Any tips for GarageBand?
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@racoolness Feb 2022
I know it's supposed to be sort of dummy-friendly (like, IME, all Apple stuff)...but although I've been working with GB for a while and have gotten better, I'd love some tips. I haven't managed to watch any how-to videos because I read so much faster than anyone can talk. What are your most useful tips for workflow and making things sound good in a demo?
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@celineellis Feb 2022
Presets!! Record your track, they use the factory presets to see what suits your instrument/vocal best.
I always have a drummer track with no fills/swing as my ‘click track’ because I find it so much easier to play guitar along too than just the click. I can then add in fill points in the right places by cutting the drummer track in the right places. Or just mute the drummer for acoustic only.
Those are my basic things I do for every track I do a demo for -
@helenseviltwin Feb 2022
I use logic rather than garageband, but it has lot in common. If it has the arrangement feature and you set up verses, choruses, etc, before you add the drummer parts, it pays to that and drums accordingly.
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@bachelorb Feb 2022
Duplicate tracks, use automation and pan left and right for stereo sounds
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@chinacat Feb 2022
Honestly, I fooled around with GarageBand and found it kinda limiting, so I bought a copy of Logic. Although you have to sift through more features you'll never use in Logic, in the end, I've actually found it easier to work with than GB was.
I agree that using presets is a great way to get started. Logic honestly has every plug-in you could possibly need (and they are VERY good too, not to say I haven't bought others). I haven't used the more recent versions of GB but I know it had a ton built-in too. -
@tunecat Feb 2022
I used to use Garageband all the time until it became more like Logic. I agree - presets are great. I used to use the trumpet one all the time, and the vocal ones - narrator was particularly good for spoken word. I'd also layer up voices using different presets. I actually don't want to spend the time I'd need to tweak in Logic or similar. I want to have instruments ready there for me (create a template) and so on. A great tip is to make your own loops (if that rocks your boat). Lets say you have done some live recording its very easy to create a two bar loop and add it to your loop library. You can do that with midi too.. I personally don't need to with midi as my playing is ok,.. but for some tasty bass I love it. I'd also layer up differnt tracks with differnt transpositions on them. Mmm - that might be a step too far for yourself.. but I really liked the ease of transposition settings.. either in track, (you can just select a block of audio/midi and set it to a dfiferent transposition) or on differnet tracks. You can do the same with pitch shift. Oh and one other thing I used to use regularly - the octave transpose voice shifter. Means as a female I can layer up my vocals and sound "like a bloke"..
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@philnorman Feb 2022
Apple's plugins are good. I put the AUHighpass first on most tracks. Its default setting is absurdly high-passed, but put it down around 100hz and then listen for the sweet spot to get the low end crud out of your mic'd tracks. Makes a big difference when multiple tracks are layered together. Use EQ to make space -- a track that sounds good solo'd isn't necessarily the sound it needs in the mix.
I go easy on compression on individual tracks, but do click the "master" tab in the controls panel and some compression and the limiter can put some oomph into your mix.
A little reverb, just enough to where you notice it and then back it off a little, can make the space feel much more real. Same goes for panning -- don't be afraid to put things hard left and right.
Enable the automation view under the mix menu so you can adjust volume and effects on individual sections of tracks. Not everything wants to be loud all the time.
If you use the magic drummer (and you should, it's good!), chop it into logical sections so the drummer puts fills in the right places. You can also tell the drummer to listen to the bass track (or whatever is driving the rhythm in that section) and it can really tighten things up. (That's a secret you should tell your human drummer and bass player in your live band, too.) -
@leah0k Feb 2022
It looks like I'm going to be using GB this FAWM - so although I have nothing to contribute, I'm jumping into this thread to poke around and learn stuff :-D Starting from scratch here!
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@wylddandelyon Feb 2022
What I want to know is why GarageBand doesn't have a drummer named Paddy who does Irish-style rhythms!
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@dock Feb 2022
One trick to GarageBand it to use the arranger track and then place the Drummer track. That way the drummer will try to play differently for the different sections of your song. And as mentioned above you can get him/her to follow another track. But that said, I have come to hate the built in drummers, they always seem to overplay the bass drum and screw up my bass lines. And none of them are laid back!
I have also found that GB does some glitchy stuff with a sustain pedal on the piano creating 4 instances of it in the automation section. You have to delete 3 of them to be able to edit the sustain pedal, which is not easy. -
@dock Feb 2022
@wylddandelyon I agree, GB also doesn't have a drummer that can play bossa nova or salsa. They seem to be heavily influenced by hip hop.
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@wylddandelyon Feb 2022
I think I saw a bossa nova in there somewhere...
