GarageBand: Any way to keep this from happening again?

[usagora]

I record vocals in two tracks and then manually trim and merge (via cut/paste from the second track to the first) the regions on both tracks to make a seamless performance. In this process, on multiple occasions now I've somehow managed to inadvertently delete audio regions I didn't even realize were somehow selected (because I'm zoomed in to just the section I'm working on and thus can't see that other regions not in view are selected) when I only intended to delete a single unwanted region. If I don't notice this in time (by zooming out), then I'm screwed--either because I now have to undo a ton of edits I just made or, far worse, I've saved since the accidental deletion and thus can't undo far enough to get my original audio back--hours of work and "perfect" takes down the drain!

Any tips on how to avoid this aside from frequently saving, closing the project, duplicating it in Finder (as a backup) and then reopening the original? Any way to lock specific audio regions from being deleted or getting GarageBand to prompt if I'm trying to delete more then 1 region? I know it prompts me if I try to delete a track with audio regions on it, but that's not the scenario here.

 

[rm5]

Let me make sure I'm understanding your problem correctly—you want a way to lock specific audio regions?

In Logic Pro, it prompts you if you want to delete an audio region (it doesn't do this with MIDI regions—maybe there's some way to enable that, I don't know). There's also if you hit Option + T to configure the "track header," a protect button you can enable. But I don't think that's what you're going after since that locks the entire track. I don't know if these features even exist in GarageBand though—haven't used it in years. But anyway, Logic prompts you to delete an audio region, and that's a feature that just exists (I dont know if there's an option to disable/enable). Maybe that's a reason to upgrade!

 

[usagora]

Let me make sure I'm understanding your problem correctly—you want a way to lock specific audio regions?

In Logic Pro, it prompts you if you want to delete an audio region (it doesn't do this with MIDI regions—maybe there's some way to enable that, I don't know). There's also if you hit Option + T to configure the "track header," a protect button you can enable. But I don't think that's what you're going after since that locks the entire track. I don't know if these features even exist in GarageBand though—haven't used it in years. But anyway, Logic prompts you to delete an audio region, and that's a feature that just exists (I dont know if there's an option to disable/enable). Maybe that's a reason to upgrade!

Either lock specific regions (not the whole track, but individual regions on that track) or have a warning before deleting multiple regions. A warning for deleting a single region would not work because I'm always deleting single regions and thus the warning would lose its meaning for me and wouldn't catch my attention if I happened inadvertently attempt to delete multiple regions.

Anyway, it seems there is no way to protect against this except to constantly keep zooming in and out of the project after every single deletion I make to see if I've accidentally deleted more than I wanted to. It happened AGAIN last night, but thank God I was able to undo far enough (took about 10 undos) to recover the accidentally deleted regions (always easier to re-do edits than re-do vocals).

 

[MajorFubar]

This is because you're clicking on the track header to select every region on the track. You need to just get into the habit of clicking individual regions, otherwise your trims and edits will affect every region on the track, as you have discovered.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I guess if you're going to zoom into a region in a way that it fills the screen you're not going to know what else is selected. The same would be true in Logic Pro, I suppose.

As MajorFubar alluded to…you're just going to have to be careful about what is selected before you delete anything. I don't think there's a command to "deselect" everything.

 

[usagora]

This is because you're clicking on the track header to select every region on the track. You need to just get into the habit of clicking individual regions, otherwise your trims and edits will affect every region on the track, as you have discovered.

I've known that's how it works for a long time. I don't believe I'm clicking on the track header, though. And often it's not every region on the track, but every one before the point I'm working on, so perhaps I'm inadvertently shift-clicking to select all regions up to the one shift-clicked.

Oh well, I guess I'm just going to have to be extra vigilant.