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Rush Now Available in the GarageBand Lesson Store

Florence Ion — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:40:24 -0600

Calling all Rush superfans! Apple has posted two new GarageBand Arist Lessons from famed Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson. The first song available is “Working Man," followed by “The Spirit of Radio.” Each lesson costs $4.99 and is available in the GarageBand Lesson Store.

Don't forget—you can also download lessons from some of your other favorite artists, like John Legend, Sting and Ben Folds. Check out the official GarageBand page for more.

Plug In, Amp Up

David Biedny — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:22:00 -0500

Step into any professional recording studio, and the first thing you’ll notice are the stacks of rack-mounted audio processing gear littering the room. From modular synthesizers to vintage compressors, guitar stomp boxes and arcane drum machines, the process of making music in the modern world often involves having lots of sonic flavorings to choose from, which can quickly become an expensive affair. GarageBand musicians might have condensed their studios down onto a Mac, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a vast array of software-based sound modules and effects that work directly inside their audio editor of choice. In the next seven pages, we’ll take you deep into the amazing world of Audio Units expansion plug-ins, which you may not have even realized work in GarageBand. You’ll be amazed at just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Years ago, Apple created a standardized format for audio plug-ins. It’s called Audio Units (AU), and if a plug-in is delivered in that format, it means that it’ll work inside just about any audio-processing app that works on a Mac—and even some apps like Final Cut Pro. As you’d expect, GarageBand can take advantage of just about any AU plug-ins installed on your Mac, although Apple doesn’t go out of its way to educate GarageBanders about this aspect of the software (see “The Illogic of Logic,”).

While most software installers automatically plop AU plug-ins in the right place, it’s useful to know exactly where they live on your Mac: in a folder called Components, buried inside the Library folder on your main hard drive (Macintosh HD\Library\Audio\Plug-Ins\Components).

If you install plug-ins by copying them to the Components folder manually, make sure you include any presets. Plug-ins and their supporting files usually come grouped together in a folder. Also, GarageBand should not be running when you copy the files to Components, so quit the app first, then relaunch it. Then, to access AU plug-ins inside GarageBand, double-click on any track in the main GarageBand window (or select the track and press Command-I). Up comes the Track Info window, showing the currently available Apple software instruments. You’re almost there—now click on the Details arrow at the bottom left of the Track Info panel, where you’re given the opportunity to access Audio Units instruments and effects (in GarageBand ’08, there are four effects slots; earlier versions have fewer slots). Click on the checkbox to turn on Generators. When you access the first pop-up menu, notice that built-in GarageBand instruments are listed at the top of the menu, while third-party AU modules appear at the bottom. All of your installed AU instruments and effects should appear here, so select the one you want to use and you can now play it from your MIDI/USB keyboard.

The pop-up menu to the right displays the presets for the selected instrument. If you’ve installed the lovely Crystal freeware synth (and if not, well, do it—see below), for example, clicking on this pop-up reveals a lengthy preset list. This feature doesn’t work for all third-party instruments: Arturia’s wonderful re-creations of classic hardware synths come with loads of cool presets, but they don’t show up in the presets pop-up. Not a problem, however, since you can always access presets from inside an instrument’s control panel too.

Presets are fine and dandy, but the real test of any software synthesizer is in the programming, and by clicking on the pencil tool to the right of the presets pop-up, you’ll be taken directly into the editing interface for the instrument plug-in. Here’s where you can crawl under the hood and mod to your heart’s desire. This editing window remains live while a song is playing, so if you turn on the Loop button in the GarageBand transport controls and adjust the loop duration to the segment of interest, you can play a section of your composition over and over while tweaking the sound to perfection.

You can also apply plug-ins to an entire mix by clicking on the Master Track button at the top of the Track Info pane. You’ll see plug-in slots in the Details area of the pane, and whatever plug-ins you switch on here will affect the entire composition, allowing you to apply a final mastering equalization or compression to everything at once.

Now let’s take a look at some of the tools you should consider adding to your virtual studio. There are two main categories of plug-ins: generators, aka instruments, and processors (which alter the sounds coming out of generators). For simplicity’s sake, we’ve only included plug-ins that are delivered as Universal binaries.

Software Instruments

These virtual keyboards, drum kits, and other instruments offer an unlimited range of sounds—for less than you’d pay for the real thing. While the built-in GarageBand sounds are definitely fun to play, they offer little in the way of customization or editability, and that’s where third-party instruments enter the picture. The most awesomely powerful software synthesizer, or softsynth, costs a fraction of what the cheapest professional hardware equivalent does, and softsynths often have features that far outpace anything available in the physical world. There’s at least one great softsynth that costs exactly nothing, and the most expensive, deep monsters usually top out at $200. Also keep in mind that most of the software instruments we’re looking at here offer intense levels of programmability, and therefore require some actual effort to master. Our advice: Don’t worry, be happy. And have fun experimenting.

