GarageBand 3 Hot Tips

Maximize Your Mac's Instrument and Effects Capabilities

GarageBand's instruments and effects are pro quality, and are always played in real-time. However, using too many can take its toll on your Mac's processor. Here are some suggestions that will allow your Mac to use more of them:

Turn Software Instrument Loops into Real Instrument Loops—Software Instrument loops (green loops) are a combination of a software instrument and effects and are fully customizable—you can change the instrument, effects, and even the loop's individual notes. However, they have higher CPU requirements than Real Instrument loops (blue loops), which play prerecorded audio (you can't change the performance). If you want to use more Software Instrument loops, turn them into Real Instrument loops to spare your system resources. Just Option-drag a Software Instrument loop from the loop browser into the timeline.

The top loop is an original Software Instrument loop; the bottom one is its converted Real Instrument version.

Lock Unused Tracks—When you lock a track, GarageBand automatically renders that track to your hard drive, freeing up CPU power. When you're happy with how your tracks sound, lock as many tracks as you like by clicking the lock icon in each track. Then click the Play button to render your locked tracks to your hard disk. Locked tracks sound identical to unlocked ones, and you can still adjust the volume and pan at any time. If you need to do further editing (such as adjusting effects, changing notes, and moving regions), simply unlock the track (click the lock icon), make your adjustments, and then relock them.

IMPORTANT: Locking tracks shifts the performance burden from the CPU and RAM to the hard drive. Systems with slower hard drives won't benefit as much from this feature.

Click a track's lock icon to render the track to your hard drive amd free up RAM and CPU power.

Improve Pitch and Timing Issues in Recorded Tracks

Like the best recording engineers, GarageBand can help improve pitch problems (like if you sang off-key) and timing issues after you've recorded your performance. Just click any recorded audio track (they're purple) and click the Edit button (scissors) to open the editor.

Enhance Tuning—To improve pitch problems, move the Enhance Tuning slider to the right. This moves all notes to the nearest note in the 12-note chromatic scale (default) or in the song's key (select the “Limit to Key” checkbox). If you move the slider to “max,” you can create a cool synthetic effect that's popular in some styles of modern music.

Enhance Timing—To improve timing issues, move the Enhance Timing slider to the right to tighten up guitar, bass, and other rhythmic tracks. This moves notes to the nearest beat as dictated by what appears in the pop-up menu below the slider (you can change the timing from 1/16 Note up to 1/4 Note).

Enhance Tuning and Enhance Timing can help you improve your less-than-stellar recorded performances.

Customize the Loop Browser

By default, GarageBand displays 30 keyword buttons in the loop browser, but you can customize what it shows. If you want to see the entire collection, drag the gray brushed metal area above the loop browser upward to reveal them. You can swap the positions of two buttons by dragging one on top of another. You can also reassign a button's keyword by Control-clicking a button and choosing any available Apple Loops keyword from the shortcut menu. To view loops by package (such as those from specific Jam Packs, third-party loop libraries, or loops you've created), click the Loops title bar and choose a package from the pop-up menu.

Jam on Any Mac Keyboard

GarageBand 3 features Musical Typing, which allows you to play any software instrument using your Mac keyboard. From the Window menu, choose Musical Typing to open its window, which displays which Mac keyboard keys correspond with what musical keyboard keys. You can audition instruments and even record performances right on your computer keyboard. Play melody lines or even chords. Use the Z and X keys to move down and up octaves to access all registers of your chosen instrument.

With Musical Typing, you can play any software instrument right on your Mac keyboard.

Tune Your Guitar or Bass

GarageBand 3 features a built-in instrument tuner to help you get your instruments in perfect tune. To use it, enable a Real Instrument track for recording (click the red Record Enable button on the track). In the time display, click the tuning fork icon in the upper left corner to display the instrument tuner. Make sure that your instrument is connected to your computer, and play a note. The tuning meter will tell you what note is being played and how far off you are from the proper pitch—shoot for the zero (0) mark. The tuner displays a green light once you've hit perfect pitch.

The instrument tuner can tell you if your guitar or bass is in tune. Here, our guitar's E string is a bit sharp.

Optimize Your Musical Keyboard

USB and MIDI keyboards all have different feels—that is, they respond differently to your finger pressure to trigger note velocities. This can have an impact on Software Instruments that play alternative sounds when you strike a key at maximum velocity (for example, a string slide on an acoustic guitar). Some keyboards may force you to really pound the keys to play the alternative sound, while others may play the sound with too light of a touch. If you want to optimize the sensitivity of your keyboard to your playing style, do this:

1. Add a New Track in GarageBand by clicking the plus sign (+) button.
2. In the New Track dialog, click the Software Instrument tab.
3. Select Guitars in the left column, select Classical Acoustic in the right column, and click Create.
4. From the GarageBand menu, choose Preferences.
5. Click Audio/MIDI, then drag the Keyboard Sensitivity slider left to make it harder to play string slides, or right to make it easier.

Your keyboard should now be optimized for all other instruments that feature maximum velocity note variations.

Create Your Own Loops

There are tons of great loops available on the market, including those found in Jam Packs, but if you truly want to be unique, make your own. GarageBand 3 allows you to do just that. Before you do, make sure that your song's key is set to the right one if you're recording from scratch (the default is C). Record a performance (or modify an existing loop in the timeline), and then do this:

1. Use the Split command to trim the region's beginning and ending to your desired length.
2. Drag the region from the timeline into the loop browser.
3. In the sheet that appears, give your loop a name and define its sound attributes, which will be used for loop searching.
4. Click Create.

You can now browse for your loop in the loop browser and add it to any song in any tempo or key.

Create Your Own Software Instruments

To create your own Software Instruments, add a new Software Instrument track, then click the Details disclosure triangle in the New Track section of the main window. From the Generator pop-up menu, choose an instrument on which you want to base your new sound, go wild with the Effects settings, and click Create to add the track to the timeline. Then double-click the track and click Save Instrument in the Track Info window.