoonish version that debuted in the early aughts, the new GarageBand features a surprisingly serious presentation that roughly mirrors the high-end Logic Pro X digital audio workstation, or DAW. Although GarageBand lacks Logic's amazing flexibility, vast array of instruments, and powerful mixing and mastering features, it's almost as powerful when it comes to handling other tasks. The fact that GarageBand is free makes the app all the better, and a clear Editors' Choice for entry-level recording software.
Setup and User Interface
For this review, I tested GarageBand 10.3.2 on a 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and macOS Mojave. To use this app, you must plug in a USB-compatible MIDI keyboard and either a pair of headphones or a small pair of desktop speakers. For plugging in an electric guitar or bass, or connecting microphones to record vocals and other acoustic instruments, you'll need an audio interface of some kind, such as the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (3rd Gen) or the PreSonus AudioBox USB 96.
GarageBand's basic interface layout mimics that of Logic Pro X and other proper multitrack software. I vastly prefer this to GarageBand's old design, which tried to imitate a four-track tabletop recorder. When you first create a project, you're tasked with selecting a template for the kind of music you want to record, as well as an empty project you can populate from scratch. Selecting one brings up the main interface. The top-right portion of the window is where you add and mix new tracks. You click any recorded data to bring up an editor in the bottom portion of the display. Here you can switch between piano roll and score views, an audio editor, and, where appropriate, an EQ tab that displays a beautiful, clean-sounding parametric equalizer for the given track.
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The left side of the display shows your selected instrument. The top bar includes icons for triggering the various windows, a transport bar for recording and playback, an LED-style readout for the current beat, bar, tempo, meter, and other information, icons for loop recording, a guitar tuner, a count off, and a metronome. It's easy to resize the various windows and zoom levels using the on-screen sliders. To the far right, you can launch a Notes page, an audio loop browser, and a media drawer for recorded audio and movies you want to sync music to. Apple also added support for the Force Touch trackpad and Touch Bar that come built into the latest MacBook Pros.
Recording, Smart Controls, and Remote
Recording is as simple as arming a track and clicking the Record icon. You can record at 24 bits with a mic, if you have a USB-powered one or an audio interface with a mic preamp into which you can plug a microphone. You can record and mix up to 255 tracks, and only your audio interface limits how many you can record simultaneously. You can easily record multiple takes, and comp them. With version 10.3.2, you can drag and drop on-the-fly Voice Memo recordings of your latest idea right into GarageBand.
Basic editing is simple, but if you want to really dig into GarageBand, advanced features are available, too. Flex Time lets you massage the groove of a given audio track, while Groove Matching perfectly matches the timing, tempo, and feel of the other tracks to the one you have set up. These are surprisingly transparent sounding, as long as you use them within reason.
There's still no proper mixing board. Instead, you use the left side of the Arrangement window as a mixer, with horizontal sliders on each track. There's a reverb effect, and you can pan tracks from left to right in the stereo field; you can also apply compression to recorded audio tracks. GarageBand includes a basic mastering track to boost your levels and get a finished sound, though it's nothing like what you'd get in a professional-level digital audio workstation, such as Logic Pro X or Pro Tools. Still, it's a much-appreciated inclusion in a free recording app.
GarageBand works with the excellent Logic Remote app that's available free on iOS devices. You can use your iPad or iPhone to wirelessly play any GarageBand instrument on the Mac, adjust the Smart Controls for individual sounds, and otherwise edit and arrange your project. It also has built-in transport controls, so you can record with a guitar or vocals on one side of the room while you remotely start and stop the Mac on the other side using Logic Remote. This process used to require the use of a $1,000 hardware control surface and a professional digital audio workstation program; now it's free on your phone or tablet.
Taking another page from Logic Pro X, GarageBand boasts Smart Controls that highlight the most effective parameters to tweak for a given sound, and present knobs, buttons, and sliders for you to adjust, depending on the instrument. You can now record performances with Smart Controls, too, letting you shape and evolve sounds in real time that then get printed to the track as automation data.
Many Instruments
There's a solid sound library built in, and Apple has been continually adding to it over the past several years; you no longer need to pay $4.99 to get extra sounds. Out of the box, you get an array of sweet-sounding acoustic and electronic drums, electric and acoustic basses, and a small variety of synth pads, leads, and basses. There's a nice acoustic piano, electric piano, clavinet, and tonewheel organ, new Mellotron patches, and acoustic and clean electric guitars. The orchestral instruments contain several choir samples, a harp, and a pipe organ, in addition to the usual strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion. A new Chinese instrument section includes the Erhu and Pipa, and for Japan, the Guzheng, Koto, and a set of Taiko drums.
