Playing Guitar with Your Song

With GarageBand, you can plug an electric guitar into your Mac and play along with your song. It’s a great way to practice your timing, work on playing in different keys, and develop new ideas.

And you don’t need to carry around different amplifiers to get just the right sound. Choose an amp simulation to make your guitar sound like the British Invasion, Arena Rock, or Classic Jazz.

Tips

Change amp settings to further customize your sound

The amp simulation settings in GarageBand were created by professional audio technicians, so you can sound great right away. But if you want to customize your sound, you can make changes to these settings. After you set up a real instrument track, double-click the track header to open the Track Info window. Click the Details disclosure triangle and you can modify all sorts of effects for your instrument. When you’re finished, you can save your changes to use the effects later in another song.

Check your connections and input selections

If you can’t hear your instrument, make sure your instrument is connected to your computer and turned on. Open System Preferences, click Sound, and then click Input. Select the correct audio input for your instrument and adjust the input level volume, if necessary. Choose Preferences from the GarageBand menu and then click Audio/MIDI. From the Audio Input pop-up menu, select the correct audio input for your instrument.

Check your volume levels

If you can’t hear your instrument, make sure that both the instrument volume and the volume slider for the track are turned up. In the Sound pane of System Preferences, click the Input button and then check the input volume. Make sure the output volume for your computer’s speaker, or the external speakers you are using, is set high enough to hear the sound from the instrument.

Connect a digital audio interface for more input options

In addition to your guitar, you can connect other electric instruments or professional-quality microphones to your Mac by using a digital audio interface. Make sure you install any necessary driver software. Open System Preferences, click Sound, click Input, and then select the audio interface. Choose Preferences from the GarageBand menu and then click Audio/MIDI. Select your audio interface from the Audio Input pop-up menu.

Check the real instrument track configuration

If you can’t hear your instrument, make sure that input monitoring is turned on for the track. Also, make sure the correct real instrument track is selected, that the track is not muted, and that no other tracks are soloed. Open the Track Info window and check that the correct input channel and input format are selected for the instrument.

Easily and accurately tune your instrument

You can check the tuning of any Real Instrument that is connected to your computer with the Instrument Tuner. This can help you while you’re practicing so you’re sure you’re playing in tune. Select a Real Instrument track and then click the tuning fork icon to the left of the time display. Play a note and notice the meter displays the note name you are playing. Green indicates a perfectly tuned note. Red to the left of center indicates that you’re note is flat. Red to the right of center indicates that your note is sharp. The instrument tuner works while your song is stopped or playing.

Steps

Play your guitar with your GarageBand song

Connect your guitar to your computer by attaching a 1/4-inch to 1/8-inch adapter cable to the end of your guitar cable and connecting the adapter to the audio input on your computer.
In GarageBand, choose New Track from the Track menu.
Choose the Real Instrument option and click Create.
In the Track Info pane, select Guitars in the left column, select the type of guitar sound in the right column.
Select the Monitor On option, and then play your guitar. You’ll hear it through your Mac.
Click the Play button to hear the other instruments in your song as you practice.