Recording a real instrument (part 2)

Creating an audio track

So you've got sound going into GarageBand, and now you want to record. What's the first thing to do? Create a Real Instrument track (choose New Track from the Tracks menu), then click on the Real Instrument tab right at the top. (Once you've created the track, you can change all of the options covered in this article except this one — a Real Instrument track can't be converted into a Software Instrument track, and vice versa.)

You'll find yourself presented with GarageBand's track presets for real instruments. So what are these?

Presets, presets and more presets

One of the things that makes GarageBand so easy to use is the number of presets it makes available. Presets are saved settings which let you quickly get a result — in this case, a sound you can use. For instance, when you create a Real Instrument track in GarageBand, the first thing you do is choose from the two-pane presets box at the top of the window:

The left-hand side of this box lists groups of presets by instrument type, while the right-hand side lists the actual presets in the group you've chosen. (You don't have to, of course, always use a preset from the Guitars group if you're recording a guitar — feel free to experiment.)

If you click the Details... arrow at the bottom of the Create Track window, you'll be able to see what each preset means. Click on a few and you'll see the effects and other settings in the Details... section change according to the preset.

You'll also notice in this Details... section that each of the effects has a popup menu next to it. What are these popups for? Surprise, surprise, they're more presets. Not only does GarageBand group together effects in presets, but each effect has its own set of individual presets, too. (You can't, for some reason, go in and fine-tune any of these effects' settings yet — their edit (pencil) buttons are greyed out till you've created the track. You can then access them by double-clicking the track to get up the Track Info window.)

Note that if you're happy with the sound your instrument is generating as it is and don't want to add any of GarageBand's effects, you can quickly create a Basic Track, which is a Real Instrument track with no effects, by choosing New Basic Track from the Tracks menu, or by hitting shift--N.

Other track settings

There are a few more settings to look at before you actually hit Create, and these are the controls just above the Create and Cancel buttons:

To the left you'll see an icon with a popup triangle in the bottom right corner. This allows you to choose an icon suitable to the use you're putting the track to. For instance, if you've selected a guitar preset (apart from No Effects), you'll see a guitar here. Feel free to change it. It has absolutely no effect on the sound of the track, and is good for keeping tabs on what each track is. Just click on the image and choose one from the window that pops up.

Next to this, the Input popup allows to determine whether a track records in stereo or not. Why should you want to change this? Well, if you're recording a mono instrument, such as most guitars, you'll find that you're only recording to one stereo channel anyway. In this case, you should make the track mono. Choose the channel that the sound's coming through. (Play your instrument and see which half of the track's level indicator reacts.)

Beneath the Input popup is the Monitor popup. This allows you to hear the sound as its being recorded, which is a way to hear how each preset sounds, so it's a good idea to turn the monitor on while you're selecting a sound. However, before you create the track, it's often a good idea to turn it off, particularly while you're recording on that track. Why? Because of latency.

Latency

Latency is the word for the delay caused by the time it takes a computer to play back a sound it is recording due to the processing the sound has to go through. This will only be in a tiny delay of less than a second, but it can be very distracting, as it makes you think you're playing out of time and try to compensate, which can be frustrating as you might actually be playing in time, only hearing the results out of time.

That's why it's best to record tracks with the monitor off, particularly rhythm tracks. Lead tracks, such as guitar solos and so on, can sometimes benefit from your hearing your instrument, and the timing can be a bit looser. It's just something to be aware of.

Click Create

Once you've got a sound you like, click the Create button. But remember you can always change the settings on a track afterwards by bringing up the Track Info window.

One final thing to do is name the track. GarageBand automatically gives it the name of the preset you chose, and while this may be what you want, it probably isn't if you chose something like the No Effects preset.

To change the name of the track, click on the name and hover the mouse there for a second or so, till the name becomes editable:

Give the track a name that can tell you at a glance what that track's for, such as Lead guitar or Harmony Kazoo #3. It's up to you.

See also

Recording a real instrument (part 1)

Recording a real instrument (part 3)

Recording a real instrument (part 4)