Take Control of Recording with GarageBand '11

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Take Control of v1.0

Recording

GarageBand s r e Cov 1 1 ' c a M X OS ION VERS with

Jeff Tolbert

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Table of Contents

Read Me First

Updates and More .....................................................................4

Basics .....................................................................................5

What’s New in This Edition .........................................................6

Introduction Quick Start to Recording with GarageBand Strategize Your Recording Session Choose a Recording Method Software Instruments ..............................................................13

Real Instruments.....................................................................14

Pros and Cons of Different Recording Methods .............................15

Recording Software Instruments

Learn about MIDI Gear.............................................................18

MIDI Keyboard Options ............................................................19

Set Up Your MIDI Keyboard ......................................................22

Record Your Tracks ..................................................................25

Program Your Own Synth Patches ..............................................35

Edit the Performance ...............................................................46

Recording Real Instruments

Consider Your Equipment..........................................................54

Set Up Your Input Device .........................................................59

Set Up to Record .....................................................................64

Fix a Section

Punch In ..............................................................................106

Fix Timing and Pitch...............................................................108

Change Tempo ......................................................................112

Understand GarageBand Effects Find the Effects .....................................................................114

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Dynamic Effects ....................................................................115

Filter and Equalizer Effects ......................................................120

Time-Based Effects ................................................................125

Distortion Effects ...................................................................127

Automate Effects ...................................................................129

Learn GarageBand Tips and Tricks

Double-Track Vocals and Guitars ..............................................131

Make Your Own Loops ............................................................132

Turn Your Guitar into a Bass ....................................................133

Combine Two GarageBand Projects in One Song ........................134

Listen to the Sample Songs

The Software Instrument Song ................................................137

The Real Instrument Song ......................................................139

Learn More

Web Sites .............................................................................145

Books ..................................................................................146

Magazines ............................................................................147

Videos..................................................................................148

Appendix A: GarageBand MIDI Drum Sounds Appendix B: Troubleshooting Improving Performance ..........................................................150

Audio Delays.........................................................................153

Glossary Terms ..................................................................................154

About This Book

Ebook Extras.........................................................................162

About the Author ...................................................................162

About the Publisher................................................................164

Copyright and Fine Print Featured Titles 3

Read Me First

Welcome to Take Control of Recording with GarageBand ’11, version 1.0, published in March 2011 by TidBITS Publishing Inc. This book was written by Jeff Tolbert and edited by Geoff Duncan. This book teaches you how to record real and software instruments, how to work creatively, and how to turn your recordings into a great-sounding piece of music in GarageBand ’11 (part of Apple’s iLife ’11 suite), also known as GarageBand version 6. Copyright © 2011, Jeff Tolbert. All rights reserved.

If you have an ebook version of this title, please note that if you want to share it with a friend, we ask that you do so as you would a physical book: “lend” it for a quick look, but ask your friend to buy a new copy to read it more carefully or to keep it for reference. Discounted classroom and Mac user group copies are also available.

Updates and More

You can access extras related to this book on the Web (use the link in Ebook Extras, near the end of the book; it’s available only to purchasers). On the ebook’s Take Control Extras page, you can: • Download any available new version of the ebook for free, or purchase any subsequent edition at a discount. • Download various formats, including PDF and—usually—EPUB and Mobipocket. (Learn about reading this ebook on handheld devices at http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/device-advice.) • Read postings to the ebook’s blog. These may include new information and tips, as well as links to author interviews. At the top of the blog, you can also see any update plans for the ebook. • Get a discount when you order a print copy of the ebook.

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Basics

In reading this book, you may get stuck if you don’t know certain basic facts about GarageBand or if you don’t understand Take Control syntax for things like working with menus or finding items in the Finder. Please note the following: • Menus: When I describe choosing a command from a menu in the menu bar, I use an abbreviated description. For example, my description for the menu command that activates the metronome is “Control > Metronome,” which refers to the Metronome command under the Control menu. • Path syntax: I occasionally use a path to show the location of a file or folder in your file system. For example, the default GarageBand install puts GarageBand’s Learn to Play lessons in the /Library/ Application Support/GarageBand folder. The slash at the start of the path tells you to start from the root level of the disk. You will also encounter paths that begin with ~ (tilde), which is a shortcut for any user’s home directory. For example, if a person with the user name joe wants to install fonts that only he can access, he would install the fonts in his ~/Library/Fonts folder, which is just another way of writing /Users/joe/Library/Fonts. • Finding GarageBand’s Preferences: I often refer to preferences in GarageBand that you may want to adjust. To display the program’s preferences (not to be confused with the system-wide settings found in the System Preferences application), choose GarageBand > Preferences (or press Command-,). Within that window, click a button at the top to display a pane for that category of preferences. Instead of giving detailed directions each time, I refer to each pane using an abbreviated notation such as “go to GarageBand’s Audio/MIDI preferences.”

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For the Sake of Brevity… You’ll see under GarageBand > About GarageBand that this the program is called GarageBand ’11, and that the latest version number (as of this writing) is 6.0.2. To keep things simple, I refer to it as GarageBand ’11 when I’m talking about this version and call it simply GarageBand the rest of the time.

Listen As You Learn! I occasionally give an audio example by linking to a song at Apple’s iTunes Store. You can click the link to connect to the iTunes Web-based preview; to hear the example, hover over the song title and click the play button that appears.

What’s New in This Edition

I updated this book to cover new features in Apple’s latest upgrade to the program, GarageBand ’11, as follows: • Apple has added seven new amp models to GarageBand ’11. I discuss all 12 of GarageBand’s amps and tell you what they’re supposed to represent in Just What Are Those Amps Anyway? • GarageBand also has five new stompboxes for use on Electric Guitar tracks. I describe them all in Understand GarageBand Effects. • Flex Time and Groove Matching help you clean up sloppy performances without complicated editing. I tell you how to use them in Fix It with Flex Time and Get In the Groove. • From analog to digital, you can play with quite a few synthesizers in GarageBand. I explain how they work in Program Your Own Synth Patches. • I added a section on using score view. Although score view is briefly covered in my other book, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand ’11, I give you more detailed instructions in Learn the Score. • Compressors and limiters can be a bit daunting at first. I added a few tips about using them in Dynamic Effects. 6

• I updated and remixed the two sample songs, and added links to their GarageBand project files. Read about the changes in Listen to the Sample Songs. • I added a few small tips and tricks in various sections, and made small edits here and there to keep the book relevant to the new version of GarageBand. • Finally, I updated screenshots to reflect GarageBand’s new interface, and added many more to illustrate tricky concepts. Note: This book talks about the Mac OS X version of

GarageBand ’11, not the iPad version. The two applications share some features, but this book does not discuss the iPad version at all.

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Introduction

GarageBand has changed the way Mac users create music. Many of us thought we’d need to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to make decent recordings. Instead, GarageBand makes recording much more affordable. Sure, it doesn’t include some features of higher-end programs, but what it does for the money is simply amazing. Songwriters can make great-sounding demos to play for their bands or prospective record labels. Proud parents can record their children for friends and relatives. Those of us who never fulfilled our rock-and-roll fantasies in our youth have another chance. GarageBand’s recording process is easy and intuitive. Even if you have o experience in a recording studio, this book will get you working like a pro in no time. Whether you’re recording using a MIDI keyboard, an electric guitar, or with a vocalist using a microphone, you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to get great-sounding tracks. I show you bucketloads of tricks you can use to get the best sound possible out of your equipment. Even inexpensive keyboards, microphones, preamps, and guitars will give you wonderful results. One thing to keep in mind: GarageBand isn’t meant to compete with top-of-the-line recording software such as Pro Tools or Logic Pro. The truly demanding user will discover GarageBand’s limitations. GarageBand can’t control audio or automation as well as its high-end brethren, its effects and instruments aren’t as sophisticated, and you can’t apply effects to groups of tracks at once, among other things. But for the typical songwriter, home recording artist, or weekend rock-androller, GarageBand has more than enough mojo to get your ideas out of your head and into the real world. I assume that you’re somewhat familiar with GarageBand. If you’ve played with it a little already, you’ll probably feel right at home. If not, I suggest my other book, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand ’11, to learn fundamental aspects of the program, as well as tips on arranging songs and using loops.

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Quick Start to Recording with GarageBand GarageBand offers a variety of ways to record music. Software Instrument tracks use sounds generated by your computer, using prerecorded samples or models of different instrument types; Real Instrument and Electric Guitar tracks require you to plug an external sound source (such as a microphone or an electric guitar) into your Mac. Electric Guitar tracks also give you access to GarageBand ’11’s many amp models and stompboxes. To use this Quick Start section, choose the heading that describes your situation or your interests. Then, follow its suggestions. However, I recommend reading through the entire book to get the most from your GarageBand experience. Plan ahead: • Choose the best way to structure your recording time in Strategize Your Recording Session. • Decide whether to use a Software Instrument, a Real Instrument, or an Electric Guitar in Choose a Recording Method. Record Software Instruments: • Do you have the equipment you need? Learn about MIDI Gear and find out what’s required for using Software Instruments. • Review Set Up Your MIDI Keyboard for information and troubleshooting on getting connected. • Check out Record Your Tracks to get your ideas into the computer. • Learn how to use GarageBand’s synthesizers in Program Your Own Synth Patches. • Tweak your parts so they’re just right in Edit the Performance. Record Real Instruments: • Learn about microphones and electric guitars, and find the best (and cheapest) way to get a signal from your instrument into your Mac in Consider Your Equipment. 9

• Set Up Your Input Device to get yourself connected and ready to record. • Get a killer sound out of your guitar or bass, eliminate hum, and record a great performance; read Use a Real Instrument Track and Use an Electric Guitar Track. • Learn about microphone placement and how to best use a mic to record vocals, instruments, or anything else in Record with a Microphone. Rerecord a section: • Make a mistake? Have no fear. Check out Fix a Section to learn how to correct errors, including how to correct pitch and timing. Understand effects: • You can make your song shine by adding cool effects. Read Understand GarageBand Effects to learn, for example, the difference between a compressor and a phaser. Go backstage with GarageBand tips and tricks: • Learn GarageBand Tips and Tricks such as making a guitar sound like a bass, turning your tracks into loops, and more. Check out the sample tunes: • I created two songs to highlight many of the techniques described in the book. Listen to the Sample Songs, read descriptions of how I made them, and download the GarageBand project files.

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Strategize Your Recording Session GarageBand lends itself to many uses. You can make a quick and dirty demo of an idea you had in the shower, or you can record your latest rock opera to sell on CD. Your intentions for a recording dictate how you set up and record. In a nutshell, imagine a continuum with speed, ease, and cheapness on one end, and quality of sound and performance on the other. Your plans for the final recording should determine where you stand on this continuum; here are some examples: • Speed: If you want to quickly plug in and record a brilliant song idea you just had, speed is of the essence. Sound quality is secondary—use whatever is handy and easy, and don’t worry about small mistakes or imperfections. • Quality: If you’re making a final recording for a CD or an iMovie project, you want quality. You should use the best equipment you have and spend the time necessary to get everything right. Right doesn’t necessarily mean perfect—often slight imperfections are what give a song its life and excitement—but you don’t want wrong notes or an electrical buzz ruining your song. Work carefully to get good sounds and strong signals. • Middle of the road: If you’re recording a song demo to play for your band or working out ideas for a more finished recording later, you lie in the middle. You want the recording to sound nice so you can approximate the final product, but it need not be the final product: small imperfections are okay, and spending three days to get the perfect guitar sound makes no sense. Note: Musicians often find themselves trying to replicate a

great take from a demo, and sometimes end up using parts of their demos in final recordings. There’s something freeing about the lack of pressure when recording a demo that can lead to inspired performances. It can pay to make sure your guitar isn’t buzzing and your recording isn’t clipping—just in case. 11

Your ultimate goal determines how you use this book. If you’re recording Software Instruments using a MIDI keyboard, your goal helps decide how many takes you record and how carefully you edit notes and imperfections. If you’re recording vocals, a high-quality recording means spending more time placing microphones, preparing your space for the best tone and fidelity, and recording more takes to be sure you’re in tune and singing at your best. Some techniques in this book pertain to all cases, while others apply only to more finished recordings. No matter where you stand on the continuum above, you can benefit from a little knowledge of audio recording techniques. Your projects will sound much better as a result.

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Choose a Recording Method GarageBand uses three types of tracks: Software Instruments, Real Instruments, and Electric Guitar (actually a variation of Real Instruments). The casual listener may not be able to tell the difference, but they involve completely different ways of working.

Software Instruments

Software Instruments use MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data rather than actual sound waves to create a track. MIDI is a digital language used to connect synthesizers, computers, and other electronic instruments. MIDI information includes details about the note played, its velocity (or volume), and any vibrato or pitch bending that was applied. One at a time: A catch with Software Instruments is that you can record only one Software Instrument track at a time. Even though GarageBand offers multitrack recording, that applies only to Real Instrument tracks. MIDI is a flexible format that can open up options that would otherwise be unavailable when recording. For example, not many people own drum sets. Even if you do, you may not have three or four (or ten or twelve) microphones to record professional sounding drum tracks. Maybe you want a flute in your song. Do you have a flute? You could probably rent one, or put a sign up at the local music school asking for flute players, but it would be so much easier to play the part on your keyboard. MIDI makes all this possible.

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MIDI Sequence When you record a MIDI part, the performance is called a MIDI sequence. GarageBand’s playback may sound like an audio recording, but it’s actually a series of instructions. Unlike a recording made to an audio tape, a MIDI sequence is editable after the fact—by changing the instructions, you can correct mistakes, change notes, and even change instruments long after you recorded your performance.

Real Instruments

With all this talk of MIDI and its versatility, you may think recording live audio is totally passé. It’s not. In fact, it’s preferable in many circumstances. You just can’t simulate the subtlety and nuance of a live guitar track with a MIDI keyboard. Live tracks have a certain, well, live quality to them that just can’t be faked. Real Instruments and Electric Guitar tracks require several things: • First, as you might expect, you need a real instrument. This can be something traditional like an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, a piano, or your voice, or it can be something more mundane like a box of cereal or a wine glass. Electric Guitar The Electric Guitar recording option has a completely different look and feel from a Real Instrument track, but under the hood they’re the same. Both require a real instrument, and both require you to plug something into your Mac to enable recording. The only real difference is the interface in GarageBand: Electric Guitar tracks are packed with features aimed at guitarists—although there’s no reason you can’t use them for any instrument.

• The second thing you need is a way to transfer the sound of your instrument into GarageBand. For this you need one of two things— a microphone or a pickup. Microphones convert sound waves in the air into an electrical signal that can then be amplified and fed into GarageBand. Pickups, on the other hand, respond to vibrations in 14

a solid object—guitar strings, the bridge of a violin—and convert those vibrations into an electrical signal. What’s a Pickup? In the simplest terms, pickups are electronic devices that enable musicians to plug in instruments; usually, they’re plugged into amplifiers to make the instruments louder, but they can also be plugged into mixers or other devices—even directly into your Mac! You’ll encounter several different kinds of pickups; the best known are magnetic pickups, usually seen on electric guitars and basses. The pickup creates a magnetic field around the strings, and the strings disturb it when they’re played, generating an electric signal. Piezo (pronounced “pee-ay-zoh”) pickups are also common on stringed acoustic instruments: they contain crystals (usually quartz) that generate an electric signal when put under stress. Other types include optical and transducer pickups, and even MIDI pickups that convert played notes to MIDI data. Although pickups are a tremendous convenience, each type has its strengths and weaknesses for recording and/or performance, especially when trying to capture a “true” acoustic tone. Magnetic pickups can buzz and don’t capture an acoustic sound; piezos tend to “quack”; transducers feed back; and MIDI pickups are notoriously finicky.

Pros and Cons of Different Recording Methods Table 1 summarizes some of the pros and cons of Real and Software Instruments. Ideally, you want to be able to use both when recording music with GarageBand: a MIDI keyboard for certain tracks, and a microphone and/or instrument with a pickup for others.

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Table 1: MIDI vs. Recorded Recorded Audio Recording Pros Method

Cons

MIDI • Wide variety of (Software instruments available. Instruments) • Ability to add, edit, and delete individual notes, as well as note volume, timing, and duration. • No noise added during recording. • Tempo can be changed without affecting quality. • MIDI files take up far less hard disk space than audio. • No need to move mics around to find the best sound. • Notes can be drawn rather than played on a keyboard.

• Certain instruments are not available, at least in GarageBand. • Easy to over-edit tracks, making them sound sterile and uninteresting. • You can record only one MIDI track at a time. • Impossible to capture the subtlety of a live performance. • Software Instruments use more system resources than Real Instruments. • MIDI recordings often sound “fake” or “wrong,” even when recorded by pros.

Live • Ability to record anything Recording you want, even non(Real instruments. Instruments) • Varying mic choice and placement results in endless variation in sound. • Record up to eight tracks at once, with the right equipment. • Can capture all the subtleties of a live performance. • Tracks sound more exciting, more alive. • Real Instrument tracks are generally more economical in processor use than Software Instruments, allowing you to use more tracks.

• You must possess the instrument in question and be able to play it. • Getting a good, clean recording of certain instruments can be difficult and time consuming. • Many mistakes can be fixed only by rerecording the section. • Any noise or hum that occurs during recording is on the track forever. • Tempo can be changed, but your audio quality may suffer. • Audio tracks can quickly eat up hard disk space.

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Recording Software Instruments Software Instruments are great tools for testing out ideas and working on your compositions, even if you plan on rerecording some of the tracks later with real instruments. And don’t let your guitarist friends give you grief—there’s absolutely nothing wrong with creating a song entirely from Software Instruments (see The Software Instrument Song, later in the book). Missing something? The default installation of GarageBand leaves out 1.2 GB of loops and Software Instruments. If you’re missing loops (like in Figure 1) see the sidebar below for instructions on downloading the missing content.

Figure 1: If many of your loops are grayed out and have little arrows next to them, you haven’t yet downloaded the additional 1.2 GB of content. See the sidebar below for instruction on how to install the extra Apple Loops and Software Instruments.

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Downloading the Extra GarageBand Content If you have the Internet bandwidth and the hard disk space, I highly recommend downloading and installing GarageBand’s extra loops and instruments. GarageBand still works fine without them, but you’ll be missing many useful goodies. To install the missing loops and instruments, do the following: 1. Open the Loop Browser by clicking the Loop Browser button. 2. At the top of the Loop Browser, click the All Drums button. 3. At the top of the results list, click the arrow button to the right of 70s Ballad Drums 01. (If you don’t see the arrow next to any of the loops then you already have the extra content.) 4. In the dialog box that opens, you can choose to download the extras now or later. Choose to download now, then click OK. 5. Software Update opens and checks for other available updates. 6. Once the box saying “New software is available for your computer” opens, choose the items you wish to download. If Software Update shows multiple items, you can choose to install just GarageBand instruments and Apple Loops. 7. Click Install. Once the download is finished, you’ll need to quit GarageBand to complete the installation.

Learn about MIDI Gear

When it comes to MIDI, you must choose between a more expensive and more sophisticated MIDI instrument, and a cheaper and less flexible MIDI controller. Here’s an overview of each option: • MIDI controller: A MIDI controller may look like a full keyboard, but it doesn’t make sound itself or have any built-in instruments. Most MIDI controllers feature piano-like keyboards, but you can find MIDI controllers that act like wind instruments, guitars, and drum kits, too. Musicians use MIDI controllers to control other 18

MIDI-capable devices such as synthesizers, samplers, drum

machines, and Macs—sometimes concurrently.

Since a MIDI controller can generate only MIDI data and not sounds, it’s similar to a computer keyboard, which can’t do anything but send data that your computer interprets as letters and numbers. Likewise, a MIDI controller generates information such as what key you pressed and how hard you pressed it. Many modern MIDI controllers connect directly to your Mac via USB, simplifying the setup process and saving you money. • MIDI instrument: A MIDI-capable keyboard, synthesizer, or other instrument is capable of generating both an audio signal and MIDI data. You can record the audio signal by plugging a 1/4" cord into the line out jack on the back of the instrument. GarageBand treats this signal as it would any other Real Instrument. On the other hand, if you connect the instrument using a MIDI cable, GarageBand treats the instrument like it is a MIDI controller generating MIDI data. To use this data, you need to create a Software Instrument track just as you would with a MIDI controller. Tip: If your controller or keyboard doesn’t feature a USB jack,

you’ll need to buy a USB-MIDI interface. These are inexpensive and quite easy to set up.

MIDI Keyboard Options

MIDI keyboards and controllers come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny one-octave units to giant behemoths with full piano keyboards and keys that feel like real ivory. Here are some available options: • Unweighted action: Also called synth action, these devices feature simple plastic keys that function merely as on/off switches. Some people prefer unweighted action because they can play faster; unweighted keys are also reminiscent of organs. • Weighted action: A more sophisticated option that feels like a real piano. The keys feel heavy and offer resistance as you play. A third option, semi-weighted, is also available. It offers some weight and resistance, but not as much as an actual piano. 19

• Pitch bend: Many keyboards include a wheel, joystick, or ribbon that can raise or lower the pitch of a note. Pitch bending can mimic electric guitar solos and trombone slides, among other sounds. • Modulation: A modulation wheel or joystick can add vibrato to a note. Many instrumentalists add vibrato to long sustained notes— the modulation wheel is an easy way to mimic this on a keyboard. • Sustain: Many keyboards accept a plug-in sustain pedal that functions just like the sustain (or damper) pedal on a piano. • Aftertouch: Some more expensive keyboards respond to the pressure of your fingers after the note is initially struck. This can affect how the sound changes on longer notes and how the sound fades once the key is released. However, less expensive controllers don’t offer aftertouch, and GarageBand’s Software Instruments don’t use it. • Touch sensitivity: Also called velocity sensitivity. The keys respond to how softly or aggressively you play. Most software instruments are designed to take advantage of velocity. See the sidebar about velocity, below, for more details. Some Software Instruments don’t use velocity at all. Organs are a good example—the keys on most real organs are simple on-off switches and don’t respond to a nuanced touch.

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Velocity GarageBand’s Software Instruments respond to how you press the key on your MIDI controller, which is known as velocity. The faster you press, the louder the note sounds, thus giving more verisimilitude by mimicking real-world instruments. (I say “faster” rather than “harder” because velocity technically measures speed. When you strike a key harder you also press it faster, and the key sensors measure speed. However, since we tend to think of pressure and not speed when playing, I’ll use the terms “harder” and “softer” from now on when I refer to velocity.) In some cases, the tone of the note changes when you press a key harder. Create an Electric Piano track and listen to the notes get brighter and spikier when you play more energetically. In other cases, the playing style changes when you strike the keys harder. When you play the Steel String Acoustic guitar softly, you hear a standard acoustic guitar sound. If you play more forcefully, you begin to hear the strings buzzing against the frets, as they would on a real acoustic guitar. If you hit a note at maximum velocity, GarageBand plays a two-fret slide up to the note you struck. Another fancy thing about the acoustic guitar generator is that as you move between notes, the software throws in high-pitched string squeaks to add more reality to your performance. Very cool.

Alternatives to a MIDI Keyboard If you’re not ready or willing to buy a MIDI keyboard, a couple of options are available: ✦ You can use GarageBand’s built-in keyboard (Window > Keyboard, or Command-K) although it’s less than ideal. You must play notes by clicking the mouse, which makes it difficult to end up with anything musical, and all the notes play at full velocity. ✦ I prefer Musical Typing (Window > Musical Typing or ShiftCommand-K), which allows you to use your keyboard as a sort of low-rent, one-and-a-half-octave piano keyboard. The cool thing about it is that it includes rudimentary velocity, pitchbend, and modulation control, so you can actually impart some musicality to your playing (but with difficulty). 21

Set Up Your MIDI Keyboard

Setting up a MIDI controller or keyboard is fairly simple under Mac OS X. As long as you have updated drivers for your device and everything is plugged in properly, you shouldn’t have much trouble. Follow these steps to set up your MIDI keyboard for the first time: Your mileage may vary... Many newer Macs and controllers do not require all these steps, so I’ve indicated several places to test your setup. If it works, you’re done. If not, continue following the steps to complete your installation. 1. Download the latest drivers for your keyboard or interface from the manufacturer’s Web site. Your keyboard may work without them, but it’s usually a good idea to install the drivers anyway for full functionality. Follow the installation instructions. You may have to restart your Mac to use the new drivers. 2. Plug the keyboard or the USB-MIDI interface into your computer. At this point, your device may be ready to go: Try launching GarageBand and seeing if you can play a Software Instrument with your controller. If not, continue with Step 3. 3. From /Applications/Utilities, launch Audio MIDI Setup. 4. Choose Window > Show MIDI Window to show the MIDI Studio window (Figure 2). Some keyboards include built-in support for Mac OS X—if an icon appears with the name of your device, you’re all set. Skip ahead to Record Your Tracks. Otherwise, continue with Step 5.

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Figure 2: The MIDI interface icon (here, the Tascam US-122) with two arrows, one facing up and the other down, represent the MIDI-in and MIDI-out connectors on your keyboard or interface. For using GarageBand, you don’t need to worry about the IAC Driver and Network icons.

5. If you don’t see an icon for your MIDI interface, click the Add Device button on the toolbar. A generic MIDI keyboard icon appears. If you like, double-click it to change its icon; this is totally optional and won’t affect performance. 6. If you don’t see an icon for your keyboard or MIDI device, click the Add Device button on the toolbar. Again, a generic MIDI device will appear, and you can set its name and icon to anything you like. 7. Drag from one arrow on the interface icon to the corresponding output arrow on the icon. Do the same with the other. MIDI Output Technically, you need to draw only the inbound connection from the keyboard to the interface. GarageBand doesn’t support MIDI out, so can’t control another MIDI device through GarageBand. However, third-party tools, like Retroware’s donationware midiO (http://mysite.verizon.net/retroware/), can add MIDI output to GarageBand, so you might want to draw the connection anyway, just for kicks.

You should now see two virtual cables connecting the keyboard and the interface (Figure 3).

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Figure 3: The interface connected to the virtual keyboard. If it didn’t before, your keyboard should now play in GarageBand.

8. Click the Test Setup button, and then play a note on the keyboard: ‣ If everything is working right, the MIDI-in arrow on the interface icon will turn red and you’ll hear a “ping.” ‣ If you don’t receive any response, try pressing the Rescan MIDI button; quitting and restarting Audio MIDI Setup; or unplugging and reattaching the MIDI or USB cable. I’ve found that setting up MIDI connections can be a bit finicky. 9. Quit Audio MIDI Setup. Once you’ve completed this initial setup, you won’t need to go through these stops again: just plug in your keyboard and start GarageBand. Oops If you’re still not getting a signal from the keyboard, check that your speakers are plugged in and turned on. If the setup instructions don’t work, restart your Mac. If restarting fails to solve the problem, make sure you’ve downloaded and installed the latest drivers for the keyboard and/or MIDI interface. Otherwise, your best bet is to contact the manufacturer or the store where you bought the keyboard. Hardware problems do occur—my first MIDI controller had a bad USB port. It took me two days of reinstalling, restarting, and hair pulling to figure this out.

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Record Your Tracks

Once everything’s set up correctly, recording a Software Instrument track in GarageBand is simple. If you’ve followed the procedure in the previous section and you’re getting sound out of the keyboard, you’re 75 percent there. All that’s left to do is choose a sound and hit the Record button.

Select a Software Instrument Sound Follow these steps to create a new Software Instrument track and assign an instrument sound: 1. Create a new track in GarageBand by clicking the Add Track button at the lower left of the timeline, or choosing Track > New Track (Command-Option-N). 2. In the New Track panel that appears, select Software Instrument and click Create (or simply double-click the picture of the piano). Your track appears in the timeline, and the Track Info pane automatically opens to the right of the GarageBand window. 3. In the Track Info pane, choose an instrument family in the left column and a specific instrument sound in the right column. Tip: To return to the full-sized timeline when you’re done, you

can close the Track Info pane by double-clicking the track button at the header in the timeline, clicking the Track Info lower right of the timeline, or choosing Track > Hide Track Info (Command-I).

