Getting more out of GarageBand - Recording a real instrument (part 1)

Recording a real instrument (part 1)

So you're sitting there with your guitar in your hands (or a kazoo taped to a mic, depending on your budget), with GarageBand launched and waiting. So how do you bring the two of them together? That's what this series of articles is all about.

Make a sound

The first thing to do is get the sound you're making into your computer

With acoustic instruments (including your voice) you have one option — you play (or sing) into a microphone. Mic-ing an instrument — mic-ing anything, in fact — is something of an art. The further away from the sound source you place a mic, the more natural reverb you get, but the quieter the sound compared to any background noise (including electrical hum induced by external sources, such as your computer, or the instrument amplifier itself). Also, the direction you point the mic makes a difference — point it downwards for a bassier sound, upwards for more treble. The quality of the microphone itself, of course, makes a lot of difference.

With an electrical instrument, or an acoustic instrument fitted with a pickup, you have two options. You can plug it straight into your Mac's Audio In or another sound input device, or, for a more authentic sound, you can plug the instrument into an amp, place a microphone in front of the amp, and plug the mic into your Mac.

So can GarageBand actually hear you?

You can make all the noise in the world, but if your Mac isn't listening, GarageBand will record silence.

To check, in GarageBand, create a new track (choose New Track from the Tracks menu), and click the Real Instruments tab on the New Track window. You don't even have to click Create to see if sound is getting through. You should see it in the new track's green level indicators (you may have to move the New Track window to see it).

Play a few notes or sing into your mic and you should see some green, and it should be at a good level — not too low, and not in the red.

If it's in the red, and you're using an amplified instrument, you should turn down your amplifier till you're out of the red, otherwise what you record will be distorted. Turning it down once you've recorded it will not solve this problem. The distortion will already be recorded. Fix the problem at the source.

Similarly, if the signal is too low, you might think you can cure it by simply turning it up once you've recorded it. The trouble with this approach is that you'll also be turning up any background noise along with the music. Again, if you're using an amplified instrument, to solve this problem, simply turn the amp volume up a bit. (Or sing a bit louder into your mic.) Another solution is discussed in the next section.

The first rule of recording a real instrument is to get the basic sound right from the start — you might be tempted to think you can fix a distorted or weak signal "in the mix", but that will give you less control of it later on. If you have to turn up a low signal using GarageBand's sliders, or instance, you may well hit its maximum volume before you reach a useable level. Plus, of course, you will have to use equalisation and the gate effect (covered in a later article) to combat background noise.

Fix it now to avoid the problem.

A quick look at System Preferences

There is another place to look if your signal level is not perfect, or is even lacking altogether. This is your Mac's System Preferences Sound preference pane.

Open up System Preferences, choose Sound, then click the Input tab. This screen allows you to choose which sound device is used for input, and gives you a volume adjustment slider to control the level of the input signal. You can check sound coming in via the blue input level indicator.

System Sound preferences Input pane

Note that changing the sound device you use for input via the Sound preferences pane will not change which sound device GarageBand takes its input from. To do this, you'll have to go to GarageBand's Audio/MIDI preference pane and change the Audio Input popup.

If you're using an external device, such as Griffin Technology's excellent iMic, you can also find some more settings in the Audio/MIDI Setup application, which you'll find in your Mac's Applications/Utilities folder.

A brief guide to troubleshooting audio-in

If you're having difficulties getting the signal level right (or getting any signal at all), the best thing to do is take a logical approach to finding the source of the problem.

Follow every stage of the audio signal from source (the instrument) to GarageBand itself. Check things in this order:

1. Sound source. The instrument itself. Check it's turned on(!), and that its volume knob is not at 0.

2. Microphone. Is the mic turned on? Is it plugged into a mic-level input? (The Mac built-in input, for instance. With a Griffin iMic, you may have to click the little switch to the microphone setting.)

3. Cables from instrument to computer. Do these work? Try plugging your instrument into an amp, or using another cable just to check.

4. System settings. Check sound is getting through to the computer using the System Preferences Sound preference pane.

5. GarageBand itself. Make sure you have selected an audio track and that its red record enable button is on. Make sure GarageBand's Audio/MIDI preferences are set so that GarageBand is listening to the right sound device.