In the last GarageBand tutoria we covered how to record and multitrack software instruments in GarageBand, using a MIDI keyboard for input. In this tutorial we’re going to look at recording real instruments and vocals.
From GarageBand’s point of view, a ‘vocal’ and a ‘real instrument’ are exactly the same thing - it’s just a signal coming from your external digital audio interface, which in turn is getting it from a mic or mics.
If you’re a beginner when it comes to home recording, one of the great advantage of GarageBand over more professional DAWs is that it offers a wide range of preset effects for real instrument tracks. When you add a track for a real instrument, you can specify what it is and how you want it to sound - ‘clean jazz guitar’ or ‘live performance vocals’ for example. GarageBand adds a range of present effects (compression, EQ, reverb and all the rest) that work well with the setting you’ve chosen, reducing the amount of mixing you have to do at the end of the process and allowing you to get a decent result even if you’re brand new to putting together a mix.
Of course, if you want to add your own effects, you can - either by choosing one of the presets and altering the settings or by selecting ‘Basic Track’ in the track info pane. A basic track is exactly that - GarageBand will simply record the signal it receives the from audio interface/mic without adding any processing or effects.
If you’re short on external kit, check our post on buying a mic and digital audio interface (’soundcard’).
Making sure your gear is working with GarageBand
Enough theory, let’s see how this works in practice. If you’ve still got your project window open from the last tutorial, mute the existing tracks or delete them by selecting each track and going to Track > Delete Track or by pressing Apple-Backspace.
Then follow the steps below. We’re going to add a vocal as our ‘real instrument’, but remember that you can record any live instrument in this way. If you can capture it using a mic and an audio interface, GarageBand can record it as a live instrument track.
1. First, let’s make sure all our kit is working. Your mic should be plugged into your audio interface, which should in turn be connected to your Mac via USB (or, depending on your interface, FireWire). The interface should be showing up in your Mac’s Audio MIDI Setup application, as discussed in the second tutorial.
2. Go to GarageBand > Preferences and choose the Audio/MIDI pane. (Remember we need to check two sets of prefs here - one for Mac OS X in general, and one in GarageBand).
NOTE: If you have audio problems, you may need to check a THIRD set of preferences - sound prefs in OS X’s general System Preferences. These can sometimes fight with GarageBand’s preference settings, especially when it comes to handling output through built-in audio.
3. In the GarageBand Audio/MIDI preferences, make sure that the Audio Input dropdown has your digital audio interface selected rather than ‘built-in audio’. Tip: Garageband, like Audio MIDI Setup, usually identifies interfaces by their brand name and model number. So when I check the Audio Input dropdown in the GarageBand preferences, I select EDIROL UA-4FX.
GarageBand Audio/MIDI settings, Edirol soundcard selected as input
3. Still in the GarageBand Audio/MIDI preferences, check the Audio Output dropdown is set to your favoured output method. That might be via speakers/headphones lined out of your audio interface (in which case it will show the same identifier as the input dropdown) or via headphones plugged straight into your Mac (in which case you need to select ‘built-in output’.
4. One of the most common complaints among newbies is ‘I’m getting no sound out of GarageBand!’. It’s almost always because the wrong settings are in place in one of the preference panes - go through steps 3 and 4 again to double check. (The other common reason is that you’re playing a plugged in MIDI keyboard but you don’t have a software instrument track created/selected - see the previous tutorial for information on how to do this.)
Adding a real instrument track to GarageBand
OK, you should now have a working real instrument input. Let’s test it by creating a track.
1. Ensure that any other tracks that have piano rolls on them are either muted, have their contents deleted or are deleted in their entirety (see above)
2. Click the ‘new track’ button in the bottom left hand corner of the project window, or select Track > New Track.
3. In the dialogue box, select ‘real instrument track’ and click ‘create’. A new track (currently labelled ‘no effects’) will appear, and the track info pane will slide out from the right of the project window, if it’s not already open.
4. You can now use the track info window to select the instrument you’re going to record. Remember, you can record any instrument under any of these settings - they are just preset effects that are suitable for different instruments. If you wanted no effects at all, you’d select ‘Basic Track’.
5. We want to record a female vocalist, so select Vocals > Female Basic. Over on the left, the track name will change.
6. At the bottom of the track info pane there are a number of options. Make sure your audio interface is selected in the ‘input source’ pane (if it’s set up properly, it should be the default setting.
Real instrument track controls
7. The ‘monitor’ dropdown controls whether or not you can hear the track through the computer as it is being recorded. It’s a very good idea to record with a monitor (so both you and the singer can hear the exact sound being recorded). If you are using headphones, select ‘on’. If you are using speakers, select ‘on with feedback protection’
NOTE: when you are recording all monitoring should be done through headphones. Using speakers, even with feedback protection turned on, risks creating feedback, and will also add another, undesirable level of sound (one with a slight delay) to the recording, as the mic picks up the speakers’ output.
8. When the monitor is on, click the Female Basic track and make sure its little red record button is pressed down. Click your fingers near your mic - if the signal is getting through, you’ll see it register on the ‘mixer’ section of the track header. If the track monitor is turned on, you’ll also hear it through your headphones/speakers, alongside a low level, continuous hiss.
Testing the new live track - note the level meter in the track mixer registering a signal
REMEMBER if the sound isn’t working, check OS X’s Audio MIDI setup, the GarageBand Audio/MIDI preferences and, finally, the sound preferences in OS X’s System Preferences. Because these options sometimes fight with each other, glitches can occur - it’s often a case of playing around, setting and resetting prefs until GarageBand picks up a signal. It can be frustrating at first, but you should get the hand of it quickly.
9. Ensure the play head is at the far left and click the record button on the bottom bar and record some input by speaking or singing in to the mic. You’ll see that, just like with a MIDI track, a piano roll appears - except this time it carries the wave form of your voice rather than MIDI data.
NOTE: if you’re unsure about how to manage basic recording, check the previous tutorial on recording MIDI - the principles and actions you take are exactly the same.
10. As with MIDI, when you stop recording you end up with a ‘piano roll’ in the track window that you can click and drag as you please.
Piano roll containing real instrument data
In the next tutorial we’ll look at how to use GarageBand loops. Once we’ve got that sorted out, we can move on to putting a song together!
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