Fine Tune Your Instrument Each Software Instrument relies on what Apple calls an instrument generator to make its sounds. You needn’t settle for the presets GarageBand provides. Instead, access each Software Instrument’s generator and tweak its settings to create the exact sound you want: 1. Double-click the track header (in the Tracks column of the timeline) of the Software Instrument you want to edit. Alternately, click the track to highlight it, and then choose Track > Show Track Info.

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2. For the purposes of this demonstration, select Organs in the left column and Classic Rock Organ in the right column of the Track Info pane. 3. Click the Edit tab to bring up more details. The first item in the list is Instrument Generator. Use the first popup menu to choose the generator and the second to choose specific presets. In this case, the generator is Tonewheel Organ. Using Effects Some Software Instruments use effects for their sound in addition to a generator. Be aware of this as you tweak instrument sounds. You may want to uncheck the effects while you fiddle with the generator. Conversely, you may be able to get the sound you’re looking for by tweaking the effects and leaving the generator alone.

4. No preset exists for this particular sound, so the second pop-up menu reads Manual. Depending on the generator, you can choose from any number of presets. Some of them share common generators and some are unique sounds. Each of the organ sounds use the same generator and vary the settings, while the presets in the Guitar category use both different generators and different settings. Try different presets to hear how they sound. 5. Choose the preset Jazz Organ. Play a little, and notice how the tone is a lot mellower now. 6. Click the Sound Generator icon (in this case it’s an image of an organ keyboard) to open the Tonewheel Organ settings. As you can see, you can edit seven different parameters. Play with the settings until you find a sound you like.

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Envelopes Some Software Instruments include parameters called Attack, Decay, Sustain, or Release. Together, these parameters form what’s called an envelope. These envelopes (also called ADSR envelopes) determine how quickly an aspect of a sound—like its volume or a filter’s frequency—reaches its maximum and returns to silence or a minimum value. An ADSR envelope consists of four parameters: ✦ Attack: The time it takes a sound to reach maximum value ✦ Decay: The time it takes the initial peak to die down ✦ Sustain: The level at which the note is held for the duration

of the key press ✦ Release: The time it takes for the value to fade to silence

(or zero) after the key is released Figure 4 shows a possible ADSR envelope. Notice how it has a

fairly fast attack and a loud initial peak (also called a transient). The value sustains at a lower level while the key is being held, and drops slowly back to zero once the key is released. If this envelope controlled a sound’s volume, it would quickly build to maximum when a key was pressed, more slowly drop down to a lower volume, sustain at a moderate level while the key was held, then slowly fade once the key was released.

Figure 4: A sample volume envelope.

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Start with a Beat If you’re starting a song from scratch, it’s often easiest to play along to a beat. GarageBand offers two choices: a drum track or the built-in metronome. The one you choose depends on the song, but I generally prefer a drum track—the rhythm is usually looser and more groovy. The metronome (often called a click in professional recording situations) is deliberately stiff, which may affect your performance. Do You Need a Beat? You may not want a beat at all. That’s totally fine. If your piece is a simple live recording of acoustic guitar and vocals, you don’t have to play to a click. After all, you may lose some of the spontaneity of your performance! More ambient, environmental pieces generally won’t have much of a beat either. However, if you’re playing a piece that you want to embellish later with drums, percussion, GarageBand loops, and even other instrumental parts, you’ll probably want a rhythm so it’s easy to sync up the various parts. Using the metronome or a drum track helps keep your performance in time with the tempo you set when you created the song; any loops you add later will automatically play at this tempo as well.

If you want to use a drum track, the easiest place to start is with a drum loop. Follow these steps to add a drum loop to your song: toward the lower right of the 1. Click the Loop Browser button GarageBand window. It’s marked with a picture of an eye. 2. Click All Drums in the top area of the pane to choose from the available drum and percussion loops. A list of available drum loops appears below. If some of the loops are grayed out and don’t have icons, you need to download them. See Downloading the Extra GarageBand Content, earlier. 3. Preview your options by clicking the name of a loop. Click it again to stop it. When you’ve made a choice, drag the loop up to an empty area of the timeline. (For more on using loops, see my other book, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand ’11.) 4. You can make your drum region as long as you want by clicking the upper right corner of the region and dragging to the right. 28

If you’d rather use the metronome, toggle it on by choosing Control > Metronome (Command-U) or pressing the Metronome button (Figure 5). A check mark on the menu indicates that the metronome is active.

Figure 5: Click the Metronome button (or press Command-U) to toggle the metronome on and off.

Count In Another cool trick that makes recording easier is the Count In option. When you choose Control > Count In, GarageBand starts playing one measure ahead of the current playhead location, giving you a little time to get ready before you have to start playing. If you’re starting from the beginning of the song, the metronome plays alone for a measure to count you in—even if you don’t have the metronome enabled.

Record a Track Recording a MIDI track is simplicity itself. Once you’ve chosen a sound, follow these steps to begin recording: 1. Move the playhead to the point where you want to begin recording. If you want to start at the beginning of the song, press the Go to Beginning button (or press Z on the computer keyboard). 2. Press the Record button (the round button with the red dot) and start playing. 3. Press the Play or Stop button to stop recording. 4. That’s it!

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To adjust GarageBand’s velocity sensitivity: Open GarageBand’s Audio/MIDI preference pane and adjust the Keyboard Sensitivity slider. More means GarageBand acts as though you’re playing harder than you actually are; Less does the opposite. This feature is handy if you’re having trouble performing a delicate percussion part or if you want to play a ripping electric piano track.

Record Using a Cycle Region If you’re like me, there are parts you want to play but you can’t get your fingers to be in the right place at the right time. I never took piano lessons as a kid, and some parts are just too complicated for me to play well. There’s a solution for people like us—we can build up our tracks piece-by-piece using a cycle region: 1. Choose GarageBand > Preferences (Command-,) and enable “Automatically merge Software Instrument recordings when using the cycle region.” 2. Create a cycle region in the location you want to record (Figure 6). You can make it as long as you want, but it might be easier to keep track of what you’re doing if it’s shorter.

Figure 6: To create a cycle region, click the Cycle button (top) and then drag in the cycle bar (bottom). GarageBand shows the current cycle region in yellow. As long as Snap To Grid is enabled, GarageBand will automatically align the boundaries of your cycle region to the nearest beat.

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3. Break your part into manageable chunks—for a piano part, maybe do the main melody in the first pass, some harmony notes in the second pass, and the bass notes on the third pass. Practice the parts so you can play them easily. 4. Hit the Record button and start playing the first part. When you reach the end of the cycle region, the playhead jumps back to where you started and GarageBand continues recording. 5. On each successive pass, play a different part. GarageBand saves them all in the same region. You can also sit out as many passes as you want so you can hear what you’ve recorded. Don’t go overboard! If you want a piano part to sound realistic, don’t play too many intertwining parts. Sure, most of us have ten fingers, but we can only use them to do so many things at once. GarageBand allows you to stop recording and add to the region later. Simply enable the cycle region and record: your new performance will be added to the notes already there so long as the preference to automatically merge Software Instrument tracks is enabled.

Get Your Part Right GarageBand’s Multi-Take Recording feature makes it ridiculously easy to record multiple versions (or takes) of a track and then pick the best one when you’re done. Since this feature works on both Software and Audio Instrument tracks, I discuss the ins and outs in a separate section, Record Multiple Takes.

Record Drum Tracks Recording Software Instrument drums is a special case, and requires more explanation. Each note on the keyboard controls a different type of drum hit. The usual suspects are there—bass drums, snares, high hats, toms, and various cymbals—as well as more exotic sounds like bongos, timbales, claves, bells, whistles, and even snapping fingers. The GarageBand drum kits offer a surprising number of drum sounds. Appendix A: GarageBand MIDI Drum Sounds lists the sounds in Rock Kit. Most of the other kits feature similar instrumentation with slightly different timbres. Some of the names may seem bewildering to nondrummers—it may help to play along on the keyboard so you can connect the sounds with their names. 31

Think Like a Drummer If you want your drum parts to sound realistic, make sure you don’t create impossible parts. Pay attention to drummers and watch how they use their limbs as they play. A common mistake in programmed drums is keeping a high-hat pattern going during fills. Most drummers only have two arms, so they can’t keep a high hat groove going while playing a fill. However, in certain types of music—dance, Top 40, and electronica in particular—that’s just fine: drums are often layered from loops and this type of realism isn’t an issue.

The easiest way to create a drum track is to build it up gradually using a cycle region (described previously), or to record different drums on different tracks. Both methods enable you to concentrate on getting each piece right; however, I prefer to use separate tracks, as it affords a lot more flexibility. Tip: Using separate tracks for different drums also enables you

to use different kits for different drum components—a kick drum from one kit and a snare from another, for example. It also lets you add different effects to each component, and more easily adjust the volume levels of individual drums.

To record a drum part using different tracks, follow along here: 1. Choose File > New (Command-N) to create a new song. Select New Project from the list at the left, then “Piano” as the project type, then click Choose. 2. Name your project, change the tempo and key if desired, and click Create. 3. Select the Piano track, and click the Track Info

button.

4. In the first column, choose Drum Kits, and in the second column pick Hip Hop Kit. 5. Toggle the metronome on by clicking the metronome Toggle Control > Count In on as well.

button.

6. Press the Record button (R) and play the closed high hat (F#1 on your MIDI keyboard) at each tick of the metronome. Play for at least 4 measures and then press the Space bar to stop recording. 32

Tip: You can record drum parts in any order you like. These

days, I usually start with the snare and kick since they’re the bedrock of most beats. Then I add high hat, toms, and other elements.

7. Double-click the region you created to open the Track Editor. Under Quantize Note Timing, choose 1/4 Note from the pop-up menu. I often quantize timing on high hat parts because it’s important that they stay in time. 8. Choose a value from the slider—“max” is completely locked to the grid; “off” is no timing correction at all. I usually pick something between 50 and 75 so it still has some human feel. Close the Track Editor by clicking the Track Editor button at the lower left of the GarageBand window. 9. Select the Hip Hop Kit track you just created, and choose Track > Duplicate Track (Command-D). Make sure the new track is selected and toggle the metronome off. 10. Hit the Go to Beginning button (Z) and press Record again. Play the bass drum (the C1 key) on the first and third beats, and the snare (the D1 key) on the second and fourth beats of each measure. (Yes, this is a boring drumbeat, so feel free to elaborate if you like.) Separating the Snare and Kick It’s much easier (for me, anyway) to play the snare and kick

together in one pass. But when I’m ready to mix I often

separate them onto two tracks to make mixing easier. Doing

so is simple:

1. Select the snare/kick track and choose Track > Duplicate Track. 2. Option-drag the snare/kick region onto the new track. 3. In the first region, select all the snare notes and delete them. In the second, do the same with the kick notes. Now you can add different effects to each track and fine-tune them more easily.

Here’s an MP3 file of the high hat part, the simple drumbeat, and then a more intricate beat: drumtutorial2.mp3. 33

Drum Loops If recording your own drum parts is not one of your abilities, use loops instead. GarageBand ships with lots of drum loops, and plenty more are available in Apple’s Jam Packs and other add-on packages (see my other ebook, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand ’11, for where to find some additional loops for your projects). Since drums are purely rhythm instruments, they’re much harder to single out, and it’s unlikely anyone will even know you used a loop. (Not that there’s anything wrong with using loops!) If you want to make drum loops sound a little less generic, you can easily add extra hits and accents to existing Apple Loops: ✦ If the drum loop is a Software Instrument loop, you can add hits to the region itself (see Edit the Performance). ✦ If you’re working with a Real Instrument loop (or want to add accents from a different drum kit to a Software Instrument loop), create a new Software Instrument track, load a drum kit, and drop in your extra hits.

By far the most difficult aspect of drum parts is staying in the groove when movement is restricted to your fingers. It’s easier to play drums when you can use your whole body. Concentrate on the beat when you’re playing and practice your part several times before you record. Tip: You can buy a variety of MIDI drum pads that allow you

to actually play drum parts with sticks or with your fingers on touch-sensitive pads. Not being a drummer, I prefer the ones you play with your fingers. I find it much easier to play a good groove on these touch pads than on a keyboard. (Some MIDI controllers, like my M-Audio Axiom 61, have touch pads in addition to keys.)

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Longer Drum Parts I can usually get a good feel for a few measures, but then I lose it. The following method works well for longer drum parts: 1. For each separate part, record as much of it as you can, but stop when you feel yourself losing the groove. 2. Listen back to what you just played and identify the place where you lost the groove. Delete everything after that point. 3. Move the playhead back a few measures before this deletion point. This gives you a head start so you can get into the groove again. 4. Start recording and play as much as you can until you lose the groove again. Go back to Step 2 and repeat until you’ve recorded the whole section.

Program Your Own Synth Patches

GarageBand comes with a number of synthesizers you can use in your songs. They’re not the most full-featured software synths out there, but they do offer a wide range of tones and effects. Below is an overview of each of them.

Go Analog Analog synths are the first batch of synths to explore. Analog synths were the first synthesizers developed, and the first to be commercially available. The famous synths of the ’60s and early ’70s were all analog; names like Moog, ARP, Buchla, and EMS are still sought after today for their warm, rich sound and natural unpredictability. In order to look at the various synth models, create a new project and choose Piano as the template. Note: There’s also a project template called Keyboard Collection

set up with a number of different keyboard instruments, including synths. For our purposes it’s easier to start with one track rather than seven.

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Analog Basic

You want a synth, not a piano, so double-click the default Grand Piano track to open the Track Info pane, click the Edit tab, and choose Analog Basic as the sound generator. Play a few notes on the keyboard. The default Analog Basic sound is a sawtooth wave (Figure 7). This is one of the most basic synth waveforms. It’s bright, rich, and buzzy, and is a great starting point for in-your-face lead and bass sounds.

Figure 7: A sawtooth wave.

The other waveform available in the Analog Basic synth is a square wave (Figure 8). It has a hollow, clarinet-like sound. You can hear it by opening the Analog Basic details window (click the Analog Basic icon in the Track Info pane) and moving the Mix slider to Hollow.

Figure 8: A square wave. Tip: To make this synth sound even more like a clarinet, move

the Tuning and Resonance sliders to 0, the Cutoff to 10 and the Attack to 40.

Disabling the annoying Save Changes dialog box: As you play with software instrument settings, you may see a dialog box that says “You have made changes to the current instrument or instrument setting.” Personally, I find it incredibly annoying and recommend checking “Do not ask me again” once you’ve decided whether to save a custom setting or discard your changes. It will trouble you no more. 36

The Analog Basic synth has quite a range of timbres, ranging from brash and shiny to soft and plucky. Feel free to play with the presets in the detail window to give you an idea of what the synth can do. When you’re ready to start programming your own sounds, here’s an indepth look at the controls: • Volume: This one probably doesn’t need much explanation... • Mix: Morphs between a square wave and a sawtooth wave. This setting sometimes interacts with the Tuning setting in odd ways. Play with both sliders for interesting effects. • Tuning: The Analog Basic synth actually uses two waves at the same time. The Tuning slider detunes one wave in relation to the other to give a chorus-like effect. At more extreme settings it splits the two waves from unison into fifths, then octaves, and finally two octaves, while continuing to detune the two relative to each other for a thicker sound. In more sophisticated synths there would likely be separate controls for the interval and the fine tuning, but this single slider covers many combinations. • Cutoff: This slider controls the frequency of the low pass filter, a common control in analog synthesizers. This filter reduces the high frequencies in the sound, making the tone sound mellower. Oddly, this slider often has little effect except in the bottom third of its range. The filter cutoff is also velocity-sensitive, so the harder you play the more the filter opens up. You may need to edit your performances to get the sound you want. • Resonance: Operates in tandem with the Cutoff to add a resonant peak at the cutoff frequency. It also works with the attack, decay, and sustain settings to create a “wow” effect. This can most clearly be heard with low Cutoff and Sustain and high Resonance and Decay settings. • Attack: For the next few sliders, it will likely help to look at the sidebar, earlier, on ADSR Envelopes. Attack controls the time it takes for a sound to reach its maximum volume. Low Attack settings mean the sound reaches its peak quickly, like a piano or a guitar strum. Higher Attack settings would give you a slower build, more like a string section. • Decay: In this synth, Decay seems to control both the decay and release parameters of an ADSR volume envelope (see the figure in 37

the Envelopes sidebar, earlier). At low settings the sound fades quickly, and at higher settings it fades more slowly. As with all synths, the decay is also tied to the sustain—if Sustain is low or at zero, a fast Decay setting gives you a short, percussive sound. • Sustain: As you can see in the figure in the Envelopes sidebar, Sustain is unlike the other settings because it represents a volume level, not a period of time. At high settings, the sound will sustain loudly as long as you hold a key down. At lower settings, the sound keeps playing at a lower level until the key is released. Analog Mono

This synth is very similar to Analog Basic, so I don’t need to discuss many of its controls. But there are some important differences. First off, Analog Mono is a monophonic synth, meaning it can only play one note at a time. You can’t play chords. Back in the early days of synthesis, all synthesizers were monophonic—but what’s the point of having a monophonic synth now? For one thing, there are many cases where you only want to play one note at a time, namely bass lines and leads. For another, monophonic synths are good for mimicking brass and woodwind instruments that can only play one note at a time. One way monophonic synths can imitate brass and woodwind instruments is via a legato mode, and Analog Mono is no exception. On a monophonic synth, legato means that only the first note is articulated if you play a smooth series of notes. As long as you keep the first key pressed, the synth ignores attack and decay settings for new notes. The easiest way to hear this in action is to load the preset Kick Bass and play a series of notes, first with all five fingers, being careful to leave your thumb on its key the whole time. Then play the same series with just one finger. You should hear a pronounced difference in the two performances—the first should be very smooth, while the second should be very marked and defined. Legato is always enabled in GarageBand’s Analog Mono synth: the only way to control it is via your performance. Analog Mono also features glide, enabling the synth to slide to the next note in a musical way, mimicking the way guitarists and string players sometimes slide up or down to a note for effect.

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Here’s an overview of the new controls: • Glide: As I already mentioned, glide controls the speed at which the synth slides from note to note. At zero, there’s no glide, and above around 50 the gliding starts getting really slow, so beware of high settings—although slow glides can make great sound effects! • Cutoff: This functions the same as Analog Basic, except in this case the slider has a more usable effective range. • Richness: This controls the detuning found in Analog Basic without adding the extra intervals. Essentially this is simply detuning the oscillators relative to each other to create a thicker, chorusing effect. Analog Pad

Pads are long, sustained tones that often mimic string or organ parts in acoustic music—they’re frequently employed by synth-pop artists (listen to “West End Girls” by Pet Shop Boys or “Films” by Gary Numan. GarageBand’s Analog Pad synth gets a decent range of sounds, and some of them are quite pretty. Some of the controls on this synth are different from what we’ve already seen. Here are the unfamiliar ones: • Modulation: Modulation in a synthesizer refers to some sort of periodic changes in the sound over time. In its simplest form, this can be pitch or volume changes—in other words, vibrato or tremolo. However, in Analog Pad, the modulation control determines the rate at which the two synth voices subtly detune and retune relative to each other. At slow speeds, the sound becomes almost static. At high values, it takes on a wobbly quality. My favorite setting is somewhere in the middle, where you get a subtle yet rich motion to the tone. • Character: This slider changes the sound from a standard sawtooth wave into something rather thin and squelchy. It appears to be some sort of high pass filter—the opposite of the low pass filter we heard with the Cutoff control in Analog Basic. At lower settings it adds an intriguing buzz to the timbre, but up high it really does a number on the tone, thinning it out completely. However, if you lower the Cutoff while raising the Character, some of the tone returns. Play with this slider in tandem with the others for some cool effects. 39

• Cutoff Envelope: Remember how the resonance worked with the decay in the Analog Basic synth? In the Analog Pad, the Cutoff Envelope controls the speed of the filter decay in a similar way. To hear it most clearly, set the cutoff low and the resonance high. • Duration: This slider controls both the attack and the release simultaneously. At low settings both attack and release are fast, turning the pad sound into more of a stab. At high settings, the slow, smooth pad character returns. • Animation: As the name implies, this slider adds motion to the sound. If you want to get technical, it seems to do so by modulating the cutoff frequency as well as the phase relationship between the two oscillators. But if that sounds like college math to you, just remember this slider will add movement to your pad sound. For the synth-savvy: You may notice that Apple uses unconventional names for some synth parameters. In part, this is because they’re combining several functions into one control for simplicity’s sake, but they also appear to be trying to make the controls more descriptive for beginners (which makes them more confusing for those of us familiar with synthesizers). Analog Swirl

Of all the synths so far, the Analog Swirl has the most standard

controls. This is analog synthesis in a nutshell (in fact, it makes me

wonder if this synth wasn’t switched with Analog Basic at birth...).

The main difference between Basic and Swirl is that the latter has

modulation controls, which give it more motion. Analog Swirl also

lacks the Mix parameter, so it’s limited to just a sawtooth wave.

This synth is so basic that we’ve already covered all its controls.

The only exception in the Release slider, which is the last of the four

envelope controls shown in the figure in the Envelopes sidebar, earlier.

Release controls the speed at which the sound dies off when you stop

playing a note.

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Analog Sync

This synth uses a technique called hard sync to create more abrasive sounds using two oscillators. Analog Sync’s tone is different from the other analog synths we’ve explored so far, and it adds a completely new color to your synth palette. The new controls are listed below: • Sync: This, unsurprisingly, controls the amount of hard sync in the sound. Since hard sync is this synth’s specialty, you can never completely turn it off, so even when this slider’s set at zero there’s a good bit of brashness to the timbre. At higher levels the notes fairly scream out of the speakers and sound like they’re split in two. Not a good choice for a meditation CD. • Sync Modulation: Like the modulation controls in the previous two synths, this slider adds motion to the sound. At low levels it’s limited to a slow ebbing and flowing of the sync effect, but at high values you get some pretty rapid and extreme outer space laser fights. Coupled with some automation, this could make a great special effect for a dance track. • Sync Envelope: This appears to be our good friend Resonance from the previous batch of synths, coupled with aspects of Cutoff Envelope in Analog Pad. Essentially, it adds that “wow” sound to a patch.

Discover Digital The next batch of synthesizers in GarageBand is the digital synths. Digital synthesis came of age in the 1980s, and unlike analog synthesis, which use integrated circuits and other types of electronics to create sound waves, digital synths use computers from start to finish. They also use different methods of sound generation—processes like additive and FM synthesis instead of subtractive synthesis. I won’t bore you with all with technical details, but if you are interested in the different types of synthesis out there, feel free to check out the Wikipedia article on synthesizers at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Synthesizer.

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But Isn’t It All Digital? Since you’re using GarageBand running on your Mac, aren’t all of these synthesizers digital, even the so-called analog ones? Well, yes, technically. The analog models in GarageBand are mimicking the sound and the behavior of true analog synths. While it’s true that you’re running them on a computer, GarageBand still calls them analog synths because of their analog “sound.” Digital Basic

Fire up the Digital Basic synth and play a few notes to hear the sound of digital. Quite a difference, no? It’s definitely more lush and bell-like, but it’s also colder at the same time. It’s...well, digital-sounding. Once again, we need to get acquainted with some new controls: • Mix: When set to Direct, you’re hearing the synth’s basic, direct sound wave. As you move the slider towards Modulated, you’re adding new overtones to the sound using FM synthesis. (For a lay explanation of FM synthesis, you’re basically using one waveform to alter the other, using various bits of math that make my head hurt.) FM can sound quite raspy and harsh, but moving the Timbre slider towards Dark makes the tone quite a bit more pleasant. • Tuning: As you’d expect, this slider affects the tuning of the “direct” oscillator—63 is normal tuning for standard pitch. But since FM synthesis uses one oscillator to modulate the other, Tuning also affects the way the Mix slider functions. Try setting the mix at 0 and playing with the tuning. Strange and beautiful things happen! (Again, darkening the timbre mellows the tone quite a bit.) • Harmonics: This slider is interesting, as it doesn’t smoothly transition through its various tonalities. Moving the slider even one or two ticks affects the sound quite significantly—and you might find low settings that sound very similar to high settings. One potentially cool application would be to automate this slider to create wild computery burblings. • Timbre: We’ve already played with this one a bit. Essentially, it controls the synthesizer’s filter modulation: moving it to the left generally softens the tone. 42

Digital Mono

Like the Analog Mono, this synth takes Digital Basic, fattens it up a bit, and makes it monophonic. There’s no Glide this time, but it still has the legato operation of the Analog Mono synth. Compared to Digital Basic, Digital Mono has more limited FM options and it’s missing the bell-like character of the previous synth. Here are the new controls to explore: • Timbre Envelope: Like Sync Envelope in the Analog Sync synth, this is a combination of resonance and filter decay. Because this synth is monophonic and permanently set in legato mode, you have to lift your fingers off the keys to trigger the envelope. • Distortion: Adds distortion, of course! It’s a bit different from other GarageBand distortion effects, but it works nicely with this synth. Digital Stepper

This synth is great for creating pads and rhythmic patches. The latter is something we have yet to encounter in our synth explorations, but it’s a mainstay of modern synthesizer use (listen to the bass on “Blue Monday” by New Order). In this particular case, the Digital Stepper uses a random wave to control both the harmonics and the cutoff frequency of the sound. This results in an electronic pulsing sensation that adds a lot of motion to the patch. Unfortunately, in GarageBand the pulsation is always in sixteenth notes (one quarter of a beat), but this is at least a usable rate. The default sound of the Digital Stepper doesn’t use this rhythmic quality at all—it’s more of an organ—so to hear pulsing, try the presets Crush Stepper or Voodoo Groove A. Once again, there are a few new controls to examine: • Balance: This slider lets you crossfade between oscillators using an analog sawtooth wave form and a digital waveform. So really, this synth is more of an Analog/Digital Stepper. Bonus! • Harmonic Steps: If you move this slider all the way to the left, you’re essentially turning off the harmonic steppiness. At anything other than zero you’re starting to introduce random changes to the harmonic content. 43

• Cutoff Steps: Like the previous slider, Cutoff Steps introduces random, rhythmic changes to the cutoff frequency.

