I want to try and make some music with Garageband (No external instruments though) are there any tutorials that can help me with garageband?
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Need help with Garageband
- Thread starter gadgetgirl85
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gauchogolfer said:
Yep I had a look at that one but thought there might be another one around that explains it.
Probably the best starting point is David Pogue's Missing Manual Series for Garageband. The most recent version covers Garageband 2, and that's fine if music is your primary interest. Garageband 3 mostly brings the addition of a prefabbed Podcast recording set up and some light film-scoring ability, but the music creation part of Garageband remains unchanged.
There are a couple of community-based websites devoted to Garageband in which you can find tutorials as well. You can join iCompositions and MacJams, and not only get access to tutorials, but also freebie loops and other goodies from time to time. No fee to join, it's like YouTube or MySpace; just sign up and you're good to go. The Garage Door has some tutorials you can read right now.
There are a couple of community-based websites devoted to Garageband in which you can find tutorials as well. You can join iCompositions and MacJams, and not only get access to tutorials, but also freebie loops and other goodies from time to time. No fee to join, it's like YouTube or MySpace; just sign up and you're good to go. The Garage Door has some tutorials you can read right now.
viccles said:What a shame I dont have a midi keyboardDoesnt seem like you can do much unless you have one.
Well sure, if you can play then having a midi keyboard and Garageband is great. You can get M-Audio's 49e keystation cheap and it gets the job done. No dough right now for a keyboard? No problem, you can use the keyboard that you used to type these posts. In Garageband, select Musical Typing from Garageband's Window menu and presto, a musical typing guide appears that shows you which letters on your keyboard correspond to which notes, along with an octave selector so you can move up and down the tonal range. It's obviously limited, but in a pinch it's good to have and it works well enough for banging in basic chords and simple phrases.
But not having a midi keyboard doesn't in any way mean that you aren't invited to the Garageband party. In fact, You don't even need to touch a keyboard to do some incredible stuff with Garageband. Meet your very own virtual back-up band, the amazingly talented and versatile Garageband loops - which you can spend days-weeks-months fooling around with and never touch a keyboard (midi keyboard, that is) or be bothered listening to the bass player's girlfriend problems or deal with the drummer's constant beer breaks. If you get a little creative and move beyond just dragging and dropping loops and into editing them and experimenting with different audio effects, the overall result will be that the possibilities are almost endless.
I'll just second the use of Musical Typing that VanNess mentioned above. I do have a MIDI keyboard, but quite often I'll just use the normal keyboard if I want to input a few phrases. There is a similar feature in Logic, and I use it pretty often.
It's a good way to start tinkering around with the program.
It's a good way to start tinkering around with the program.
Viccles,
Start a new project, add track, select 'software instrument'. Click on the lists and sublists of instruments that pop up to select one. In the view (i think) drop down) select 'musical typing'. The 'keyboard' appears. Work out which buttons are which and start hitting them. Select another instrument, try that. Start with a bass note (you can change octaves on the keyboard). When you are happily hitting away at a sound and think, this sounds cool, hit the red round button that looks like a record button. The track will start scrolling away, hit your cool sound a few times and you will hear it and see it being recorded. Add another track, another instrument and repeat. You can edit the position and duration of the notes in the window bottom left. Short cuts: enter = return to start of track, space is stop/start. You can mute or delete tracks with the tiny buttons attached to each track on the left.
You will be bigging up the junglist massive within hours.
Start a new project, add track, select 'software instrument'. Click on the lists and sublists of instruments that pop up to select one. In the view (i think) drop down) select 'musical typing'. The 'keyboard' appears. Work out which buttons are which and start hitting them. Select another instrument, try that. Start with a bass note (you can change octaves on the keyboard). When you are happily hitting away at a sound and think, this sounds cool, hit the red round button that looks like a record button. The track will start scrolling away, hit your cool sound a few times and you will hear it and see it being recorded. Add another track, another instrument and repeat. You can edit the position and duration of the notes in the window bottom left. Short cuts: enter = return to start of track, space is stop/start. You can mute or delete tracks with the tiny buttons attached to each track on the left.
You will be bigging up the junglist massive within hours.
Or if you're like me who's only musical ability is putting a CD in a CD player, you can play with the Apple Loops. I've made some really neat sounding music just by doing that. Well neat sounding to me anyway.
viccles said:Thats great I'd love to be able to do it I just dont know how
Well you can start here at Apple's Garageband tutorial.
Then you can join iCompositions at the link I posted earlier, There are three Quicktime-based video tutorials waiting for you to download in the tutorials section under the tools tab.
Here's a Youtube vid with a tutorial covering some the basics about loops and working in the timeline.
Open help in Garageband and select Getting Started. A pdf file will launch with info covering all of the Garageband basics.
And don't forget Pogue's book. It's written for any skill level and only requires that you have just basic knowledge of the Mac in general - in other words, you own one and have used it for at least five minutes.
Don't be afraid to experiment. Garageband won't bite and it's actually a lot of fun to goof around with. The interface is designed so that beginners won't be overwhelmed and the advanced features of Garageband are generally buried several layers deep so they are there only when you are ready for them. Once you get the hang of it you won't believe how simple it is.
