Overview

Lay down some tracks—no garage required! GarageBand has become the default musical sketchpad for both well-known artists and hobbyists musicians who want a simple way to record, edit, and share their own tunes. GarageBand For Dummies is your go-to guide to navigating the interface and making the tweaks to create your own songs.  Look inside to discover how to lay down a beat with the virtual drum kits, layer on sweet sounds with built-in virtual instruments, and attach simple hardware to record vocals or live instruments on a Mac, iPad, or even an iPhone.  Use built-in instruments to create a song Attach your guitar or mic to record live sounds Export your final product or individual tracks Add effects and edit your song GarageBand is the simplest way to create basic tracks without investing in costly hardware and learning a complex digital audio workstation software package—and this book shows you how.

Full Product Details

Author:   Bob LeVitus
Publisher:   John Wiley & Sons Inc
Imprint:   For Dummies
Edition:   2nd edition
Dimensions:   Width: 18.50cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.612kg
ISBN:  

9781119645412

ISBN 10:   1119645417
Pages:   464
Publication Date:   08 October 2020
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Replaced By:   9781394204014
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Not-So-Foolish Assumptions 2 Conventions Used in This Book 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: Starting on a Good Note 5 Chapter 1: Introducing GarageBand for Macs and iDevices 7 What is GarageBand? 8 What Can You Do with GarageBand? 9 What Can’t You Do with GarageBand? 9 Checking Your System Requirements 10 The official requirements for Macs 10 The official requirements for iDevices 12 What Else Do You Need to Run GarageBand? 12 Recording with GarageBand: A Few Teasers 15 Sneak peek 1: The recording sequence 15 Sneak peek 2: GarageBand for Mac 18 Sneak peek 3: GarageBand for iDevices 20 Chapter 2: Equipping and Setting Up Your Recording Space 25 Cobbling Together a Studio Without Breaking the Bank 26 Making the Most of Your Recording Space 27 Deadening the room 27 Preventing background noise 28 Equipping Your Studio: Must-Have Gear versus Good-to-Have Gear 28 Choosing a Microphone 29 Dynamic and condenser microphones 31 Microphone polarity patterns 32 Microphone preamps 33 Setting up your microphone 34 Finding the Right Speakers 34 Listening with Headphones Without Messing Up the Take 36 Adding a MIDI Keyboard to Your Setup 37 Finding a keyboard 37 Connecting a MIDI keyboard to your computer 39 Unraveling the Cable and Connector Conundrum 39 Adding an Audio Interface to Your Setup 42 Using an audio interface with GarageBand 43 Shopping for an interface 43 Perfecting Your Mic Setup 45 Choosing a mic stand 45 Recording vocals with pop filters and wind screens 47 Boosting Your Hard Drive Space 47 Recording in Tune with a Tuning Device (for Guitarists) 48 Chapter 3: Introducing Multitrack Recording with GarageBand 49 Understanding the Role of Stereo in Multitrack Recording 50 Strolling through the Recording Process, Quickly 52 Cutting the Tracks (“No Blood on ’em, Mr Dylan”) 53 Recording tracks on a Mac 54 Recording tracks on an iDevice 57 Listening to tracks during recording and playback 59 Changing a track’s settings 62 Changing a track’s instrument 64 Checking levels during recording and playback 64 Adjusting levels 65 Polishing tracks 67 Mix That Sucka 69 Overview of mixing 69 Setting the pan 70 (Lord and) Mastering 71 Managing Song Files 73 Part 2: Making Music on a Mac 77 Chapter 4: Getting Started 79 General Pane 80 Software Instrument Recordings section 80 Enable the Force Touch Trackpad check box 82 Reset Warnings button 82 Audio/MIDI Pane 82 Devices section 82 Effects section 84 MIDI section 84 Metronome Pane 84 Loops Pane 86 Keyboard Browsing setting 86 Keyboard Layout setting 87 Loop Browser setting 88 My Info Pane 88 Advanced Pane 89 Audio Recording Resolution setting 89 Auto Normalize setting 90 Movie Thumbnail Resolution setting 90 Chapter 5: Using Loops to Make Music 91 What is a Loop, Anyway? 91 Where to find more loops 92 Spicing up your songs with loops 93 Finding the Right Loop with the Loop Browser 94 Viewing loops in button or column view 94 Seeing more instruments 96 Searching for a loop you love 97 Filtering by loop type 101 Previewing loops 101 Keeping your favorite loops at the ready 102 Adding third-party loops to the loop browser 102 Setting a Loop’s Tempo 103 Adding Loops to Tracks 104 Dragging and dropping loops 105 Undoing and redoing a loop 106 Extending, shortening, and repeating loops 107 Editing loops: A preview 108 Reusing an edited loop in a different song 109 Chapter 6: Recording with MIDI and Software Instruments 111 What is MIDI, Anyway? 