Explore Hybrid Synths The last two synths to look at are the hybrids: Hybrid Basic and Hybrid Morph. When you open either of them for the first time, you might be a touch overwhelmed by sheer size of the interface—they offer more controls than we’ve seen so far. But if you look more closely you’ll see they both use many of the controls we’re already familiar with—they just happen to have more of them. Missing the Hybrid Synths? See Downloading the Extra GarageBand Content to find out how to add them. Hybrid Basic

One of the first things to note about the hybrid synths is that they both have a choice of waveforms—something new and exciting to play with! They also both give you a choice of cutoff filter as well. Because of this flexibility, they actually approach classic synthesizers in the level of user control, and give you a great deal of flexibility when programming sounds. The new controls in the Hybrid Basic are as follows: • Waveform: This synth has a number of waves to choose from—24, in fact. They run the gamut from bright, fizzy sounds and punchy basses to choirs, organs, and breathy tones. There are too many for me to describe here, so take a few minutes and explore them for yourself. Check out the preset menu: you’ll find each waveform has a preset that gives you a great starting point for each of the new sounds. • Wheel to Vibrato and Wheel to Cutoff: These two sliders dictate how much control your modulation control has over vibrato and cutoff. Obviously, if they’re both set to off, your controller’s modulation control does nothing. • Cutoff Type: In the Hybrid synths we can finally choose what kind of filter we want! Hybrid Basic offers six choices—four breeds of treble reduction, one of bass reduction, and one mid pass filter. The four treble reduction filters are variations on the cutoff filters we’ve already explored. As you move down the list they get somewhat darker. The Bass Reduction filter is a new one. Instead of removing 44

treble frequencies, this filter gets rid of bass, making the sound fizzy and bright—but beware, at 100% it suddenly turns off! Finally, the Mid Pass filter gets rid of both bass and treble frequencies, leaving only midrange tones—and, again, for some reason at 100% the filter turns off completely. Experiment with the individual filters to hear how they differ, and note how they interact with Resonance and the three cutoff controls. • Cutoff Attack: In the Hybrid Synths we’re at last able to control how quickly the cutoff envelope engages, independent of any other controls. Note that if the Cutoff is high or the Cutoff Envelope is low, this slider will have little or no effect. Hybrid Morph

The final synth in GarageBand gives you the opportunity to create complex, evolving sounds by crossfading between two waveforms. Hybrid Morph has 17 basic waveforms, and—just like Hybrid Basic— each has its own preset that can give you a good idea of each waveform’s capabilities. There are only two new controls in this synth, but they’re somewhat complex: • Morph: Each Hybrid Morph’s waveform has two layers. The Morph slider governs which is more prominent. To hear the two waveforms, make sure the Morph Envelope is set to 0. Because of the way Morph and Morph Envelope interact, some Morph Envelope settings produce no sound. • Morph Envelope: This slider determines how the synth crossfades between the two layers. Morph Envelope often works well when it’s set opposite the Morph slider. The speed of the morphing is determined by the Decay slider. That’s it! Those are the GarageBand synthesizers. GarageBand’s synths might not cover the full range of what can be done with professional keyboards and sound modules, but they offer a surprisingly broad sonic palette and GarageBand makes it easy to create unique sounds with them. GarageBand’s synths reward experimentation: play around and see what you come up with, and don’t forget that the presets are often good starting points for your own sonic creations.

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Edit the Performance

You’ve recorded your track, but something’s not quite right. Maybe you’ve made a couple of mistakes, a few of the notes are too quiet, or one section just doesn’t work the way it should. Do you have to rerecord the entire thing? Absolutely not! A fantastic thing about Software Instrument tracks is how easily you can change your parts. Often, the part you recorded will be mostly correct, with only a few notes out of place. You may have hit the wrong note, played a note slightly out of time, or hit one key too hard in the middle of a quiet passage. All these mistakes can be fixed easily without having to rerecord anything.

Use the Piano Roll GarageBand allows you to edit MIDI data in two different ways: using the piano roll or using score view. The piano roll is essentially a graph of your recording with time moving left to right and notes running from low on the bottom to high on the top. Score view, on the other hand, enables you to view and edit actual musical notation. If you’re interested in learning how to use score view, see Learn the Score, later in this chapter. To edit a track with the piano roll, read on: 1. Double-click the Software Instrument region you want to edit. The editor will open and highlight that region. The advantage of double-clicking: Double-clicking a region will close the track editor if it’s already open, requiring another double-click to open it again. However, simply single-clicking a region with the editor open does not move the editor to that region, which can be very confusing if you’re editing similar parts in a track. I recommend double-clicking even if the editor is already open: it automatically zooms the editor to the beginning of your region, so you can be sure you’re working on the right part of the song. 2. In the Track Editor’s Piano Roll mode, each note you played on the

keyboard is represented by a gray or white bar (the shade of gray

represents the velocity level—the brighter the note, the higher its

recorded velocity). Click the bar you want to edit. It turns green,

and GarageBand plays the note so you can tell if it’s the right one.

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To find the exact note: play the song with your finger poised over the spacebar. When you hear the note you want to edit, quickly tap the spacebar. The playhead should stop just after the beginning of that note. 3. Your choices now are as follows: ‣ Trigger a different note: Drag the bar representing your note up or down vertically. There’s a keyboard at the left side of the editor to guide you, and, again, GarageBand plays the notes as you move the bar so it’s easier to tell when you’ve found the note you want. ‣ Trigger the note at a different place rhythmically in the track: Drag the bar forward or backward horizontally. If the Snap to Grid feature is enabled (Control > Snap to Grid, or Command-G), the note snaps to the ruler grid at various increments. These increments might represent quarter notes, sixteenth notes, or even whole notes: it depends on how closely you’re zoomed in on the Track Editor. On the other hand, if Snap to Grid is off, you can position the note freely wherever you want. Making Small Movements Notes are designed to snap to their current position, making

small movements irritatingly difficult. Try the following:

1. Visually make a note of the bar’s location. 2. Move the note somewhere else and release the mouse button. 3. Move it back to where it was, but keep the mouse button pressed as you move it into position. This allows you to make tiny rhythmic adjustments. You can also zoom in very close, which helps as well. The note still snaps to its last position, but you have more control. Don’t get carried away: try to fix only notes that sound out of place, regardless of whether or not they look out of place.

‣ Shorten or extend the note: Place the mouse pointer at the right end of the note. It will change to the resize pointer (a bracket with arrows on each side). Drag the edge of the note to change its duration. 47

‣ Erase the note: Press Delete. ‣ Automatically line up notes: Select a note value (from whole notes down to 1/64th notes) increment from the “Quantize Note Timing” pop-up menu. To adjust the slider value you must have the region selected, since the Auto Quantize feature is a regionwide setting. If you have individual notes selected, GarageBand dims out the slider, but will still enable you to adjust the note to the nearest rhythmic value. An unfortunate slider bug! Even if you’ve already set quantization for a region, with individual notes selected the slider is grayed out and reads “max.” Your quantization settings are intact, but they’re not reflected in the menu’s display. Quantization with Groove Matching If Groove Matching is on and your track is a slave track, Quantize Note Timing works differently (see Get In the Groove for more on Groove Matching). First, quantization becomes a trackwide setting applied to all regions on the track. Second, you can’t select an increment—the pop-up menu is permanently set to “Groove Matching.” And lastly, the slider determines which notes have Groove Matching applied, not the amount of Groove Matching. At low settings, only the notes closest to the master groove get moved. As you raise the slider, more notes move, until at the maximum setting, all notes get forced into the groove.

Aligning Notes to a Grid It may be tempting to select all your notes and align them to the grid. Presto: perfect timing! Right? Avoid this temptation unless you are after a mechanical, drum-machine feel! There’s no quicker way to kill subtlety and groove than to make every note land in exactly the right place. Once you’ve selected a note value, I recommend a slider setting between 50 and 75, or using tempo alignment just on individual notes or small groups of notes that are giving you trouble.

‣ Change the velocity of the note: Move the Velocity slider to make the note louder or softer. 48

‣ Edit MIDI controller data: To edit modulation, pitch bend, sustain, or expression data choose the appropriate data type from the View pop-up menu in the Piano Roll. If any of the data types are present in the track, GarageBand puts a small dot next to those data types in the menu (Figure 9). You can move and delete control points, as well as copy and paste them. To create a new control point, hold down the Command key and click in the Track Editor grid. To delete a control point, simply select it and press Delete. You can also click and drag to draw a marquee to select multiple points at once.

Figure 9: Selecting MIDI controller data types using the View menu.

You can also add control points to tracks that don’t have controller data. Select the appropriate type and Command-click in the editor to create control points. If your keyboard doesn’t have a mod wheel, for example, you can add modulation data manually using this method. Tip: Made a mistake and don’t know how to fix it? See Fix a

Section, later.

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MIDI Data Supported GarageBand supports two other types of MIDI data: Expression and Foot Control. Expression is another way to control volume, so you can add swells and crescendos without using the track volume slider. It’s often used for organs and orchestral instruments. Many instruments in Apple’s Jam Pack expansion packs (http:// www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/jampacks/) use of Foot Controller data. With these instruments, especially those in the Symphony Orchestra Jam Pack, modulation triggers different playing styles—short (staccato) and long (legato) notes, trills, tremolo, and more. The Symphony Orchestra Jam Pack also uses Pitch Bend to control Expression, so you can create more nuanced performances.

Learn the Score If you’re more comfortable working with musical notation when you edit your parts, you might want to try score view. Like the piano roll, it lets you add, delete, edit, and move notes, but score view lets you do so on virtual sheet music. To view a track using score view, do the following: 1. Double-click a Software Instrument region to open it in the editor. 2. Click the Score button at the top of the editor (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Click the Score button at the top of the editor to show your region in score view. 50

3. Set the note resolution by clicking the Grid right corner of the editor.

button in the upper

The resolution determines how finely notes are rounded off in score view: if you set it to quarter notes, for example, quarter notes will be the shortest notes you’ll see in the score. Don’t set too fine a resolution: It may seem best to set the score view resolution to 1/64 notes and let GarageBand figure out how to display it. However, if your notes aren’t perfectly quantized you might get some nasty-looking music (Figure 11).

Figure 11: What your score might look like if you use too fine a resolution. The top image shows a score at 1/64th note resolution, and the bottom shows the same score at 1/8th note resolution.

Once you get your score looking the way you want, you’re ready to edit. Handily, you can do many of the same edits in score view as you can in the piano roll. Note: Although score view might seem preferable for people

who can read music, I still do most of my editing with the piano roll. I think it gives me more information and more control. That said, score view is a great option when I want to get a bird’s eye overview using familiar symbols. 51

Click a note to highlight it. You’ll see a green bar appear, which represents the exact length of the note (as opposed to the more approximate length represented by the notation). Once a note is highlighted, you can edit it in numerous ways: • Trigger a different note: Since you’re looking at music notation, it probably comes as no surprise that dragging a note vertically on the staff makes GarageBand play a different note. Notes play as you move them so it’s easy to tell when they’re in the right place. • Move the note in time: Drag a note horizontally to move it forward or backward in time, snapping to whatever grid increment you have set for score view. Move with care: As soon as you start dragging notes around, you’ll find it’s easy to move a note vertically when you’re trying to move horizontally, and vice versa. Be careful you don’t inadvertently muck up your performance. • Shorten or extend the note: Grab the right edge of the green bar to change the length of the note. As you shorten longer notes, you’ll also see the notation change to shorter note values. • Erase the note: Press Delete. • Change the velocity of the note: Move the Velocity slider to make the note louder or softer. Unlike in the piano roll, the color of the green bar doesn’t change. • Edit sustain: If you used a sustain pedal in your performance, score view will show the appropriate pedal markings. GarageBand uses standard piano pedal markings: “Ped.” for down pedal and a large asterisk for up. To edit pedal markings, click one of the symbols to select it. GarageBand adds a green dotted line from the marker to the asterisk to highlight sustained notes. (Figure 12). Drag either the Ped. Symbol or the asterisk left or right to change where sustain begins and ends.

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Figure 12: Selecting a Ped. Symbol.

Pedal markings snap to the editor resolution: If you want finer control, select a higher note resolution for the editor using the Grid button, or edit the Sustain track in the piano roll. To delete a sustain symbol, select it and press the delete key.

Deleting one symbol in the set does not affect the other! If you delete just an asterisk, any preceding pedal marking will extend to the next asterisk, rendering extraneous any Ped. Symbols in between. Likewise, deleting a Ped. Symbol leaves behind its concluding asterisk.

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Recording Real Instruments Recording Real Instruments in GarageBand is a snap. Once your equipment is set up and you understand a few basic principles, it takes a matter of minutes to lay your ideas onto a track. But some preparation is required to get to that point. The Most Important Audio Tip Ever A guiding principle of audio recording is to always get the best sound possible when you record. The reasoning is simple: if you use a lousy microphone to record your acoustic guitar, you’re going to get a muddy or thin sounding guitar track. No amount of equalization will fix it because you can’t add frequencies that aren’t there. Use the best preamp you can afford, use good microphones and place them carefully, and make sure you have clean, strong audio levels throughout your signal chain.

Cousin of the Most Important Audio Tip Ever Trust your ears. If you try something I suggest (or anyone else suggests) and it sounds bad, don’t do it! The buck stops at your ears. Maybe using a crappy microphone will sound cooler than you expect. What matters in the end is how the recording sounds, and especially how it sounds to you.

Consider Your Equipment

To record Real Instruments, the first thing you need is, well, a real instrument. I mean this more broadly than you might think. A real instrument can be anything from a high-end electric guitar to a tin can —and if a tin can isn’t handy, there’s always your voice (although with some people it’s hard to tell the difference). The term Real Instrument sounds intimidating and exclusive, but it’s just meant as a distinction from Software Instruments covered earlier. Instead of producing MIDI data, Real Instruments make physical sound waves. 54

Plug In To bring physical sound waves into a Mac, you need extra equipment (Figure 13 shows two examples). Most GarageBand users will be working with either a direct signal from electronics in an instrument, or a signal from a microphone. For many people the source will be an electric guitar pickup (see What’s a Pickup?), but a synthesizer with a line out or stereo outputs is another electronic signal source. You can run these signals directly into a Mac, but the signal level is too low for good audio fidelity. Most microphones have an even quieter signal than a guitar. Ideally, both should be boosted before going into GarageBand.

Figure 13: Two methods of getting sound into your Mac: simply plugging in directly or, more typically, using an audio interface. • Method one, straight into the computer, gives you a weak signal and leaves your Mac to handle the digital conversion. • In method two, the audio interface boosts the signal and performs analog to digital conversion, resulting in higher sound quality. 55

To record in GarageBand, your signal must be converted from analog (electrons pulsing down a wire) to digital (ones and zeroes stored in your Mac). If you plug directly into your Mac, the Mac does a decent job at converting the signal. Even so, I highly recommend spending around $100 (or less) for a dedicated digital audio interface. An interface will handle the digital conversion—in almost all cases doing a better job than your Mac’s built-in converters—and it will contain a preamp to boost your signal and to significantly increase the audio quality.

Locate an Interface These days, many inexpensive audio interfaces are available, many under $200 (the Behringer UCA202 is around $30). Most connect to your Mac via USB and offer two inputs and two outputs, built-in preamps, and a headphone output. Almost all support either an instrument cable (for your guitar) or an XLR cable (for a mic) on each channel, enabling you to record, say, your voice and guitar at the same time. Many include MIDI input and output as well. For most GarageBand users, two audio ins and outs is plenty. If you need more, your best bet is to upgrade to a USB 2.0 or FireWire interface. Record at 24-Bit for Higher Fidelity If your audio hardware supports it, GarageBand ’09 and later can record at 24-bit quality, which greatly increases the depth of each vertical slice of digital audio (from 65,000 levels to over 16 million). This can have a dramatic effect on the fidelity of your audio, especially when recording quiet sources or parts that vary from quiet to loud. In the Advanced preference pane, use the Audio Resolution pop-up menu. GarageBand defaults to Good quality, which means it records and exports at 16-bit (CD quality). If you kick it up to Better, GarageBand records at 24-bit and exports at 16-bit. This is ideal, since CDs, MP3s, and most other destinations require 16-bit audio anyway. However, if you’re short on disk space you might stick with Good: 16-bit files are two-thirds the size of 24-bit files.

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Why You Don’t Want a Weak Signal With the right adapters, you can plug a cable directly into your Mac and record. However, the signal levels barely reaches the middle of the indicator. A weak signal is bad for two reasons: ✦ Noise: Every electronic device produces a bit of low-level

hum or noise when it’s on. Think of fluorescent lights or your refrigerator. The lower the signal level, the louder the noise is in relation to it (Figure 14). So, if your guitar track is quiet and you raise its volume to compensate, you’re also raising the volume of the noise. It’s far better to get the record the strongest signal you can to keep the noise to a minimum. ✦ Bits: Tracks are recorded in bits, or zeros and ones. Many

times per second (44,100 to be exact), GarageBand looks at the incoming signal and stores it. If GarageBand records using 16-bit audio, each slice (or sample) of sound is represented by a number from 0 to 65,535. If your signal is low, GarageBand can use only a small portion of this possible range (say, from 2000 to 5000), resulting in grainy, lowquality, noise-filled tracks. Ideally, you want to use as much of the available range as possible for the highest quality.

Figure 14: If a signal is too weak (left), it’s barely audible above the noise. Raising its level later also raises the level of noise. If the signal is too strong (right), clipping occurs. The middle signal is just right. 57

Eight Is Enough GarageBand can record up to eight stereo audio tracks at a time. While many USB interfaces only offer two-channel recording, some USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces offer more. The more tracks you record simultaneously, the more your Mac will be taxed, so make sure you have a fast processor, plenty of free disk space, and lots of RAM. For hardware suggestions, hunt around in Apple’s GarageBand discussion group at http:// discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=127.

Use a Microphone The second possibility for getting sound waves into your computer is a good old microphone. Your Mac probably has a microphone built into its chassis somewhere, but the audio quality is pretty lousy. The same goes for the mic in Apple’s iSight cameras. You’re much better off with a quality inexpensive microphone made specifically for audio recording. You can get a perfectly decent one for about $100. Computer Microphones Built-in computer microphones are low quality and designed for a nearby voice, not for recording music. Most computer mics feature compression and built-in noise reduction, so quiet parts of your audio will get cut out completely—not good for that delicate acoustic guitar song. You’ve probably heard this when someone on a cell phone wants to share a song they’re listening to—you hear only the loudest bits of the song and the rest gets cut out. It’s not at all what you want when you record audio.

A good microphone is incredibly versatile. You can use it to record your voice, any acoustic instruments lying around the house (pianos, guitars, violins, tubas, kettle drums, and so on), and pretty much anything else you can think of that makes a noise. If you have a guitar amp (and a guitar with a pickup), you now have two ways to record your guitar. Recording the guitar directly into GarageBand will give you a clean signal that you can then manipulate with GarageBand effects, but recording an amp using a microphone captures the tone of your amplifier, often yielding a recording with more character and ambience. Try both methods. You’ll probably find you like each for different uses. 58

Set Up Your Input Device

Getting audio into a Mac is relatively easy, and there are a variety of options. While I recommend using a dedicated audio interface, I touch on more inexpensive options for those on a tight budget or just wetting their feet.

Use Your Mac’s Built-in Audio Jack These days, most Macs come with a built-in audio input, and this is the simplest way to get audio into your Mac. However, as I’ve said before, it is definitely not the best: you have no way of boosting a weak signal, the audio quality isn’t nearly as good as on a dedicated interface, and you’re tied to using the Mac’s built-in audio output. But if you don’t have an interface and need to get a signal into your Mac now, it is a reasonably workable option. Tip: If your Mac doesn’t have a built-in audio input, you’ll need

to add one. See iMic, a page or so ahead, for an inexpensive option.

Here’s how to set it up: 1. Plug your guitar or microphone into the Mac’s audio in jack. To do this you may need a 1/4" to mini adapter or a guitar cable with a mini plug on one end. If you’re using a microphone with an XLR cable, you will also need an XLR to 1/4" adapter/transformer, a direct injection (DI) unit, or a preamp to boost the mic’s signal. 2. Turn the volume up all the way on your guitar, or make sure your mic is on. 3. Open the Sound pane in System Preferences and set the input to Line In. Play the guitar or sing into the mic and watch the input level slider. Adjust it so it peaks a bar or two below the max. Close System Preferences. 4. Open GarageBand’s Audio/MIDI preferences, and make sure the audio input is set to Built-In Input. 5. See Set Up Your Track for more on fine-tuning the levels and getting a good signal.

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Use an External Input Device By and large, setting up an external input device is fairly easy as long as you don’t skip any steps. I walk you through a few possible configurations; if you own a piece of gear not mentioned, chances are the setup will be similar. A number of preamps and input devices are available, of course, but I focus on three options—the Griffin iMic (see below), the Apogee One and the Tascam US-122L. iMic

The Griffin iMic (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic) is a USB adapter that allows you to plug many different types of audio devices into your Mac. It’s especially useful on Macs that don’t have their own audio input, like the MacBook Air. The iMic is simple to set up. It requires no software, and you can begin recording in five minutes or less. Here are the steps: 1. Plug in the iMic. 2. A message should ask if you want to use the new device. Click Yes. 3. Push the switch on the iMic to the Line position. Try both settings: The Mic position is designed for microphones, which have a lower output level. In my case, I had to turn GarageBand’s Recording Level slider all the way down to get a usable level from my guitar. With the Line setting, on the other hand, I set the slider at about 80%. This obviously gave me more control over the input level. Use whichever works best for your chosen input. 4. Plug your instrument into the input on the iMic. To do this, you probably need a 1/4" to mini adapter. If you’re using a microphone with an XLR cable, you also need an XLR to 1/4" adapter/ transformer, a direct injection unit (DI), or preamp. (For more details, read the sidebar Using a Microphone, directly after these steps.) 5. In GarageBand’s Audio/MIDI preferences, make sure “iMic USB Audio System” is chosen as the Audio Input. The iMic is likely also selected as the Audio Output, which may not be what you want. If you have headphones plugged into your computer’s headphone jack, for example, choose Built-In Output. 60

6. See Set Up Your Track for more on fine-tuning the levels and getting a good signal. Using a Microphone To use a microphone with the iMic you need an XLR to 1/4" adapter/transformer plus a 1/4" to mini adapter (Figure 15 illustrates common cable types). This setup is cumbersome, doesn’t give you enough gain, and costs almost as much as a cheap interface anyway. Griffin themselves admit that this is not the best solution and recommend a dedicated preamp. It’s also worth noting that every device you add to your signal chain adds noise and degrades audio quality—another reason to use something other than an iMic for a microphone preamp.

Figure 15: Common audio cable types (1) XLR, or microphone cord (2) 1/4" guitar cord (3) 1/4" stereo cord, notice the two rings on the shaft—one for the left channel and one for the right (4) Stereo mini cord (5) RCA cord, often used with home stereo components 61

That’s all there is to setting up the iMic. As I said, it’s not a professional quality setup, but if you’re just making demos or quick recordings of ideas, it should serve you well. If your plan is to create more polished recordings, you’ll want to get some fancier gear. Apogee One

The One is a compact, one-channel interface from Apogee that has exceptional sound quality and convenient features. Not only does it allow you to connect a mic or a guitar, but it has its own high-quality condenser microphone. The One also has a dedicated control panel available within GarageBand for great ease of use. The One can only record one channel at a time—but, for many people, that’s enough. In my testing, I plugged in the Apogee One and it just worked. However, Apogee recommends installing the included Maestro software for low latency recording. Installing and setting up the One and its software is fairly painless: 1. Download and install the latest One software from http:// www.apogeedigital.com/downloads.php. 2. Follow the onscreen installation instructions—I was asked to connect and disconnect my One several times. 3. Restart your computer when prompted. 4. Connect headphones or speakers to the jack on the One’s front edge. 5. To verify the One’s output, open iTunes and play a song. Push the One’s knob until the speaker icon is lit, then adjust the volume using the same knob. 6. Attach the breakout cable to the One’s back panel connector. This gives you 1/4" and XLR jacks to connect an instrument or a mic. 7. Open the Apogee Maestro software in your Applications folder. 8. Choose one of the following options from the input menu: ‣ Int Mic to use the One’s internal mic ‣ Ext Mic to connect your own mic to the XLR input ‣ Ext 48v Mic to connect a phantom-powered mic to the XLR input 62

‣ Inst to connect a guitar or other instrument to the 1/4"

instrument jack

9. Open GarageBand. Create a new project—an Acoustic Instrument project is good for testing, 10. Make sure the Track Info pane is open (click the Track Info button if it’s not). button to open 11. Next to Input Source, click the control panel the One’s dedicated controls. From there you can set the input source, fine tune the recording level, and set the output options. 12. See Set Up Your Track for more on setting levels and getting the sound you want. Tascam US-122MkII

The US-122MkII (and its predecessors, the US-122 and US-122L; these directions work for all three models) is an affordable, flexible unit that enables you to get high-quality audio into your computer via a USB port. In addition to two audio inputs (for either mic or instrument cables), it also has MIDI input and output, so it’s a good solution for someone who has a MIDI controller without USB, or who wants to conserve USB ports. Installation and setup is easy: 1. Download the latest drivers from http://www.tascam.com/. Install the software according to the instructions, and restart your Mac. 2. Plug in the US-122MkII. 3. Launch GarageBand. 4. Go to GarageBand’s Audio/MIDI preferences, and choose Tascam US-122MkII as the Audio Input source. Audio Output source: It’s probably a good idea to use the US122MkII as the Audio Output , but it’s not required. If you do this, plug your speakers or headphones into the US-122MkII’s Phones jack and turn up the Phones level on the unit. If you have separate speakers with RCA connectors, you could also use the US-122MkII’s Line Out jacks. 5. Continue to the instructions in Set Up Your Track. 63

Set Up to Record

GarageBand ’11 has three ways to get Real Instruments into your song —you can Use a Real Instrument Track, Use an Electric Guitar Track, or Record with a Microphone. All the options can get confusing, so follow this flowchart to get started. (The yellow boxes are clickable in the PDF version of this ebook.)

Use a Real Instrument Track In this section, I explain how to record an electric instrument that you can plug directly into your interface—for example, an electric bass, an electric keyboard, or an electric violin. I talk about electric guitars in 64

the next topic, Use an Electric Guitar Track, since GarageBand also has a dedicated electric guitar track type with its own amp and effect models. Likewise, if you want to record an acoustic instrument—a piano, acoustic guitar, harmonica, trombone, and so on—or want to record through your amplifier, I tell you how in Record with a Microphone. Pickup Options If you play an instrument other than electric guitar or bass, a pickup is still an option for you. Many types of pickups and transducers are available for acoustic guitars, pianos, strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments. They generally clip onto the instrument, and use the vibration of the instrument’s body or the strings to generate an electrical signal. Search online or ask at your local music shop. Keep in mind that a pickup on an acoustic instrument generally will not sound the same as the instrument recorded with a decent microphone. See What’s a Pickup? For more on pickup varieties and Record with a Microphone for more on recording acoustic instruments.

Different Strokes You electric guitar players now have three options for recording: ✦ Recording direct into an Electric Guitar track gives you access to GarageBand’s brand new guitar amp models, which by and large sound pretty great for virtual amps. You also get to use GarageBand's new virtual stompboxes for effects, along with up to three of the standard track effects. ✦ Going direct into a Real Instrument track means you can’t use the new guitar amps, but you can use all the standard GarageBand effects (including the old Amp Simulation effect —to my ears not nearly as good as the new amps). ✦ Using a microphone to capture the sound of your amp is obviously the most natural solution, especially if you have an amp sound you like and a decent microphone to capture it.

Recording an electric instrument is different than recording a MIDI instrument. Here’s what you need to capture those sound waves: • An electric instrument, such as an electric bass, an electric piano, a synthesizer, or any other instrument with a pickup. 65

• A 1/4" instrument cord. • An interface or other sort of input device if you want to use something other than the Mac’s built-in audio input. • One of the following: A USB or FireWire cord for your interface; or a cord to connect your input device to the audio-in jack on your Mac (mini plug). If your Mac doesn’t have an audio-in jack, you also need a Griffin iMic or another type of audio input device. Now that all your equipment is set up, plug your instrument into your interface. Some of these devices have a number of 1/4" inputs that all look like they would accept a guitar cord. Which one do you choose? Your first choice should be anything called Channel 1, Line In 1, or Source 1. GarageBand defaults to Stereo 1/2 on Real Instrument tracks so, to record a mono track (like most guitar or bass setups), you should choose the channel you plugged into on your interface. If you often use the same setup, you can leave your interface dialed in the way you like it; you won’t have to do as much fiddling each time you record. Set Your Options

Before you start recording, consider the following variables: • If you want to add loops or overdub drums later, you’ll want your audio to stay aligned to the beat ruler. If this is the case, add a drum loop to your song or enable the metronome by clicking the metronome button (Command-U). See Start with a Beat, earlier, for more information. Drums or Metronome? It’s a matter of personal preference whether you record to the metronome or to a drum loop. Each has its virtues. If you can find a drum loop that fits well with what you want to play, recording to a loop gives you a more fluid groove to play along with, and that can create a better performance. The metronome has a much more rigid pulse, but you can create the feel you want without having to dig around for a drum loop that fits. If you’re laying down drums first, MIDI or live, you’ll probably want the metronome.

