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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Apple GarageBand At A Glance User Manual

GarageBand Window

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ATrack headers: The instrument icon and name are shown on the left of each track’s header.

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.

BTrack mixer: Drag the pan wheel to adjust the pan position of the track (the left-to-right 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.

CTimeline: Contains the tracks where you record Real and Software Instruments, add loops, and 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.

DZoom slider: Drag the zoom slider to zoom in for a closer view of part of the timeline, or to zoom out to see more of the timeline.

ENew Track button: Click to add a track below the existing tracks in the timeline.

FTrack Info, Loop Browser, and Track Editor buttons: Click to open the Track Info window, loop browser, or track editor.

GTransport controls: Click the Record button to start recording. Click the Play button to start or 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.

HTime display: Shows the playhead’s position in either musical time (measures, beats, ticks) or absolute time (hours, minutes, seconds, fractions). Also shows the song’s tempo. Includes buttons for changing the format of the time display.

IMaster volume slider and level meters: Drag the volume slider to adjust the output volume level of the song. Watch the level meters to see if clipping is occurring before you export a song.

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GarageBand at a Glance

 

 

Timeline

The timeline contains the tracks where you record Real and Software Instruments, add loops, and arrange regions.

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ABeat ruler: Shows beats and measures, the units of musical time in the timeline. You can click the beat ruler to move the playhead to a precise beat or measure.

BTracks: You record Real and Software Instruments in tracks, and drag loops to tracks to add them to a song. You arrange the song by working with loops and regions in tracks in the timeline.

CPlayhead: Shows the point in the song currently playing, or the point where playback starts 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.

DTimeline grid button: Choose a note value for the timeline grid, or choose Automatic to have the value change when you zoom in or out.

ERegions: When you record a Real Instrument or Software Instrument, or add a loop, you create a 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.

FVolume curves: Add a volume curve to a track, then add and adjust control points on the volume curve to add dynamic changes to different parts of a song.

GMaster track: You can change the sound of the overall song by adding effects or a volume curve to the master track.

HPlayhead lock button: Click to unlock the playheads in the timeline and the track editor, so that the you can see a different part of the song in the track editor than in the timeline.

IScroll bars: Drag the horizontal scroll bar to move to a different part of a song. Drag the vertical scroll bar to see tracks not currently visible.

GarageBand at a Glance

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