Crystal Clarity

Crystal proves the best things in life truly can still be free!

Perhaps the single greatest bargain in the softsynth world is the venerable and free Crystal (www.greenoak.com/crystal/), which is yours for nothing more than the time it takes to download. While you might suspect that a free synth is nothing to write home about, guess again—Crystal is a truly sweet-sounding instrument, with a great selection of presets and some seriously deep controls. It has two classic synthesis modes—FM and Subtractive—and a full range of built-in effects, along with extensive modulation controls. All this results in complex, rich sounds—and the online manual is quite extensive and clear.

May The G-Force Be With You

Get your Mellotron on for less than $100 with G-force’s M-tron synth.

G-Force (www.gforcesoftware.com) has created some truly impressive digital reproductions of some of the quirkier analog synths of yesteryear, and we have a particular fondness for M-Tron, which is based on the Mellotron keyboard (think Moody Blues or the strings from “Strawberry Fields Forever”). Then there’s the impOSCar, based on the somewhat obscure OSCar synth that graced quite a few British synth-pop albums of the eighties, and it’s got some seriously juicy filters. For a street price of less than a hundred bucks each, these synths are totally musical and will help add a vintage vibe to your tunes.

Go Native

Drinking this Absynth isn’t hazardous to your health.

Native Instruments (www.native-instruments.com) is one of the most popular music software makers in the world, and for good reason: Absynth is amazing, with an intuitive interface, excellent presets, and the kind of emanations that are perfect for any genre served by synthesized sounds. Massive is a big, bad bruiser that can shake the shingles off the roof, and we found it to be a cinch to program. If you’re looking to get into the R&B groove, B4 II is a dead-on impersonation of the unique Hammond B3 sound, and it’s a lot easier to lug to gigs than the real thing. Native Instruments makes some other great synths, so check them out and prepare to be impressed.

Go By Camel

This Cameleon has very good karma.

Another independent developer, Camel Audio (www.camelaudio.com), has a wonderful, mystical, and downright frightening synth called Cameleon 5000, which has absolutely no counterpart in the hardware world. It can do things that are almost paranormal in nature, like open a sampled sound file and “resynthesize” it with its awesome synthesis engine, as well as move between four different sounds in ways that will bend your mind. While it comes with over 600 excellent presets, there are thousands more for the taking when you register the software, so it’s unlikely that you’ll ever run out of inspiration—or useful sounds. If you’re into the kind of brooding, atmospheric sounds that are found in movie soundtracks, Cameleon 5000 is a one-stop shop for bona fide aural goodness.

Indie Pop

Plug in to the Lin sound with Free Alpha 3.

In the spirit of independence, LinPlug (www.linplug.com) is a developer out of Germany with a wide line of useful softsynths. There’s a LinPlug synth for just about any budget, and if you don’t believe us, check out the potent Free Alpha 3, which is, well, free. The $99 Alpha 3 is a solid workhorse and an excellent introduction to subtractive synthesis theory, the foundation of the analog synth world. Moving up the scale, ChronoX3 is a sample-based synth that covers everything from electric pianos to bubbling trance passages. One of our favorite overall softsynths is Albino 3, and, while it costs $249, it has more programming power than you’re ever likely to tap in a musical lifetime.

Sound Surge

We bet you can’t exhaust all the possibilities open to you in Surge.

Vember Audio’s Surge (www.vemberaudio.se) is a potent softsynth that packs a serious wallop for its $149 price tag. With over 1,000 presets and a synthesis engine that encompasses a vast territory of possibilities, we found this almost-unknown gem to be a wonderful instrument, full of great timbres and a straightforward interface design. Surge is deep, highly tweakable, and loads of fun to program and play.

Jam Like Vangelis

Arturia (www.arturia.com) is the primary purveyor of reborn analog synths, and its officially endorsed MiniMoog V and Modular Moog V emulations are even better than the original gear—you can play actual chords, instead of just the single monophonic note capabilities of the originals. If you’re a Vangelis fan—he’s guy who did the soundtrack for Blade Runner—you’ll absolutely adore the CS-80V, which is based on the rare Yamaha synth that was Vangelis’s main axe for years. Arturia’s Analog Factory is a best-of collection of over 3,500 preset sounds culled from its vast virtual library, with basic editing abilities that should keep you going for a few years or so. Arturia’s softsynths are all list-priced at $249, but you can easily find them for $199 street. The V Collection is a bundle of Arturia’s top six instruments, and at $699, it might seem pricey—until you consider that $700 is what you’d pay for a low-end hardware synth. If you tried to acquire these six synths as hardware, you’d be looking at around $16,000.