• Choose Control > Count In to have GarageBand start a measure before you want recording to begin. In the audio world, this is called 66

preroll. It allows you to get a feel for the beat before you actually have to start playing—always a good idea. Set Up Your Track

If you are new to recording in GarageBand, I recommend that you carefully follow these directions for setting up your track, since you may learn something you wouldn’t find out easily otherwise. However, you don’t need to perform all the steps every time you record. To set up your track, follow these steps: 1. Create a new Real Instrument track in GarageBand, either by clicking the plus button in the lower left below the timeline, or by choosing Track > New Track (Command-Option-N). 2. Select Real Instrument. 3. Click Instrument Setup at the bottom of the New Track dialog box to reveal the recording options. 4. Select the appropriate audio input source (GarageBand labels this, “My instrument is connected with:” for simplicity’s sake). Here are the options: ‣ System Setting: GarageBand will use whatever you’ve set as your audio input source in the Sound pane of System Preferences. If you hover over the pop-up menu, GarageBand handily tells you what your system setting is. The icon on the left also matches your current system setting so you can tell at a glance. ‣ If you have an audio interface attached to your computer, that will show up as the next choice. Use this unless you have a good reason for not doing so. ‣ Built-in Microphone: The computer’s built-in microphone, strangely enough. ‣ Built-in Input: The computer’s audio in jack, if you have one. 5. Choose an input channel. Unless you have an interface with more than two channels, your choices will be Mono 1, Mono 2, or Stereo 1/2. Unless you’re recording a stereo instrument or one instrument with two microphones, choose the mono channel that matches the input you’re using.

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6. Select the audio output source (“I hear sound from:”). If you have an audio interface, your choices are System Setting, the audio interface or Built-in Output. Choose the most appropriate setting, most likely your interface if you have one. If you’re using headphones connected directly to the Mac, select Built-in Output. 7. Check “I want to hear my Instrument as I play and record” if you want to hear your instrument through your computer. This can be helpful if you’re using effects as you record, or if you simply want to hear the instrument in the context of the mix. However, if you’re using a microphone, you might wind up recording your computer speakers (or even your headphones!) in the background. 8. Click Create. 9. Pick an instrument type from the list in the left hand column of the Track Info pane. If you want to record the bare bones, strippeddown sound with absolutely no effects applied, choose Basic Track. The second column in the Track Info pane will show only a single option: No Effects. No Effects Instrument The No Effects instrument sound is useful if you want an ultraclean sound, but it comes in handy at other times too. If your machine is starting to bog down under the weight of many tracks in a song, it may help to add effects after you record. No Effects is also a useful place to start if you like creating your own sounds and experimenting with effects on your own.

Wild Sounds For some truly wild sounds, choose Effects from the list of Real Instruments. This list offers bizarre combinations of effects, and you’re guaranteed to sound nothing like the guitar player next door. Some of these combinations may inspire ideas you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

10. Directly below the list of instruments and sounds you have another chance to fine-tune your input source, the format (stereo or mono), and whether you want to monitor the track or not.

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Here is what you need to know about each item: ‣ Input Source: The input source in GarageBand depends on your interface. You can have up to eight channels coming in to GarageBand (if your interface offers them—see Record Multiple Tracks at Once for more details). Using a Macintosh’s built-in audio input, GarageBand defaults to Stereo 1/2 (Built-in Audio), so for a mono input (i.e., plugging in a guitar or bass with one patch cord, or plugging in one microphone), you should choose Mono 1 (Built-in Audio) or Mono 2 (Built-in Audio). Otherwise, select the mono channel you’re using on your interface. In some cases, an instrument may output a stereo signal—if you’re running your guitar through a stereo chorus pedal, for example, perhaps playing an acoustic guitar with both a microphone and a pickup system, or using a keyboard with a stereo line out option. Nine times out of ten, though, an instrument signal is mono. Stereo signal: If you have a stereo signal coming out of your instrument, you need to send it to both Mono 1 and Mono 2. Many instruments with stereo output require two 1/4" instrument cords, one for each channel. If your instrument has a single stereo output, you may need a Y-cord or an adapter to split the stereo signal into two mono signals. ‣ Recording Level: Use the Recording Level slider to set the input volume of your track. Certain devices don’t allow you to use this slider. If it’s dimmed, set the input volume earlier in the chain (using your preamp or the Sound pane in System Preferences). Slider doesn’t work? With many devices, this slider has no effect on the input volume. My slightly dated Tascam US-122 ignores the Input Volume setting in both GarageBand and System Preferences. With the iMic and the Mac’s built-in audio input, however, using this slider is the only way to set the input volume.

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Recording Level Slider The Recording Level slider is synced with the Input Volume slider on the Sound pane in System Preferences. Unfortunately, the slider in GarageBand doesn’t have an associated level meter, so you’re just guessing when you set the input level this way. I prefer to use the slider in the System Preferences, because you can set the level much more accurately. Use the slider in GarageBand to quickly make minor adjustments if necessary.

‣ Monitor: Turn monitoring on if you want to hear your instrument (as well as the effects GarageBand is adding) through your computer speakers or headphones while recording. If you’d rather not monitor what you’re playing through GarageBand— say, you’re recording an electric guitar amp and it’s plenty loud already—leave monitoring off. For the purposes of this tutorial, make sure monitoring is on. GarageBand also has a third option: On (no Feedback Protection). Normally, GarageBand mutes the track and pops up a warning when it detects an overly loud signal that might cause feedback or damage your speakers. If you find you get warnings too frequently, enable On (no feedback protection), but be wary of cranking your speakers too high. ‣ Automatic Level Control: Check this box if you want GarageBand to control your input levels to avoid a signal that’s either too quiet or too hot. I prefer not to use this function and fix the input level at an earlier stage. If your interface is clipping, the signal will sound like crap no matter where you set the Recording Level in GarageBand. 11. Does the icon in the lower-left of the Track Info pane resemble your instrument? Click the icon to optionally select a new image for your track. Now you have a new track that’s ready to record. Next, I’ll show you how to set your levels and then we can get down to the fun part— recording music!

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What’s All That Noise? If you plug in your guitar, bass, or keyboard and hear a nasty buzz, you’ve got electrical interference. This may not be bothersome when you’re practicing, but capturing that horrible sound as part of your recording may be more than you can handle. Here are some things you can try: ✦ Unplug the cord and plug it in again: Jiggle it a little, too. ✦ Move around the room: Turn your body to different angles.

Believe it or not, facing magnetic north sometimes works wonders (for those with a compass). While you’re playing, try not to move much, if possible. ✦ Move your Mac and preamp away from other electrical devices or turn these devices off temporarily: Beware of

vacuum cleaners, televisions, air conditioners, refrigerators, fans, microwaves, space heaters, and other appliances. Turning them off or moving away from them may help. Fluorescent lights and computer monitors can be especially noisy. If you use a CRT monitor, try turning it off while you’re recording. ✦ Use a decent, relatively new guitar cord: The shorter the

better. Avoid piling the excess cord up with other electrical cords—this only increases interference. If you must cross your cords, do so at 90-degree angles. ✦ Eliminate as many links in the signal chain as you can:

Adding a lot of effects boxes (or even one) may degrade the signal and significantly increase noise. ✦ Consider your guitar: Unfortunately, the best solution is the

hardest. Much of the noise is probably coming from your guitar. Many off-the-shelf guitars and basses, even some expensive ones, are poorly shielded and grounded. The hum is especially problematic on guitars with single-coil pickups. ✦ The solutions to this problem are too complex to explain here, but the experts at GuitarNuts.com offer an excellent tutorial at http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/ shield3.php. If you’re not up to doing a little soldering and rewiring, take your guitar to a music store or repair shop and ask to have it shielded. It’s money well spent. 71

More Track Details Each Real Instrument can be manipulated with additional settings and effects. Click the Edit tab in the Track Info pane to see the effects used by the particular instrument. You may want to hear certain effects, such as delay and distortion, while you’re playing—it’s difficult to play a blistering solo with a clean, undistorted guitar and just imagine overdrive. But if your Mac is struggling, you can leave off chorus and reverb until after the part is recorded. I go deeper into effects in Understand GarageBand Effects, but know that if you want to tweak your sound so it’s just right, this is the place to do it. Remember, you can change these aspects of the instrument sound at any point before or after you record. You’re recording your guitar signal without any effects applied. Set Levels

Your guitar is plugged in; your track is set up. Now you need to make sure your levels are adequate. You want the levels to be as strong as you can get them without setting off the clipping indicators. Play something on your guitar to make sure you’re getting a signal. Warning! When making your level adjustments, lower the volume on your Mac or external speakers so you don’t blow them out with a sudden burst of sound.

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Clipping When the incoming signal is too loud, clipping occurs (see the figure in Why You Don’t Want a Weak Signal, earlier). Digital clipping is harsh and nasty sounding, and you always want to avoid it. If you see the red clipping indicators (Figure 16), reduce the level going into your interface.

Figure 16: The two red dots to the right of the track (and master) level meters indicate clipping. Lower the volume slider to eliminate the problem.

Listen carefully to the source signal with a good pair of headphones. Even if you’re not setting off clipping indicators, confirm the quality with your ears. I find that with certain preamps (especially with bass tracks), I need to lower the input gain to get a clean tone. Trust your ears above all else!

As you set a track’s levels, play the part that you’re planning to record. If you’re recording a rock song with lots of power chords, don’t set your levels by fingerpicking a quiet melody. Likewise, if your bass part is a delicate set of arpeggios, don’t check levels with loud thumb slapping and popping. Different playing styles produce different volumes. Your goal is to make the loudest part of your track generate as strong a signal as possible without clipping: 1. Turn the volume on your computer or your speakers down fairly low so you don’t blow your speakers or set off a small avalanche. You can turn it back up later, but set your input levels first. 2. GarageBand automatically record-enables whatever track is currently selected, so make sure you’ve selected the correct track. Alternately, either select or record-enable the track if you’re using multi-track recording (see Record Multiple Tracks at Once). 3. Set the track level to its default (0 db) by Option-clicking the track’s level slider (Figure 17). The track level doesn’t affect the recording level, so you can use this level while you’re recording to adjust the balance between your guitar and the rest of the song. 73

Figure 17: Option-click the track level slider to reset it to 0 db.

4. Turn up the volume on the guitar all the way. Why do I want the volume all the way up? Believe it or not, the volume knob on a guitar doesn’t add volume (unless you have a guitar with active electronics). If your guitar had no knobs, the sound coming out would be the same as it is when all the knobs are at ten. The volume knobs are there only to reduce the signal. The tone knobs do the same, except they only affect certain portions of the frequency spectrum. Setting the knobs at ten gives you the unadulterated sound of your pickups. It also sends a nice strong level out to the preamp, which is what you want. 5. Set the volume on the preamp to about half of its maximum. 6. At the bottom of the Track Info pane, set the Recording Level slider to about 75%. (If the slider is dimmed, see if there’s a control panel button to the right of the Input Source pop-up menu. If so, click that and set the enclosed Recording Level to about 75%. If there is no control panel button, you may need to open System Preferences and set the input level there. Go to the Sound preference pane, click the Input button, and set the input level so the signal peaks just below the maximum.) Keep the signal level as consistent as possible: In other words, don’t set your guitar volume to three, and then set the preamp level so high that you have to reduce the level again in GarageBand. This only degrades the signal quality. 7. Now, play your part and slowly turn the preamp or interface level up until it just begins to peak. Once it does, back it off a little. 8. Option-click the track level slider in GarageBand to reset it to its default level. Continue to play and look at the track level meter in GarageBand. Ideally, the levels should peak in the high end of the 74

green or just into the orange and not set off the clipping indicators. If the levels are too low, you must turn something up. The guitar is already at ten, so that means either adjusting the preamp or Recording Level slider. Also check to see if more than one knob on the preamp needs adjusting. Some devices have individual input levels as well as a master level. What If I’m Not Getting a Signal? If your guitar is plugged in but you don’t hear anything, doublecheck the following things: ✦ Make sure your track is selected (or it’s record-enabled, if you’re using multi-track recording—read Record Multiple Tracks at Once). ✦ Turn Monitor on in the Track Info pane, and make sure the Recording Level slider is up at a reasonable level (if it’s not dimmed). ✦ If the track level meter isn’t moving at all, check to make sure the preamp is set properly and everything is plugged in where it should be. Also ensure that GarageBand is looking for audio on the correct channel. I’ve found myself plugged into Mono 1 when GarageBand was listening to Mono 2. ✦ If the track level meter is moving, a signal is getting into the Mac. If you have a laptop with a built-in microphone, snap your fingers near the mic. If the level spikes, then GarageBand is getting its input from Built-In Microphone, and not your external preamp. See Set Up Your Input Device for instructions on setting up inputs. ✦ Make sure all the plugs are secured tightly, and are plugged into the right jacks. ✦ Turn the volume knob on the guitar up all the way. ✦ Check the input level on the preamp, as well as the main output level if there is one. Turn these levels up a little at a time, and test the guitar after each adjustment. If all the levels are cranked and you’re still not getting anything, turn the levels back down to about one half so you don’t blow your speakers when you figure out what the problem is. 75

Adjusting Volume Levels You may need to adjust the track volume or the main volume levels in the main GarageBand window. These don’t affect your recording levels—only the level coming out of GarageBand into your headphones or speakers. If you’re trying for an aggressive guitar part, try turning the track level a little lower to encourage yourself to play with more élan. Shooting for a more mellow mood? Try the opposite. Your goal is to achieve a comfortable balance that helps you play your best.

9. Click the Record button and play through your part for a few measures. Are all the levels strong? Can you hear what you need to hear through your headphones or speakers? Is there a delay between when you play and when you hear the output? (If you hear a delay, read the tip below.) This is your test run, so make sure everything feels right. Play back what you recorded to make sure you’re getting a clean signal. Turn off all effects temporarily and listen to the part again. You can get a distorted-sounding signal even if you’re not setting off any clipping indicators. You haven’t mixed your song yet, so experiment with the levels of the other tracks until you’re comfortable with what you’re hearing. Hearing more drums, for example, may help you stay in rhythm. Why Is My Audio Delayed? You may notice when you’re recording that the audio you hear coming through your headphones or speakers is slightly behind what you are actually playing. This is known as latency, and in extreme cases it can make it impossible to play your part in rhythm. Follow these steps to try to reduce the latency: 1. Quit any applications running in the background. 2. Mute some tracks and turn off some effects. Try using the absolute minimum you need to play your part effectively. 3. Lock some of your tracks (for details on this procedure, see Lock Your Tracks, ahead shortly). This takes some load off the processor and should solve your problems. 4. Try quitting and restarting GarageBand, or restarting your Mac. 76

Watch the playhead: As your project plays, keep an eye on the triangular handle at the top of the playhead. If it’s clear, you’re in safe territory. But as you begin using more of your system’s resources, the playhead will turn colors—first yellow, then orange, and finally red (Figure 18). At that point, your system is on the verge of bogging down and you should reduce the load on your computer. Read Lock Your Tracks, just ahead, and Improving Performance for instructions on how to make your computer happier.

Figure 18: If your playhead starts turning colors, it’s time to ease the load on your system.

Lock Your Tracks GarageBand’s performance depends on many factors—processor speed, amount of RAM available, the speed of your hard disk, and the complexity of your project. If your song uses a lot of tracks, or if you’re using a lot of Software Instruments and effects, you may experience latency or sluggish performance. One remedy is to lock some of your tracks. Locking a track forces GarageBand to render the track and all of its effects to disk, which means your Mac no longer needs to process the instruments and effects in real time. The best candidates for locking are Software Instrument, Electric Guitar, and effectsheavy tracks. To lock a track: 1. Select Track > Show Track Lock (Command-Option-L). button in the track you wish to lock. The 2. Click the lock lock icon turns green indicating the track is ready to lock. 3. Press Play. GarageBand takes a moment to render the track to disk.

If you only want to render part of a track, click the Truncate

button while the track is rendering.

To unlock a track, simply click the lock button again. 77

Tune Your Guitar (or Bass) If a guitar is even slightly out of tune when you record it, you’ll have to listen to it that way for eternity. If you plan to release your recordings on CD, send them to a record label, or play them for your friends, you want your guitar to be in tune. Yes, you’ve been playing guitar for years and you know how to tune your instrument. I’ve been playing for 20 years and I thought I knew how to tune as well, but my life was forever changed by an excellent article, “Guitar Tuning Nightmares Explained,” by Jack Endino in TapeOp magazine (thanks, Jack!). You can read the article at http://endino.com/archive/tuningnightmares.html. Here is how I recommend you tune your guitar: 1. Select your Real Instrument or Electric Guitar track, then open the GarageBand tuner by clicking the tuning fork in the time display or pressing Command-F (Figure 19).

Figure 19: Choose the Tuner from the LCD mode menu.

2. On your guitar, select the pickup closest to the neck, turn the volume all the way up and the tone knob all the way down (yes, down). This minimizes upper harmonics that can confuse the tuner and make it jump all over the place. 3. As you tune, pluck each string at the 12th fret, usually the one with two dots on the fretboard. Again, this minimizes the upper harmonics and emphasizes the fundamental. Slowly turn the tuning peg until the note spends most of its time with the tuner lit up in blue. Always tune up to the proper note, never down. 4. Try to pluck with the same force you will use when you play the track. Fast, hard picking tends to make the note sharp at first. This effect is accentuated on the lower strings, especially the low E string. If your part is fast, with lots of short notes, tune so the initial attack is in tune. If the part is slower with more held notes, tune so the sustained part of the note is in tune. 78

Let’s Record Already…

This is it: time to record. Don’t worry, this part is significantly easier than the setup. All you have to worry about at this point is playing your part well. Hit the Record button (R) and record a take. The wonderful thing about recording on your computer is that if it’s right, fabulous; if not, just delete it and try again. Headphones A decent pair of headphones is a great investment for any small home studio. Get a pair with good, even frequency response that faithfully reproduces what comes out of the Mac. Ideally, they should cover your ears. If you can afford a pair of fullysealed headphones, that’s even better, because they prevent bleeding to a microphone. This is especially true when recording vocals, but it can occur whenever a microphone is anywhere near your head. Tip: Hopefully everything will go smoothly, but there’s always

a chance you might run into trouble while recording. If so, see Appendix B: Troubleshooting for tips on how to solve various common issues.

Use multi-take recording: Having trouble nailing that guitar solo? Want to sing a verse several times and pick the best recording? GarageBand’s multi-take recording feature may be the answer. For more on how to use it, see Record Multiple Takes.

Use an Electric Guitar Track Using an Electric Guitar track is much like recording to a Real Instrument track. The only difference is in the interface and in the quality of the amp models. The amps don’t follow the conventions of the other GarageBand tracks, looking more like they were pulled off the Magic GarageBand stage with their fine wood flooring and brightly colored effects boxes. But the sound... the sound they make is far superior to the old Amp Simulator effect of yore. Try it out!

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Decide Whether to Use a Mic or Go Direct

GarageBand offers two approaches to record an electric guitar: • Microphone: With this method, you plug the instrument into an amplifier and record the speaker output with a microphone. If you love the tone from your Marshall stack and won’t settle for anything else, this is probably the way to go. You’ll also have the possible advantage of picking up some ambient room noise along with your guitar sound. A drawback to this method is that you’ll be stuck with the amount of distortion and ambience you record. You can add more, but you can’t take it away. However, you may end up with a more distinctive sound using this technique. To record this way, you probably don’t want to use an Electric Guitar track. Instead, see Record with a Microphone, ahead. • Going direct: When you “go direct,” you record directly into the computer (in this case, into GarageBand via a preamp or interface). You end up with a cleaner signal, and you can use GarageBand’s great guitar amp simulations to give your guitar tracks more variety. If you don’t use any sort of amp simulation, the track tends to lack the character of miking an amp. However, this method is often used for bass, since many people prefer the clean, tight sound of a bass recorded direct with no effects. I discuss recording direct in the previous section, Use a Real Instrument Track, and just ahead. GarageBand allows you to use both methods. Try them out and see which you prefer for different situations. There is no right or wrong way to do it, only personal preference. Use Those Stompboxes When you record direct, you can still use external effects boxes (distortion pedals, Line 6 Pods, and so on). Just plug them into the signal chain between your guitar and your interface. You won’t be able to remove the effect later like you can with GarageBand effects, but you can get unique sounds this way. And if you have a nice-sounding distortion pedal, adding a touch of gain on the way in can make the amp models sound much more impressive. Be aware that adding devices like effects to the signal chain usually adds noise—sometimes a lot of noise. See What’s All That Noise?. 80

Set Up Your Electric Guitar Track

Creating an Electric Guitar track is exactly like creating a Real Instrument track, at least in the initial stage: 1. Create a new track in GarageBand, either by clicking the plus button in the lower left below the timeline, or by choosing Track > New Track (Command-Option-N). 2. Select Electric Guitar. 3. Adjust the Instrument Setup menus (see Set Up Your Track, earlier). 4. Click Create. Admire the lovely amp that appears, complete with adorable little effects pedals in front of it. Note: An Electric Guitar track’s input source and monitoring

controls are exactly like a Real Instrument track, except Apple’s made the parameters harder to find. To see your track settings, double-click the virtual amp, or click the Edit button at the top of the pane. The amp will spin around, offering access to its settings. Select a Preset

The quickest way to get started with Electric Guitar tracks is to play with the presets available from the pop-up menu at the top of the Track Info pane. You’ll find 58 different presets covering all manner of genres and moods. There’s Dublin Delay, for that Edgy, U2 sound (like on “In God’s Country”); Glam Rock, for classic T-Rex and early Bowie crunch (listen to “Mambo Sun” and “Watch That Man”); and Country Twang for, well... a country twang (check out James Burton’s guitar playing on Gram Parsons’ “I Can’t Dance.” Of course, you can tweak the presets to your heart’s content, and even save your own. Choose an Amplifier

There are two ways to select an amp model. If you’re looking at the back of the amp, you can simply select an amp from the Amp Model pop-up list. The other method is a bit more fun: from either the front or the back of the amp, click one of the arrows to the right or left of the amp image. This rotates a new amp in from backstage. 81

Twelve amp models are available based on classic amps from Fender, Vox, Marshall, and Mesa Boogie. There are some great emulations here, and they run from clean and silky to full-throttle heavy, so there’s sure to be an amp model that meets your needs. Just What Are Those Those Amps Anyway? GarageBand GarageB and ’11 has 12 different guitar amp models, representing

famous amps throughout the electric guitar’s history. Some are

obvious, and some less so, but here’s our best guess of what all the

models represent.

represent. Small Tweed Combo Combo This looks to be an early ’50s Fender Champ. It’s got a rounder tone than the rest of the Fender models, and it’s great for rootsier sounds. Presets: Honky Tonk, Indie Fuzz, Lowdown Blues, Rockabilly, Spy Movie.

Blackface Combo Combo By the looks of it, this amp is a Fender Super Reverb. It has a bright, springy tone that’s ideal for all sorts of clean and crunchy sounds. Country, funk, pop... you name it, this amp can handle it. Presets: Country Twang, Dreamy Texture, Jazz Club, Memphis Clean, Old School Funk, Seattle Sound, Smooth Soul, Sparkling Clean, Strobe Light, Surf, Vibrato Blues. English Combo Combo This is the classic Vox AC30, used by numerous British (and non-British) rockers since the ’60s. It has a sparkling, clean tone at low gain settings, and a bright, crisp overdriven sound. The Beatles, Queen, U2, Tom Petty, and Radiohead are among its many users. Presets: Brit Pop, Chorus Shimmer, Clean Combo, Dream Pop, Dublin Delay, Eighties Alternative, Liverpool Bright, Royal Riffing. (continues, next)

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Vintage Stack Based on the Marshall 1959 Super Lead, another British amp developed in the ’60s. More powerful than the Vox, this became a classic hard rock amp of the ’60s and ’70s. Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Eddie Van Halen are notable proponents. Presets: Bell Bottom Rock, Bluesbreaker, Choral Stack, Chunky Chorus, Classic Crunch, Crystal Arpeggios, Fat Stack, Glam Rock, Modern UK, Punk Rock, Seventies Metal, Super Flange, Woodstock Fuzz. Modern Stack Modern This is a Mesa Boogie Rectifier, a ’90s design aimed at hard rock and metal guitarists and others looking for an overpowering sound. If you want something thick and aggressive, this is a good place to start. Presets: Big Hair Metal, Dark Vibrato, Heavy Riffing, Industrial Overdrive, Power Punk, Stadium Solo. Stadium Stack A Hiwatt Custom 100 amp, made famous by Pete Townshend. When you drive it hard (or use the High Drive Treble Boost pedal) you get that classic Who sound, but this amp gets some lovely clean sounds as well. Also used by Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Neal Schon of Journey. Preset: Windmill Chords. Large Tweed Combo Combo An emulation of a Fender ’59 Bassman, an amp originally intended for bass but adopted by guitarists. It’s perfect for rootsy, American sounds like country, blues, and rock ’n’ roll. Presets: Classic Blues, Fifties Rock & Roll, Roadhouse Rock. British Blues Blues Combo A replica of the first Marshall combo amp, the 1962 Bluesbreaker, originally commissioned by Eric Clapton. As the name implies, it’s great for vintage blues and rock sounds. It’s a wonderful sounding amp, both distorted and clean. Presets: Crunchy Blues, Fat Sixties Fuzz, West End Wah. (continues, next) 83

Sunshine Stack For that classic ’70s sound, nothing quite beats an Orange amplifier. This baby screams bellbottoms and sideburns. Among this amp’s many users were Fleetwood Mac and T Rex, and currently, Weezer. Presets: Sunshine Drive, Underground Wah.

High Octane Stack Probably modeled after a Krank or some similar flavor of modern metal amplifier, this amp excels at extreme sounds. Compared to the Modern Stack it’s a bit brighter and less creamy, with a more scooped tone. Presets: Metal Wah, Ominous Crunch.

Studio Co Combo mbo Based on the Mark series of Mesa Boogie combo amps. Probably the most subtle (or, perhaps, least compelling) of the amp models in GarageBand, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing—that makes it a good choice for clean tones and many non-guitar instruments (think bass or electric violins)—plus it takes effects very well. Presets: Burning Blues, Talking Filter. Small Brownface Brownface Combo Combo This amp seems to be based on an early Fender combo from the late ’50s. It has a fatter tone than the other Fender models, but it’s still got a lovely brightness to it. Presets: Cool Jazz Combo, Sixties Basic Blues.

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Twirl the Knobs

Now that you’ve made your amp selection, you can tweak the sound to your heart’s content. All the amps have the same ten controls: • Gain: This control sets the virtual pre-amp gain. The higher you set this knob, the harder you’ll drive the amp and the crunchier the sound will be. • Bass, Mid, Treble, and Presence: These are standard EQ controls from many classic amps. (Presence adds bite and edge to make a track feel closer and help it cut through the mix.) • Master: This is the master gain control for the amp, and it sets the volume for the power amp section of the amplifier. Master volume affects the tone of the amp, but you can’t drive it nearly as hard as the preamp section. Play with the Gain and Master knobs together to fine-tune your tone. • Output: This control simply sets the volume level going out to GarageBand. There’s no amp modeling here, so this knob won’t affect your tone, only your volume. As always, you want a strong signal with no clipping. • Reverb and Tremolo: Adjust this option to set the level for the spring reverb effect (which has a very different character from GarageBand’s Master Reverb). The two Tremolo knobs, meanwhile, set the speed and depth of the tremolo effect, for that twangy Duane Eddy sound, like on “Movin’ and Groovin’”. Add Some Pedals

GarageBand ’11 gives you 15 stompboxes to play with. It’s like your birthday! I won’t go into detail on all of them here (see Understand GarageBand Effects for more info on the stompboxes and other effects), but suffice to say you get plenty of choice. GarageBand has five slots for stompboxes, which should be more than enough for all but the most mangled sounds. Note: In the real world, stompboxes are those little pedals you

see in front of guitar players at rock concerts. They typically have a big switch on the top that the player steps on to turn it on and off. When a guitarist wants a different sound, he or she will often stomp on an effect pedal to turn it on and change their tone. 85

Adding a stompbox to your guitar rig is a snap: 1. Double-click the amplifier to turn it around and reveal the edit controls. 2. Click on the floor in front of the amp to show all available stompbox effects. 3. Choose an effect you want to try and drag it into one of the empty yellow squares on the floor (or drag over an effect to replace it). You can run up to five stompboxes at the same time (Figure 20).

