iLife '04: The Missing Manual

Save Instrument, Delete Instrument

For want of a better term, Apple calls the effects presets in this dialog box Instruments.

In the following pages, you’ll learn how to operate the knobs and dials of the individual effect processors (Compressor, Reverb, and so on) that make up each Instrument.

Figure 28-2. “Save file?” What file? Turns out GarageBand means, “Save this instrument-named effect preset?” In other words, you’ve made some changes to the effects associated with, in this case, Female Basic, and GarageBand wants to know if you want them permanently stored as part of the Female Basic preset.(If you turn on “Never ask again,” GarageBand won’t just never ask again—it will never save your preset changes, either. If you miss seeing this warning box, choose GarageBand → Preferences, click General, and turn on “Ask before discarding unsaved changes.”

The process begins by clicking the Details triangle to expand the dialog box, as shown in Figure 28-1.

It’s comforting to know, though, that once you’ve spent some time tweaking the effects settings for a certain “instrument” (effects preset), you can save your work for use with other tracks and in other GarageBand projects. All you have to do is click the Save Instrument button at the bottom of the dialog box. GarageBand invites you to name your new effect preset. Thereafter, it will appear in the right-side list (see “Giggly Baritone” ...