Bang Your iDrum

Keep your headphones on so you don’t annoy the neighbors.

Izotope’s (www.izotope.com) sweet iDrum is an excellent and exceedingly straightforward electronic drum machine, and for $69, it’s both very cool and extremely useful. Patterned on classic drum machines, iDrum is geared toward electronic, trance, and dance music, and it includes a boatload of presets that will keep you in the beat for years.

Ebony and Ivory

Get lovely piano sound without the heavy lifting.

Modartt Pianoteq 2 (www.pianoteq.com) is the definitive modeled acoustic piano (5 out of 5 stars, June/08, p74), and even though it surpasses our $200 price ceiling, it might be the single most useful AU instrument plug-in in existence. It’s small, highly tweakable, and its sound is just astounding, gorgeous and alive. Ditch the heavy upright or grand—Pianoteq 2 is the holy grail of digital ivories.

Signal Processing & Effects

Effects plug-ins can make the difference between a track that sounds wimpy and amateurish and one that packs presence and punch.

Like any other form of audio sweetening, the real trick to signal processing is to exercise moderation, and to apply it where it helps something sound better—although, of course, some rules are made to be broken (as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails does on every album).

A key feature to watch out for in any type of signal processing plug-in is the ability to mix the dry (unaffected signal) with the wet (the sound with the effect applied). Take reverb, for example—a little bit added to any vocal gives the track some surrounding “air” and makes it sound more natural, while drowning it in reverb drains the life out of a track’s tonal definition and quality. Your own results may vary, but remember, start subtle and mix your way up for the  best results.

Free Magic

SoundMagic Spectral sounds better than it looks.

You can’t beat free, and for starters, we suggest downloading the rather odd and intense set of plug-ins from New Zealand composer Michael Norris (www.michaelnorris.info/soundmagicspectral/). SoundMagic Spectral is a set of 23 plug-ins with minimalist interfaces and maximum audio shredding and mangling potential, all primarily focused on altering the way sounds play out over time and frequency. Spectral Filterbank takes a straight acoustic piano and turns it into tubular bells, a lovely effect we could definitely see using in a musical context. Spectral Granulation morphs the same piano into a slowly evolving, complex sonic texture that barely resembles the original piano, while Spectral Gate and Hold stretches a piano note into a soft, shimmering pad sound (an understated sound usually played in chords).

Luxonix LFX-1310 is one of a handful of capable free effects plug-ins out on the Net.

Mouse over to Luxonix (www.luxonix.com) and download the LFX-1310 multieffects processor, a freeware wonder that offers 24 different effect types (from reverbs and delays to compressors, equalizers, and even a lo-fi decimator) in three simultaneous slots, for some seriously sophisticated and useful processing options. Did we mention it’s free?

Loop-The-Loop

Augustus Loop, not to be confused with the Apple Infinite Loop.

ExpertSleepers (www.expert-sleepers.co.uk) makes one of our favorite effects, dubbed Augustus Loop, a combined looper, delay unit, and pitch shifter that puts Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics to shame (Google it and try not to faint). With Augustus Loop, you can take a vocal passage, a guitar riff, or synth line and turn it into a living, breathing sonic entity that defies simple description. It’s one of the most important tools in our own personal toolbox, and has been for years. For $29, it’s the most fun you’ll ever have with a plug-in, and if you don’t believe that, download the excellent—and free—Multitap Delay to get a taste of true aural fun. ExpertSleepers makes a nice free phase shifter too, as well as some other commercial offerings. As the kids say, it’s all good.

Bargain Bin

Ground Control to Major Tom.

Stillwell Audio (www.stillwellaudio.com) is a company that we recently discovered, and we’re thrilled to tell you that it makes a wonderful line of synths and effects. Major Tom ($49) is one of the best software compressors we’ve run across, and it takes minimal effort to make vocals as smooth as silk, or bake up some punchy drum sounds that sit very nicely in a mix. We also adore Vibe-EQ ($39), an equalizer with definitive attitude and a sweet sound. Check out Stillwell’s site, which features more inexpensive goodies than we have space to cover here.

We love a good bargain, and the fine folks at Audio Damage (www.audiodamage.com) make a line of très cool plug-ins that span the range of moderately useful to totally essential, and at prices that are easy on the wallet. Most of the company’s offerings do one thing really well, and with minimal CPU load—always a good sign. We consider Reverence to be one of the best reverb plug-ins available. At $39, it’s an instant classic. If you use lots of acoustic guitar in your tunes, you’ll adore Fluid, one of the loveliest chorus effects we’ve heard, and great for adding sheen to background vocals as well. It’s $29, which is simply astounding. The DubStation is a re-creation of a classic “bucket brigade” analog delay, and for $39, you can conjure up the kind of wild, wacky effects that are not easily created with expensive digital delay effects. There are loads of other wonderful plug-ins from these guys, and they all sound spectacular.