Figure 20: Drag your chosen effect to an empty slot on the floor.

4. To edit an effect’s settings, simply double-click it. (If you’re looking at the front of the amp, a single click is all it takes.) 5. Turn an effect on or off by using the bypass switch—the silver button at the bottom of the pedal (the Vibe has a red on/off switch in place of the silver button). The name of the pedal also dims when it’s not active. Note: Pay special attention to the order in which you place your

effects. Placing a fuzz pedal after a chorus or wah gives you a very different sound than if the fuzz is first. There are no set rules, so experiment to find effects chain that you like. 86

Save Your Handiwork

If in your tweaking you come up with a guitar rig you really like, why not save it as a preset? Click Save Setting in the lower right corner of the Track Info pane, and enter a name into the dialog. Voilà! Your preset shows up at the bottom of the list under My Settings.

Record with a Microphone Microphones are amazing. With a microphone you can take any sound and add it to your song. Think about it: you can bring any sound into your computer. Your voice, your cat’s voice, the dishwasher, a wooden spoon hitting a plastic bucket, the robins in the tree outside the window, and yes, traditional instruments, can all join the party. Anything your ears can hear a microphone can hear as well (and sometimes more). This opens up a whole world of possibilities to you. Choose a Microphone

Microphones come in all shapes and sizes, and range in price from about $20 to many thousands of dollars. Needless to say, the more you spend the more you get, but you can purchase an extremely good allaround microphone for about $100 that will serve your GarageBand needs admirably. Microphones If you were to buy just one microphone to use for almost everything, it would be hard to go wrong with a Shure SM57. It’s arguably the most popular mic in use today. The Sennheiser e835 is similar, but it has better response in the high end, which makes for crisper recordings. For more mic recommendations (and a lot of other mic-related information), check out http:// www.tweakheadz.com/microphones_for_the_home_studio.htm.

Many types of microphones are available, but for general all-around recording work, a dynamic mic is your best bet. For one thing, they’re the most affordable. They’re also sturdy, easy to use, and work well in most situations. The downside is that they have a more sluggish response than other types of mics, meaning they have a harder time picking up quiet signals and subtle nuances. But in the GarageBand world, they do an excellent job. If you have a dynamic mic and you’d like a second option, the next step is a condenser mic. Condensers are much more sensitive than dynamic mics, which means they pick up more subtleties, but they also distort 87

easily if the source gets too loud. And if you shuffle your feet while you’re recording your vocal take, you’ll hear it loud and clear on the final recording. It’s a little creepy what even a budget condenser mic picks up. Another thing to keep in mind is that most condensers either need batteries or what’s called phantom power—external power, generally coming from a preamp. You also have to be more careful with condensers—they’re much more delicate than dynamic mics. A last variable to consider is the polar pattern of the microphone. An omni-directional microphone will pick up everything in its vicinity regardless of what direction it’s pointed. A cardioid mic has a more focused, heart-shaped pattern and primarily picks up sound in front and to the sides, but not behind. For a general-purpose mic, the cardioid pattern is a better choice, due to its superior isolation. Select a Room

Deciding where to record is important when using a microphone. Depending on the shape of the room and the angles of the walls, various rooms will emphasize various frequencies differently. These resonant frequencies can build up and color your recording quite significantly. I could get all mathematical and explain why this happens and what you can do about it, but instead, I suggest you put the instrument in the room you want to record in and play. If it sounds good, wonderful. If it sounds lousy, try a different place in the room (perhaps move toward the middle or one corner), or go to a different room altogether. You can’t make something sound better than it does when it hits the mic. Remember: start with the best sound you can. Is Your Room Too Live? If you find that a room sounds too live—too reverberant and bright—try tossing rugs across the floor or over a table between the instrument and the wall. Or, try opening or closing interior doors. The idea is to minimize standing waves—sound waves that bounce back and forth between opposing walls and unduly emphasize certain frequencies. Another option is to create a box around the mic with pillows or furniture to isolate the mic from room reflections.

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How about the Bathroom? You may think that because your voice sounds great when you sing in the shower, the bathroom would be the best room in the house to record. This isn’t necessarily the case. Bathrooms are generally small and highly reflective, resulting in a short, pronounced echo known as slapback (often used in rock ’n’ roll and rockabilly recordings like “Heartbreak Hotel”). If you record a great vocal track in the bathroom and decide later that you don’t like the echo, there isn’t anything you can do to change or remove it. Unless you’re sure that’s what you want, better to record in a more acoustically neutral environment and add echo later. Learn about Mic Placement

Microphone placement is an art. Moving a mic even a millimeter can significantly change the sound it picks up. In all cases, no matter what I or anyone else says about where a mic should go, trust your ears. If you read that you should place a mic 6 inches from an amp, pointing at the speaker at a 45-degree angle, try it. If it sounds bad, move it. Even if it sounds fine, try a few other spots—they may sound even better. Mic an Electric Guitar or Bass Amp

Do you absolutely love the way your guitar sounds when it’s plugged into your amp? Have you painstakingly tried to recreate this sound in GarageBand with little success? Why not go straight to the source and mic your amplifier? Miking the amp speaker is also a great way to get variety in your guitar sounds—in a song with two guitars, you can record one guitar straight into the preamp and the second by miking the guitar through the amplifier. The two tracks will have different sonic qualities that will help to distinguish them in the mix. Miking a guitar amp is not terribly tricky, but here are a few tips: • Move the microphone around: Loud, distorted guitars often sound great with the mic a few inches from the speaker cone, giving a more meaty tone. A less distorted guitar might sound better with the mic a few feet back, resulting in a warmer sound. • Try different angles: Straight on will give you a more crunchy tone, like U2’s “Vertigo,” while more of an angle will sound warmer, as on Van Halen’s “Unchained.” If your amp has an open back, try putting the mic back there as well. 89

• Tilt the amp back, or place it on a chair or a table: This minimizes reflections from the floor that can muddy the sound. Or leave the amp flat on the floor if you like the density of the tone. • Play with the amplifier volume: Often, guitars are recorded with the amplifiers cranked up so they distort. This is a possibility. Try others. Louder isn’t always better. Use your ears: Remember to listen to the track in context, with the rest of the recording. Something may sound great on its own, but it has to work with the track or all bets are off. Mic an Acoustic Guitar

The key to successfully recording stringed acoustic instruments lies in understanding how they produce sound. The strings vibrate, but they don’t generate much power. The volume comes from the sympathetic vibration of the instrument’s body. Placing a mic right on top of the strings not only puts the mic in your way, but also results in a sound full of string noise—clicks and squeaks that you probably don’t want as the dominant sound. Most of the these tips are for acoustic guitars, but they work with banjos, mandolins, violins, and other acoustic stringed instruments: • Try this first: A good initial standard placement is to place the mic 4 to 12 inches from the strings at a 90-degree angle to the top of the guitar, aiming it at the point where the neck and body join. The angle of the microphone now acts as a kind of equalizer: tilt it a little toward the sound hole to get more bass; tilt it a little away from the sound hole to get more treble. • Don’t point the mic at the sound hole: Air moving out of the guitar can cause a boomy, woofy sound, similar to what you hear when your local TV weatherman is standing outside on a windy day. • Place the mic so it picks up all the strings evenly: If the mic is pointing at the top of the guitar, it will pick up mostly the bass strings and less of the higher strings. • Try different distances: Close miking will result in brighter recordings with more harmonics and instrument noise. More distant miking gives a rounder, warmer tone with less high end and more room ambience. 90

Tip: If you have two mics and an interface with two or more

inputs, you can record two distances at once. Record with one mic up close and one farther away, and then choose which one you like better when you’re mixing (or combine the two).

Close vs. Distant Miking When placing microphones, anything within 6 or 12 inches of the source is considered close miking. Anything farther away is distant miking. Both methods have pros and cons; which you choose depends upon the effect you’re trying to achieve. Close Miking

✦ Fuller, tighter sound: highs and lows tend to be more pronounced at close proximity. This is known as the proximity effect. ✦ Less room ambience on track: the microphone picks up more of the instrument and less of the room reflections. ✦ More separation when recording in stereo. ✦ Subtle differences in placement are much more noticeable with close miking. Distant Miking

✦ More room ambience: this is fine if the room sounds good, but if not, you’re stuck with it. ✦ Mics are not in the way of the musicians. ✦ Easier to pick up groups of musicians, like backup vocalists or string sections. ✦ Easier to control dynamics: highs and lows are more pronounced at close proximity, but at a distance the dynamics even out somewhat. Another thing to keep in mind when placing mics is depth of field. If you mic everything from two inches away, it will all compete for that slice of imaginary space two inches behind the speaker cone. Spread things out by recording some tracks with close miking and others with more distant miking. Your mix will have more depth, and tracks won’t compete so much.

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• Consider the type of music: Some songs sound better with a bright, close-miked guitar, and others are more suited to the warmth of a guitar recorded from several feet away. • Use two mics: Try recording acoustic instruments in stereo or with multiple mics, especially if they are the main instruments (see Record a Stereo Track). This results in a full, rich sound that nicely fills out the recording. If you’re recording an acoustic instrument as a backing track that won’t be prominent in the mix, don’t bother recording in stereo. The subtlety will be lost and may actually muddy the mix and compete with other instruments. • Use a pickup and a mic: If your guitar has a built-in pickup, consider recording the built-in pickup on one channel, and recording your guitar with the microphone on another channel. Again, blending the two signals will often produce a great guitar tone. Mic a Piano

There are a million ways to mic a piano. The trick is choosing a method that sounds suitable in the context you’re working in. In some settings —a jazz tune, a quiet ballad—the warmth and subtlety of distant miking may be more appropriate. In a rock song or in a context where the piano needs to cut through the mix, placing the microphone (or better, multiple mics) closer to the strings might be more effective. Consider the following: • Be careful when close-miking a piano: If you place the mic in the middle of the soundboard, you may not pick up as much volume from the low and high strings. Of course, if you don’t plan on playing the low and high strings this isn’t a problem. • Record in two passes: Another option with one microphone is to mic the lower portion of the soundboard and play the left-hand part, and then move the mic to the upper strings and record the right-hand part on a different track. • Record in stereo: If you do have two microphones, recording the piano in stereo often works beautifully. You can use one mic for the low strings and one for the highs, or you can try one close mic and one more distant to capture some room ambience.

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Mic Drums

Miking a full drum set is a tricky operation. Professional recording engineers often use one microphone for each individual drum and a pair of stereo mics for the cymbals. Even for a small drum kit, this can quickly add up to six or eight microphones. I doubt that you have this sort of arsenal at your disposal, but it is possible to get a decent drum sound with one or two carefully placed mics. It’s not going to sound like Steely Dan’s “Peg,” but it won’t sound half bad. Here’s some basic advice: • Mic from above: One mic placed overhead captures quite a bit of the cymbals and the snare, but little kick drum. • Mic from the front: One mic in front of the kit has lots of kick, but little snare. • Mic the whole setup: One distant mic will capture the full kit, but the sound won’t be tight or punchy. • Use two microphones at once: Two microphones give you a more balanced sound. One mic is devoted to the kick drum, and the other can be placed either close to the snare or overhead. If the song is mostly kick and snare, go for close-miking the snare; if the drummer spends a lot of time on the cymbals or the toms, an overhead mic might work better. Mic Small Ensembles

When recording a horn section or a string quartet, it often works to record the entire ensemble at once with one or two microphones. Position the players equidistant from the mic or mics. Musicians in ensembles are usually able to balance volumes among themselves, especially if they’ve played together before. Since you’re recording at a distance, it helps to work in a good-sounding acoustical environment. If you have space, consider positioning your mics in front of and somewhat above the ensemble (maybe 8 to 10 feet in the air), spaced about 9 inches apart for a perceptual stereo spread. When recording horns in particular, make sure the microphone can handle large volumes of air. A cheap or delicate mic will overload, or, worse, break when placed too near the bell of a blaring trumpet.

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Record Vocals

Think of your favorite song. If it has vocals, nine times out of ten (if not all ten times), the vocals are the most important part of the song. As human beings, we tend to focus on other human beings, whether it’s visually, aurally, or otherwise. This puts an extra burden on the vocals, both in terms of the performance and the sound quality. Set the Mood The first variable—performance—depends primarily on the singer, and you can make the singer more comfortable and perhaps inspire a better performance. Even if you’re recording yourself, don’t neglect little touches that can bring out more emotion in your performance: • Light candles or burn incense. • Set out a glass of bubbly water or a cup of herbal tea. • Arrange some flowers in a vase. Of course, if you’re attempting to capture a different emotion (anger, jealousy, dystopian angst), perhaps go easy on the flowers and instead toss some dangerous-looking industrial machinery on the floor. The point is, do whatever you can to set the appropriate mood. Do Whatever It Takes When Stevie Wonder was recording the vocal for the last verse of “Living for the City,” producers Robert Margouleff and Malcom Cecil felt it wasn’t raspy and angry enough. They refused to give him tea and kept stopping the tape in the middle of a take (which Wonder hated), telling him he sounded terrible and that he could do better. Wonder, who was not an irritable person, finally became so upset and so hoarse that he delivered the performance heard on the album today.

It’s also a good idea to have a music stand holding a neat, legible copy of the lyrics. Momentarily forgetting a line in the middle of an otherwise flawless performance can dampen the morale of even the most seasoned singer. Have a pencil handy too, for last-minute changes. Place the Microphone Just as with recording other instruments, mic placement is an important variable, both for the singer’s comfort and for the sound of the recording. Close-miking a singer captures more of the dynamics 94

of the performance and sounds more intimate. Placing the mic a foot or more away adds warmth and ambience, and smoothes out the dynamics—ideal if the song calls for abrupt shifts in volume. When close-miking a singer (or any other source that generates large volumes of air), it’s best to use a windscreen, also called a pop filter. This blocks some air from blowing directly into the mic and thereby prevents popping and distortion that can mar a recording. It can also help keep the singer at a consistent distance from the microphone. See Build Your Own Windscreen, a page or so ahead, for a way to fashion your own budget windscreen. Here are some ideas for mic placement: • Pointed straight at the singer’s mouth, 6 to 8 inches in front: This is a good starting point. The space between the microphone and the singer adds a little bit of warmth and ambience. Use a windscreen. • Close: Good for very intimate-sounding vocals. Not good for vocals with wide dynamic shifts. Use a windscreen. • More than a foot away: Works well for singers that move around a lot. Captures more of the room sound, so make sure you like the acoustics of the space you’re recording in. • Pointed down at the singer’s nose: It looks weird, but it’s great for people with nasally voices (like yours truly). The front of the microphone should be parallel to the bridge of the singer’s nose and pointed roughly at the tip of the nose. None of the air coming out of the singer’s nose gets recorded, therefore, no nasal tone. Move the microphone back a little for more ambience and to get it out of the singer’s way. • Placed parallel to the chest, aimed up at the singer’s mouth: Great for singers who like to lean into the mic. Also captures some of the resonance of the chest cavity. Tip: If the song features distinct loud and soft sections, try

recording each section on its own track. Record the quiet section using a close mic for intimacy, and the loud section from farther back so the singer can really belt it out.

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Build Your Own Windscreen You can buy windscreens at most music stores for $25 or so, but you can build one for about $3. Here’s what you need: ✦ Stockings. I use knee-highs. They come four to a pack and they’re the perfect length. You’ll want to replace them occasionally. ✦ A wire coat hanger or similar heavy-gauge wire. ✦ A pair of pliers. ✦ A small diameter hose clamp. It should snugly fit your mic stand. Assembly is simple: 1. Use the pliers to straighten the coat hanger. 2. Bend one end of the coat hanger into a six-inch diameter circle and twist the end back on itself. The hanger should look like a giant lollipop (Figure 21).

Figure 21: Bend the coat hanger into a lollipop shape.

3. Pull one of the stockings over the loop so the toe seam lines up with the edge of the circle. Stretch the stocking as far as you can away from the loop and poke the straight end of the wire through the middle of the stocking. 4. Tie a knot in the stocking to keep it taut around the loop. 5. Place the hose clamp around the mic stand and clamp the free end of the windscreen to the stand. You should be able to comfortably bend the screen in front of the microphone. 96

Give the singer a pair of headphones, preferably the most acoustically closed pair you have. Old Walkman-style headphones leak sound out the sides, which can bleed onto your vocal track. In extreme cases, this can cause feedback and potentially damage the singer’s hearing. Large, 1970s-style headphones that fit tightly around the ear are preferable. To help a vocalist sing on key, have her move an earpiece off one ear, and plug the open ear with her finger. That way she can hear the song in one ear and herself in the other. Rock musicians who perform with earplugs may be more comfortable recording this way as well. Recording Vocals Follow these tips for even more amazing recorded vocals: ✦ Warm up: Sing scales or sing the song for 10 minutes before

recording. ✦ Choose the right time of day: Some people sing better in the

morning, some in the late afternoon. Check with singers to

find out when they sing their best and schedule accordingly.

✦ Hold something: If a singer is used to holding an instrument

while she sings, let her. If a singer prefers to hold the mic rather than use a stand, try it. ✦ Take a break: Sometimes it’s just not happening. Suggest

that the singer take a walk, have a snack, or do a crossword puzzle—anything to take his mind off the song. ✦ Record a reference track: Help singers’ pitch by recording

the vocal line on piano or guitar so they can sing along. ✦ Double-track the vocal: Try recording a second vocal track

and mixing it with the first to thicken up the sound. For even more effect, have the singer step back from the mic for the second vocal, or turn the microphone around and have him sing into the back of it. It’s different, but it works. ✦ Consider a shock-mount: A shock-mount suspends the mic

using elastic bands or springs so thumps and rumbles from bumping the mic stand and foot tapping don’t get picked up by the mic as easily. ✦ Watch your cables: Make sure the mic cable isn’t underfoot.

Tapping feet can transmit vibration to the mic. 97

Record a Stereo Track

If you own a preamp and two microphones, you have the ability to record in stereo! Stereo recording is especially effective on prominent instruments. If your song is acoustic guitar and vocals, recording the guitar in stereo gives you a much bigger, richer sound than a mono guitar track. Other instruments that can benefit from stereo recording are pianos, small ensembles, and organs with rotating speakers. When recording stereo tracks, you ideally want to have two matching microphones. The closer the microphones are in sound, the more accurate your stereo recording will be. With the proper equipment, recording a stereo track is simple: 1. Set up your microphones. The tip Stereo Mic Configurations, a page or so ahead, outlines common stereo setups. 2. Plug one microphone into the Channel 1 input on your preamp, and the other into Channel 2. 3. Create a new Real Instrument track in GarageBand. Choose the appropriate instrument type (or choose Basic Track > No Effects if you want something generic). 4. To the right of the Input header, choose Stereo 1/2 from the pop-up menu. What If I Don’t Have Two Identical Mics? I’ve made a number of decent-sounding pseudo-stereo recordings with two completely different mics. Try it and see how it sounds. Record each mic to a separate track. Then pan one hard left and one hard right. If that sounds strange or imbalanced, bring the panning in on both tracks so they blend more in the center. This gives a stereo feel, but also helps balance the different sounds the two mics capture. It’s certainly not a true stereo recording, but it’s a good compromise, and it’s a lot cheaper than shelling out for a pair of stereo mics. You can also fake this by duplicating a mono track, applying different effects to each copy, and panning them to different places.

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Panning and Mixing Beware of the temptation to record everything in stereo. For minor instruments or things that you’re going to pan off to one side of the mix, it’s overkill. In many cases, too many stereo tracks will make your final mix sound muddy and indistinct. For more information about panning and mixing, see my other book, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand ’11.

Stereo Mic Configurations With two mics available, you can record more depth by capturing the audio in stereo. Here are two common configurations: ✦ X/Y pattern: The two mics cross in an X above or in front of

the source, with their capsules stacked vertically on top of each other (Figure 22, left). Because of their proximity, this minimizes phase problems between the two mics. For a wider stereo image, increase the angle between the two mics—but beware of creating a hole in the middle of the sound. ✦ Spaced apart: The two mics can be parallel or angled in toward the source (Figure 22, right). The parallel setup

generally gives a wider stereo image. To increase this further you can place a sound-absorbing baffle between the mics.

Figure 22: X/Y Pattern (left); spaced microphones with a

baffle (right).

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Beware of the phase-cancellation bugaboo! If you record a stereo track with two mics that aren’t quite equidistant from the source, the signals can cancel each other out (Figure 23). You can minimize this by putting the mics as close together as possible, or by placing the second mic three or four times as far from the source as the first. This way, the extra room ambience in the second mic will minimize any phase issues.

Figure 23: The peaks of Signal 1 line up with the troughs of Signal 2. When combined, the result is silence!

Record Multiple Takes It can be difficult trying to nail a tricky part in one pass. This is especially true of conspicuous tracks like guitar solos or lead vocals. Playing multiple attempts and selecting the best version (or the best pieces and combining them) is a time-honored method for getting that perfect performance. Multi-take recording lets you cycle a region and record as many passes as you want until you feel you’ve captured the magic. And happily, it couldn’t be simpler to use: 1. Click the Cycle

button to turn on the cycle region.

2. Move or resize the cycle region to set the start and end points of your recording.

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Where to begin? If I want my part to come in at the beginning of a particular section, I’ll often start the cycle region a measure or so early. This way if I start playing a tiny bit early, the beginning of my part won’t get cut off by the cycle region. Similarly, if I want the part to tail off into the next section, I’ll make the cycle region a measure or two longer to accommodate. Remember, the cycle region defines exactly where your recording starts and ends. Plan accordingly. 3. Make sure you’ve selected the track(s) you want to record on (and

the Record Enable button is on if using multitrack recording).

Tip: Multi-take recording works for Software Instrument tracks

as well, but to use it, you need to make sure “Automatically merge Software Instrument recordings when using the cycle region” is off in the General pane of GarageBand’s preferences; otherwise GarageBand will integrate new takes into the existing region. See Record Using a Cycle Region, much earlier.

4. Click the Record button (or press R) and start playing. When the playhead reaches the end of the cycle region, it jumps back to the beginning and immediately starts recording the next take. You can only see the most recent take, but all of the previous takes are saved as well. 5. When you’re finished recording, press the Stop button (or press the Space bar). 6. To listen to earlier takes, click the circled number in the upper left corner of the region and choose a take from the Takes menu, (Figure 24).

Figure 24: Choosing a take from the Takes menu. 101

The one big drag about this new multi-takes function is that you can’t combine takes easily—say, the first half of take 1 and the second half of take 3. GarageBand offers a couple workarounds, though, and I provide the steps for each one next. Split Multi-Take Recordings

To split a multi-take recording, begin by following the steps just earlier to make a multi-take recording. After that, here’s what to do: 1. Save a copy of your song! If you mess up in the following steps, this may be the only way to recover your brilliant work! 2. Audition each of the takes and make a note of the good parts of each, particularly where they begin and end. Be as specific as possible (using the Measures mode in the LCD, “13.4.2.121” is much better than “near the end of measure 13”). To switch to Measures mode: click the icon in the LCD and choose Measures. Measures mode shows you where you are in your song in bars (or measures), beats, and beat divisions. Beats are divided into 4 subdivisions, and each subdivision is further divided into 240 ticks. 3. Choose the bits you’re going to use, and where you plan to switch between them. The beginnings of phrases are more important than the ends in this case, so it’s okay if you cut off a note before it’s fully faded out. 4. Choose the take you want for the beginning of the region from the Takes menu. 5. Move the playhead to the first transition point, and choose Edit > Split (Command-T). 6. In the new region you just created, use the Takes menu to choose the take you want for this section. 7. Follow Steps 4 and 5 for the remainder of the sections. Listen to the assembled section and make sure there aren’t any weird transition points. If there are, you can try making a few more slices near these spots and choosing different takes that will hopefully smooth the transition. There’s also no reason you can’t have two regions from Take 1 butting against each other. 102

Warning! As I mentioned in Step 2, save a copy of your song before you start slicing and dicing. Once you’ve sliced a region the only way to un-slice it is to choose Edit > Undo, and GarageBand may not give you enough levels of Undo to get back to your un-sliced region. Crossfade Your Takes with Multiple Tracks

Try this if the above method didn’t work—or you like to have a little more control: 1. Follow the steps at the beginning of this topic, Record Multiple Takes, to make a multi-take recording. 2. Make sure your multi-take track is highlighted and choose Track > Duplicate Track (Command-D). Do this several times. 3. Copy the multi-take region into the new tracks by Option-dragging the region. 4. Set each of these new regions to a different take using the Takes menu. 5. Open each track’s volume curve by clicking the triangle in each track’s header. 6. Use the volume curves to crossfade between the tracks, making sure only one track is playing at a time (Figure 25).

Figure 25: Crossfading between takes.

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When crossfading between tracks, it’s best to have the new track start to fade in before the old one fades out. This gives the impression of constant volume. It’s also a good idea to crossfade between notes as much as possible, rather than in the middle of a note. (For more on track volume curves, see my other book about GarageBand, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand ’11.)

Record Multiple Tracks at Once One of the coolest features of GarageBand is the capability to record multiple tracks at once. With the proper equipment (and enough people to play the instruments), this is a piece of cake: Tip: Remember, if your preamp has only two channels, you can

record only two Real Instrument tracks at once—no more. And no matter what kind of fancy interface you have, you can never record more than one Software Instrument track at a time in GarageBand.

1. Make sure to choose Track > Enable Multitrack Recording. (If the menu item reads Disable Multitrack Recording then it’s already enabled.) 2. Plug your instruments into your input device. Depending on your device, you can use guitars, keyboards with 1/4" outputs, mics, and anything else you can think of (a DJ setup, for example). 3. Create a new track for the first input. 4. Choose the appropriate channel (or pair of channels for a stereo track) from the Input Source pop-up menu in the Track Info pane. 5. Turn monitoring on if you want it, and adjust all the knobs and sliders as described in Set Up Your Track and Set Levels. 6. Do the same for all the other tracks, making sure that each track is on its own channel or channels. 7. Now here’s the cool part: Click the Record Enable button on each of the new tracks to arm the track for recording (Figure 26).

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Figure 26: Click each track’s Record Enable button to start doing some serious multitrack recording.

If you can’t enable a track for recording, make sure it’s not sharing an input channel with another enabled track, and that you’re not trying to record on more than eight tracks at once. 8. Click Record, start jamming, and make beautiful music together.

Use Your Imagination Now that you have a microphone or two, don’t be afraid to use them to record anything. Why restrict yourself to traditional instruments? Record toy xylophones, refrigerators, squeaking hinges, or anything else that comes to mind. Homemade percussion is an especially fruitful area of exploration. Plastic tubs, cardboard boxes, tables, and chairs all make excellent drums. You can fashion maracas and shakers from cans and jars filled with rice or dried beans. Fill bottles or glasses with different levels of water for a makeshift xylophone. Think of a sound you want to create and then figure out how you can achieve it. Another avenue for unique sounds is using interesting variations on speakers and microphones. Play your guitar through a boom box. Get a crappy old broken microphone and record something through that. Go to flea markets and garage sales and buy old, weird instruments, even if you don’t know how to play them. Sometimes doing things the wrong way is the best route to inspiration. Remember the golden rule: it doesn’t matter how you get a sound—if you like the result, that’s all that matters.

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Fix a Section

As with anything, every once in a while we all make mistakes. Fortunately, you don’t need to rerecord an entire track to fix your mistakes. You can redo a small section of a track, and you can even fix timing and pitch.

