GarageBand – a DAW overview

1)

a. Track headers – Your song comes together track by track. In our example, it’s showing
eight different tracks labelled Electric Piano, Classic Studio Kit, Eighties Mixtape, P-Bass,
Kyle, Guitare électrique, Nice Room and Audio Recorder.

b. Instrument track – In any project, you can use either instrument or audio tracks. Here, the
selected instrument track is a virtual instrument which I played and recorded manually
using GarageBand’s integrated virtual keyboard.

c. Audio track – An audio track’s information is displayed in the corresponding audio region
as a graphical wave [i]. Audio tracks can be used to record sound or to drop pre-recorded
loops onto them.

d. Main arrangement window – This is where the main elements of the song are shown,
where you can see the information (notes, sound waves, etc.) as data that corresponds to
the tracks on the left.

e. Timeline – As the song plays, it moves from left to right (as indicated by the playhead /
edit cursor [f]) and through the bars of the song, shown as numbers.

f. Playhead / edit cursor

g. Instrument region – The visual representation of the track’s content. Its MIDI note data is
shown as small grey bars. Note that this region is selected (white outline).

h. Drummer region – As you can see by its different colour, this region contains yet another
type of data: it was created within a special Virtual Drummer track. This GarageBand key
feature provides us with the possibility of quickly generating realistic drum tracks.

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i. Audio region – The visual representation of the track’s content. Its data is displayed as a
graphical waveform.

j. Browser button – Opens the Sound browser, where you can choose a virtual instrument
or open the Live Loops grid.

k. Virtual input device / Tracks view button – Lets you switch between the current Tracks
view and the virtual input device (in this case an electric piano).

l. Live Loops

m. Track controls – Track, instrument and recording settings

n. Remix FX – Using the Remix FX, you can scratch-mix the song like a DJ using a turntable
and apply a variety of remix effects.

o. Undo button – Tap it to undo your previous edits.

p. Transport controls – You can move the playhead [f] by pressing various transport controls
to play, record or go to the beginning of the song.

q. Master volume slider – Lets you change the overall volume of the song.

r. Metronome – Provides a short and steady clicking or tapping sound to define and keep
the tempo. The metronome can be set to only be active during the count-off/ count-in.

s. Loop Browser button – This opens the Loop Browser, where you can find and preview
loops to add to your song. The Loop Browser is only available in Tracks view.

t. Settings button – Lets you view and edit song settings, including metronome, tempo, key
and time signature of your piece.

2) a. Track headers

b. Selected instrument track – Often,

tracks and regions need to be selected
before their content or settings can be
edited.

c. Track volume fader – Affects the

volume of the selected track.

d. Mute switch – Mutes the sound of

a track, keeping the audio from passing
through to the output. In this example,
it is switched on.

e. Solo switch – Temporarily silences

all channels besides the selected
one(s). Only soloed sound is heard. On
our specific track, it has been activated.

f. Track controls – Track, instrument

and recording settings

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g. Pan (pot) fader – Pan pots (short for Panoramic Potentiometers) are most commonly
knobs used to send a signal to the left or right channel (or speakers), both channels equally,
or a portion of each. Pan pots are used to create a stereo image when using two or more
speakers. In GarageBand, the pan pot takes the form of a fader instead of a knob.

h. Plug-ins & EQ – This is where you can add effects to a track and edit them in order to shape
its sound. In our example, the effects applied to the track include a compressor and an
equalizer. Check the Music Production Glossary for a more extensive list of effects.

i. Master effects – Each project has a set of master effects, including master echo (delay)
and master reverb, which can be controlled in this section.

The Track controls comprise a few more advanced settings that can be found under the
Track Settings tab:
a. Quantisation – A means of taking MIDI/audio data and
shifting it so it will then line up with user defined subdivisions of a
musical bar. Your recorded performance will thus be ‘on the grid’
and in time. The tool may be used to correct timing errors, but
over-quantisation can remove the human feel from a
performance. Useful when MIDI or audio has been recorded with
improper timing.

b. Transposition – This window displays which effects are

currently loaded onto the track and allows you edit them. You may
of course add (additional) effects manually.
In our example, the effects applied to the track provide us with
distortion, a compressor, an equalizer, as well as an audio filter.
Check the Music Production Glossary for a more extensive list of
effects and their description.

3)

Split tool – Allows you to split the selected region at

the, thus creating two new, smaller slices.
Audio region settings – These settings allow you,
amongst others, to transpose audio regions, i.e., to
change their key signature. Audio regions can be
transposed up or down by up to 12 semitones
(= 1 octave, interval between two notes with the
same name).

