GarageBand: Making Your Own Music Own GarageBand: Music Making Your See an introduction to tracks. Two Types of Tracks Two Types of Tracks When you compose in GarageBand, Real Instruments: Prerecorded Sound Comparing Approaches you work with two very different types of tracks: real instrument trackstracks andand software A real instrument track holds a digital audio recording—a riff Each type of track has advantages and The software advantage. The primary Common ground. Although real instru- instrument tracks.tracks. TheThe loopsloops thatthat GarageBandGarageBand played by a bass player, some strumming on an acoustic guitar, capabilities that the other lacks. advantage of software instrument tracks ments and software instruments work a phrase played by a string section, or a vocal that you record. is versatility. Because software instru- differently, you can do many of the same provides also fall into these two broad The real advantage. When it comes categories: loops with a blue icon are real ment tracks store individual note data, things with both types of tracks. You can to realism, you can’t beat real instrument you can edit them in almost any way loop regions within both types of tracks, instrument loops, and loops with a green tracks. Listen to the Orchestra Strings icon are software instrument loops. imaginable. You can even change the and you can apply effects to both types. loops that come with GarageBand. They instrument entirely. Want to hear how your You can even transpose both types of But what’s the difference between a don’t just sound like a string section— bass line would sound when played by a tracks, although you can’t transpose audio real instrument and a software instrument? A real instrument track is blue, and a real instrument loop has they are a string section. Compare their synthesizer instead of an electric bass? that you’ve recorded. Also, you can’t The answer lies in the fact that today’s a blue icon . Notice that the track and the icon depict a wave- sound to that of the software instrument Just double-click on the software instru- transpose real instrument loops across as Macs are powerful enough to generate form—a graphical picture of sound, similar to what we saw loop named 70s Ballad Strings 02. ment track’s header and choose a synth. wide a range as you can software instru- sound using more than one technique. In back on pages 26 and 176. ments—they’d sound too artifi cial. Another advantage of real instrument On the downside, software instrument fact, GarageBand is able to generate sound tracks is that they can hold your digital using multiple techniques at once. The purple variation. Audio that you record—a vocal, for exam- tracks make your Mac work harder than By supporting audio recordings (real ple—is stored in a real instrument track. In the timeline, though, audio. When you plug a microphone into real instrument tracks—it’s harder to instruments) and also being able to Here’s a look a how GarageBand makes GarageBand uses purple color-coding to indicate these regions. your Mac and belt out My Way, your generate sound on the fl y than it is to generate sound on the fl y (software of Tracks Types Two its noise—and at what it all means to you. voice is stored in a real instrument track. play back a recording. instruments), GarageBand gives you the best of both worlds. Software Instruments: Sound on the Fly A software instrument track doesn’t hold actual sound. Instead, it holds only data that says what notes to play and how to play them. The sounds you hear when you play a software instrument track are being generated by your Mac as the song plays back. How Apple Loops Work The loops that come with the key and the tempo in which When GarageBand transposes Finally, it’s important to know A software instrument track is a bit like the music rolls that a GarageBand are stored in Apple the loop was originally recorded. an Apple Loop to a different that software instrument loops player piano uses—just as the holes in the music roll tell the Loop format. If you’ve played The tags also contain informa- key, it’s performing a process (the green ones) contain more piano which notes to play, the bits of data in a software instru- ment track tell your Mac which notes to generate. with GarageBand, you’ve experi- tion about the transients in the called pitch shifting. When than just “piano roll” note data. enced the program’s ability to recording. A transient is a spike GarageBand changes a loop’s They also contain audio, just as adjust the pitch and tempo of in volume—such as occurs tempo, it’s time stretching. real instrument loops do. This loops to fi t your song. Here’s when a drumstick slaps a drum- enables you to use them in real Apple Loops also contain how that works. head. Transients denote where instrument tracks—and thus descriptive tags. These tags are beats occur, and GarageBand lighten the load on your Mac; Apple Loops contain more than what enable you to sift through A software instrument track is green, and a software instrument uses this information when see pages 253 and 258. just sound. They also contain loops by clicking on the buttons loop has a green icon . Instead of depicting a waveform, a changing the playback tempo of software instrument region shows individual notes—why, it even tags—tidbits of data—that in the loop browser. an Apple Loop. looks a bit like an antique player piano roll (see photo, left). describe the sound, starting with Photographic Historical Society of Canada 234 235 GarageBand: Making Your Own Music Own GarageBand: Music Making Your See techniques for preparing the fi nal mix. Working with the Master Track Creating the Final Mix When you’ve refi ned each track, turn Working with the Master Track Exporting to iTunes your attention to the big picture: display the song’s Master Track to apply fi nal- GarageBand’s master track isis a specialspecial kindkind ofof tracktrack thatthat When you’ve polished your song to per- your song, so if you want to free up space Preserving effect tails. If your song has mastering effects and optionally to create doesn’t hold notes or regions, but instead controls cer- fection, add it to your iTunes music in your iTunes library (and iPod), use the reverb or echo effects that last well beyond a fade-out at the end of the tune. tain aspects of your entire mix. Specifi cally, you can library by choosing Export to iTunes from Show Song File command to move the the last note, you may fi nd that these effect apply effects to the master track and create a volume the File menu. GarageBand mixes your AIFF fi le out of your music library. tails are cut off after you export to iTunes. Once you’ve polished your song until curve to have your song fade in or fade out. tracks down to two stereo channels and To fi x this, turn cycling on and then resize it glitters like a platinum record, you can saves the song as an AIFF fi le. Exporting an excerpt. At times, you the yellow cycling region so that it extends To show the master track, choose Show Master Track export it to your iTunes music library, may want to export only part of a song. beyond the point where the effects die off. from the Track menu (1-B.) where you can burn it to an audio CD, GarageBand saves fi les in full CD-quality Maybe you want to email it to a collabo- Now export the song again. transfer it to your iPod, and use it in the form: 44KHz, 16-bit. To convert a song rator or mix it down in order to bring it Applying effects. Apple has created dozens of fi nal- other iLife programs. into AAC, MP3, or Apple Lossless format, back into GarageBand (see page 259). Customizing tags. To customize how mastering effects settings for common musical genres. confi gure iTunes for the format you want to To export a portion of a song, turn on your song is categorized in iTunes— Explore and apply them by double-clicking the master use (page 22), then select your song and cycling and then resize the yellow cycling artist name, album name, and so on— track’s header. And, of course, you can customize them choose Convert from the Advanced menu. region in the beat ruler to indicate the use the Export portion of GarageBand’s Echo Presets and create your own fi nal-mix effects using the tech- iTunes won’t replace the AIFF version of portion you want to export. Preferences dialog box. niques I’ve described on previous pages. Creating a fade. As I show on the DVD, to fade a the Mix Creating Final song, create a volume curve for it in the master track. Tip: To create a musically appealing fade, edit the vol- A Closer Look at Software Instrument Loops ume curve so that the fade ends at the very beginning On page 235, I mentioned that Here’s another way to see this instrument loop as-is, you can tracks when you drag green of a verse or measure. Don’t have a fade end in the software instrument loops con- for yourself. Use the Finder’s lighten the load on your Mac’s loops into the timeline.