Punch In

In the audio world, rerecording a portion of a track is called punching in. It’s a great way to rescue a performance that has one bad section. Punching In on a Real Instrument Track When you punch in on a Real Instrument track, you need to duplicate all the conditions of the original recording or the repair will sound different. If you put your mic in another place or set the knobs on your guitar differently, you’ll hear it on the recording. If at all possible, record punch-ins during the same session you record the rest of your track.

Here’s how to punch in and a fix a mistake: 1. Select the track with the error. 2. Make sure Control > Snap to Grid is turned on, and align the playhead with the beginning of the section you want to replace. 3. Choose Edit > Split (Command-T). 4. Do the same at the end of the region with the mistake. This creates a new region in between the two points that contains only the section you want to replace. 5. Select this new region and delete it. 6. With the same track still selected, choose Track > Duplicate Track (Command-D). 7. Select the new track. If multitrack recording is enabled, either enable the selected track for recording or disable multitrack recording using Track > Disable Multitrack Recording. 106

8. Position the playhead where you want to begin recording. This way, you can start recording as far in advance as you like without damaging the original track. This gives you a chance to feel the groove and warm up before you get to the punch-in point. 9. Hit Record (R) and play your heart out! Start early: When punching in, it helps to start recording a few measures early to allow yourself to feel the part before you need to start playing. 10. If you’re happy with the new take, move it up to the old track or simply leave it. I prefer to move it, to keep excess tracks to a minimum. You can also crop part of the new take and move only that portion. Be careful, since dragging a region over an existing one replaces the overlapped portion of the old one (Figure 27).

Figure 27: Dragging a new region over an existing one replaces the old region. Notice how the existing region is cropped flush with the new one.

Multi-Take Punch-Ins I prefer the method I’ve described in these steps because it gives you more control, but you can also use the multi-take recording feature (described earlier in Record Multiple Takes) to fix a section. Enable a cycle region where your mistake is, split the region at the beginning and end of the cycled section (this step is important), and start recording. GarageBand will automatically record each pass as a new take. You can pick your favorite when you’re done. 107

Why You Need to Split Your Region If you don’t split the region at the beginning and end of the cycle region, you’ll wipe out everything in the entire region when you record (Figure 28). It will still exist on a different take, but getting to it can be tricky. I suggest splitting the region first to save yourself some hassle later.

Figure 28: Cycle recording on just part of this region erased all the notes from the rest of the region.

Fix Timing and Pitch

Did you play a wonderful sax solo, but mess up the rhythm on measure 37? Is your singing full of emotion and energy, but you’re a little sharp through the entire chorus? Never fear, GarageBand can help you fix it. Automated Tuning and Quantize Note Timing can tame those out-oftune notes and wayward beats. Here’s how: 1. Select the track that contains the offending region. If you messed up in only one specific spot, isolate it with the Split command. Place the playhead at the beginning of the section and choose Edit > Split (Command-T). Do the same at the end of the error. 2. Double-click the new region with the mistake to open it in the Track Editor. 3. Press the miniature play button at the top of the track editor next to your region’s name. GarageBand will play just that region over and over again. 4. Depending on your mistake, choose Automated Tuning or Quantize Note Timing in the left column of the Track Editor, and drag the slider to the right until you like what you hear. 108

Don’t Expect Miracles Moving the Automated Tuning or Quantize Note Timing sliders too far to the right can easily result in artificial-sounding audio with abrupt transitions between notes and stuttering glitches in the sound. Use these tools sparingly. If your mistake is really horrible, you’re far better off rerecording the section.

Fix It with Flex Time A new features in GarageBand ’11 is Flex Time, which lets you manually move notes to fix their timing. In many cases this may work better than using Quantize Note Timing. It’s also preferable because you’re not fixing an entire region, so the end results may sound more natural. Tip: As with Quantize Note Timing above, if your playing is

more than a bit off, you’ll have much better results rerecording your part. Flex Time is a great tool, but it can only do so much, and if you correct your part too much, you risk ending up with a boring, mechanical track.

Using Flex Time is a snap: 1. Double-click the region in question to open it in the Track Editor. 2. In the Track Editor, find the beginning of the note you want to correct. It may help to listen to the region on its own. To do so, press the miniature play button at the top of the editor, next to the region name. You may see a message that you’re zoomed out too far to make good Flex edits; let GarageBand zoom you in. 3. Move the cursor over the upper half of the waveform to show the Flex pointer (Figure 29). Get as close to the beginning of the note as you can.

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Figure 29: Moving the cursor over the upper half of a waveform in the editor reveals the Flex pointer.

4. Click and drag in the direction you want to move the waveform. (You may get a message saying “Analyzing audio for Flex Time editing....” This is normal.) Move the note where you want it to start and that’s that! Snap to Grid? If Snap to Grid is on you won’t have as much control over where you can move your notes, but it will be easier to lock them to the grid. Both methods have their place, so use whichever works best for your track. The audio you’re stretching will have a lighter halo around it, and the audio being compressed has a darker halo. This makes it easy to see what you’ve changed. If you want to compare your changes to the original recording, simply click the Flex Time button at the top of the editor (Figure 30). To undo any individual Flex Time changes you’ve made, hover over the change and click the “X” above the Flex marker.

Figure 30: Click the Flex Time button to temporarily disable Flex Time.

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Tip: Use your ears rather than your eyes when you’re repairing

your audio. If something’s not perfectly aligned to the grid it still might sound great in context. It really helps to not look closely at the editor while searching for problems. Precisely aligning every note in a track will kill the groove quicker than you can say “Britney Spears.”

Get In the Groove The other new timing addition in GarageBand ’11 is Groove Matching. This feature enables you to not only quantize audio regions to the timeline, but also to match them to other audio regions as well. You select one track as the master, and you can “slave” the groove of other tracks to it so they match the master’s rhythm precisely. As with Flex Time, it should be used sparingly, but in certain cases it could help an ailing track or two get back in the swing. Using Groove Matching is simplicity itself: 1. Select the track you want to use as your master. Obviously, you want to select a track that has a good feel, but it’s also important to choose one that has a lot of notes. If the master track is too simple— say just quarter notes—GarageBand will align more-complex rhythms on the slave track to the simpler master track. This, of course, may completely destroy the rhythm of your slave track. 2. Move the pointer over the far left edge of the track, near the “wooden” edge of the GarageBand window. 3. Click the star that appears. Viola, you’ve set your master track. 4. All the other tracks now have checkboxes in the same place as the star on the master track. Select any tracks that you want to slave to the master track by clicking their checkboxes. Make sure you listen carefully to the results. If anything sounds rhythmically odd you might need to uncheck that particular track and use Flex Time to fix the rhythm instead.

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Note: Groove Matching is a fairly blunt force instrument—it’s

either on or off. If you look in the editor, you’ll notice that Quantize Note Timing is set to Groove Matching and the slider is still operational. But alas, it seems not to do anything. It would be helpful to control the amount of Groove Matching you applied to a particular track, but you can’t.

Change Tempo

Have you recorded your whole song and realized it’s too slow? GarageBand enables you change the tempo of your entire song if you want. That’s right, even your Real Instrument recordings adjust to the new tempo. Note: I haven’t had much luck with this feature. The audio

sometimes sounds “warbly” if the tempo change is too drastic (and often even when it’s not). Don’t expect miracles. You might find you’re better off rerecording your parts.

If you import MP3 or AIFF files recorded outside of GarageBand, the imported regions appear orange rather than purple, the color of actual GarageBand recordings. (The same applies to GarageBand 1.x projects you open in a newer version—Real Instrument regions will appear orange too.) Orange regions don’t have tempo scalability, but it’s easy to convert them to purple regions and then scale them as though you recorded them in GarageBand. Here’s how: 1. In the project you want to convert, press Control-Option-G and click anywhere in the timeline. This converts all your orange regions to purple ones. 2. Double-click each region you want to make scalable to open it in the editor. 3. Click the Follow Tempo & Pitch checkbox (Figure 31).

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Figure 31: Setting a region to follow tempo and pitch changes.

4. Repeat for any other regions you want to tempo-shift. Voilà. You now have purple regions where once you had only orange. Change tempo and this region will change with you. Changing the Pitch of a Region Recorded Real Instrument regions also must be purple in order to change their pitch. To change the pitch of a region, open its Track Edit window. The left column contains the region pitch slider. Move it right or left to raise or lower the pitch of the region by half-steps. You can raise or lower pitch of a region by as much as an octave. But beware: raising or lowering the pitch of a region too much can make it sound artificial. Your voice may end up sounding like the Chipmunks or the guy who sings the Monster Mash. You may have more luck with the Vocal Transformer or AUPitch effects (See Pitch Effects).

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Understand GarageBand Effects Effects alter the sound of a track in a wide variety of ways. You can make a track fit better in the mix, separate two similar-sounding instruments, or give your song a certain quality—hard and edgy, dreamy and ambient, robotic and mechanical. Effects are like seasoning—you can’t turn meatloaf into lobster, but you can adjust its flavor, and in extreme cases, make it completely inedible. Effects fall into a number of different categories: Dynamic Effects alter the volume of the notes or of a specific portion of those notes. Filter and Equalizer Effects adjust portions of a sound’s frequency spectrum. Time-Based Effects, such as echo and chorus, duplicate sounds and offset them to give the effect of space or of several instruments playing together. And Distortion Effects simulate overdriven amplifiers, speakers, or transistors. Many effects combine elements from two or more of these categories. For you guitarists, I also discuss the various stompbox effects at the end of the relevant sections.

Find the Effects

GarageBand’s effects reside in the Edit section of the Track Info pane. The simplest and most commonly used effects, such as the Gate, Compressor, Visual EQ, Echo, and Reverb, show up there. You can also choose other effects by clicking an empty effects slot and choosing from a pop-up menu. The pop-up menus have two sections: on an instrument track, the top section contains 17 so-called GarageBand Effects; the bottom section contains the more complex Audio Units Effects (as well as any plug-in effects you may have installed). All Audio Units Effects are designated with “AU” at the beginning of their names. To edit an effect’s parameters, click its icon in the Track Info pane (the icon shows a set of sliders when you hover over it as a visual indicator). 114

Tip: Most GarageBand effects come with useful presets that you

can choose from the effect’s pop-up menu. The presets typically offer a range of settings from subtle to extreme, so users can quickly get a feel for what the effect does.

Applying Effects You can apply effects in two places: in individual tracks, or in the Master Track. The Master Track is normally hidden, but you can access it by clicking the Master Track heading in the Track Info pane. You’ll find the settings for the global Reverb and Echo effects (which you can apply to each track with individual sliders in each track’s own Edit pane; see Echo and Delay and Reverb, later in this chapter). You can also add Visual EQ, compression, a ducker, and one other effect to the entire mix. Effects on the Master Track are useful, for example, if you want to use reverb to make the entire mix sound like it was recorded in the same room. You may also want to apply compression to the entire mix to squish the dynamic range and make the song seem louder (see Reverb and Compressors for more on these effects).

Those Lucky Electric Guitars... Electric Guitar tracks have two sets of effects they can use: Stompbox effects, available only in Electric Guitar tracks, and standard track effects. The track effects slots on Electric Guitar tracks can be a little hard to find. To use them, double-click the amp to show its backside. If you don’t see the full effects panel, click the upward-pointing arrow just below the stompboxes to show the three available track effect slots.

Dynamic Effects

Dynamic effects include limiters, compressors, and gates. They alter the loudness of a source signal: limiters and compressors even out the differences between the loud and soft parts; gates block sound below a certain threshold and are most often used to control noise or hum. 115

Limiters Limiters help avoid clipping, or signal overload, which can cause digital distortion. Limiters smooth out peaks above a certain threshold, and can help tame sounds such as drums and aggressive guitar parts. The cool thing about limiters is that they allow you to make a track louder without setting off the clipping indicators; however, applying a limiter too aggressively can make a track sound artificial (or like a small child playing with a stereo’s volume knob). AUPeakLimiter is the only limiter available, although GarageBand’s Compressor offers settings that work much like a limiter. No Master Limiter? When I’m mixing, I always like to put a limiter at the end of my output effects chain so I can make my mix louder without causing clipping. Unfortunately GarageBand doesn’t give you that option. What to do? In this case, the solution is to export your track and limit it in another audio program: 1. Export your song to disk (without compression). 2. Download Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. It’s free. (Audacity isn’t the most user-friendly audio software out there. If you’d rather pay a little cash for an easier interface, try Amadeus—http://www.hairersoft.com/Welcome.html—or Sound Studio—http://www.felttip.com/ss/.) 3. Open your exported song in Audacity. 4. Under Effects, choose Apple: AUPeakLimiter. 5. Turn up the pre-gain in AUPeakLimiter. How much depends on how loud you want the finished song to be, and how loud you were able to get the exported track in GarageBand. In many cases, 4 or 5 dB should be plenty. 6. Click OK and listen to the results. If you hear distortion or weirdness, you may have added too much gain in the limiter. Choose Edit > Undo and try again with a lower setting.

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Compressors Compressors are similar to limiters, but instead of just shaving off the peaks, they actually raise the valleys, thereby evening out the quiet and loud parts of a track. Compressors are great for tracks that have quiet parts that get lost in the mix, for evening out bass parts, and for smoothing out highly dynamic parts—like vocals. Tip: It’s also fun to occasionally abuse a compressor and totally

squash the dynamics of a particular track. Be wary though: doing this to too many tracks or to the entire mix will make your song sound boring and flat.

GarageBand comes with several compressor options. The one you’ll probably use most is the default Compressor that shows up in Details section of the Track Info pane. It has four sliders: • Threshold: This slider controls the level at which the compressor kicks in—when the volume of the signal is above the threshold, the compressor starts working, if it’s below, the signal is unchanged. • Ratio: Ratio is essentially the amount of compression applied: the higher the ratio, the more the signal above the threshold is “squashed.” • Attack: Use the Attack slider to set how fast the compressor starts to work. Fast attacks are good for softening things like drum hits; slower attacks let the initial peaks in the signal through before the compressor kicks in—good for retaining or emphasizing sharp attacks, like guitar strums. • Gain: This one is simply a volume slider. The more you compress a signal the softer it tends to become, so the gain slider is a way to reamplify the signal.

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How to Set a Compressor Compressors can be confusing things for a beginner. Heck, compressors can be confusing even for professionals! I learned this trick for setting compressors, and I’ll share it with you here. It can be hard to hear what compressors do—and that gain slider doesn’t help, since we perceive “louder” as “better.” (I’ve often discovered, after thinking I’d improved my audio by adding a compressor, that all I’d done was make it louder.) The trick is to go way too far with the compressor settings so you can really tell what you’re doing, and then back them off. I’m using a drum loop here, but the trick works on any material: 1. In the Loop Browser, find Natural Drum Kit 03 and drag it into the timeline. 2. Enable the cycle region and start playback so you can hear the drums in a loop. 3. In the drums’ Track Info pane, open the Edit tab. 4. Enable the Compressor and open its settings window. 5. Now turn the Threshold all the way down and the Ratio all the way up. Your drums should sound really squishy now. (You probably need to raise the Gain a bit, but don’t turn it up too much or you’ll be blasted in the next steps.) 6. Play with the Attack slider. Notice how at a low setting, the entire beat sounds squashed, but as you raise it you can start to hear the peaks emerging. For now set it at 167.0 ms. 7. Lower the Threshold to -37.0 dB and the Ratio to 2.5:1. Turn the compressor off and on to hear the difference. Make sure the Gain is set so the affected and unaffected sounds are at similar levels. Hear how the compressor is lowering the level of the room ambience? 8. Now lower the Attack slider all the way to 200.0 ms. Turn the Ratio up to 4.2:1 and raise the gain a bit. Turn the compressor off and on again to hear the difference. Now the compressor is enhancing the ambience, as well as making the peaks sound a bit squished. Kind of incredible, isn’t it? One device can perform two actions that are the polar opposites of each other. 118

More About Compressors Compressors can be hard to comprehend. Wikipedia has a good article about audio compression at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Dynamic_range_compression. For an even more detailed article on compressors (graciously provided by engineer and producer Barry Rudolph), see http://www.barryrudolph.com/mix/ comp.html.

The Squash Compressor is a stompbox effect. With just two knobs, it’s the simplest compressor in GarageBand, but that being said, it still sounds pretty nifty. It also has a fast/slow attack switch, which is a simplified version of the Attack slider in the default track compressor. What’s in a name? Some of the stompboxes have odd labels when they’re on the stage floor. Squash Compressor is labeled “Sustain,” for example. Likewise, Auto-Funk is called “Filter.” The other two compressors are Audio Units Effects: AUDynamicsProcessor, a more traditional compressor with a cool graph of what it’s doing, and AUMultibandCompressor, which features the same graph along with a confusing array of other controls. The nifty thing about the multiband compressor is that it allows you to compress separate ranges of the frequency spectrum differently—so you could compress only the bass frequencies and leave the rest of the sound alone, for example. I won’t go into detail on the art of multiband compression, but here’s a great article about it on AudioTutsPlus: http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mixing-mastering/how-to-usemulti-band-compression-in-mixing-and-mastering/. Tip: One fun trick to try with a compressor is to set the

threshold fairly low and play with the attack and release settings. You can get some super-funky “pumping” drums with this technique.

The last compressor in GarageBand’s arsenal is the Master Track Compressor. The oddest thing about this particular compressor is that it has no controls, only presets, but that’s what makes it so simple: just choose a preset and go. The presets are arranged by style of music, and each preset not only compresses, but also performs some EQ adjustments as well. (Pity there’s no Amount sliders for compression and EQ so you could fine-tune the settings....) Be sure you turn the 119

compressor off and on to compare your setting with the uncompressed track in case you don’t like what it’s doing.

Gates Gates, commonly called noise gates, selectively mute the quieter parts of a track in an effort to eliminate buzz and hum. Of course, it’s far better to record a track without any noise to begin with, but sometimes you don’t have a choice. GarageBand’s default Noise Gate resides at the top of the effects list in the Track Info pane. Moving the slider sets the threshold—the higher you set the slider, the more noise you cut out. At some point you’ll probably start cutting out stuff you want to keep as well, so set the slider carefully. The AUDynamicsProcessor Audio Units effect can also be set as a noise gate. It includes three presets to get you started: Light Gate, Medium Gate, and Hard Gate.

Filter and Equalizer Effects

Filters and equalizers enable you to add, subtract, or even eliminate specific frequencies. Most stereos include either a tone knob or dedicated bass and treble knobs—these are examples of simple equalizers. Although Vocal Transformer and AUPitch aren’t the same type of effect as the others, they alters the frequency content of the sound and fit well in this section.

Equalizers GarageBand’s basic equalizers, as well as some much more complex variations, give you control over minute portions of the frequency spectrum. Think of them as the older siblings of the treble and bass controls on your stereo. Here’s a look at each one: • Visual EQ: The default Equalizer is a more sophisticated replacement for the rather basic default EQ in older versions of GarageBand. Click its icon to view the settings. The Visual EQ divides the frequency spectrum into four bands, and gives you a great deal of control over what you can do with those bands. The light blue line running through the middle of the EQ graph shows you the changes you’re applying to your signal. When 120

you first open the EQ it’s a straight line, which means the EQ isn’t changing the signal at all. Click and drag within one of the four bands—Bass, Low Mid, High Mid or Treble—to change the EQ curve. Dragging up and down raises and lowers the level for that band, and left and right changes the frequency. Note: If you move one of the two midrange bands away from

their home turf, it can be confusing to try and move them again. Remember that you don’t actually need to click the curve itself— you can simply click in the column for that frequency band and you’ll usually select the proper curve. Alternately, you can use the numbers (see the next paragraph).

If you like numbers, click the Details disclosure triangle to show the center of the range of frequencies you’re changing and the amount of the change in decibels. For finer control, you can click and drag on any of the numbers in the Details pane to change just that parameter. For example, you could raise or lower a particular band without worrying about accidentally changing the frequency. You can also double-click any of the numbers to type in a value directly —although Visual EQ doesn’t always give you exactly what you type. Lastly, click the Analyzer checkbox and play your song to view a real-time picture of your track’s frequencies. This sometimes helps to pinpoint areas that are especially loud or soft. For example, in Figure 32 there’s a spike at about 200 Hz. This isn’t necessarily a problem, it’s just where this track has the strongest signal.

Figure 32: The Visual EQ effect showing the Details pane and the Analyzer. Note the peak at 200Hz. 121

Cut first: A good rule to keep in mind when adding equalization is to cut first. Rather than adding more bass, try pulling the treble and mid frequencies and boosting the overall level. The response is smoother and you won’t degrade the audio signal as much. • AUGraphicEQ: This 10- or 31-band equalizer features sliders for each portion of the audio spectrum. Move a slider up to boost and down to cut. For less jarring adjustments, it’s usually a good idea to keep a fairly smooth visual curve in the sliders, but occasionally (such as editing a live concert recording) you might want to cut a specific frequency and not touch anything else. • AUParametricEQ: This equalizer is similar to the mid controls on the default Equalizer with one added function. The Q slider determines how wide the adjustment curve is. At a low Q setting, the curve is wide and affects a broad swath of the frequency spectrum. At a high Q setting, the curve is extremely narrow and affects only frequencies close to the center frequency. Built-in Equalization Some of the other GarageBand effects feature built-in equalization. Most notably, Amp Simulation has four EQ sliders: Low, Mid, High, and Presence. Presence boosts or cuts a specific portion of the high-frequency spectrum (around 2.5 KHz) to give the impression that an instrument is right there next to you. A little presence can add crispness to the sound that makes it feel “in your face.”

Filters Filters are like equalizers, except they affect only portions of the frequency spectrum. (Actually, if you want to get technical, equalizers are nothing more than a number of filters bundled together, each one shaping a specific range of frequencies.) • Treble Reduction and Bass Reduction: These two filters completely eliminate the affected frequencies. You can set sweepable cutoff points above or below which all audio is filtered out. If you want your drums to sound like they’re coming from your downstairs neighbor’s apartment, use Treble Reduction. If you want one of your guitar tracks to sound thin and trebly, add a Bass Reduction filter. 122

Keep mud out of your mix: It’s usually not a bad idea to add a little bass reduction to tracks like guitars, percussion, and vocals that don’t have much bass to begin with. This keeps the low frequencies open for the instruments that really need it, like basses and drums. If you have an extra effects slot, add a Bass Reduction filter and adjust until you can just barely hear it. If you don’t have a free slot, you can always do the same thing with the Visual EQ. As always, trust your ears—if you don’t like the way it sounds in the context of the whole song, don’t use it! • Automatic Filter: Despite the bland name, this cool toy sweeps through affected frequencies over time to create a pulsing or swooshing sound. One parameter that might need explanation is Resonance, which emphasizes overtones near the center, making the filter sound sort of “boingy.” You have to play with it to fully understand how it works, but it can create some wild sounds. • Wah: This stompbox simulates classic wah-wah pedals, made famous in the 1960s by musicians like Jimi Hendrix (the rhythm guitar in “Up From the Skies” is a great example). Wah-wah pedals manually sweep through the frequency spectrum, making your guitar (or whatever other instrument you choose) sound like one of the teachers in a Peanuts cartoon. • Wah has a virtual pedal—the big black bar on the left that says “Wah.” You can “play” the pedal with your mouse, but unfortunately, since GarageBand can’t record automation, that’s more of a gimmick than anything else. To use Wah to create a wahwah effect, you need to draw automation points using your mouse— a much more obtuse way of playing wah guitar. (See Automate Effects, ahead in this chapter, for complete instructions on adding automation.) • Wah also has two knobs, Q and Mode. Q controls the width of the filter sweep (see AUParametricEQ for more on this parameter). At lower values, the wah effect is subtle, and at higher values it becomes more extreme. • The Mode knob lets you select from a variety of wah sounds. It also includes a Volume setting, which turns the Wah into a volume pedal. Retro Wah is warm and dark, Modern Wah is brighter, and the two Opto Wah settings are brighter still. 123

• Auto Wah: This filter mimics the manual foot-on-a-rocker-pedal wah effect above by using a gate to trigger the wah—when the signal crosses a certain threshold, it initiates a new wah cycle automatically—no foot or bell-bottoms needed!. • Auto-Funk: This is the stompbox version of the Auto Wah, and as the name implies, it’s great for those ridiculous Seventies funk riffs. • AUHighShelfFilter and AULowShelfFilter: This filter boosts or cuts frequencies above an adjustable cutoff point. It’s a terrific way to add sizzle to a track. AULowShelfFilter does the same for bass frequencies (except it affects tones below the cutoff point). • AUHighPass and AULowPass: Similar to the shelf filters, these two add a resonance slider. Be careful with this! Turn it up too much and you may shred your speakers or your ears. • AUBandpass: This filter is similar to AUHighPass and AULowPass, but you’re singling out a specific frequency band in the middle of the spectrum. If you want to isolate only the high-mids, for example, use the bandpass filter. • AUFilter: This is essentially a more sophisticated cousin of the Visual EQ. It’s got more flexible settings, one extra band, and Q controls (here called Width). Note that the low and high bands don’t have a Width setting. Instead, you can choose between low shelf and high pass (on the low band), or high shelf and low pass (on the highs). The shelf filters are just like the ones in the Visual EQ. The high and low pass filters are more like Treble and Bass Reduction.

Pitch Effects The Vocal Transformer alters the frequency content of a sound, although not in the same way as the other filter effects. Vocal Transformer is arguably one of the most fun effects in the GarageBand arsenal. Want to sound like a woman? A man? A child? A droid? Something out of your worst nightmare? Vocal Transformer is a great place to start. It’s surprisingly effective and can be loads of laughs. Try it on instruments other than your voice too! AUPitch is a similar but more extreme version of Vocal Transformer. Like many of the other AU effects, it has a daunting collection of sliders, but it can create some wild sounds if you take time to play with it. (Hint: easily the most important slider here is Pitch, without which the effect doesn’t do much.) 124

Time-Based Effects

Effects like Chorus, Delay, and Reverb fall under this category. They all duplicate the signal and shift the copies over time in some way or another. Chorus, Flanger, and Phaser shift the signal by small amounts to mimic the sound of two instruments playing simultaneously, or to create special effects. Delay and Echo offset the sound more drastically, so you’re able to hear the track and its echo separately. Reverb uses multiple echoes to simulate sound waves bouncing around a room. I’m also including Tremolo—fluctuation in volume over time— under time-based effects, although it functions differently than the other effects in this category.

Chorus, Flanger, and Phaser These effects shift the signal by tiny increments—so small that you can’t distinguish the original sound from its echo, you only hear the effect of the two signals combined. Here’s a rundown: • Chorus: This effect gives a track a little bit of shimmer. It can simulate two or more instruments playing together, or create a variety of special effects (listen for the chorus on the bass in “Desert Kisses” by Siouxsie and the Banshees). For more subtle effects, keep the Intensity and Speed sliders toward the left side of their range. GarageBand also features presets that offer good starting points. The Retro Chorus and Heavenly Chorus stompboxes offer similar functionality for Electric Guitar tracks. Retro Chorus is a bit gentler and more simplified. Heavenly Chorus adds Feedback and Delay knobs for more command over your chorusing. • Flanger and Phaser: Both effects are similar and share the same controls, although flangers are arguably more “musical” sounding. To my ears, the flanger sounds like a supersonic jet streaking across the sky (almost everything in The Cure’s “A Forest” is flanged), and the phaser more like Jabba the Hutt (like the rhythm guitar on Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar”). Having read this, you may think I’ve gone mad, but give them a listen. Set the controls for each as follows: Intensity in the middle, Speed at about 10 percent, and Feedback at 90 percent. Again, you’re given quite a few presets to try out. The Phase Tripper and Robo Flanger are the stompbox

versions.

