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How to Mix Songs on GarageBand

GarageBand is a useful tool for musicians who want to record their own music at home but lack the engineering knowledge to use complicated production software. Even knowledgeable musicians can benefit from GarageBand, as it breaks down the recording and mixing process into a touch-and-go procedure, great for demos and quick recordings. If you want to begin mixing music with GarageBand, you need only familiarize yourself with the essential menus and decide how you want your songs to sound.

Instructions

    • 1

      Record or import your song. To create a new song, click "File," then "New" on the menu bar. Click "Track," then "New Track" to create an audio track, and press "Record" to begin a recording. To add layers of music, create additional tracks. For instance, you can record a piano melody on track 1, and add a guitar on track 2, with vocals on track 3. To import an already existing song file, drag it onto your project window.

    • 2

      Edit your volume and positioning. On the left side of each track, you will find a horizontal volume slider and a round panning knob. Drag the slider to the right to increase volume on a selected track, or drag it to the left to decrease the volume. Turn the panning knob clockwise to move your sound into the right channel (speaker), or counterclockwise to move your sound into the left channel. Panning can prove useful for creating a multidimensional sound. For instance, you might move your snare drums toward the left and your guitar solos to the right. Try different panning positions, but always keep your bass instrument and kick drum in the center.

    • 3

      Insert effects. Click the "i" symbol in the lower-right corner of your window to view your "Effects" menu. At the top of the menu, you will find two tabs: "Real Instrument" and "Master Track." Use the "Real Instrument" tab to apply effects to individual tracks, or use the "Master Track" tab to apply effects to the whole mix. Select effects using the drop-down menus. For example, select "Compression" to limit unpleasant volume peaks, "Speech Enhancer" for clear vocals, "Tremolo" for rapid left-to-right volume variations or "Distortion" for a white noise effect. Use the "Reverb" and "Echo" sliders to add dimension to your recording.

    • 4

      Select "Visual EQ" on your "Effects" menu to adjust your song's frequency ranges. You can select a default setting, or you can manually adjust your frequencies using the visual grid. At the top of the grid (from right to left), you will find the words "Bass," "Low Mid," "High Mid" and "Treble," representing frequencies from low to high (the numeric representations appear at the bottom). If your song requires more low end, drag the line upward on the "Bass" side of the grid to add bass.

    • 5

      Cut up and rearrange your recordings. If you want to remove portions of a recording, repeat specific regions or move samples to new locations, use the "Split" option. Drag your vertical playhead (the moving time line cursor) over any spot where you want to create a split, click the region on which you want the split to occur and select "Edit," then "Split" on your menu bar. Then select a second location, or an ending point, and do the same. The space between your two splits will represent a new region, which you can drag with your mouse to any new location on the project window.

Recording Music

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