Guitar and bass players can plug in and choose from a selection of 28 instrument-specific amps and cabinets with a choice of several microphones, plus 35 separate stomp boxes and a handy tuner. You also get Drummer, a virtual session player plug-in that accompanies your tracks with one of 28 players. Drop one on a track, and you'll get an automatic groove you can tune in real time to simplify or busy up the playing. GarageBand 10.3 adds two new players for roots and jazz-influenced brushwork. More than 3,000 Apple Loops help get you started in a variety of genres, and there's even a library of 400 sound effects for basic post-production work. (Note: You'll need to download most of the sounds separately by heading to GarageBand > Sound Library and selecting Download All Sounds; they're not included in the initial App Store download.)
Across the board, the patches sound good to excellent. I particularly like the Steinway piano and the acoustic stand-up bass. GarageBand supports third-party AU plug-ins, so you could buy or download free virtual instruments and add to your sonic repertoire—and those will of course carry over if you upgrade to Logic Pro X or another professional DAW. A quick check around the internet revealed people having trouble with existing third-party plug-ins, so check each manufacturer's website for updated compatibility with GarageBand.
Options, Options, Options
GarageBand comes with 40 free basic guitar and piano lessons you can download; to get started with these, click Learn to Play in the New Project window. Each lesson provides real-time feedback as you play to show you what you've done correctly or incorrectly. https://philadelphiatree711.weebly.com/realguitar-acoustic-free.html. The Lesson Store is no longer; you now get more than 20 free downloadable artist lessons from famous artists such as Sara Bareiles, John Legend, Rush, and Sting, playing their signature hits and showing you how to do so. Apple used to charge $5 a pop for these, so this is an excellent freebie.
There are plenty of online sharing options for social networks, as well as the ability to export to MP3, SoundCloud, iTunes, or a custom ringtone file for your phone. You can also save projects to iCloud, or better yet, start a project on GarageBand on the iPad or iPhone, save it, and then open it in GarageBand on the desktop. You can now import projects from the iOS Music Memos app, as well.
Stunningly Versatile
GarageBand is incredibly powerful for a free DAW. There are lower-cost DAWs on the PC side that come in at under $100, such as Cockos Reaper and Studio One Artist, but there's nothing free with this much power and this many included sounds. If you prefer a full mixing console, many more instruments and effects, pitch correction, proper mastering, and other pro editing features, Logic Pro X—also an Editors' Choice for Mac users—is an excellent buy at $199. All told, you can't beat GarageBand for getting started making music, immediately and affordably.
Apple GarageBand (for Mac)
Bottom Line: GarageBand offers easy music recording for novices and pros alike, and it comes free with every Mac. The app is still the best way to learn piano or guitar on a computer and easily earns our Editors' Choice nod.
Few things have changed the landscape of audio production like Apple's GarageBand, released in 2005. As a free app included with macOS and iOS, it's been a crucial first step in the burgeoning careers of many future home studio pros (this writer included).
Together with other free sound apps like Audacity, GarageBand has helped fuel the meteoric growth of podcasting by lowering the barrier to entry for recording quality sound.
Download microsoft excel 2011 for mac free. It's an intuitive and user-friendly app to record, edit, mix, and export podcast episodes with pro-level quality.
If you're a Mac user ready to start a podcast in GarageBand, look no further than this guide!
Note - This tutorial is for the Macbook/iMac version of GarageBand. This process will still work if you like to edit your podcast on an iPad or iPhone, just know that there are fewer editing functions available on the mobile version of GarageBand.
If you can't find GarageBand on your MacBook or iMac, you can download it for free in the App Store.
Step 1 - Set up a template
When you first open GarageBand, it will give you the option to create a new GarageBand project either from a Factory Template selection or as an Empty Project. You'll be creating a custom recording template, so choose 'Empty Project.'
Once the main GarageBand window opens, it will prompt you to add your first track from a selection of track types. Choose 'microphone' and select the input your mic is connected to, then tap 'Create.' Your track will appear in the workspace in the upper right (default name 'Audio 1'), next to Garageband's Library section and above the settings for that track. Feel free to close the library section for now. You can verify and, if necessary, edit your microphone input settings under the Recording Settings tab at the bottom.
How robust you make your template is up to you. If your typical setup includes multiple microphones, click the '+' icon at the top left and repeat these steps to create new tracks for each additional channel. Make sure to assign the correct inputs in Recording Settings for each audio track you create. You may also want to go ahead and include tracks for any music or sound effects you regularly use in your episodes. Do the same thing for these, adding an audio microphone track, but set the input to 'None' since you will not be recording to these tracks. If you want to customize further or differentiate your tracks, you can rename them by double-clicking on the track title, and you can even change the track icon by right-clicking on the default blue waveform.