OhmiGod

Harness the power of the Ohm Force’s OhmBoyz.

For the ultimate in bizarre interfaces, check out the madness of the Ohm Force plug-ins (www.ohmforce.com). The OhmBoyz is a dual delay line with some seriously twisted sonic abilities, and it sounds fantastic. On the other side of the sonic spectrum is Predatohm, a nasty distortion processor that puts serious bite into your pristine guitar tracks and makes synths sound like they’re having a bad hair day. Our only beef is that the software is priced in Euros, which means it’s as expensive as a meal in Paris paid for with weak American dollars. If you want a taste of the Ohm Force way, download the free Frohmage filter and try running a vocal track though it. Vive la France!

I'll Take A Little of Everything

SFX Machine Pro covers the effects gamut for $150.

SFX Machine Pro (www.sfxmachine.com) is a Swiss army knife of signal processing, and it’s reasonably priced at $150. It does a little bit of everything, from compression and equalization to robotic voices, flanging, and lo-fi effects. It’s easy to use and sounds smooth—and if you’re happy to settle for a bunch of the effects with less editing options, take a look at SFX Machine RT, which is half the price at $75 and offers most of the essential processing power of its bigger brother.

Season Your Sonic Stew

VintageWarmer 2 is delicious secret sauce for any composition.

PSP Audioware (www.pspaudioware.com) is an inspired Polish developer of superb audio tools, and we highly recommend its VintageWarmer 2 as a cure-all for adding punch, presence, and pizzazz to individual tracks or overall mixes. It’s super-secret sauce for a tasty sonic stew. We’re also mad about MixPack, which includes superb bass and treble processors (know that deep, oomphy bass on so many hip-hop records? It’s PSP MixBass2.), a great compressor, a slick saturation plug-in (for emulating overdriven tubes and adding analog warmth to crisp digital tracks), and an excellent noise gate. For $199, this is a killer bundle that could serve as the cornerstone of a virtual recording studio.

Remember the Lexicon? If you do, pick up Lexicon PSP 84 to add unique modulation and delays.

When you visit the website, take a look at some of their more esoteric offerings—Lexicon PSP 84 is a $149 re-creation of a truly cool old Lexicon, and it’s capable of making some of the weirdest delay and modulation effects you’ve ever heard.

Go Pro

ChannelStrip is a rare breed of AU plug-ins developed specifically for GarageBand.

One of the only plug-ins developed specifically for GarageBand, Metric Halo’s (www.mhlabs.com) ChannelStrip for GarageBand ($89) is an essential tool for serious equalization, compression, and gating work. The equalizer is one of the best we’ve used and is just right for fine-tuning vocal recordings, difficult instruments (such as cymbals and bass drums), and just about anything else likely to end up in your mixes. If you wanted to invest in just one plug-in for getting professional results from GarageBand, this is the one.

Leggo My Pluggo!

Weird name, cool effects.

One of the greatest single deals in the plug-in world is Cycling 74’s Pluggo (www .cycling74.com), a collection of over 100 plug-ins for $199, and full of truly surprising and original sound processing chops. While the interfaces of the individual plug-ins vary wildly, the audio quality is uniformly high and the range of effects is as wide as a galaxy: weird delays, granular synthesis, and, can you imagine, an audio effect called Squirrel Parade? There are also a number of sound generators and synths, so for a couple hundred bucks, you end up with an entire arsenal of audio toys and tools.

Nomad's Land

Nomad Factory (www.nomadfactory.net/index.html) is best known for its high-end tube emulation effects, but Liquid Bundle II ($187) is a well-balanced collection, with crisp, clear sound and just about everything except a good equalizer—the compressor and delay are superb, the modulator deep and soulful, and the strain on your CPU is minimal.

Positive Feedback

German creative genius Urs Heckman (www.u-he.com) makes a highly advanced delay processor called MFM2 (More Feedback Machine 2), and it’s the very first plug-in we turn to for putting things in deep, dark caverns or in the middle of a star about to go nova. If you want a single plug-in that goes from simple ambience and reverb to some of the most insane, spacey, spicy delay effects ever imagined in this part of the universe, look—and listen—no further than MRFM2. For $79, it’s a steal.

Catch This Wave, Brah

Wave Arts Power Suite 5 won’t hog processor power, we promise!