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Echo and Delay Echo and delay effects can help you sound like The Edge on U2’s “Bad,” or like you’re playing in the Grand Canyon. The default Echo slider, which controls the amount of echo applied, is located near the bottom of the Track Info pane. If you want more control over the echo of the entire song, open the Master Track (by clicking Master Track in the Track Info pane, or by choosing Track > Show Master Track and double-clicking the master track header). Edit its parameters by clicking the effect’s Edit button. Note that the Echo controls in the master track apply to the Master Echo parameters for all the individual tracks. There are some useful presets you can use as well. If you want more control over a specific track’s echo, use the Track Echo effect. Its controls are identical to the default Echo slider, and again, you’ll find lots of useful presets to try. The Blue Echo is the stompbox delay, offering echoes in a more guitar-appropriate package. The coolest thing is the Sync button, which lets you specify delay times in musically-appropriate increments AUDelay is the Audio Units delay effect, giving you basically the same controls as Track Echo in a more graphical package. Note: AUSampleDelay is another Audio Units delay, but the

delays a track by a precise amount, usually to accurately align it to another track or to the rest of the mix.

Reverb Reverb simulates sound waves bouncing around in an environment, like a small room or a cathedral. If some of your tracks sound too “dry” or “dead,” a little reverb might be just what you need. Reverb makes vocals sound warmer and smoother, and can help to blend tracks together, like a string section or backing vocalists. You can also use reverb to make a track sound farther away from the listener, especially if you roll off some of the higher or lower frequencies. You can find GarageBand’s default Reverb control at the bottom of the Track Info pane. Like the default Echo control, you can change the reverb settings in the Master Track, and these settings affect the default reverb on all tracks in your song. If you want more control over reverb on a particular track you have two choices: Track Reverb, which is the single-track version of the 126

Master Track reverb, and AUMatrixReverb, which offers more options (along with a bewildering array of sliders).

Tremolo and Vibrato The Tremolo effect creates regular fluctuations in volume that can make you sound like Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser.” You can also use this effect to pan your track back and forth between the speakers. Try some of the presets for a good idea of the possibilities. The Vibe, the stompbox version, has a similar sound. (Vibrato is technically a fluctuation in pitch, but to my ear The Vibe is definitely more of a tremolo than a vibrato.)

Distortion Effects

Distortion effects attempt to simulate the sound of overdriven amplifiers and other signal deteriorations. They include obvious candidates like Distortion and Overdrive, and also the more esoteric Bitcrusher, which simulates low-fidelity digital distortion. I also include Amp Simulation in this group, even though it does more than just distort the sound.

Distortion and Overdrive Distortion simulates an amplifier pushed beyond its limits. Distortion has become a staple of rock music—it’s been difficult to turn on the radio since the late 1960s and not hear a distorted guitar a some spot on the dial. Overdrive is a subtler relative of distortion. In both cases, turning up the Drive function also increases the volume. You can compensate by turning the Output Level slider down.

Bitcrusher Bitcrusher simulates digital downsampling and bit reduction commonly heard in techno and in old-school video games. This type of distortion sounds quite different from classic analog distortion: it’s harsher, and depending on the sample rate reduction, it emphasizes overtones in a unique and quite nasty way. For even more extreme digital distortion, AUDistortion can truly destroy a track. Again, it has a lot of sliders, but thankfully the wide range of presets give you some good starting points. 127

Amp Simulation Now that GarageBand has Electric Guitar tracks, Amp Simulation is the second choice for mimicking a guitar amp. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever use it again though. Consider it another tool in your arsenal—perhaps not quite as lovely as the Electric Guitar tools, but still well worth considering for certain sounds. And, of course, you can use the standard GarageBand effects with Amp Simulation. Tip: Don’t reserve Amp Simulation just for your guitar. Try it on

other instruments too. It’s great for lo-fi vocal effects, and the occasional distorted drum or keyboard part can give your song an interesting twist (listen to some distorted drums in “Come On and Love Me” by Lenny Kravitz).

Bass Amp GarageBand includes a bass amp simulator, surprisingly titled Bass Amp. It’s essentially the same as the guitar version, but with different models and different presets. The first batch of options on the Models pop-up menu simulate various types of bass amps, but the last three, titled Top Class DI, simulate D.I.s—direct injection boxes that bass players often use when recording or performing live. D.I. boxes tend to give a cleaner, punchier sound than miking an amp. Tip: I use Amp Simulation and Electric Guitar tracks for bass at

times. Mix and match, and try different sounds for different situations.

Distortion Stompboxes Electric Guitar tracks get six options for distortion, aside from simply overdriving the various amp models. Vintage Drive gives you a retrostyle overdrive effect with an old-school vibe. Grinder is a heavier distortion unit with a nice sweepable scoop mode that cuts out a chunk of frequencies—think hard rock and metal. Hi-Drive Treble Boost imitates vintage treble boosters, used by guitarists like Eric Clapton, Tony Iommi, and Brian May. With its switch set to Treble, the Hi-Drive gives you a tighter, less meaty sound than some of the other distortion options. Rawk is a more contemporary-sounding distortion, great for alternative and industrial genres. 128

GarageBand also includes two fuzz pedals. Fuzz Machine is a sixties-

style fuzz pedal that makes your guitars really hairy, even at the lowest

setting. Candy Fuzz is a brighter, more modern-sounding alternative.

Automate Effects

More sophisticated sequencers and digital audio workstations allow you to not only add effects to your tracks, but also to change their parameters over time. In GarageBand, you can do the same thing! This means that, for example, you could add an echo to a guitar track and have it be subtle in the verses but much stronger in the choruses. This is pretty fancy behavior for a program that’s free with every new Mac. Automating effects is easy: 1. Open the track volume curve for the track you want to automate by clicking the triangle in the track’s header. 2. Choose Add Automation from the pop-up menu. 3. In the Add Automation dialog that appears, click the triangle by the effect you want to automate and pick a parameter (Figure 33). 4. Click OK.

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Figure 33: To automate an effect, select the effect and the parameter you want from the Add Automation dialog. Visual EQ, Echo & Reverb, and effects you’ve applied appear in the dialog. If you want to automate an effect that’s not listed, you must add it first in the Track Detail pane. GarageBand’s default Gate and Compressor can’t be automated.

GarageBand adds an automation curve for that parameter. Now you can play with the automation curve just like you can with volume and panning. Add as many curves for as many effects and parameters as you like. See Crossfade Your Takes with Multiple Tracks for more on using automation, as well as my other GarageBand ebook, Take Control of Making Music With GarageBand ’11. Note: Automation works on stompboxes too! Choose

stompboxes from the Add Automation menu and check the box next to the appropriate parameter. This way you can step on your virtual distortion pedal for the rousing chorus to your next rock anthem.

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Learn GarageBand Tips and Tricks It’s no secret that GarageBand is entry-level music editing software. For the non-musician getting started, a peek at the controls and settings in Pro Tools or Logic Pro can fry synapses faster than a late 1960s road trip on the Rolling Stones’ tour bus. But at the same time, GarageBand can perform feats that aren’t immediately obvious.

Double-Track Vocals and Guitars

Double-tracking is an old technique for thickening vocals and other types of tracks. The idea is that you record two takes of the same part and lay them on top of each other. The resulting product has a thicker sound and a unique quality. Double-tracking can also hide minor tuning flaws in vocal tracks. The two versions blend together and mask the out-of-tune bits. To double-track a part, simply duplicate the original track (choose Track > Duplicate Track or Command-D) and rerecord your part onto the new track. Thickening a Track Double-tracking isn’t the only method of thickening a track. Other techniques include: ✦ Add chorus (see Time-Based Effects). ✦ Duplicate the track and offset the new track ever so slightly. It’s tricky to move a track by tiny increments in GarageBand, but it can be done. You need to zoom the timeline way in. ✦ Use Track Echo (or AUDelay) to add a single, quick echo. Play with the delay time and mix to see how the sound changes.

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The trick to double tracking is that the two versions have to be as identical as possible, at least if you want the effect to be invisible. There’s certainly nothing wrong with playing the second part differently and panning the two parts away from each other. This will add thickness as well as a not-so-subtle stereo effect. Feel free to try adding reverb or other effects to the second track for variety.

Make Your Own Loops

The wonderful thing about GarageBand’s loops is that you can play them in any tempo and key that you want. You can do this with your own recordings as well: 1. Trim the track down to the portion you want to use as a loop. To do this, position the playhead at the start of the desired bit and choose Edit > Split (Command-T). Do the same at the end of the segment. 2. Make sure the desired loop is selected and choose Edit > Add to Loop Library. 3. Name the loop, select Loop or One Shot, and choose scale, genre, instrument, and mood descriptors. Loop vs. One Shot: Selecting Loop creates just that—a loop. It scales to the tempo and key of your song just like the Apple Loops that ship with GarageBand. One Shot is meant for things like sound effects and cymbal crashes that don’t need to conform to a particular tempo or key. No Loop option? Note that Loop isn’t an option unless the selected region is some multiple of a measure—one measure, three measures, 16 measures, etc. Most loops are multiples of four measures, but it’s really up to you. That’s all there is to it! Look in the loop library to find your loop alongside the others. Tip: For more on loops and how to use them, see my other

book, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand ’11.

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Turn Your Guitar into a Bass

So you have an electric guitar, but you don’t have a bass. You could play bass lines on a MIDI keyboard, but maybe you lack one of those as well, or you want a more natural-sounding bass part. Here’s a little trick to turn your guitar into a bass (virtually—don’t worry, no power tools are required and your vintage axe won’t be damaged): 1. Record your guitar playing the bass line an octave higher than you want it to sound when you’re finished. 2. Open the Track Editor and make sure Follow Tempo & Pitch is checked. Move the Region Pitch slider down to –12. This transposes the guitar loop down one octave (12 half steps). Your guitar should sound a lot like a bass. 3. To make it even more realistic, double click the track header to open the Track Info pane. Play with the following effects settings until you like what you get: ‣ Try the Bass Amp effect: the Warm Bass Amp setting offers a solid, understated tone while Rock Edge Bass Amp serves up some fuzz with a well-defined attack for aggressive parts. Play with the effects settings to see how the tone changes. ‣ Turn on the Compressor and move the slider to about 30. ‣ Activate Visual EQ. Boost the bass a bit and maybe cut the

midrange.

‣ Add some Amp Simulation. Try American Clean with a touch of gain. Turn the bass up, the midrange down, and set treble and presence to taste. Also be sure to try out some of GarageBand’s pre-defined bass track settings in the Track Info pane, and see how they combine amp settings with filters, chorus, and even echo.

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Combine Two GarageBand Projects in One Song You may occasionally want to import another GarageBand project into your current song. For example, you may have a project (or a portion of a project) that would work perfectly as the intro to the current song you’re recording. Or perhaps you have two versions of the same song that you want to combine into one (a la The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever”). You can do this with ease: 1. Open the Media Browser by clicking the Media Browser button in the lower right corner of the GarageBand window (Figure 34).

Figure 34: Click the Media Browser button to open (you guessed it) the Media Browser.

2. In the Media Browser, click the Audio button at the top and select the GarageBand folder (Figure 35) to view your user’s ~/Music/ GarageBand folder.

Figure 35: In the Media Browser, access your GarageBand projects by selecting the GarageBand folder.

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Can’t find your project in the Media Browser? If you store your GarageBand projects somewhere other than the default location, you may not be able to access them from the Media Browser. In this case, you can copy the project into your user folder at ~/Music/GarageBand/ and then access it from there. 3. In the bottom portion of the Media Browser, double-click the project you want to import. If you haven’t opened it from within the Media Browser before, GarageBand may tell you the project was not saved with an iLife preview. To create a preview, follow the steps below: a. Click Yes in the dialog box asking if you’d like to open the project and create an iLife preview. b. GarageBand opens the project and creates a mixdown. c. Close this project, and then open the original song. d. Open the Media Browser again. 4. Drag the song you converted into the current project (Figure 36).

Figure 36: Drag the song you want to import into the timeline just like you would a loop.

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The song appears as an orange region with a small guitar icon next to its name in the timeline. This indicates it’s an imported project. To edit the imported song, do the following: 1. Double-click the imported region in the timeline. The Track Editor opens. 2. In the Track Editor, click Open Original. 3. Make any changes you want to the imported project, then save and close it. GarageBand opens the project you started with, informs you that the imported project has been modified, and asks if you want to update the imported region. Turn on Audio Preview: For this technique to work, “Render an audio preview when saving” must be enabled in GarageBand’s General Preferences pane. If your imported track doesn’t seem to be updating (or you don’t get the message in Step 3), check the Preferences to make sure Audio Preview is turned on. 4. Click the Update Region button. That’s it. This process is a bit cumbersome if you are making frequent changes to both projects. It may make sense to finalize one of the songs as much as possible and then import the finished one into the other project. This will save you a lot of back and forth later on.

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Listen to the Sample Songs I wrote and recorded two short sample songs to use as examples of the techniques in this book. The first uses only Software Instruments and the second uses Real Instruments (except for the drums). You might want to listen to the song files with a set of headphones to hear the different parts more clearly.

The Software Instrument Song

For the Software Instrument song, called “The 30 Percent Factor” (30percent3.mp3), I began with the acoustic guitar part. It came to me while I was noodling around on my keyboard, so I recorded it on the spot. I repeated it four times before coming up with more parts. I used the Jazz Kit for the drums, and I played the part on my keyboard. It’s a slightly unusual drumbeat, but it seemed to flow naturally from the guitar part and it came quickly. I didn’t need to record many takes of it before it felt right. I added an Overdrive effect to thicken the sound a little and get rid of some of the high end. The organ was next. So far the song had a fairly fast pulse, with two instruments playing eighth and sixteenth notes. I wanted to contrast that with some longer, slower notes, and organ seemed like the perfect instrument. I held a couple two-note chords with a staccato figure at the end to tie it into the rest of the song and provide some punctuation. At that point, the song definitely needed some bass; there were absolutely no low frequencies at all. This was fine for the intro, but once the organ came in, I wanted the song to fill out more. I felt that the rubbery-smooth sound of a fretless bass would complement the mellow atmosphere well. The descending slide is worthy of note: this is actually one key press. When you strike a note at maximum velocity, GarageBand plays a whole-note slide down. And when you play a note at just below maximum velocity, GarageBand plays it with vibrato 137

(listen to the first long note of the bass line). These little tricks help make your Software Instruments sound more realistic. Next, it was time for the main body of the song. I’m particularly fond of funky electric pianos, so I added that next. I also added another drum track to juice up this section. I wanted something that sounded like handclaps, so I used the Jazz Kit again, but I added Distortion and Auto Wah. The distortion makes the drums sound bigger and noisier, and the auto wah gives them a squelchy sound that mimics handclaps very well. Each handclap is actually two separate notes: a snare flam (a snare drum hit with both sticks slightly off-time from each other) and maracas. When you add the distortion and the auto wah, it sounds like 20 people clapping together. For variety, I added a small break with a new chord progression. I dropped the handclaps during this section and added a drum fill to create some interest. Then, when the main part comes back in, I had the organ play a new, more active part to bring the song to a close. For the mix, I got a little bit creative. I thought the song had a nice antique vibe, even though it was definitely modern. I wanted to accentuate that, so I decided to add some more distortion. I began with the organ. I gave it some light Tremolo and a little bit of Bitcrusher. The Bitcrusher is subtle—all it’s really doing is thinning out the sound a little and adding some high-frequency noise that makes it feel like it’s playing on an old radio. To emphasize this I also gave it a big EQ cut in the low mids. The electric piano also felt too pristine, so I added an Overdrive effect. Nothing too drastic, but it added a lot to the vibe of the part, and also helped make it sound less synthetic. The drum kit already had some overdrive on it, but I wasn’t happy with the EQ. The kick drum was too tubby and there was too much bite in the high end. A little Visual EQ solved both these issues. Lastly, I added Bass Reduction to the acoustic guitar, the organ, the claps, and the electric piano. As I’ve said before, it really helps to keep everything out of the way of your bass instruments, and it’s amazing what a little Bass Reduction can do for the clarity of a mix. I finished the song by panning some of the instruments off to either side and creating some small fades to make the song flow more organically (Figure 37). For example, I brought the acoustic guitar up 138

slightly for the finale, and I faded the electric piano down a touch at several points so other instruments could come forward. To finish the song, I exported it as an AIFF, brought it into Audacity, and gave it about 5 dB of gain using AUPeakLimiter. If you’d like to examine my project file, you can download it here: 30Percent.zip.

Figure 37: The finished Software Instrument song.

The Real Instrument Song

The second song fragment I recorded for the book, “In Over My Head” (inovermyhead12.mp3), uses Real Instruments—guitars, bass, vocals, and percussion. I used many of the techniques described earlier, in order to give you an idea of how they sound in practice and to demonstrate what’s possible with a pretty minimal setup.

Recording the basic tracks I started by creating the drumbeat using the Software Instrument drum set Rock Kit; this is the only part of the song that’s not a Real Instrument. I built the beat in multiple tracks using the technique described in Record Drum Tracks. When I was happy with the result, I added some reverb to punch it up and make the beat sound bigger. I 139

also panned the high hat track off to the left a little bit; I knew I would balance it later with another piece of high percussion on the right. I wanted to process the multiple tracks of drums all together, which isn’t possible in GarageBand unless you export the drums as an audio track. So that’s what I did. I soloed all the drum tracks and exported them as an uncompressed AIFF file (using Share > Export Song to Disk...), then dragged them back into the project on a Real Instrument track. Once they were back in GarageBand, I compressed them a little to emphasize the ring of the drums and added a bit of Overdrive to thicken the sound. When I was done, I saved the result as a new project, but kept the original multitracked drum performance in case I wanted to make changes later. I recorded the acoustic guitar next, placing the mic close to the body just below the sound hole, pointed slightly down. I didn’t want to pick up the boominess from the sound hole, and I also wanted to avoid having too much low end in the mix, so I moved the mic until the guitar sounded crisp and jangly, but not too thin. The rhythm of this song is fairly choppy and staccato. Since I was playing chords with a lot of open strings, the strings tended to ring for a while and smooth out the beats, which I didn’t want. I tore a thin strip of rag and placed it behind the strings near the bridge (where the strings meet the body of the guitar). This muted the strings and dampened some of the ringing. I also wrapped another rag around the middle of the low E string—I wasn’t using it, but it added bass thumping and booming when I hit it accidentally. Wrapping the middle of the low E string controls vibration a lot better than wrapping the ends, since the middle is where most of the movement occurs. I thought this lone, muted acoustic sounded a little plain for the three chords of the intro, so I recorded a second track of the same part, unmuted this time. This is double tracking at its simplest. When you listen to the final song, you can’t really tell that two guitars are playing. It seems to the casual listener like one lovely-sounding guitar. I wanted to balance the acoustic guitar with a crunchy electric guitar, so I recorded that next. I ran my electric guitar straight into the preamp and into an Electric Guitar track. I chose Liverpool Bright, with the gain set a little over halfway, lots of Treble and Presence, and the Squash Compressor switched on. This gave me a nice jangly, 140

overdriven tone that sounds a bit like mid-1960s British bands like The 13th Floor Elevators (listen to “You’re Gonna Miss Me”). The bass came next. Again, I recorded my electric bass directly into the preamp. I wanted a fuzzy sound with a lot of bass and midrange, so the track would blend into the mix and not stand out. I used the Amp Simulation, set to American Clean with the gain slightly more than halfway. I adjusted the EQ until I got a sound I liked—kind of growly with a fat middle. With all the basic tracks recorded, it was time for vocals. I’m not much of a singer, so I asked my friend Lisa to come over. I set up a microphone in my living room (complete with homemade windscreen). Lisa has a beautiful voice, so it wasn’t hard to get a good tone. I pointed the mic straight at her mouth—the windscreen kept her the perfect distance from the mic through many takes. I had to watch the levels on the preamp carefully, because as Lisa became more relaxed and comfortable with the parts, her singing got louder. This is a common occurrence with singers, so watch those levels! You don’t want to send the singer home only to discover that the vocals are audibly clipping. The song has three vocal parts—the lead vocal and two harmony lines. We recorded several takes of each part. In a couple cases, three of the four lines were perfect, but one needed to be punched in. It was quick and painless to duplicate the track and record another take on the new track. Since there’s so much time between each line, it was simple to consolidate both takes onto one track later. In the end, I had three vocal tracks, two of which were cobbled together from several takes. While I was putting these together, I remembered I had saved an early take of the vocals with Lisa giggling and saying, “That’s so cute.” I thought it would finish out the song nicely, so I cropped out the rest of that take and added the chatter at the end of the lead vocal track, as the other instruments were fading out. I wanted to give the drums a little more life, so I recorded an egg shaker doubling the high hat part. If you don’t have one, go to your local music store and pick one up. They cost about $2 and are quite versatile. Depending how you hold it and how you shake it, you can get a remarkable variety of rhythms out of it. Recording the shaker is a piece of cake—you set up the mic and shake the shaker. Getting a good level isn’t a problem. In fact, I had to turn the track down quite 141

a bit once I’d recorded the part. I wanted the shaker to sit unobtrusively in the mix and not call attention to itself. The final track I recorded was the lead guitar answering the third and fourth lines of the vocal. For this guitar track, I decided I would play through my amp and mic it. I have a pedal called the Blue Tube that contains a little vacuum tube that adds a nice, warm, overdriven tone. I ran the guitar through that and into my amp, which I closemiked slightly off to the side of the speaker cone. I didn’t have to turn the amp up terribly loud to get a decent sound.

Mixing the Song After recording the tracks, it was time to mix. I didn’t do anything fancy on this tune, since I liked the way the tracks sounded on their own. This is yet another reminder of why it’s a good idea to spend time at the beginning making sure you like the sound that’s coming into GarageBand. If you position your mics carefully and concentrate on getting good levels and tone, you won’t have much left to do when it comes time to mix. On the other hand, if you’re sloppy and hasty when you’re recording, you’ll be disappointed with your tracks and will need to “fix in the mix.” The problem with fixing it in the mix is that it’s a lot of work, you can never quite get it right, and it doesn’t sound as good as a well-recorded part would have sounded. The first thing I did was add a little EQ to the tracks that needed it. Most got something tweaked, but pretty minimally. In most cases I used the Visual EQ effect, which allows you to adjust very specific frequencies. For example, on the main acoustic guitar track I used the Visual EQ to boost the low mids for more body and to add a bit more treble for added presence and sparkle. On the bass, I used the Visual EQ to cut the treble frequencies to eliminate some of the string clanks. The shaker was sounding too bright for my taste, so I used the AUFilter to pull out some highs and add some high mids. This helped blend the shaker with the drums. I also used a liberal amount of Master Echo on it, set to a quarter note and a rather dark color, giving the shaker more thickness and added a nifty doubling effect. I was noticing a little muddiness in the mix, so I whipped out the trusty Bass Reduction effect and applied it to a number of tracks. The acoustic guitar, shaker, background vocals, and both electrics got a dose, which cleaned things up considerably. 142

I then used the pan controls to spread things out in the mix and give the song a nice stereo feel: • I panned the two acoustic guitars off to each side somewhat to give the intro some space and breadth. • I panned the electric rhythm guitar opposite the main acoustic track to separate them during the body of the tune. • I moved the shaker to the right to balance the high hat on the left. • I left the bass, the drums, and the lead vocal in the center. • I panned the background vocals off to the right, one track at about 1:00 and the other at 2:00 (assuming 12:00 is the default, dead center position, like on a clock). • I put the lead guitar to the left to balance the background vocals. Things were now positioned well, but the song was sounding fairly dry. It was time for some reverb! I added a touch of Track Reverb to the lead vocal first—the lead vocal is the most important element of the song, so I didn’t want to muddy it up. I wanted the backing vocals to sit further back, so I used a good bit of Master Reverb on them. The default Master Reverb was too bright, so I used the Small Club setting instead. I also added some Master Reverb to the main acoustic guitar track, which helped to round it out and give it a bit more fullness, and to the rhythm guitar to make it sit in the mix a little better. The last thing I did was apply some compression. I enabled the Master Compressor and tried a few different settings before I settled on Pop Basic. It had the best balance of punchiness and warmth, and I liked the way it pleasantly emphasized the lows and mids. Then I listened to the song about 20 more times to see if anything stood out or seemed awkward. I found that the lead guitar wasn’t working well—it sounded nasal and pinched. I tried EQing it, but it didn’t seem to help, so I rerecorded it with the mic farther from the amp. This worked well: I got something that fit in the mix more solidly and added a little more depth of field. Once again, I finished the song by exporting it as an AIFF, bringing it into Audacity, and giving it a few dB of boost using the AUPeakLimiter. Take a look at the final project file here: InOverMyHead.zip. 143

Listen to Your Song! It’s always a good idea to listen to the song through different sets of speakers. Run your Mac’s headphone output through your home stereo. Burn a CD and listen to it in your car. Often you’ll hear things you didn’t notice through your headphones or computer speakers. While you’re at it, listen to the song alongside other CDs that sound good to your ears. This can reveal any equalization issues—too much bass, not enough high end, and so on.

Remember, it’s not that hard to get a beautiful recording as long as you spend some time and energy at the beginning of the process getting great sounds. And just because something sounds good on its own doesn’t mean it will sound good next to everything else. Certain things, like the lead guitar track in this song, need to be heard in the mix, with all the other instruments surrounding it, in order to see if it’s going to work or not (Figure 38).

Figure 38: The final Real Instrument song. Tip: For more on mixing, see Take Control of Making Music with

GarageBand ’11.

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Learn More

For additional information, consult these Web sites, books, magazines, and videos.

Web Sites

Apple’s GarageBand Discussion Board: One of the best sources for GarageBand information, tips, and answers. The archives are extensive and extremely useful. I learned a lot from the forum when I started using GarageBand. No question is too tricky, too unusual, or too stupid, and users are for the most part helpful and courteous. http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=127 Audio Recording Terms Glossary: A handy one-stop resource for definitions of audio terms. http://www.recordingeq.com/reflib.html AudioTutsPlus: A great site with a wide array of audio-related tutorials. Most are geared towards professional applications like Logic and Cubase, but there’s still plenty of use to GarageBand users. http://audio.tutsplus.com/ The Garage Door: Hosted in part by Hangtime, a man familiar to anyone who frequents Apple’s GarageBand discussion board. The site is full of tutorials and resources for GarageBand users, including news about free loops and links to other GarageBand-related sites. http://www.thegaragedoor.com/ GuitarNuts: If you’re interested in upgrading or shielding your electric guitar, this is the site for you. You’ll find more details than you ever wanted to know about guitar wiring. http://www.guitarnuts.com/ iCompositions.com: One of several sites where GarageBanders can post songs. http://www.icompositions.com/

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MacIDOL.com: Another place to hear unique GarageBand compositions. Songs are rated by total number of plays, so popular songs rise to the top. See if you can be number 1! http://www.macidol.com/ MacJams.com: Another site to share tunes and find tips. They have forums, articles, a buyer’s guide, a resource library, and a huge collection of user-contributed songs. http://www.macjams.com/ MacMusic.org: Features Mac-related music news, forums, software downloads, articles, and even a classified section. The site covers all aspects of music on the Mac, not just GarageBand. http://macmusic.org/ Tweak’s Home Studio Guide: A veritable warehouse of info for the home recordist. The site is full of discussions of processes, technologies, equipment, and philosophies specifically directed at the home studio user. Total newbies and more experienced home engineers will find it useful. http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm

Books

GarageBand ’11 Power!: The Comprehensive Recording and Podcasting Guide, by Todd Howard, published by Course Technology PTR. Due to be published in April 2011, this book promises to be a detailed guide on getting the most out of GarageBand ’11. Apple Training Series: GarageBand ’11, by Mary Plummer, published by Peachpit Press. Available as a digital download for Kindle, it takes a step-by-step approach to teaching GarageBand basics. Harmony and Theory: A Comprehensive Source for All Musicians, by Keith Wyatt and Carl Schroeder, published by Hal Leonard. This book features simple, straightforward explanations of chords, scales, basic notation, and more advanced subjects. Melody in Songwriting: Tools and Techniques for Writing Hit Songs, by Jack Perricone, published by Berklee Press (Hal Leonard). If your interest lies more in the realm of songwriting, this book has a lot of 146

advice on crafting great melodies and analyzes a number of hit songs to explain why they “work.” Home Recording For Musicians For Dummies, by Jeff Strong, published by For Dummies. An easy-to-use primer on setting up a home studio, recording and editing music, and distributing songs. While not geared toward GarageBand users, it’s aimed at beginners and should have plenty of useful tips for GarageBand enthusiasts. Recording Tips for Engineers, by Tim Crich, published by Black Ink Publishing. An absolute wealth of recording studio wisdom from a true studio veteran. A lot of the information is about high-priced equipment and analog tape, but you’ll learn plenty about miking, mixing strategies, and recording theory that serves GarageBand users.

