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 Am.