Hopefully by now you have a solid grasp of Smart Instruments, and if you don't fret not! We've got instructions for that, too. But if you do and are aching to get your own song out to the masses (or just send it around to your family and friends), read on and we'll show you everything you need to know about making sweet, sweet music with your iPad.
Record yourself playing (or Autoplaying) an instrument by tapping the red Record button at the top center of the screen. Record performances with various instruments if you like, and when you’re ready to work on the song’s overall composition, tap the Track View button that’s at the top of the screen, just left of center.
All your mixing is done in the Tracks view--every instrument you’ve recorded has its own track. You can have up to eight tracks. Track options are revealed by swiping the Instruments column to the right. From here you can listen to one track in isolation by tapping its headphone icon, or tap the mute icon to remove the track from the mix completely. Get the volume mix right by adjusting the volume slider for each track. You can also tap the top-right levels icon for Track Volume, Echo Level, and Reverb Level sliders.
You can move sections, or blocks, of music around. Tap one to select it and you can drag it to other places in your song, or move the edges inward to trim the clip. Double-tap on a section to bring up editing options--Cut, Copy, Delete, Loop, and Split. Splitting occurs at the playhead--if you choose Split you’ll see a scissors icon. Drag this downward to make the cut happen. You can also choose Edit to precisely nudge individual notes.
Loops are handy pre-made sections of music that you can drop into your creations. Tap the loops icon at the top right, tap Instruments, and choose one. To preview a loop, tap it and it’ll play. Find a loop that you think will complement your song, and drag it into your piece. You can drop it onto an existing track or into a blank space, where a new track will be created. You can build an entire song out of loops if you want to--how easy is that?
Now let’s explore GarageBand’s sharing options. To see them, tap My Songs at the top left of the Tracks view. Once on the My Songs screen, tap the Edit button in the top-right corner, then tap the song you want to share to select it. Next, tap the Share icon in the top-left corner to bring up several sharing destinations: Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud, and iMovie. You can also email the song or send it to iTunes.
