Making Changes to Software Instrument Tracks

With software instruments, the information about how the music is played is separate from the sounds the instruments make. This means you can edit the notes you played in the same way you edit a word processing document.

Or, you can keep the notes you played, but change their sound. For example, you might like how you played a keyboard solo, but you really want an organ that sounds funkier. Just change the software instrument for the track, and you’ll keep your great solo, but with a different-sounding instrument.

Tips

Solo a track to hear it more clearly

Sometimes it’s helpful to solo the track you’re modifying so that you can hear it more clearly. Soloing a track mutes the other tracks during playback. Click the Solo button (the headphones icon) in the track header to solo a track.

Hide the track mixer to show more of the track region

If you don’t need to use the track mixer controls while you’re making changes to a track, you can hide the track mixer. When you do so, you can see more of the audio region you’re modifying. Click the disclosure triangle to the right of the track header to hide the track mixer.

Tighten the timing of your performance

Double-click the region you recorded to open the track editor. Click the grid button (with the ruler icon) in the upper-right corner of the track editor, choose the note value you want the notes to snap to, and then click the "Align to" button in the Region pane. Any notes that are off the beat are moved so that they start at the nearest position on the timeline grid.

View your performance as musical notation

When you record a Software Instrument track you can set GarageBand to display your performance (or Apple loops) as musical notation. And because the notation is played along with your other tracks, the playhead can help you stay in time. This is a great way to start learning to read music.

Change the velocity of a note

With software instruments, the speed (velocity) that you press a note corresponds to the note’s loudness. You can change a note’s velocity even after you’ve recorded your performance. Just select the note or notes you want to change and then use the Note Velocity slider. Notes with a velocity of 1 are barely audible; 127 is the loudest possible.

Steps

Change the instrument used for a software instrument track

Double-click the track header of the software instrument track you want to change.
Click a different instrument and instrument type from the Track Info pane.
Close the Track Info pane.
Play your song and notice that the track plays with the same notes but a different instrument.