Magazines

TapeOp: I adore this magazine. It’s a bit biased toward vintage analog gear (nothing wrong with that, but it’s an expensive obsession). TapeOp might be a bit over your head at first, but there’s much to learn from the audio gurus that populate its pages. Best of all, if you sign up on the Web, subscriptions are free! http://www.tapeop.com/ Electronic Musician: This magazine leans toward MIDI and computer-based music making. While it features little about GarageBand, you’ll still find useful tips and tricks. Electronic Musician used to be much better, but it’s been getting thin of late. http://www.emusician.com/ Sound On Sound: An excellent British recording magazine with an American edition, and my current favorite. Each issue is packed full of reviews and articles, including the wonderful Mix Rescue column, where the editors remix a reader’s problematic track. I’ve learned more from that column than any other magazine or book I’ve read. http://www.soundonsound.com/

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Videos

MacProVideo.com GarageBand Training: MacProVideo offers several video tutorials, including an overview (called Core GarageBand ’09 and a Magic GarageBand tutorial, both by J.F. Brisette, and a video specifically covering effects (called DSP Filter Factory), by Paul Garay. http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorials/garageband-application Lynda.com GarageBand ’09 Essential Training: This tutorial, by Damian Allen, is four and a half hours long and gives a good introduction to many of GarageBand’s features. http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=46311

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Appendix A: GarageBand MIDI Drum Sounds Table 2, below, shows the keys on your MIDI keyboard that map to drum sounds in the Rock Drums kit. In most cases, other acoustic drum kits are similar. The digital drum kits differ more significantly from this list, so you’ll have to experiment to find sounds you like. Table 2: Key Map for for the Rock Rock Drums Kit Key G#0 A0 A#0 B0 C1 C#1 D1 D#1 E1 F1 F#1 G1 G#1 A1 A#1 B1 C2 C#2 D2 D#2 E2 F2 F#2 G2 G#2 A2 A#2 B2 C3 C#3 D3 D#3 E3

Instrument

Key

Open-closed high hat Snare roll Pedal high hat Bass Drum 1 Bass Drum 2 Rim shot Snare 1 Snare flam Snare 2 Low floor tom Closed high hat High floor tom Half-open high hat Tom 1a Open high hat Tom 1b Tom 2a Crash cymbal 1 Tom 2b Ride cymbal 1 China crash Ride bell Tambourine Splash cymbal Cowbell Crash cymbal 2 Vibraslap Ride cymbal 2 High bongo Low bongo High conga (muted) High conga (open) Low conga

F3 F#3 G3 G#3 A3 A#3 B3 C4 C#4 D4 D#4 E4 F4 F#4 G4 G#4 A4 A#4 B4 C5 C#5 D5 D#5 E5 F5 F#5 G5 G#5 A5 A#5 B5 C6

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Instrument High timbale Low timbale High agogo Low agogo Cabasa Maracas High whistle Low whistle Guiro (high) Guiro (low) Clave Wood Block (high) Wood Block (low) Mute Cuica Open Cuica Mute Triangle Open Triangle Egg Shaker Sleigh bells Bell tree Gong Taiko drum Bowed cymbal Guiro 2 Udu Metal drum Cajon Cajon 2 Goat hoof rattle Rain stick Tom with jingles Finger snaps

Appendix B: Troubleshooting Like most programs, GarageBand has its share of quirks and issues. These tips and workarounds should help you remain productive and keep using the program to its full potential.

Improving Performance

Although its performance has improved in recent versions, it’s not uncommon (especially in larger or more effects-heavy projects) for GarageBand to stop in the middle of playback and greet you with confusing messages like “System Overload” or “Disk Is Too Slow.” If this happens to you, here are some suggestions: • Quit all other programs: Especially quit programs that perform background tasks such as checking for email. GarageBand is greedy; it wants all your computer’s attention. • Turn off FileVault: If you use Apple’s FileVault to encrypt your data, either turn it off or store your song files outside your Home folder. Remember that the Documents and Music folders are in the Home folder, and GarageBand automatically stores song files in the Music folder. • Lock your tracks: Locking tracks, especially Software Instrument tracks, greatly reduces the processor drain. When you lock a track, GarageBand renders it to disk, meaning that instead of having to generate instrument sounds and effects on the fly, the program only has to play the rendered track. It’s much easier for your poor little overworked processor. If I see the dreaded red playhead or get system overload messages, I can make the problem go away by locking a couple of tracks.

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Tip: Software Instruments (the green tracks) are particularly

CPU-hungry. The Mac synthesizes the sound on the fly, using software algorithms for the timbre of the instrument and MIDI data for the actual notes played. In Real Instrument tracks, on the other hand, all the Mac must do is play back previously recorded audio—much easier on your processor, but potentially more work for your disk.

To lock a track, make sure Show Track Lock is enabled on the Track Menu, click the Lock button in the track’s header. The next time you hit Play, GarageBand makes you wait while it renders the newly locked track (or tracks) to disk, and then it plays the song normally. After you lock a track, you can still change its volume and panning, but to make other changes you must unlock it first. • Reduce the load on your computer’s graphics processor: GarageBand’s beautiful interface comes at a cost—your Mac must render all those beautiful pixels on the fly, while simultaneously crunching all the data needed to create Software Instruments and real-time effects. Try the following to reduce the graphics load: ‣ Reduce the size of the GarageBand window. The less the Mac has to draw, the less work it has to do. ‣ Zoom out so that you can see the whole song. Having to constantly draw the next part of the song as the playhead scrolls requires a lot of computational power. ‣ If all else fails, minimize the GarageBand window by clicking the yellow minimize button in the upper left of the window. That way your Mac doesn’t have to draw anything at all. • Turn off unused effects: Examine your tracks carefully to see if any effects are turned on but set to zero. If so, turn the effect off by deselecting its checkbox. GarageBand uses resources to process active effects even if they’re not affecting the sound at all. Reverb in particular is especially processor-intensive, but it’s a good idea to turn off Echo as well if you’re not using it. • Convert Software Instrument loops to Real Instrument loops: GarageBand lets you lock tracks to conserve processing power, so this trick is not essential, but it still deserves mention. If you drag a Software Instrument loop into a Real Instrument track, GarageBand converts to the loop into a Real Instrument region. But 151

beware, once a Software Instrument loop has been converted, you can no longer edit the individual notes. • GarageBand’s Loops preferences pane also has a setting that, when checked, will cause all Software Instrument loops to be converted into into Real Instrument regions whenever you drag them into the timeline. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to convert an existing Software Instrument track into a Real Instrument track. Your best bet at this point is to lock the track. • Bounce down to fewer tracks: Bouncing down refers to the practice of consolidating a number of tracks to just one or two, originally to free up additional tracks for overdubs (see the note Bouncing Down to Fewer Tracks). With GarageBand, we are no longer limited by space on the tape but are instead limited by processor power. Bouncing is not so crucial now that GarageBand has track locking, but it is still a viable technique. To bounce down a group of tracks, first save a copy of your song, just in case. Then pick a group of instruments—say, all the percussion tracks. Make sure you like the balance among all the instruments in the section; you won’t be able to go back and turn the maracas down once you do this. Mute all the tracks other than the percussion section and choose Share > Export Song to Disk. Locate the song in the Finder and drag this song file back into GarageBand into a new track. Your percussion section will take up only one track, and (if you dare) you can delete all the tracks you used to make it. (To be safer, make a new copy of your project and use your bounced tracks in that: you can go back to the originals if necessary.) Do this as often as you like. You can also use this method to convert a Software Instrument track into a Real Instrument track. (I did this with the drums in one of this book’s sample tracks; see Mixing the Song, earlier.) In this case you would export only the one track you want to convert and reimport it into GarageBand. It will use up fewer of your precious CPU cycles, but again, you won’t be able to edit the individual notes.

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Bouncing Down to Fewer Tracks Bouncing down to fewer tracks is a practice that was used often in the early days of multitrack recording to tape. Through most of the 1960s, top-of-the-line recording consoles had only four tracks. A band would record backing instruments—drums, bass, guitars, or keyboards—onto these four tracks, which the recording engineers would then mix onto two tracks on another machine (one for the left channel of a stereo mix, one for the right). This left two open tracks for vocals or additional instruments. This process could be repeated several times, but after a while the sound quality would begin to degrade, much like making a photocopy of a photocopy.

Audio Delays

Depending on your input device, you may experience out-of-synch audio, called latency, during recording. The following suggestions should help get your audio back in sync: • Quit other applications: Sometimes other programs take up enough processing time that GarageBand can’t process audio in real time. Try quitting any applications you aren’t using, especially programs that can be active in the background—like Time Machine, or even things like iChat, email programs, and Web browsers. • Lock tracks: Software Instrument tracks are especially CPUintensive, but any tracks with a lot of effects can eat up resources. • Mute unnecessary tracks and effects: They can eat up valuable system resources. • Relaunch GarageBand: Quitting and relaunching GarageBand should help if resetting the buffer doesn’t do the trick. • Restart: If all else fails, restart. A fresh system can do wonders!

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Glossary

Terms

AAC: A compressed audio format, designed to be the successor to MP3. It generally has better sound quality than an MP3 of the same size. AAC is Apple’s default file format for iTunes and the iPhone. Active electronics: An electric guitar or other instrument with active circuitry has an on-board preamp that boosts the signal. Active pickups generally offer wider dynamics and a fuller-range sound than passive pickups, but usually require an onboard battery to operate. AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format): A sound file format developed by Apple. Most Macintosh audio software can handle the AIFF format, and GarageBand exports files in AIFF format. Expect a GarageBand-exported AIFF file to consume about 10 MB of disk space per minute of song. See MP3. amplifier: A device that increases the amplitude of a signal, thereby making it louder. automation: The ability to record track, instrument, and effect parameter changes like volume, panning, and effect level so they change automatically in real time as a track plays. Most modern DAWs feature some form of automation. baffles: Pieces of sound-absorbing material used to block sound waves from entering or leaving a certain space. bass: The low frequencies of human hearing. See midrange, treble. bleed: A situation where audio from one device is unintentionally picked up by another during recording. For example, if a singer is wearing Walkman-style headphones to monitor the song’s instruments, the music could be picked up by the microphone she’s using. capsule: The sensitive transducer in a microphone. The capsule is typically covered by a wire mesh grille that protects it from harm. See microphone. 154

chord: Any combination of two or more tones sounded simultaneously. See harmony. chorus: An effect that simulates the sound of several instruments playing together in unison. Used to thicken a track or give it a more stereo feel, or in extreme cases, as a special effect (listen to the bass on “Desert Kisses” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. clipping: Distortion caused when output levels are set too high. Every track, as well as the master output levels, has clipping indicators: red dots that light up when your output goes “into the red.” Some analog clipping can be musical and add warmth to a sound—particularly in tube amplifiers—but digital clipping is bad, even if you think you can’t hear it. I talk more about clipping in Set Levels. close miking: The technique of placing a mic within a foot or so of the source to pick up mostly the direct sound and minimize reverberations from the room. See Close vs. Distant Miking. condenser mic: A more sensitive (and more expensive) alternative to a dynamic mic. Unlike dynamic mics, condensers need a power source. They are also more delicate than dynamics, and they are better at picking up high frequencies. consonant: A chord or interval that is stable and pleasing to the ear. See dissonant. DAW: Short for Digital Audio Workstation. Modern DAWs are typically complete studios in a box, featuring the capability to record audio and MIDI information, add effects, and mix songs, all within your computer. GarageBand is a DAW, as is its big brother Logic and the well-known ProTools. delay: An echo effect. U2’s guitarist The Edge is famous for using delay on many U2 songs, like “Where the Streets Have No Name.” D.I. (direct injection): Often used when plugging an instrument directly into a recording console or P.A. system, a D.I. or direct box changes the electrical impedance of the instrument signal to that of a microphone. dissonant: Any chord or interval that sounds unstable, tense, or harsh. Combining two loops in different keys sometimes results in dissonance. See consonant. 155

distant miking: The technique of placing a mic far from the source so you pick up room reverberations along with the direct sound. See Close vs. Distant Miking. distortion: An effect that simulates an overdriven amplifier. Used almost constantly in some form or another in rock songs from the 1960s to today (listen to The Beatles’ “She Said, She Said” and Radiohead’s “Bodysnatchers.” dynamic mic: Generally the cheapest and simplest of microphones. Less sensitive than a condenser mic, but they’re also a lot more sturdy and are often great at picking up low frequencies. dynamics: Variations in volume in a piece of music. effect: Any sound-altering device that’s added in the Details pane of the Track Info pane. These include reverb, echo, and EQ. EQ (equalization): A set of filters that lets you balance the bass, midrange, and treble frequencies of a track. It also includes the Bass Reduction and Treble Reduction filters, which cut all frequencies above or below a certain adjustable cutoff point. I cover effects in Understand GarageBand Effects. fundamental: The primary note in a musical tone, as distinguished from the overtones, or harmonics. See harmonics. generator: The sound source for Software Instruments. For some instruments, the generator is a set of prerecorded samples; for others it’s a synthesized sound created by a computer algorithm. See sample, synthesizer. half step: The smallest interval commonly used in Western music; the distance between a black key and the adjacent white keys on the piano (or the distance between two adjacent white keys if there is no black key in between). harmonics: All musical tones consist of a fundamental, which is the primary tone heard, and a series of harmonic overtones, which are quieter but add to the overall tonal color of the sound. Harmonics always follow the same pattern, the first being one octave above the fundamental, the second a fifth above that, and so on. For more on the harmonic series, see the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Harmonic_series_(music). 156

harmony: The vertical dimension of music; the interaction of notes sounded simultaneously to produce chords. Harmony also refers to the progression of chords over the course of a piece of music. high-hat: A pair of cymbals, one face up and the other face down on a stand, arranged so that the drummer can control the space between them using a pedal. high pass filter: A filter that allows high frequencies to pass through while attenuating lower frequencies. Essentially the same as the Bass Reduction effect. See low pass filter. interval: The vertical distance between two pitches; the interval between a white key on the piano and the adjacent black key is called a half step. key: A selection of tones that gravitates toward a root note, or tonic. A song in the key of C is based on the notes of the C scale (all the white keys on the piano) and naturally gravitates toward C. Keys are commonly divided into major keys, which generally sound happy, and minor keys, which sound more melancholy. latency: Latency is a delay between when you play a note and when GarageBand records it (and when you hear it in your headphones). In extreme cases, latency can make it impossible to play along with the song in proper time. Why Is My Audio Delayed? gives steps for reducing latency. level: The volume or loudness of an audio signal. loop: A short segment of music that can be repeated seamlessly over time. GarageBand ships with more than 1,000 professionally produced loops. low pass filter: A filter, common in synthesizers, that allows low frequencies to pass through while attenuating higher frequencies. Essentially the same as the Treble Reduction effect. See high pass filter. measure: A rhythmic unit of organization. Most popular songs have four beats per measure, and in general the snare drum accents the second and fourth beats of the measure (the backbeats).

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melody: A series of notes with a pleasing and recognizable shape. In general, the most effective melodies are relatively simple and are easy to hum. microphone: A device that converts sound waves into an electrical signal, usually fed into an amplifier or piece of recording equipment. For lots of details, see Use a Microphone and Record with a Microphone. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface): A digital language used to connect synthesizers, computers, and other electronic instruments. MIDI information includes details about the note played, its velocity (or volume), and any vibrato or pitch bending that was applied. Software Instruments, early in this ebook, has more details about MIDI. midrange: The frequencies found between the bass and the treble frequencies. mixing: Adjusting the individual track volumes, panning, and effects to make parts of a song fit together harmoniously and effectively. MP3: A compressed audio format. Much smaller than the AIFF format, it typically requires about 1 MB of disk space per minute of song. mute: A button that lets you temporarily disable a track. See solo. note: Any single pitch or tone produced by a musical instrument. octave: The most stable interval in music. An octave is the distance between two adjacent notes with the same name. These two notes sound like the same note, only higher or lower versions of each other. pan: A knob that lets you control the apparent position of a track between the left and right speakers. phantom power: Phantom powered microphones (most often condenser mics) and direct boxes require DC electricity to power their internal circuitry—but rather than use a battery, they use power transmitted through an XLR mic cable. Most phantom power runs at 48 Volts, and audio equipment designed for use with phantom power is often labeled “48V.” pickup: An electrical component on an instrument (most commonly a guitar or bass guitar) that converts the vibrations of the strings or the 158

body of the instrument into an electrical signal. Not to be confused with a microphone, which converts sound waves (vibrations in the air) into an electrical signal. For more details, see What’s a Pickup?. polar pattern: A measure of how directional a microphone is. Unidirectional and cardioid mics pick up primarily what they’re pointing at. Omni-directional mics, on the other hand, pick up sound from all directions. Bi-directional or figure 8 mics pick up sound from two directions simultaneously—great for two singers, for example. preamp: A type of amplifier designed to bring a weak (sometimes extremely weak) electrical signal up to a higher level, usually before recording or sending them along to a more powerful amplifier. preroll: The option to hear a one or more measures of a recording (or just a count-in) before recording starts. This helps you get your bearings and pick up the groove of the song. preset: A saved instrument sound or effect setting. Real Instrument presets consist of a pre-determined set of effects. Software Instrument presets also include pre-established effects, and the generator has been set up for a certain instrument sound. Effects presets have settings already established for a particular result, for example the Equalizer preset Add Bass Clarity. punching in: Recording over a short segment of a previous take, generally to fix a mistake. For more info, read Punch In. region: A contiguous segment of recorded music in a GarageBand track. A cropped segment of a loop is a region, as is a loop that repeats 20 times. resonant frequencies: These are frequencies that an object or space accentuates or amplifies. The shape and size of a room can determine how particular frequencies will affect it. In many rooms, several frequencies resonate loudly and color the sound of anything playing in the room. Creative use of baffles and screens can help minimize these reflections. reverb: The ambient sound of a room or acoustical environment, or an effect that simulates the same thing. rhythm: The beat or pulse of a piece of music, including accented notes, measures, and all other aspects of musical time. 159

root: The dominant note in a chord or scale; the note from which a chord or scale seems to originate. Also called the tonic. sample: A recorded sound or musical note. Typically, samples are mapped to the keys on a keyboard, so they can be played like a piano or a synthesizer. A set of samples of a trombone, for example, could be played on a MIDI keyboard, and the performance would sound as if an actual trombone were playing the notes. scale: A series of notes progressing up or down in a stepwise fashion. The most common used in Western music are the major and minor scales. See key. slapback: A type of short echo frequently heard in rockabilly songs. Similar to the effect you get when singing in the bathroom. snare drum: A drum fitted with wires, or snares, on the bottom that produce a crisp, rattling effect when the drum is struck. solo: A button in GarageBand that lets you listen to an individual track by itself. It is useful for adjusting effects and EQ on a particular track. See mute. stompbox: An electronic effect unit housed in a small metal chassis, typically used by electric guitar players. They usually sit on the floor and have a large on/off switch on the top for the player to activate with their foot, hence the name. For more, read Add Some Pedals. synthesizer: An electronic instrument, usually played with a keyboard, that artificially generates waveforms. These waveforms can be combined and manipulated by the synthesizer to produce complex sounds, either to mimic other instruments or to produce totally unique noises. tempo: The speed at which a piece of music is performed. Ballads have a slow tempo, whereas high-energy dance music often has a fast tempo. texture: The interaction of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements within a piece of music. A solo cello holding long notes is one kind of texture. A jazz band playing complex rhythms and harmonies while a saxophone takes a solo is another, completely different kind of texture.

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timbre: Tone color. A violin can produce certain musical timbres, whereas those produced by a piano are quite different. An electric guitar can produce lots of different timbres, depending on many factors (including the amplifier, the volume of the sound, and whether effects are being used). tonic: The dominant note in a chord or scale; the note from which a chord or scale seems to originate. Also called the root. track: In GarageBand, each track usually carries a separate musical instrument. Each track is independent, and you can adjust its volume, pan, and effects without affecting other tracks in the song. transient: The loud initial peak that occurs in sounds such as drum hits and electric guitar strums. Synthesizer washes and other sounds that build gradually don’t have transient peaks. treble: The highest frequencies of human hearing. See bass, midrange. velocity: A measurement of how strongly a key on a MIDI keyboard is struck. There are 128 levels of velocity, 0 being the softest and 127 being the loudest. However, be aware that velocity doesn’t always control volume. For more, see the sidebar Velocity. windscreen: A screen placed between a microphone and the source that reduces or eliminates excessive amounts of air blowing onto the mic and causing noise and distortion. You can Build Your Own Windscreen. XLR: A common 3-pin connector used to connect microphones. If someone refers to a “mic cord,” they’re talking about a cord with XLR connectors. Y-cord: A cord with a stereo jack on one end and two mono jacks on the other, used for splitting a stereo signal into two mono signals.

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About This Book

Thank you for purchasing this Take Control book. We hope you find it both useful and enjoyable to read. We welcome your comments at [email protected].

Ebook Extras

You can access extras related to this ebook on the Web. Once you’re on the ebook’s Take Control Extras page, you can: • Download any available new version of the ebook for free, or buy a subsequent edition at a discount. • Download various formats, including PDF and—usually—EPUB and Mobipocket. (Learn about reading this ebook on handheld devices at http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/device-advice.) • Read postings to the ebook’s blog. These may include new information and tips, as well as links to author interviews. At the top of the blog, you can also see any update plans for the ebook. • Get a discount when you order a print copy of the ebook.

About the Author

Seattle-based musician and composer Jeff Tolbert writes music for films, advertising, and video games. His latest work includes scores for the films Walk Right In and Modern Views, as well as the video game Faerie Solitaire and numerous other smaller projects. He’s also the president of the Seattle Composers Alliance, a group of Seattle composers working in the field of film and media composition. Jeff plays bass, guitar, keyboards, ukulele, and trombone. He’s a veteran of innumerable home and studio recording sessions, and has played in many bands over the years, including Repulsions and Afflictions, Fine Dishware of the Lord, What Fell?, the Goat-Footed Senators, the diary of Anne Frank String Quartet, 80 Bones, the 162

Penelopes, and the Fireproof Beauties. He’s currently playing bass with Tiger Zane and in the James Howard Band. Jeff has been a GarageBand user since its release in 2004. He now mostly uses Logic Pro, GarageBand’s big brother. Hear Jeff’s work and read about his latest projects at http://www.jefftolbert.com/.

Author’s Acknowledgments First and foremost, the author would like to thank his mother. (If he didn’t thank her he would never hear the end of it.) It’s probably also wise to thank his father and his sister. Without Jeff Carlson, this book would never exist. Well, that’s not entirely true, but somebody else would have written it. Jeff is a fine officemate and is the one who introduced the author to Adam and Tonya, the wonderful and intrepid publishers of the Take Control series. A special extra-huge thank you goes to Geoff Duncan, TidBITS editor-at-large and musician extraordinaire. If not for Geoff, much of the musical information in this book would be incomprehensible or outright incorrect. You rock, dude! The author would also like to thank a few people not named Jeff or variations thereof: Thanks to Victor Gavenda, author of Peachpit Press’s GarageBand Visual QuickStart Guide. After writing the initial draft of my other book, I did a technical review of Victor’s book, and the cross-pollination of ideas made both books better. Last, but certainly not least, thanks to Carolyn, Margaret, Anna, Tommy, Laura, Victoria, Thom, Stevie—and, of course, John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

Shameless Plug If you don’t have it already, be sure to get a copy of Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand ’11. It covers using loops, basic song composition, and mixing in GarageBand.

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About the Publisher

Publishers Adam and Tonya Engst have been creating Apple-related content since they started the online newsletter TidBITS, in 1990. In TidBITS, you can find the latest Apple news, plus read reviews, opinions, and more (http://www.tidbits.com/). Adam and Tonya are known in the Apple world as writers, editors, and speakers. They are also parents to Tristan, who thinks ebooks about clipper ships and castles would be cool. Production credits: • Take Control logo: Jeff Tolbert • Cover design: Jon Hersh • Editor: Geoff Duncan • Editor in Chief: Tonya Engst • Publisher: Adam Engst Thanks to Tristan for adding some fun on April 1 by putting a stuffed zebra in the refrigerator.

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Copyright and Fine Print

Take Control of Recording with GarageBand ’11 ISBN: 978-1-61542-132-9 Copyright © Jeff Tolbert, 2011. All rights reserved. TidBITS Publishing Inc. 50 Hickory Road Ithaca, NY 14850 USA http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/ Take Control electronic books help readers regain a measure of control in an oftentimes out-of-control universe. Take Control ebooks also streamline the publication process so that information about quickly changing technical topics can be published while it’s still relevant and accurate. This electronic book doesn’t use copy protection because copy protection makes life harder for everyone. So we ask a favor of our readers. If you want to share your copy of this ebook with a friend, please do so as you would a physical book, meaning that if your friend uses it regularly, he or she should buy a copy. Your support makes it possible for future Take Control ebooks to hit the Internet long before you’d find the same information in a printed book. Plus, if you buy the ebook, you’re entitled to any free updates that become available. Although the author and TidBITS Publishing Inc. have made a reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein, they assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. The information in this ebook is distributed “As Is,” without warranty of any kind. Neither TidBITS Publishing Inc. nor the author shall be liable to any person or entity for any special, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, including without limitation lost revenues or lost profits, that may result (or that are alleged to result) from the use of these materials. In other words, use this information at your own risk. Many of the designations used to distinguish products and services are claimed as trademarks or service marks. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features that appear in this title are assumed to be the property of their respective owners. All product names and services are used in an editorial fashion only, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is meant to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this title. This title is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Because of the nature of this title, it uses terms that are trademarks or that are the registered trademarks of Apple Inc.; to view a complete list of the trademarks and of the registered trademarks of Apple Inc., you can visit http:// www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html.

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Featured Titles

Click any book title below or visit our Web catalog to add more ebooks to your Take Control collection! Take Control of Easy Mac Backups (Joe Kissell): Read expert advice on how to simply and effectively back up your precious data without having to become an expert yourself. $10 Take Control of iPad Basics (Tonya Engst): Patch any blank spots in your basic iPad know-how. $10 Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ (Kirk McElhearn): This FAQ-style ebook helps you wrap iTunes around your little finger and enjoy your media more. $10 Take Control of iWeb ’09 (Steve Sande): Learn how to work effectively and creatively in iWeb, and get help with using third-party hosts and custom domain names. Also covers iWeb in iLife ’11. $15 Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand ’11 (Jeff Tolbert): Combine your creativity with GarageBand’s editing and mixing techniques to compose tunes that please the ear! $15 Take Control of Media on Your iPad (Jeff Carlson): Maximize your iPad enjoyment by reading an ebook, listening to music, viewing photos, watching a video, or using your iPad as a remote control. $15 Take Control of MobileMe (Joe Kissell): This ebook helps you make the most of the oodles of features provided by a $99-per-year MobileMe subscription. $10 Take Control of Safari 5 (Sharon Zardetto): Make the most of Apple's Safari, a Mac Web browser with many hidden and under-appreciated talents! $10

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