Even though it’s on the high end of the price spectrum ($600), we have personally come to rely on the Power Suite 5 bundle from Wave Arts (www.wavearts.com), a collection of world-class equalization, dynamics, and reverberation plug-ins that packs an awesome degree of pro-quality power in an extremely attractive package. MasterVerb 5 might be the best reverb for under a grand, and it’s amazing how little CPU power it uses to work its mojo. If you want to save some cash, consider the $99 TrackPlug 4 channel strip plug-in, which presents a serious challenge to Metric Halo’s ChannelStrip for GarageBand. You can also pick up MasterVerb 4, a version earlier than the one in the suite, for $99, easily the best bang for the buck for adding “air” to vocal and instrumental tracks.

The ilLogic of Logic

When Apple lowered the price of the Logic Studio bundle to $499, it sent shock waves throughout the music software industry, and for good reason: The sheer quantity and quality of the synths, effects processors, and music loops included with the package is really astounding—terrifying if you’re a third-party plug-in developer. If we consider that the single softsynth in the bundle—Sculpture—would easily sell for $200 by itself, the gravity of the situation becomes clear: If you tried to assemble a third-party collection of instruments and effects to match what comes with Logic Studio Pro, you’d easily have to spend thousands of dollars. Toss in the Apple Jam Packs ($99 each, available for GarageBand, bundled with Logic Studio Pro) and you’re up to $400 on just those, if purchased separately. It comes down to simple math: If you’re considering investing more than a few hundred dollars in plug-ins for GarageBand, it makes sense to upgrade to Logic Studio Pro, with the understanding that there’s a considerable learning curve involved in getting up to speed (but Logic can indeed import GarageBand projects). Logic Express is $199, but frankly, we’d recommend skipping it and going right to the Pro bundle.

We do have one bone to pick with Apple though—If we buy Logic Studio Pro and install it on the same Mac as GarageBand, why can’t we access Logic’s instruments and effects from inside GarageBand?

Key Your Way to Music Notation in GarageBand

The Mac|Life Staff — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:27:01 -0600

I have an M-Audio Keystation 49e keyboard, which I thought I should be able to just plug in to start writing and editing music notation. I can’t seem to make it work. I have GarageBand, which the salesperson said was all I needed. What am I not doing right?

Many Mac apps will let you record, edit, and print music notation. Some of the more popular ones include GarageBand, Sibelius, Finale, and Overture. In GarageBand ’08, you’ll need to take four basic steps to begin working with music notation. First, create a new instrument track by pulling down from the Track menu to New Track and selecting Software Instrument Track.

Second, show the editor by pulling down from the Control menu to Show Editor. Third, display the musical notation view by clicking on the little musical note icon in the lower-left corner of the editor while your instrument track is selected.

And finally, click the red Record button in order to start (and stop) recording whatever you play on your keyboard. You’ll probably want to refer to the GarageBand ’08 Getting Started Manual for more detailed instructions, which you can access by selecting Getting Started PDF from the Help menu. Chapter 6 of the PDF covers all the details you’ll need to know about creating software instrument tracks (including troubleshooting steps if your keyboard doesn’t seem to be working), and Chapter 7 covers working with the notation view.

This is how GarageBand ’08 will look when it is ready to start recording from your keyboard. In this example, you’re about to start recording a grand piano track.

Add Movement to Sounds in GarageBand

Paul K. Jackson — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:55:08 -0600

Using automation, you can make sounds move left, right, forward, and backward through a scene or song.

It takes great effort to create music that moves people; creating movement in music is way easier. Toss in Apple’s GarageBand, and the feat is downright simple. Using the automation features in GarageBand ’08, you can virtually set instruments in motion in your music or create sound effects that move forward, backward, and across the stereo field. To demonstrate the basics of creating motion, here’s how to create a sound effect of footsteps walking across a room and then out a back door. You can hear the results at MacLife.com.

WHAT YOU NEED

> Apple GarageBand ’08 ($79 as part of iLife ’08)

> Microphone - either your Mac’s built-in mic or an external mic connected to your Mac’s audio input or an audio interface

> Hard-soled shoes (not tennis shoes)

> A hard surface to walk on

> A door

If you want to skip the recording step, download the sounds we used for this project here.

1. Create a New Project. In GarageBand, choose File > New, and select Create New Music Project. In the resulting dialog, type a name for your footsteps effect, leave the default song settings as they are (since we’re not creating a song), and click Create. Once the project window opens, close the Keyboard window (if it’s open) and delete the default Grand Piano track (select the track and press Command-Delete). Make sure that the Metronome is also turned off (from the Control menu, choose Metronome to deselect the checkmark).

Since your sound effect won't rely on a tempo or key, ignore the song settings when you create your project.

More...

2. Pave the Way for Audio. For this effect, we want to record two sounds - footsteps and a door closing (or slamming) - so we need two audio tracks. To create one, choose Track > New Track, select Real Instrument Track in the resulting dialog, and click Create. Repeat to create a second track. Then make sure that your chosen mic is ready for use; choose GarageBand > Preferences, select Audio/MIDI, and choose your input source from the Audio Input pop-up menu (built-in mic, built-in audio input, or your connected audio interface).

