Recording tracks on a Mac

To record a track on your Mac, follow these steps:

1. Launch GarageBand.

   If you don’t see its icon on the dock, look in your Applications folder; if you don’t see it in the Applications folder, search your Mac for GarageBand. If you don’t find it, open the Mac App Store (from the dock or the Applications folder), search for GarageBand, and download a copy.

   The Choose a Project dialog appears.

2. Click New Project in the sidebar, as shown in Figure 3-2.

   Note that if a project was open when you quit GarageBand, that project will reopen when you launch GarageBand. To close that project and start a new one, choose File ⇒   New.

   

   The settings in the Details section at the bottom of the dialog are the default for new projects. Accept them as they are, or adjust them to your liking as follows:

   • Tempo: Use this slider to adjust the project’s tempo expressed in beats per minute (BPM). Or click the Tap Tempo button in time with your song to set the tempo manually.
   • Key Signature: Use this pop-up menu to adjust the project’s key.
   • Time Signature: Use this pop-up menu to adjust the project’s time signature.
   • Input Device and Output Device: Use these pop-up menus to change your input and output devices.

   Don’t fret (pun intended) too much about these options at this time. Just leave the Tempo, Key Signature, and Time Signature settings alone if you aren’t sure, at least for now. You can always change them later if you like.

3. Create a new project by clicking Empty Project and then clicking the Choose button.

   The Choose a Track Type dialog shown in Figure 3-3 appears.

   

4. Select a track type for the first track in this project.

   GarageBand offers four kinds of tracks for recording: software instrument, audio (mic), audio (guitar/bass), and drummer. Here’s how to choose the right type of track for the instrument or voice you want to record first:

   • Software instrument track: Record using GarageBand’s built-in software instruments with either a MIDI keyboard connected to your Mac or one of GarageBand’s two onscreen keyboards.

   • Audio (microphone) track: Record using a mic connected to your Mac, a mic connected to an audio interface connected to your Mac, or your Mac’s built-in mic.

     Your Mac’s built-in mic sounds worse than almost any other microphone in the world. Use it only if no other options are available.

   • Audio (guitar/bass) track: Record an instrument connected to your Mac or an instrument connected to an audio interface connected to your Mac.
   • Drummer track: Create a virtual drummer track for your song. Each virtual drummer includes a unique drum kit and playing style, both of which can be edited at will.

   Nice touch: After you record a track, the region you just recorded appears on that track in the timeline (which Apple calls the workspace) in its proper color — real instruments are blue and software instruments are green. Tracks even glow their proper color when you select them. Loops and real audio regions in the timeline are also colored this way.

   GarageBand’s main window appears with a track of that type, as shown in Figure 3-4.

   Congrats! You just started a new project and its first track.

GarageBand for the Mac doesn’t automatically save your work, so I recommend that you save your project with a descriptive name by choosing File ⇒   Save before you record. Furthermore, to avoid losing work if your Mac crashes or freezes, make a habit of saving your projects (File ⇒   Save or its keyboard shortcut ⌘  +S) every few minutes while you work.

Recording tracks on an iDevice

In this section, you create a new project with one track on your iDevice. Simply do the following:

1. Launch GarageBand.

   Tap the + button to create a new song project. The screen shown in Figure 3-5 appears.

   Note that if a project was open when you quit GarageBand, that project will reopen when you launch GarageBand. To close that project and start a new one, tap the new project icon in the upper-left corner (and shown in the margin).

   

2. Tap Tracks at the top of the screen.

   You're going to work in tracks mode for this exercise; you explore live loops mode in Chapter 13.

3. To choose a preset for the first track, swipe left or right and then tap the preset you want to use.

   Your choices are Audio Recorder, Strings, Bass, Guitar, Amp, Keyboard, Drums, World, or Drummer. What you see next depends on which item you just tapped. Suffice it to say that your song appears and you’re ready to record.

   Congrats! You just started a new project and created its first track.

Whether you like it or not, GarageBand for iOS autosaves your song when you close the app, when you open a different song, and when idle.

I recommend that you become familiar with your iDevice’s undo feature (shake the device and then tap the Undo button) and remember to use it if you don’t want GarageBand saving the song after you delete a region or track or make a change you’re not happy with.