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Music Production Glossary

Digital audio workstation (DAW) – Electronic device or application software used for
recording, editing and producing music, songs, speech, radio, television, soundtracks,
podcasts, sound effects and nearly any other situation where complex recorded audio is
needed. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a
laptop all the way to a highly complex configuration of numerous components controlled by
a central computer. Regardless of configuration, modern DAWs have a central interface that
allows the user to alter and mix multiple recordings and tracks into a final produced piece.
Popular software DAWs include GarageBand, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Cubase and
PreSonus Studio One.

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a protocol developed in the 1980s allowing
electronic instruments and other digital musical tools to communicate with each other. MIDI
can be used within a single machine like a computer, or to transmit data between several
devices, such as a MIDI controller or a drum machine and a computer. MIDI data itself doesn’t
make any sound, it consists of a series of messages (such as "note on", "note off", "note/pitch",
"pitch bend") that are interpreted by a MIDI instrument to produce sound.
While the term MIDI generally refers to the notes and other data recorded when using
software instruments, it’s also used to designate the virtual instruments themselves. For
example, a software piano is also known as a MIDI piano, and the notes it records in your DAW
are known as MIDI notes.

Channel – A pathway through an audio device. For example, sound mixers have multiple input
channels and output channels. In the context of MIDI, Channel refers to one of 16 possible
data channels over which MIDI data may be sent. The organisation of data by channels means
that up to 16 different MIDI instruments or parts may be addressed using a single cable.

Track – Either means an individual audio channel in the production process (see page 1) or a
full piece of digital music.

Looping/cycling – Repeating a section of a song over and over again.

Mono – The opposite of stereo. A sound that has one source, rather than two.

Stereo – The opposite of mono. A sound that has two sources, rather than one. Creates the
illusion of horizontal space in recordings.

Fade (in, out) – The increase and decrease of volume at the beginning and end of a sound or
a song.

Audio effects – A treatment applied to an audio signal in order to change or enhance the way
it sounds. Audio effects can come in the form of electronic devices such as guitar pedals, as
well as digital processing units found within a DAW. Unprocessed audio is metaphorically
referred to as dry, while processed audio is referred to as wet.

Gain – The amount by which a sound processor amplifies a signal, normally denoted in
decibels (dB).

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Main audio effects
• Spectral effects – equalization (EQ) and panning (PAN)
• Time-based effects – reverb, delay and echo
• Dynamic effects – compression and distortion
• Modulation effects – chorus, tremolo, flanger and phaser
• Filters – high-pass filter (HPF), low-pass filter (LPF) and band-pass filter (BPF)

Equalization (EQ) – A sound processor that can boost or reduce certain frequencies in a sound.

Reverb – Short for reverberation. Reverb can be described as a time-based effect featuring a
series of echoes rapidly occurring one after the other. Simply put, it is the sound reflected off
a room or environment after an initial sound has been produced inside it. If more reverb is
desired, it can be added to a recording digitally via a reverb plugin.

Delay (or echo) – A processor that creates copies of a sound source that repeat over and over,
fading slowly. Commonly used with vocals and electric guitar.

Compression – Reducing a signal’s output volume in relation to its input volume to reduce its
dynamic range. Basically, when a sound gets louder than a certain level, a compressor turns
the sound down somewhat. This controls the dynamics of that sound to make it more
consistent.

Distortion – The result of a sound source overloading an amplifier or sound processor.

Basically, new frequencies are added where there were none before. This can be pleasing or
very harsh. The nature of the distortion depends on the equipment that is being distorted.
Distortion is commonly used with electric guitars.

Overdrive (or drive) – Usually refers to the type of distortion that occurs when an amplifier is
overloaded. Commonly used to describe guitar amp distortion. Overdrive is considered to be
“creamier” than the harshness of digital distortion.

Chorus – A sound processor that makes a sound seem doubled by creating several delayed
copies of the original sound and slightly varying the pitch of each copy. Used to “thicken” a
sound.

Tremolo – A sound processor that either quickly turns the volume of a sound up and down,
or quickly pans it left to right.

Flanger – Uses the same process as chorus, but with dramatically short delays. Rather than
“thickening” a sound, a flanger is usually less subtle. It’s been described as sounding “like an
airplane flying right over your head.”

Phaser – A sound processor that removes certain random frequencies by creating a copy of
the soundwave and moving it back and forth, causing a “phasing” sound.

Filter – A feature of an EQ that cuts the sound of the low end or the high end of the frequency
spectrum, or both. These are known as high-pass filter (HPF), low-pass filter (LPF), and band-
pass filter (BPF) respectively.