Garageband will help you even when you don't realize it. For example, when you drag any loop into the timeline, Garageband automatically adjusts it so it fits, as close as possible, the tempo and key of the project (song) you are working on. So it's pretty easy to throw in several different loops and sit back in awe about how good they actually sound together. You don't even have to tell your friends. Let them be amazed about your newly discovered musical skills.
Wow thats great I think im getting the hang of it but this is going to sound really blonde but how do you stop the track when its running? I recorded a drum beat but when I play it it just keeps going and going even after the track is completed?
Anyway I finally figured out what I was doing and created a song. VanNess I wanted to upload a song to iCompositions but it wont let me. Do I have to convert my garageband file into mp3 or something? Is there a program that will let me do it?
Well...that was fast
iCompositions accepts mp3 and aac. Garageband doesn't compress finished songs, it hands that job over to it's favorite application in the iLife suite: iTunes. From there it can be compressed into iCompositions-friendly mp3 or aac for uploading.
So if you haven't done so already, in Garageband, select Export to iTunes from the File menu. Garageband will then take your brand-new masterpiece and create a high quality aiff song file and place it in iTunes so it's ready for the world. By default, it will also create a playlist and title it as "your name (or your computer's short name) album"
Once Garageband is finished, switch to iTunes and open iTunes preferences. Select Advanced and then select the Importing Tab. Pick your poison (mp3 or aac) and click Okay. Now locate your song. Give it a listen just to make sure it sounds how you like. Then select Convert to *the file compression you just chose in preferences* from the Advanced menu. iTunes will then create a compressed version of the song, leaving the original high-quality aiff version intact. That's it. Locate the compressed song in your iTunes library (easy way is to right click or command click the song in iTunes and select Show Song File. A finder window will pop up with the song selected) and drag it to the desktop so it will be easy to locate for uploading to iCompositions in your web browser. Just make sure you have the compressed version (You can get info on the file to verify you have the right one).
iCompositions accepts mp3 and aac. Garageband doesn't compress finished songs, it hands that job over to it's favorite application in the iLife suite: iTunes. From there it can be compressed into iCompositions-friendly mp3 or aac for uploading.
So if you haven't done so already, in Garageband, select Export to iTunes from the File menu. Garageband will then take your brand-new masterpiece and create a high quality aiff song file and place it in iTunes so it's ready for the world. By default, it will also create a playlist and title it as "your name (or your computer's short name) album"
Once Garageband is finished, switch to iTunes and open iTunes preferences. Select Advanced and then select the Importing Tab. Pick your poison (mp3 or aac) and click Okay. Now locate your song. Give it a listen just to make sure it sounds how you like. Then select Convert to *the file compression you just chose in preferences* from the Advanced menu. iTunes will then create a compressed version of the song, leaving the original high-quality aiff version intact. That's it. Locate the compressed song in your iTunes library (easy way is to right click or command click the song in iTunes and select Show Song File. A finder window will pop up with the song selected) and drag it to the desktop so it will be easy to locate for uploading to iCompositions in your web browser. Just make sure you have the compressed version (You can get info on the file to verify you have the right one).
I'm working on a couple of tracks. Nothing as good as icomposition...I don't have the proper equipment so I can only work with what I have Fun though
Fun though
if you either sing or play any instrument, you could just play it near your MBP's mic, which, when used with garageband's built in AU plugins, you may find to be surprisingly acceptable for casual recording. also, go for the M-Audio O2 as a MIDI keyboard if you're in the market for one. the keystation49 has more keys, but the O2 has full sized velocity sensitive keys, which really make a HUGE difference.viccles said:I'm working on a couple of tracks. Nothing as good as icomposition...I don't have the proper equipment so I can only work with what I have
wmmk said:
I actually do have a keyboard but its so old I don't have a midi plug for it and it will cost nearly as much as the keyboard to buy one
Start with midi files
So far I've produced more than 25 complete tunes just using free midi files of songs googled on the internet. Just drop them into Garageband. You can change them to whatever instruments and tempo you want, sing along with an iMic (I use a $75 USB Samson mike), drop the midi melody-line when your done, "Share" send it to iTunes where you can convert it to Mp3 and upload it to MacJams for all the world to hear! Hear some of mine by searching for ClifarQ on MacJams.com
So far I've produced more than 25 complete tunes just using free midi files of songs googled on the internet. Just drop them into Garageband. You can change them to whatever instruments and tempo you want, sing along with an iMic (I use a $75 USB Samson mike), drop the midi melody-line when your done, "Share" send it to iTunes where you can convert it to Mp3 and upload it to MacJams for all the world to hear! Hear some of mine by searching for ClifarQ on MacJams.com
one more question while everyone is giving advice
How does one "fade" out a loop.. I've been adding loops for a song I've just made and it sounds great, i'm puting the finishing touches now and need some strategically placed "fade out" effects for specific loops..
any suggestions?
How does one "fade" out a loop.. I've been adding loops for a song I've just made and it sounds great, i'm puting the finishing touches now and need some strategically placed "fade out" effects for specific loops..
any suggestions?