To have Garage Band record through our Ozone-connected mic, we chose the interface from the Audio input pop-up menu.

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3. Walk This Way. OK mateys, time to walk the plank! Select your first audio track and make sure that it’s record-enabled (the button should be red). Put on your shoes, position your mic (or Mac) near your walking surface, and walk (or stomp) in place to gauge the audio level (if you have an aversion to a mini-workout, you can clomp your shoes on a tabletop with your hands). To optimize the level, use GarageBand’s track volume slider or your interface’s gain control. Then click the Record button to start recording, walk or stomp in place for 15 seconds, and then click the Stop button.

Place the mic near, but not on, the surface on which you'll be walking for the best results.

4. Step Four, Shut the Door. Now record the sound of a door closing (or slamming shut if you chose to stomp in the last step). Mute your footsteps track by clicking the Mute button (the speaker icon) and select your second track to record-enable it. With your door open, position your mic (or Mac) near the door but out of its path. Then shut (or slam) the door a few times to gauge the sound level, optimize the levels as needed, and record. Record as many slams as you want - you can choose which one to use later.

Don't worry about the timing as you record your door slam - you'll move the sound into place later.

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5. Clean Up and Arrange Your Effect. To delete noise or space before and after your footstep sequence, mute the door track, select the footsteps track, unmute it, and double-click the region to open it in the editor. Play back the track to review the recording. Then drag on the left side of the audio waveform to select unwanted audio at the beginning and press Delete. Repeat on the right side of the waveform to clean up the sequence’s ending. Then mute the footsteps track, select the door track, and unmute it.

If you recorded multiple instances of the door shutting, play back your track, find the best take, then delete all audio that occurs before and after it. For single instances, clean up the beginning and ending in the same manner. Then drag the door region further down the timeline so that it plays when your footsteps end.

We banished our unwanted audio (in blue) with a press of the Delete key.

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6. Walk Across the Room. Time to add some motion. For the first part of the sequence, we want to have our “walker” walk across the room from left to right. Select the footsteps track and click the View Automation disclosure triangle to display the automation curve. From the resulting pop-up menu, choose Track Pan. To start your walker on the left side of the room, drag the starting curve point from its +0 position (center) straight up to -64 (full left).

In GarageBand’s LCD, choose Time from the LCD modes pop-up menu to display the timeline in time increments. At the 7-second mark, click on the curve to create another point and drag it straight down to +63 (full right). At the 15-second mark (or your sequence’s end), create a third point on the curve and drag it to center (0). When you listen, your walker should walk from left to right and back to center.

Here's what your Track Pan curve should look like if you followed our instructions.

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7. Add Room Ambience and Depth. Right now, your effect sounds flat because there’s no room ambience or sense of depth. So let’s create some. On the footsteps track, choose Add Automation from the automation pop-up menu, click the Echo & Reverb disclosure triangle, select Reverb, and click OK to display the Reverb curve. Drag the starting curve point up around the 5 to 10 percent range to create some room atmosphere (the bigger the number, the more cavernous the room).

At the 7-second mark, create another curve point at the same level as your first. At the 15-second mark (or your sequence’s end), create a third curve point and drag it up around 30 percent to create the perception of distance (less reverb brings the walker closer to you). Then choose Track Volume from the automation pop-up menu, create a curve point at the 7-second mark at 0 dB, create a second point at the 15-second mark, and drag it down to about -7 dB. Take a listen, and fine-tune your settings if needed.

GarageBand now lets you select which effects and instrument parameters to automate per track.

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8. Finish and Finesse. Now bring your door sound into the same room as your walker. Because it’s just one sound instance, simply select the track, display its Track Info (Command-I), click the Details disclosure triangle, and move the Reverb slider to the same level as your footsteps at the 15-second mark (in our example, that would be 30 percent). Take a listen and adjust the volume, if needed, using the track’s volume slider, and the sound placement. And there you have it!

Audio geeks: You can get even better results using GarageBand’s Matrix Reverb on each track instead of the default Reverb to work in room reflections, and experimenting with automating EQ as the walker walks away.

We livened our effect further by speeding up the tempo, using the Master track Tempo curve, to have our walker bolt out the door.

Griffin GarageBand Microphone Cable

Tom Lassiter — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:00:20 -0500

The GarageBand Microphone Cable is a lot cheaper than an XLR converter box.

If you’re a podcaster who wants good voice audio in your podcasts (and who doesn’t?), you need to use an XLR microphone. Macs don’t have XLR connectors, but you can use Griffin’s GarageBand Microphone Cable, which features an XLR jack for your mic and a stereo minijack so you can plug into a Mac’s standard audio line-in port.

