Apple GarageBand At A Glance User Manual
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GarageBand at a Glance
At a Glance
“GarageBand at a Glance” introduces you to the features and controls in the GarageBand
windows. You use these controls to create your songs in GarageBand. Take a look at these pages
even if you don’t plan to complete the tutorial, because knowing the names and functions of the
GarageBand controls will make it easier to find answers to your questions in GarageBand Help.
The pages that follow introduce you to the main GarageBand window–including the timeline,
the track editor, and the loop browser–and to the Track Info window. You record Real and
Software Instruments, add loops, and arrange and mix your songs in the main window, and
change track instrument, effects, and input settings in the Track Info window.
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GarageBand Window
A
D
E
F
A
Track headers:
Click the Mute button (with the speaker icon) to silence the track. Click the Solo button (with the
headphone icon) to hear the track by itself.
B
Track mixer:
placement in the stereo field). Drag the volume slider to adjust the track’s volume. Watch the
level meters to see the track’s volume level as you record and play.
C
Timeline:
arrange regions. Also includes the beat ruler, which you use to move the playhead and align
items in the timeline with beats and measures. See “Timeline” on page 3 for a description of the
features and controls in the timeline.
D
Zoom slider:
out to see more of the timeline.
E
New Track button:
F
Track Info, Loop Browser, and Track Editor buttons:
browser, or track editor.
G
Transport controls:
stop the song playing. Click the Go to Beginning, Rewind, or Fast Forward buttons to move the
playhead to different parts of the song. Click the Cycle button to turn on the cycle region.
H
Time display:
absolute time (hours, minutes, seconds, fractions). Also shows the song’s tempo. Includes
buttons for changing the format of the time display.
I
Master volume slider and level meters:
the song. Watch the level meters to see if clipping is occurring before you export a song.
Drag the pan wheel to adjust the pan position of the track (the left-to-right
Contains the tracks where you record Real and Software Instruments, add loops, and
B
G
The instrument icon and name are shown on the left of each track’s header.
Drag the zoom slider to zoom in for a closer view of part of the timeline, or to zoom
Click to add a track below the existing tracks in the timeline.
Click the Record button to start recording. Click the Play button to start or
Shows the playhead’s position in either musical time (measures, beats, ticks) or
Drag the volume slider to adjust the output volume level of
H
Click to open the Track Info window, loop
I
C
2 GarageBand at a Glance
Timeline
The timeline contains the tracks where you record Real and Software Instruments, add loops, and
arrange regions.
C
A
B
I
A
Beat ruler:
beat ruler to move the playhead to a precise beat or measure.
B
Tracks:
to a song. You arrange the song by working with loops and regions in tracks in the timeline.
C
Playhead:
when you click the Play button. Also shows where cut and copied items are pasted in the
timeline. You can move the playhead to change what part of the song is playing.
D
Timeline grid button:
value change when you zoom in or out.
E
Regions:
region in the timeline. You can cut, copy, and paste regions, resize and move them, transpose
them, and make other changes to build the arrangement of the song.
F
Volume curves:
curve to add dynamic changes to different parts of a song.
G
Master track:
to the master track.
H
Playhead lock button:
the you can see a different part of the song in the track editor than in the timeline.
I
Scroll bars:
scroll bar to see tracks not currently visible.
Shows beats and measures, the units of musical time in the timeline. You can click the
You record Real and Software Instruments in tracks, and drag loops to tracks to add them
Shows the point in the song currently playing, or the point where playback starts
Choose a note value for the timeline grid, or choose Automatic to have the
When you record a Real Instrument or Software Instrument, or add a loop, you create a
Add a volume curve to a track, then add and adjust control points on the volume
You can change the sound of the overall song by adding effects or a volume curve
Click to unlock the playheads in the timeline and the track editor, so that
Drag the horizontal scroll bar to move to a different part of a song. Drag the vertical
D
E
F
G
H
GarageBand at a Glance
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