Listening to tracks during recording and playback

Creating a multitrack recording is an iterative process. You record a track (or multiple tracks); when that’s done, you listen to make sure it’s okay before you move on. When you’re certain that track sounds okay, you record more tracks and listen to them. Then you listen to all the recorded tracks together. You record more tracks and then listen to all of them together as well as in different combinations.

Later, during mixing and mastering, you add effects to a track (or to the entire song) and listen again. Or you might change an instrument sound — and listen again.

And so it goes — you record a bit, you listen a bit, you adjust a bit, you listen a bit, you tweak this and that, and then you listen some more.

To play or record your project, you use GarageBand’s transport controls, which move the playhead much like the controls you’d find on a tape recorder, audio CD player, iPod, or DVD player. These controls can be seen in Figure 3-6 (Mac) and Figure 3-7 (iDevices).

With all that playing, recording, and listening, it would behoove you to memorize the myriad ways you can move the playhead hither and yon:

• Click or tap the play icon (or use the Mac keyboard shortcut, the spacebar) to play or stop the song.
• Click or tap and drag the playhead to a new position in the beat ruler.
• Click or tap anywhere in the beat ruler to move the playhead to that point.
• Click or tap the stop/go to beginning icon to move the playhead to the start of the song.
• (Mac only) Click the rewind icon (or use the keyboard shortcut, the ← key) to move the playhead backward one measure at a time.
• (Mac only) Click the forward icon (or use the keyboard shortcut, the → key) to move the playhead forward one measure at a time.
• (Mac only) Click the number in the time display and then drag up or down without releasing the mouse button to move the playhead to that point in the song. Or double-click the time display, type a new number, and then press Return.

Changing a track’s settings

You can change the settings of a track as follows:

• Mac: Double-click the track’s icon on the left, or select it (with the mouse or the arrow keys) and then click the Smart controls icon, as shown in Figure 3-8.
• iOS: Double-tapping its icon on the left or tapping the Track Controls button, as shown in Figure 3-9.

Changing a track’s instrument

You can change a track's instrument any time you like. The only limitation is that you can’t change a real instrument track into a software instrument track, or vice versa. Other than that little hiccup, do the following to change the instrument on a track:

• Mac: Click the library icon and then select a different instrument.
• iOS: Tap the instrument’s name above the track settings on the left.

Checking levels during recording and playback

A simulated LED display shows the level of the track in real time as you play or record, as shown in Figure 3-10.

Level is audio-speak for the relative loudness of the track.

So, when you play or record, the level display for each track tells you that track’s record or playback level at that precise point in your song. The playhead always shows that point on the timeline. Wherever the playhead is located, that’s where the song will resume playing or recording if you’ve stopped or paused.

Figure 3-10 was captured during the playback of a very quiet (almost silent) passage. As you can see, the level display is unlit. Now take a look at Figure 3-11, which was taken during a much louder passage.

The red LEDs on the right end of the level display are your enemies. You want to see as little of them as possible when you record a track. If you see too much red, the track is too “hot,” and will sound broken up and distorted when you play it back. An old studio saying goes like this: “If you see much red, your track is dead.” Believe it.

If you notice that this dot is lit after you record a track, listen to the track very carefully. The track may have been spoiled if you recorded it in the red — or hot — zone.

If a track is too hot when you’re rehearsing or recording, adjust its level so you see little or no red, and then record (or re-record). The following section provides further details on adjusting levels.

Adjusting levels

When you record, you mostly use the level faders to keep tracks from being recorded too hot, which can ruin the take. Later, during mixing and mastering, you use the level faders to mix all your tracks so each instrument and voice is heard clearly.

You can adjust the track level in two ways:

• Adjust the level of the entire track with the fader control. Fader is a pro audio term for a sliding control. The fader for each track is located under its name on the left side of the screen, as shown in Figure 3-12.

  

• Adjust only part of a track with the track volume control. When you want to make part of a track louder or softer than the rest (or adjust its level in more sophisticated ways), you use a track volume control, which appears below the track when automation is enabled. No pro-audio term for the track volume control exists; it's strictly a computer innovation. If you’ve used iTunes or Final Cut Pro, you know how to use the track volume control; if not, you find out how a little later in this section.