The GarageBand Cable has a sturdy cast-metal XLR connector, not a cheap stamped-metal connector. After connecting the cable between the mic and the Mac, we adjusted the Mac’s Sound preferences to use the audio-in port for input. The GarageBand Cable brought in the XLR mic’s full, rich sound. Connected to a field mixer on a video shoot, the GarageBand Cable piped the audio directly into GarageBand on our MacBook Pro, eliminating the need to dub in the interviews later. Sweet.

The bottom line. Would you rather spend $15 on Griffin’s GarageBand Microphone Cable or $200 for an XLR converter box? We thought so.

COMPANY: Griffin Technology

CONTACT: www.griffintechnology.com

PRICE: $14.99

REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3 or later, audio-in jack

Very affordable. Works well with Griffin iTalk for recording with an iPod.

Only 10 feet long. Somewhat light-gauge cable.

Podcast Like a Pro

Niko Coucouvanis — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:50:00 -0500

1. PODCAST TRACK: Manage an enhanced podcast's artwork and Web links here.
2. LOOP LIBRARY: Click the eye icon to load your loops.
3. TRACK EDITOR: Flips into Chapter Manager mode when the Podcast Track is present.
4. ART-ANNOTATED CHAPTER MARKERS: Spice up your audio podcast.
5. MUSICAL TYPING: Play your Mac's keyboard like a piano.
6. MEDIA BROWSER: All of your other iLife stuff is right here.
7. DUCKING CONTROLS: Twiddle the arrows to set which tracks cause others to duck in volume.

WHAT YOU NEED
> Mac OS 10.3.9 or later
> GarageBand 3 or later ($79, part of iLife '06, www.apple.com)
> Microphone (optional)

GarageBand's Podcasting Studio makes it easier than ever to crank out a righteously professional-sounding podcast, complete with sound effects, atmospheric background music, snappy intro and outro jingles - even chapters, artwork, and Web links. With this awesome power at your disposal, it'd be a crime to make a boring, plain-Blaine podcast - here's how to avoid that.<

Step 1: Enter the Podcasting Studio

Launching GarageBand presents you with some options for making a new project. Select New Podcast Episode, and give your project a name in the dialog that follows. The new podcasting project comes preloaded with a Podcast Track, Male Voice and Female Voice tracks, and tracks for Jingles and Radio Sounds. If you're creating a one-person show and you're in a hurry, just click either of the voice tracks, click the red Record button, and have at it. When you're done speaking, click Record again to stop.

Start with a New Podcast Episode-starting a regular project and adding a Podcast Track later isn't the same.

Step 2: Record It in iChat

If you're making a one-person podcast, proceed to the next step. In this step, you'll record an iChat conversation to spice up your podcast with a compelling guest interview. Or you can use it for some private blackmail fodder-whatever suits your fancy. To record the chat, simply set up GarageBand as in the previous step, but before pressing Record, fire up iChat and initiate a chat with your victim - er, "guest" - by double-clicking the phone or camera icon by his or her name in your Buddy List. Alternately, you can highlight the person's name on your Buddy List and select Buddies > Invite To Audio Chat. And FYI, you can't record a chat initiated by someone else-this trick only works if you initiate the chat. Once your chatee accepts the chat (and you disclose that you're recording the conversation), press GarageBand's Record button; GarageBand will alert you that it's detected an audio chat and confirm that you'd like to record. When you're done, click the Record button again; if the playhead keeps moving, press Play to stop it.

This is GarageBand's way of saying "Quiet on the set!"

Step 3: Add Effects on the Fly

If you're quick on your feet, you can play GarageBand's sound effects while recording your monologue or iChat interview. A piano-style USB keyboard makes this easier, but you can use GarageBand's onscreen keyboard and tickle the ivories with your mouse. Select Window > Keyboard and click the Radio Sounds track to highlight it, which also activates the keyboard. Plink around until you find the sounds you want. To load a different sound-effect kit, double-click the track title in the Track List to open the Track Info window (or choose Track > Show Track Info). Keeping Sound Effects highlighted in the left-side list, switch to Applause And Laughter, Comedy Noises, or Radio Sounds to load podcast-appropriate sounds. When you're ready to really dig in, click the Details triangle and use its check boxes and pull-down menus to create some truly bizarre sounds via the onscreen keyboard.

You could spend days tweaking your sound effects here.

