GarageBand Quick Guide for Leopard with Voiceover Volume 001
Basic Use.
Q and A
Q: Will I need any special equipment to interface with my MAC in
order to use GarageBand?
A: You should have at least a 1 channel USB mixer for best results
with a microphone. If you are going to become a GarageBand power
user, a tactile interface can be purchased which will give you
hands on many of the controls, however, much can be done from the
keyboard.
Q: is GarageBand a professional recording program?
A: No, but you will find it useful for most of your light
recording needs.
Q: is GarageBand fully accessible?
A: No. You will find some controls, like the pan control and some
effects controls which are not fully functional. However, for the
most part, I have found GarageBand very usable.
Q: Can you record Multiple tracks using Voiceover?
A: Yes. You can open a new track, (see the list of commands
below), move to the beginning of the song and start recording.
Q: Can you add instruments or harmony parts at a given point in a
song without serious editing?
A: Yes. Set up a new track and let the song play. Just before
the place where you want to add your part or new instrument press
record and then press record again when you are finished.
Q: How do you name, or, label a track?
A: When you are working on a new track, at the bottom of the
screen is a save instrument button, press this button and the
program will ask you for the name of the instrument. At this point
you can give your track a name.
Q: If I want to do some work with a track, how can I select it and
tell that I am on the track that I wish to work with?
A: You can select a track by moving to the tracks column and
interacting with that column. Now move to the track you want with
VO keys-right, or, left arrow keys. When you have found the track
you want, move to the right with VO keys-right arrow to the solo
button and press it. If you want to do some work on this track,
make sure that you have pressed the "enable record button. Now,
stop interacting with the tracks column and move back to the record
and play controls.
Q: How is a song mastered?
A: Your song is mastered when you send it to iTunes under the
Share menu.
Q: Can you record a podcast with GarageBand?
A: Yes. See the section below on podcasting.
You will find a list of keyboard commands at the end of this guide.
First of all, let me say that we will be dealing with the basics.
There is so much to learn in this program and the tendency is to
jump ahead to the things that are the most interesting to you, but,
it is really necessary to get the basics first.
We will be talking first of all about recording with a microphone,
or local recording. You can use the microphone in your MAC if your
MAC is so equipped, if you are just experimenting, but for best
results a USB mixer, or interface with a microphone is suggested.
With those few words of introduction, lets begin.
Open GarageBand.
You will be presented with an opening screen which we will not talk
about at this time. Most of the things you will want to do will be
done from the Keyboard.
Now, start a new project with command-n.
You will be asked to give your project a name, where to save your
new project.
OK, these next few things are important. You should make these
next few choices with thought in mind that you may want to add a
drum track, or some other loop later.
Next you will be asked to set the tempo, using a horizontal slide
bar. You can choose the tempo by listening to the metronome,
(see the list of keyboard commands at the bottom of this guide).
Next is a popup button which will ask you for time signature, the
default is 4/4.
Next is a text box which will allow you to enter the number of
beats per minute, the default is 120.
Next is a popup button which will allow you to choose the key, the
default is C.
Next is a popup button which will allow you to choose major, or
minor, the default is major.
Next is cancel, or create buttons. Once you have pressed create,
you will need to give the file several seconds to create and the
screen to form.
Now you will be presented with another screen.
When the screen comes up and your project is created, you may hear
Voiceover say, Grand piano, close button.
You can press the close button with VO keys-space bar.
Now you can create a new track, (see the list of commands below).
You will be presented with another screen which will ask you if you
want a software track, or, a real instrument track. For our
purposes here, select, real instrument track and press create.
This will also take some seconds, depending on the speed of your
computer. Now you are ready to go to work.
There many things to explore. If you have a microphone ready and
you wish to do so, press record to start recording, then press
record again when you are finished.
Go to "begining of song" and press it with VO keys-space bar, wait
a few seconds, then press play to hear your recording.
Creating a Podcast
Much of understanding the podcast screen has been done in
understanding the music recording screen. Please review the
information above
When you open GarageBand, the screen will present you with a number
of things you might want to do with GarageBand. With VO keys-right
arrow, arrow over to (Create new podcast episode button) and vo
keys-spacebar on that button.
The podcast screen will present you with some tracks which have
been created for you, or, a template. You can use any, or, all of
these tracks, or create your own.
You will find tracks for jingles, male and female voices with
special presets and so on.
Stingers, jingles and sound effects are recorded on separate tracks
from the voice tracks.
You can use these already created tracks or create others.
You will find quite a selection of stingers and jingles which you
may want to use at the beginning, or, the end of your podcast, or,
between sections of your podcast. You will find sound effects that
you may want to use in your podcast as well.
When your podcast is finished, you can send it to iTunes from the
share menu.
Keyboard Commands
New project, command-n
Open, command-o if you have an existing project, start typing the
name of it.
New track, command-option-n
New Basic track, command-shift-n
Delete track, command-delete
Show track mixer, command-y
Show track info, command-i.
Show arrange track, command-shift-a
Show master track, command-b
Show Podcast track, command-shift-b
Show Movie track, command-option-b
Duplicate track, command-d
Metronome, command-u
Count in, command-shift-u
Snap to grid, command-g
Show alignment guide, command-shift-g
Ducking, Command-shift-r
Show loop browser, command-l
Show media browser, command-r
Show editor, Command-e
Keith Reedy: wa9dro@xxxxxxxxx
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