Next, we'll turn our attention to the Transport section at the top. By default the Transport section displays music project information like beats-per-minute, key, time signature, etc. that doesn't apply to podcast recording. To simplify the display, choose 'Time' from the transport dropdown menu. You'll notice the workspace grid switch from beats to timecode. Turn off the metronome and count-in features to the right of the transport display simply by clicking on them – you'll see them gray out. Garageband add ons free ipad.
From here, you'll save your recording template to your desired hard drive location using File > Save As.
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Step 2 - Recording in GarageBand
Now that your recording template is set up, it's time to put it to use!
When you open your template, you'll immediately want to 'Save As' a new file so that you don't accidentally change any settings or record audio into the template file. It can be helpful to think through your file organization before you get too many episodes in. Consistent naming conventions and folder structure will simplify your podcasting life.
Now that you've saved your new project let's get started. Virtual dj deals. Depending on whether you're recording solo or with one or more guests, you'll use either a single track or multitrack setup.
Single track recording
If you're recording a solo podcast all you'll need to do is hit the record button in the transport (or use the keyboard shortcut R). Double-check that your mic settings for the track are correct and record a test to make sure your levels are good. If you're too loud or too soft, adjust the input gain on your interface to compensate. You want to be loud enough to hear yourself clearly, but not so loud that the meters are hitting yellow or red territory.
Multitrack recording
If you're recording a multi-person podcast you'll likely want to record each person on their own track. This allows for greater flexibility in mixing down the line by keeping each sound source separate.
To add an additional track, click the + symbol in the top left corner. You'll select 'microphone track' again, but this time you'll want to choose the appropriate input for each additional mic (input 2, input 3, etc.). Click 'create.'
With your additional track added, it's a good idea to rename each track by speaker – 'Travis,' 'Rick,' etc. – to avoid any confusion.
By default, GarageBand only records to one track a time. To enable multitrack recording, go to the menu bar and choose Track> Configure Track Header. You can also right-click on any track and choose Configure Track Header or use the keyboard shortcut option+T. In the dialog that opens, tick the box next to 'Record Enable' to toggle it on. This will add the record-enable button to each track.
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When you're ready to start, toggle on the record-enable button on each track you want to record. They'll begin flashing, indicating that the tracks are armed. To disarm a track, click the record-enable button again. Any armed tracks will record simultaneously when you press the record button.
Note – if you are unable to arm multiple tracks, double-check your Recording Settings for each and make sure you have selected separate inputs. GarageBand will not record the same input to multiple tracks.
Make sure you have your outline or interview questions handy, take a sip of water, and start recording!
Step 3 - Editing in Garageband
Once your recording is complete, the next step toward finishing your podcast is to edit it. We'll focus on GarageBand-specific tips here, but check out How to Edit a Podcast: The Step-by-Step Guide for a more comprehensive overview of podcast editing.
In addition to simply dragging audio regions around in the workspace, there are a few bread-and-butter tools in GarageBand that will do most of the heavy lifting in your edit. Let's walk through them.
Trim
The trim tool allows you to shorten an audio clip by dragging in from the edge (to reveal previously trimmed audio, drag the edge back out). The trim tool in GarageBand appears when you hover your cursor over the lower right edge of an audio region. Excuse me asap rocky download.
An example use case might be that your intro music is longer than you need it to be. Using the trim tool, you can shorten the intro music region to an appropriate length.
Split Regions At Playhead
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Another essential editing feature in GarageBand is the Split Regions at Playhead tool, accessible from the menu bar via Edit > Split Regions at Playhead or using the keyboard shortcut Command+T. With this tool, any selected region will split into two separate regions, which can then be independently moved, trimmed, etc.
An excellent time-saving feature to use in conjunction with this is Edit > Delete and Move. Let's say you have a few seconds of an interview that you want to delete from your edit. You could isolate the offending region via Split Regions at Playhead and delete it, then close the resulting gap by dragging everything that follows to the left. Delete and Move performs those two steps at once, both removing the region you don't want and moving the regions that follow automatically.
Automation
Once you've trimmed an audio region or used the Split at Playhead tool, the result may be a truncated clip that stops abruptly. GarageBand doesn't have a Fade tool like many other DAWs, so you'll need to use automation to create volume changes.
Omnisphere 2 work with ableton 9 64 bit. To access volume automation, use the keyboard shortcut A or from the menu bar choose Mix > Show Automation. GarageBand defaults to show volume automation, but you can also automate many other parameters by selecting from each track's dropdown menu.
With automation visible, click anywhere on a region in the workspace to create an automation node. A bright yellow line will appear, and you can add additional nodes. Drag a node down or up to decrease or increase the volume level for that track at the given moment.