Step 4: Master Musical Typing

You can play Sound Effects by poking around on GarageBand's onscreen keyboard, but tickling the ivories with your mouse is annoying-so use your Mac's keyboard instead. Select Window > Musical Typing, and highlight the Radio Sounds track or another Software Instrument track. Click the eye icon, navigate to a sound effect or loop you want to use, and drag it from the loop drawer onto the key you want to assign it in the Musical Typing window - sweet! You can assign your own sounds to every key on the board -and cooler yet, if your interview is rife with choice sound-bite fodder, you can isolate a segment by loading its clip into the Track Editor (double-click the clip) or simply highlighting the clip and selecting Edit > Split a couple of times. Drag the segment directly from the timeline to any key in the Musical Typing window.

Not only can you type via the QWERTY keyboard, you can assign it your own sounds.

Step 5: Proper Post-Production

At least half the fun of podcasting comes from adding all the rockin' radio-style jingles, zany zingers, and stupid sound effects. Of course, you'll want way more of them than you can cram in while recording the live vocal track(s) - and that's where post-production comes in. To pepper your podcast with wackiness, highlight the Jingles track, and if your loops aren't loaded, click the eye icon to open the Loop Browser; then press the podcast icon to load the Jingles, Stingers, and Sound Effects. For the standard talk-radio format, drop matching Jingles at the beginning and end of the show, before and after any commercial breaks (hey, it could happen), and anywhere else you need a little pause in the action. The real fun is in the Stingers and Sound Effects; insert sound effects at will by dragging them into position on the Jingles track or another Software Instrument track (click the plus-sign icon to add another).

You can have all kinds of fun with podcast sound effects

BONUS TIP: Raise the Bar
If your podcast has a perfect fade-out ending, GarageBand might cut off the tail end. To prevent fadeus interruptus, click the Cycle Region button to activate the orange Cycle bar in the timeline, and then click and drag the end of the Cycle bar out a few measures past the end of the project.

Step 6: Don't Forget to Duck!

Mixing spoken content with sound effects requires ducking-dropping the volume of the background to ensure the important stuff gets heard. How low you duck your background music is up to you, but we can tell you how to set it: If you started GarageBand with a new podcast or movie-score project, you'll see the ducking controls on each audio track-otherwise, select Control > Ducking. Click the up arrow on lead tracks and the down arrow on tracks you want to duck out of the way. The track-volume slider only controls the track's regular volume; to fine-tune your ducking, open the Track Info pane (press Command-I or select Track > Show Track Info) and select Master Track. Find the Ducking Amount slider near the bottom of the window, and slide it up toward 100 to increase the amount of ducking-remember, the higher you set the ducking, the quieter the sound effects get when you talk.

Define your duck: You specify how low the background sounds duck to avoid the vocals.

Step 7: Enhance Your 'Cast

Now that you've got the audio portion of your podcast squared away, click the Podcast Track to add enhancements such as chapter markers, Web links, and episode artwork. Remember, if you recorded an iChat AV interview, all of the participants' chat icons (or iSight snapshots) get automatically added to the Podcast Track each time the participants speak.

In Podcast mode, GarageBand's Track Editor magically sprouts a Chapter Marker manager; click the Media Browser icon to load your iPhoto library. Drag a photo from the Media Browser directly into the timeline or Chapter Marker manager, or click the Add Marker button and drag in your artwork later. Click the placeholder text fields (Add Title Here, URL Title, URL) to add chapter titles and Web links. You can later rearrange the order of the Chapter Markers by dragging the regions (each Chapter Marker designates the beginning of a new region) around in the timeline, or by altering the numerical value in the Time column. Don't try dragging Chapter Markers around in the Track Editor - that only moves the art, not the marker itself. And don't forget to drag an image into the Episode Artwork pane - this is the equivalent of album-cover art, so make sure it looks good.

You can even embed Web links into your podcast - so where's that wireless Web-browsing iPod?

Step 8: Stop, Drop, and Crop

Shrinking photos you want to use as podcast art down to iPod-friendly postage-stamp size doesn't require launching iPhoto. Just double-click any piece of artwork in the Track Editor (including the Episode Artwork and Podcast Preview images) to load that image into GarageBand's Artwork Editor; use the slider to scale the image, and then drag the image to adjust what appears in the visible center of the crop frame.

Who says that size doesn't matter?

BONUS TIP: No iLife? No Problem!
GarageBand is the easiest way to crank out a killer podcast, but 79 bucks is 79 bucks. These Web sites offer tools, tips, and even online hosting for your podcasting pursuits-and the basic services are free with registration.
GarageBand.com's Podcast Studio (www.garageband.com/podcast) seems like it's wearing a target for Apple's lawyers.

> podOmatic (www.podomatic.com) provides a selection of canned George W. Bush answers for your fake-interview pleasure.
> Odeo.com (www.odeo.com) can pipe your podcast directly to the iTunes Music Store's Podcast directory.
> ClickCaster (www.clickcaster.com) currently a free beta, promotes your own on-demand radio show.