Garageband hints and tips

{This is another session from the Apple RTC meeting in Newcastle. Again I'm having a go at sending direct from my SPV M3100" since that's what I used to take the notes in the first place.}

Joe Moretti - Music

Garageband puts the ability to create and play with music into everybody's hands. Lot of good stuff just built into Garageband. However he will also look at third party hardware and software.

Plug in an instrument and adjust the amp settings manually. You can then save these as instruments. Don't use the pre-sets.

The relationship with iTunes means you can burn a CD or save to mp3 player for pupils to work at home.

There are things you can do to save CPU. Eg convert midi instruments to real and lock tracks.

You can edit midi instruments and create basic beats to work with. (Double click the midi loop.) Detailed midi editing a good way in moving beyond using loops by creating simple rhythms.

Sound effects added to keys and saved as instrument. Look at details and play with the vocal transformer. Able to extensively edit the sound.

Use master pitch to teach about transposition.

Lots of stuff on his website.

{I've done some minor editing on this entry now (does adding a picture count as minor?) and I'm disappointed that I failed to capture the excitement engendered by this session. Joe was excellent and he showed some seriously cool stuff. Also, I realised there were a couple of things that I should have mentioned... Firstly, he plugged his guitar directly into the Mac, no amp or midi, just the guitar phono plug at one end and a Walkman style plug at the Mac end. He then played along with and recorded into Garageband. I didn't know you could do that. Secondly, he showed us a lead that plugs into the guitar but has a USB connector at the other end and some clever electronics in the middle so you can play your guitar and record midi tracks into Garageband. Finally, he showed us a free instrument plug-in - the MDR Acordian... and who wouldn't want an accordian for Garageband. :-) }

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