Real World Digital Audio

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Tutorial 4: Mix and Record

With the basic elements in place, it’s time for some fit and finish. Adjusting

the panning, volume and fades, and effects of the mix will help get the exact

sound you want. At this point you can also record your own vocals or acoustic

instrument, adding them to the computer-generated tracks.

1. Adjust pan and volume: At this point, all the tracks are panned center

and mixed at exactly the same volume, so it’s hard to differentiate parts.

To adjust settings for an entire track, open the Mixer panel by clicking

the triangle next to Tracks (if it’s not open already). Adjust the pan

knob and volume until they sound right to you. To begin with, adjust

the volume fader for the strings so that they don’t overwhelm the other

parts; adjust its volume fader slightly to the left.

2. Sweeten the sound: GarageBand offers various built-in effects for

modifying your sound. Select the second of the two Drum Kit tracks

(the one with the audio drums) and click the Track Info button (the one

with the letter “i” on it). Click “Drums” in the left column and a number

of presets appear in the right column; try selecting different settings and

auditioning the sound. (These effects work in real time as your project

plays, so simply click Play and try different settings.) If you want to fine-

tune the preset or see how it was created, click Details. You can save

your own presets as Instruments. For now, let’s leave the drums with no

effects. To change the master effects through which all the tracks are

routed, select Master Track. Try the setting Rock/Pop > Live Gig.

3.

Fade out the end: So the song doesn’t end abruptly, we’ll fade out the

tracks. You could fade out the whole mix by adjusting the Master Track

(Tracks > Show Master Track), but for more subtlety we’ll adjust them

Effect ingredients:

Master Track > Rock/Pop >

Folk Rock

GarageBand tools:

Volume and pan for tracks,

volume/pan automation

Effects presets

Master track

Real instrument, software

instrument

Recording

Editing

individually. To bring up pan/volume automation for a track, click the

triangle below the track name. Click once on the blue or green filled-in

area in the Track Volume lane where you want the fade to begin. Then

click where you want the fade to end, and drag the ball down so the

volume is lowered. Repeat this process for each track. GarageBand

automatically adjusts the volume gradually between these two points

for a smooth fade. Continue to fine-tune these adjustments until your

fades sound just right. Try letting the drums just drop out, creating

gradual fades of several bars for the remaining parts.

4. Add your voice or instrument: Now that the “backing” part of our

backing track is done, the rest of the music is up to you. (If you just

want to play live over the GarageBand track without recording yourself,

you can skip the remaining steps and continue to the next section.) Set

up your recording by clicking the New Track button. If you’re record-

ing your voice or instrument through an audio interface, select Real

Instrument and the setting you want. Choose the instrument preset and

appropriate input, and turn on monitoring to check the input through

GarageBand. If you’re recording via a MIDI keyboard or other con-

troller and want to use your computer to generate the sound, select

Software Instrument. (If you’re using a guitar, you can plug in directly

and take advantage of GarageBand’s built-in amp simulations, or mike

your guitar’s amp.)

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