112 Controlling Software Instruments with a MIDI Keyboard 112 Choosing Software Instruments 114 Recording Tracks with Software Instruments 117 Altering the Sound of Software Instruments 119 Delving deeper into Smart controls 120 Adding and changing plug-in effects 125 Compressors and other plug-in effects 129 Drummer Tracks 134 Testing Your Changes 136 Chapter 7: Recording Vocals and Acoustic Instruments with a Mic 137 Getting Ready to Record 138 Setting up your mic and recording track 138 Tweaking the pan to hear vocals better 142 Positioning the microphone 142 Setting levels 143 Adding effects 145 Checking for unwanted noise 146 Multitrack Recording 149 Dave Hamilton on multitrack drum recording 149 Recording with a MIDI drum 151 Recording the Track 152 Improving the Sound of Recordings 153 Chapter 8: Recording Electric Guitars and Other Electronic Instruments 157 Overview from the Top: Direct or Live Recording 158 Direct Recording with GarageBand’s Virtual Amplifiers 159 Setting up to record 159 Troubleshooting your setup 161 Making a too soft instrument louder 162 Setting levels 163 Recording the track 164 Recording Live with an Amplifier and Microphones 165 Customizing the Sound of Your Guitar Tracks 168 Changing presets and amp simulators 168 Editing presets 169 Making other changes 170 Part 3: Postproduction: Finishing Songs on a Mac 173 Chapter 9: Editing and Polishing Tracks 175 “When Should I Edit Tracks?” 176 Editing Software Instrument versus Real Instrument Tracks 176 Fixing Flubs and Faux Pas 178 Punching in and out to replace part of a track 178 Just undo it and then redo it 181 Splitting and joining regions 182 Silencing mistakes with the track volume control 184 Rearranging Regions 185 The arrangement track and markers 185 Editing Software Instrument Tracks 188 Changing the tempo of a song 188 Changing the tempo of song parts 188 Changing the pitch 189 Rearranging notes in a region 190 Sweetening: Add New Material? Or Not? 195 Percussion 196 Backing vocals 196 Special effects 198 Horns, woodwinds, and strings 198 Chapter 10: Mixing Tracks into Songs 199 What is Mixing? 199 Creating a Level Playing Field 200 Roughing it with a rough mix 201 A fine tune 202 Level meters: Red = dead 203 Panning Tracks Left or Right 204 The Effects of Adding Effects 206 Equalization or not? 207 Echo and reverb 209 Compressor 209 Chorus 210 Doubling Tracks 210 The copy-and-paste method 210 The re-recording method 211 Chapter 11: Mastering Mastering 213 What, Exactly, is Mastering? 214 Before You Master 214 The Master Track is for Mastering Tracks 215 Applying presets and effects to the master track 216 Tweaking effects 217 Setting the master volume 221 One More Thing Before You Call It “Done” 222 Part 4: Making Music with Your iDevice 225 Chapter 12: Getting Started 227 Global Settings 228 Allowing GarageBand access 228 Determining knob response 229 Reducing crosstalk 229 GarageBand Settings 229 Metronome and count-in 230 Tempo, time, and key 232 The Control Bar 236 Sharing Projects with a Mac (and Vice Versa) 239 Chapter 13: Making Music with Live Loops 241 Loop Basics 242 Find more loops 242 More about loops 243 Grokking the loop grid 243 Working with Loops 245 Adding Apple loops to cells 245 Finding a loop you love 246 Listening to loops 247 Keeping your favorite loops at the ready 248 Types of loops 249 Working with Cells 249 Editing cells 249 Undoing and redoing a loop 252 Moving cells 252 Recording into a cell 253 Adding remix FX 253 Recording with the Loop Grid 254 Chapter 14: Laying Down Software Instrument Tracks 257 What is MIDI, Anyway? 257 Controlling Software Instruments with a MIDI Keyboard 259 Working with Software Instruments 261 Creating a new software instrument track 262 Selecting a different instrument 263 Recording a software instrument track 264 Working with Tracks 265 Displaying track headers 265 Adding loops 266 Working with regions 267 Chapter 15: Recording Vocals and Acoustic Instruments with a Mic 273 Getting Ready to Record 275 Preparing to record 275 Positioning the microphone 279 Setting levels 280 Adding effects 281 Tweaking the pan to hear vocals better 283 Checking for unwanted noise 284 Multitrack Recording 284 Dave Hamilton on multitrack drum recording 285 Recording with a MIDI drum controller 287 Recording the Track 288 Improving the Sound of Recordings 289 Chapter 16: Recording Guitars and Basses without Mics or Amps 291 Overview from the Top: Direct or Live Recording 292 Direct Recording with GarageBand’s Virtual Amplifiers 293 Setting up to record 293 Troubleshooting your setup 296 Making a too soft instrument louder 296 Setting levels 298 Recording the track 299 Recording Live with an Amplifier and Microphones 300 Customizing the Sound of Your Guitar Tracks 302 Changing presets and amp simulators 303 Changing and modifying stomp box effects 303 Editing presets 304 Making other changes 306 Part 5: Postproduction: Finishing Songs on an iDevice 307 Chapter 17: Editing and Polishing Tracks 309 “When Should I Edit Tracks?” 