Editing Music in GarageBand
GarageBand is, first and foremost, a music editing software. You can apply each of these techniques to royalty-free music tracks (think Intro and Outro segments) and also create your very own music tracks as well.
You can record real instruments (like a guitar or drum kit) or use one of the virtual instruments that come with GarageBand (like synth, keyboard, or one of the software instruments). https://vswwjnv.weebly.com/blog/dj-app-mac-spotify. Just add a new instrument track for each layer and experiment with creating your very own theme music.
Pro Tip - Apple Loops are prerecorded musical phrases or riffs in the Loop Browser that you can use to easily add drum beats, rhythm parts, and other sounds to a project. These loops contain musical patterns that can be repeated over and over, and can be extended to fill any amount of time.
We recommend composing any music tracks in a separate GarageBand project so you can focus on dialing in the perfect tune without it being impacted by the other parts of your podcast episode.
Step 4 - Episode Assembly and Mixing in GarageBand
Once you've edited your recorded content to your liking, you'll need to arrange and mix the tracks into a cohesive episode. There is no uniform way to do this, but it's generally a best practice not to put multiple types of audio on the same track. Music, sound effects, and each voice, for example, should be kept on their own tracks.
Arranging Your Tracks
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One option to get you started is to arrange your audio tracks chronologically, beginning at the top. In this example, we have an intro clip taken from the interview that starts the episode, followed by theme music on a track just below, then intro narration, then the interview itself, and so on. This arrangement affords a level of visual organization, with audio cascading from top left to bottom right.
Another option is to use one track per audio source so that any track-level effect processing you do (EQ, compression, etc.) only has to be set once. In this setup, the intro clip would be on the same track as the interview, since they're from the same source. Intro and outro narration would be on one track, assuming both segments were taken from the same recording. Intro and outro music could potentially be on the same track if you're not using different processing on them. In addition to track-level effects, this approach can minimize the number of tracks you use in your mix and save vertical real estate in your workspace.
Mixing Your Tracks
At its heart, mixing is simply the process of striking a good balance between the levels of your different tracks. You want to avoid extreme differences in volume as your listeners move from intro music to narration to the interview, etc. We recommend using the voice level of your recording as the baseline for setting other levels – music, sound effects, etc.
In GarageBand, each track has a metered volume slider in the track header. Listen to your episode content and make sure the voice levels are triggering a healthy green on the meter. If they're reaching yellow or red, turn them down accordingly. Next, set any intro or outro music to a level that sounds consistent with the voice level – not significantly louder or softer. Do the same with any sound effects, narration, and so on. Balancing the volume of each track in this way will give you what's called a static mix.
Once you've set your static mix (overall volume for each track), you can leverage the power of automation. Add volume automation to music to dip it under your intro narration or to fade the level out smoothly and gradually. If there are any cuts in your audio that cause a pop or click, you can use the GarageBand automation 'crossfade' trick to eliminate them. https://entrancementstamp.weebly.com/blog/mobile-5th-generation-intel-core-premium-lpc-controller-driver.
Next, you may want to use audio processing plugins like EQ or compression to shape the tone or dynamic range of your material. Don't go overboard – a 'less is more' approach is recommended in most cases. Make sure that any effects processing doesn't add or subtract volume from your static mix – those levels you liked at the outset are your true north. Some plugins include an output control to raise or lower the volume back to its unprocessed level, but you can also use Garageband's Gain plugin, located under the 'Utility' section of the plugin list.
If you're looking for even more mixing and mastering capabilities, consider upgrading to Logic Pro X, Apple's pro-level audio editing software (available in the app store).
Step 5 - Export your podcast
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Before you export your final episode, hit the play button and listen to each segment of the episode to look for any mistakes you might have missed during the editing process. When you're pleased with the mix, the next step is to export it as a single audio file to upload to your podcast host for distribution.
In the menu bar, click Share > Export Song to Disk. A dialog will open where you can name your file, choose a destination for it, and select your export format (wav, mp3, etc.) and file quality. Click 'Export,' and GarageBand will export your mixed file to disk.
It's worth noting that mp3s are a preferred format for podcasting because of their compressed file size. Smaller files = quicker downloads and a better listener experience. However, to ensure the best audio quality, you should still export an uncompressed .wav file. Your host and mastering services like Auphonic will automatically transcode your file to mp3 during their process, so if you're unsure of the ins and outs of file formats, it's best to upload at a higher quality and let them handle it.
With your file exported, go for a cup of coffee or a walk to refresh your ears. Come back when you're ready & listen through the episode for quality control. Once you're satisfied, upload to Auphonic or directly to your host for distribution and wait for the fan mail to hit your inbox.