You start with the faders, which you click and slide to the left to lower the level or slide to the right to raise it. For example, in Figure 3-12:

• The Grand Piano track is silent.
• The Male Rock Vocals track is set to a modest recording level.
• The Fingerstyle Bass track is set at 100 percent. (Don’t do that.)

So that’s about it for the level fader control, but you have a second way to adjust the level of a track that’s often better, and here’s why: The fader lets you choose only one level for the entire track. The method that I’m about to show you lets you change the level anywhere you like — and as many times as you like. For example, a track could start very quietly and build to a normal level (a fade-in), play at that level until a really loud passage occurs, drop the level for the loud part, bring the level back to normal again, and then fade-out.

To use the track volume control (officially known as the track volume automation control), follow these steps:

1. Display the track volume control as follows:
   • Mac: Choose Mix ⇒   Show/Hide Automation (or press the A key).
   • iOS: Tap the track’s icon and then tap Automation.

2. Click the track volume control and drag the resulting dot up or down to raise or lower the level at that point in the song.

   Figure 3-13 shows the track volume control for a Mac track (top) and iOS track (bottom).

Here’s a blow-by-blow description of what happens to the level for the Male Rock Vocals track in Figure 3-13:

The track volume control method gives you more precise control than using the fader, so you’ll probably use the former on most of your tracks during mixing and mastering.

I recommend against using the track volume control when recording. It can be done, but it’s tricky and more likely to hurt your efforts and waste your time. Instead, I highly recommend that you use the level faders when you record and use the track volume control when you mix. I discuss mixing in great detail in Parts 3 (Mac) and 5 (iOS).

Polishing tracks

So you now know enough to lay down some tracks. After you have most or all of your tracks in the can, you can polish and embellish your song. You may want to redo a vocal part that isn’t as good as it could be, add the gentle strains of a string ensemble in your choruses, or insert some handclaps or the sound of a tambourine. You can trim noise at the beginning or end of a track, cut out and delete mistakes, and more, all of which comes under the heading of “editing” your tracks and is covered in Parts 3 (Mac) and 5 (iOS).

One of the greatest things about multitrack recording is that it’s not over until you say it’s over. If you decide that something doesn’t sound right, even months after mixing and mastering the song, you can go back to your original GarageBand file and change it to your heart’s content and then remix and remaster, and you’re off to the races with a new version of your song.

Two things that you can do to polish your songs are overdubbing (redoing) any part of a track that isn’t as good as it could be and sweetening, which is adding new tracks to fill out the sound of your song. I describe these terms briefly in the following sections and in more detail in Parts 3 (Mac) and 5 (iOS).

Overview of mixing

Here’s an overview of how I work through the mixing process:

1. I usually start mixing by using the fader level controls until the relative level of each track is close to what I want to hear.

   I call this a rough mix, but it's a fast and easy way to get this far.

2. When I need better control over a track's level throughout the song, I use the track volume (automation) control.
3. After I get the individual track levels set to my liking, I adjust the pan location of each track.

4. Finally, I turn on and adjust effects (if necessary) for each track and then check all my levels and pans again.

   After I do all that, I’m ready to move on to the final step, mastering.

Setting the pan

For everything — turn, turn, turn — there is a season — turn, turn, turn. And, for every track, there is a pan knob — turn, turn, turn.

Turn the knob to the left to make more of that track come out of the left speaker; turn it to the right to do the reverse. Figure 3-14 (Mac) and Figure 3-15 (iOS) show a track with its pan set to hard left (top), dead center (middle), and hard right (bottom).

In the top version, the track is panned all the way to the left so that all the sound comes from the left speaker. In the middle version, the track is panned dead center, and you can hear equal parts of it from the left and right speakers. And the bottom version shows the track panned all the way to the right.

Note that the top and bottom versions in Figure 3-14 have only one of their two rows of LED level display lights lit, but the middle version has both rows lit. The level displays are showing you the stereo output for the track. The top row of simulated LEDs tells you the level of the left channel; the bottom row shows the level for the right channel.

So, to make a track sound like it’s coming from slightly to the left of center, you would turn the pan control slightly to the left of center. And so on.