310 Editing Software Instrument versus Real Instrument Tracks 310 Arranging and Rearranging 312 Song sections 312 Fixing Flubs and Faux Pas 313 Punching in and out to replace part of a track 314 Just undo it and then redo it 316 Splitting and joining regions 317 Silencing mistakes with automation curves 318 Editing Software Instrument Tracks 319 Changing the tempo of a song 320 Changing the pitch 320 Rearranging notes in a region 322 Changing a note’s velocity 324 To quantize or not 325 Sweetening: Add New Material or Not? 326 Chapter 18: Mixing Tracks into Songs 327 What is Mixing? 327 Creating a Level Playing Field 328 Roughing it with a rough mix 329 A fine tune 330 Level meters: Red = dead 331 Panning Tracks Left or Right 331 The Effects of Adding Effects 333 Equalization or not? 335 Compressor 337 Echo and reverb 338 Chorus 338 Doubling Tracks 339 The copy-and-paste method 339 The re-recording method 340 Chapter 19: Mastering Mastering 341 Before You Master 342 Exporting to a Mac for Mastering 343 Sharing Songs 343 Part 6: Everything Else You Might Need to Know 347 Chapter 20: Playing Live with GarageBand Amps and Effects 349 Playing at Home 350 General Tips for Guitarists and Bassists 351 Create a practice file 351 Get to know your amps, pedals, and other plug-ins 352 Expand your palette with third-party plug-ins 352 Playing on Stage 353 Chapter 21: Jamming with Others over Wi-Fi 357 Becoming the Bandleader 358 Becoming a Member 360 Working with Jam Sessions 361 Chapter 22: File Compression and Your Music 365 Understanding Compression 366 About uncompressed audio files 366 About compressed audio files 367 Sharing Your Masterpiece 369 Sharing your songs from a Mac 369 Sharing your songs from an iDevice 372 How Much Compression Can You Stand? 372 Distributing Your Music 374 Finding the song file on your Mac 374 Sending AAC or MP3 files via Mail or Messages 374 Chapter 23: CD Recording, Reproduction, and Distribution 377 The Benefits of Burning CDs 378 Getting Ready to Burn Songs on CDs 378 Gathering what you need to burn CDs 378 Setting the cycle area 379 Burning Songs to CDs 380 Burning a song to a CD with GarageBand 381 Burning songs to a CD with the Music app or iTunes 382 Making multiple copies of the same CD 385 Lovely labels for your CDs 386 Distributing Your Music 387 CD Baby and TuneCore 387 More distribution ideas 387 Part 7: The Part of Tens 389 Chapter 24: Ten Ways to Improve GarageBand’s Performance 391 Starting with the Basics 392 Checking on FileVault 393 Paying Attention to CPU and RAM Usage 394 Checking Out Activity Monitor’s CPU and Memory Tabs 395 Recording: 16-bits versus 24-bits 397 Minimizing the GarageBand Window While Playing or Recording 398 Getting More RAM 398 Getting Faster Storage 399 Resetting MIDI Drivers 400 Turn Off Wi-Fi Before Recording or Performing 400 Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Take Your Recordings to the Next Level 401 Getting a Better Microphone 401 Making Sure Your Speakers Reproduce Sound Decently 402 Getting Better Headphones 403 Fine-Tuning Mic Placement 404 Improving Room Acoustics 404 Using Quality Cables 405 Adding an Audio Interface (and, Optionally, a Mixing Board) 405 Switch to More Powerful Software 406 Logic Pro 407 Pro Tools 408 Chapter 26: Ten Useful Websites 411 Learn Songs on Guitar or Bass 411 Search for free chord charts or tablature 411 Ultimate-Guitar 412 GarageBand Karaoke (free MIDI files) 412 Mix Magazine 413 MusicRadar 414 Sweetwater Sound 414 Musician’s Friend 415 Monoprice 415 Apple GarageBand Discussion Board 416 Index 417

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"Bob ""Dr. Mac"" LeVitus has been the technology columnist for the Houston Chronicle for more than two decades and a columnist for the Mac Observer for almost as long. A prolific writer, he is the author or coauthor of nearly 90 books, including multiple editions of macOS For Dummies and iPad For Dummies. Bob also has worked as a commercial music producer."

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