In the first GarageBand tutorial we looked at what Apple’s application can achieve and the basic equipment needed. Before we can get started recording a song in GarageBand, we need to make sure that our external rig is ‘talking’ to GarageBand properly. The main mode of communication is via our external digital audio interface, which connects to the Mac via USB.
When you buy your audio interface, it should come with software drivers. Once they are installed, open Audio MIDI Setup - a utility that is bundled with all modern versions of Mac OS X. You’ll see a window that looks a bit like this:
Audio MIDI setup interface in Mac OS X
Ignore the stuff over on the left. When you plug your audio interface’s USB cable in for the first time, it should pop up as a new unit in the Audio MIDI interface window, looking a bit like this:
MIDI interface in Audio MIDI Setup
If it doesn’t click the ‘rescan MIDI’ button on the top toolbar to get your Mac to check for MIDI devices. Once your device appears in the window, you can test whether or not it works: click the Test Setup button.
Rescan MIDI and test setup buttons in Audio MIDI Setup
When it’s on (it turns blue) do something on your MIDI instrument (say, press some keys) - if your speakers are turned up you should hear your Mac make a satisfying boinking sound to confirm that the MIDI signal is getting through. Note: this doesn’t always work with with audio interfaces receiving signals from mics. To check they’re working, we need to fire up GarageBand…
(By the way, if you want to get the most out of Audio Midi Setup (’AMS’ in Mac music circles) Sonosphere has a really good guide.)
Piping external instruments into Garageband
Once you’ve got your instruments and audio interface sorted out in Audio MIDI setup, making them work with GarageBand is easy. Launch the application and click through the initial screens: you want to start a new project (it may be a ’songwriting project’ in GarageBand ‘09).
The first thing to do is decide how you’re going to hear the sounds that you make with GarageBand. A very common complaint among GarageBand newbies is that they can get keyboards and interfaces registering with the application, but it’s not making any sound. This is usually because GarageBand has picked up the fact that you’re using an external digital audio interface. It assumes you want to use that - instead of your Mac - for the sound output. So you have two choices: either plug an external amp and speakers or some headphones into your interface, or change the settings in GarageBand to use built-in output.
To listen to the sounds you’re making in GarageBand through your Mac (which is best done with headphones, out of the Mac’s 1.5mm headphone jack) go to GarageBand > Preferences > Audio/MIDI and make sure that ‘Audio Output’ dropdown menu has ‘built-in output’ selected.
GarageBand tutorial Audio/MIDI settings
Even then, you won’t hear anything unless you have some instrument tracks created in the main project window. We’ll deal with that in the next tutorial!
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Thank God I came across this website! or else I would have gone bald from pulling my hair out! thanks to this tutorial and a few others my family and I can now really enjoy composing music with our Mac. Keep up the great job.