How to get started with making music in GarageBand for Mac

If you want to make music but don't know where to start, your first port of call should be GarageBand. This is all you need to know about laying tracks in Apple's music tool for macOS.

Mac's screen. That is, creating the music, producing the track, mastering it, and creating a final song you can share or even sell.

GarageBand is a big stepping stone for Mac users, due to being able to handle all of that work. It's also the starting point for many people wanting to move into a full career and onto other tools and production environments.

What you can learn in GarageBand can be taken with you into other music tools in the future. It may be free as part of Apple's ecosystem, but it can be the start of you making sweet music in the future.

What is GarageBand?

GarageBand is known as a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), a term used for software for recording audio files and making edits.

While a simple audio recording app like Voice Memos is an audio recorder, it isn't a real DAW. A DAW is usually a more complex tool, allowing for multiple recordings or tracks to be created and manipulated in various ways.

You could record an entire performance using Voice Memos, but you would end up with one recording and not much room to edit.

A DAW can record each audio element of a song separately, applying effects and edits on a granular level. These small snippets can then be combined to create a more fleshed-out track, giving you much more control over each individual element.

There are many different DAWs available, including Ableton Live, Avid Pro Tools, and Apple Logic Pro. There are many variations out there, each with their target audience and advantages over others.

In the case of GarageBand, it's a DAW that is one of the most beginner-friendly options out there. It can do practically any task that you would realistically need for audio production, and to a decent degree too.

You can always change to a different DAW if GarageBand ever feels limiting, even shifting projects you create to the paid version of Logic Pro.

By contrast to the other paid-for DAWs, GarageBand is great for or those on a budget, since all you need is a Mac and an idea. It's a relatively low barrier to entry, that can both help those wanting to dabble and people with bigger musical plans for the future.

For the purposes of this article, we are discussing the macOS version of GarageBand. It is also available for iOS, usable on an iPhone or an iPad.

GarageBand: Getting Started

When you open GarageBand, you are greeted by an initial window with a few options. Those tabs are:

• New Project: Where you go to create a new project.
• Recent: Shows existing projects you have started or worked on recently.
• Learn to Play: A selection of lessons for learning to play the guitar or the piano. Any lessons you download will appear here.
• Lesson Store: A section for selecting and downloading lessons for playing the guitar or piano. There are also Artist Lessons, which teach you to play various songs by the artists who made them famous.
• Project Templates: Basic projects that start in a layout or a specific section of GarageBand, instead of the default empty project.

At the bottom of the New Project and Project Templates, there's a Details section that can be expanded. This allows you to set up parameters for the project, including the tempo, the key the project will be in, the time signature, and input and output devices.

Once these are selected, click Choose to continue.

There's also a button to Open an existing project. Use this if a project doesn't appear under Recent, or you're opening a pre-existing project created elsewhere for the first time.

Clicking this brings up the usual file selection panel, so you can simply select the song then click Open.

GarageBand: Main Interface

Just like any DAW, the interface can be initially intimidating, but it's fairly straightforward to pick-up and learn. If you have used some vide-editing tools like iMovie for managing clips, you'll find some of those skills will transfer over here.

The main section of the interface is the Tracks area, which is where you will place your sound clips into to create the song. As the name implies, you can set up multiple tracks in this section, onto which you place your clips.

The tall vertical bar is the playhead, denoting what point in the composition is currently selected. At the top shows the bar, as well as beat markers.

At the top is the main menu interface, which includes from the left:

• Library: A section that brings up various items for the currently selected track, depending on what it is being used for, such as letting you change the instrument.
• Quick Help: It shows a pop-up window that will explain what you currently have your mouse cursor hovering over. This is especially handy when you're first learning to use GarageBand.
• Smart Controls: Brings up a section at the bottom of the screen to fine-tune any software instruments or sounds in the currently selected track section.
• Editors: Used to bring up an editor for the current track section. For example, redefining what the current software drummer plays, or entering a sequence of notes into a virtual piano roll.
• Media Controls: Toward the middle of the interface, these are used to navigate around your composition. You can also start to loop sections as well, and to start recording.
• LED Screen: A panel that shows the current bar and beat the playhead is located, as well as the tempo and other project details.
• Tuner: Opens the tuner, if you have physical instruments you want to play.
• Count-in: When you record with this enabled, you'll get a few seconds of warning, so you can count in and play in time with any other recorded parts.
• Metronome: Plays a regular click so that, if you're playing an instrument, you can keep in time with the other recorded elements. This is not recorded as part of the track.
• Master Volume Slider: The volume of the project when being played back in GarageBand. This is not the same as your Mac's own volume control.
• Notepad: On the far right of the screen, this brings up a section you can write notes into, which are saved as part of the project.
• Loop Browser: Lets you search through a collection of Apple-supplied loops and recordings to add to your project.

GarageBand: Loops and Tracks

A simple way to quickly make a composition without needing to play an instrument or even come up with a tune is to use Apple's Loop Browser. This contains thousands of samples in a variety of different beats, genres, and instrument types.

Open the Loop Browser and scour the collection for samples you want to try and use. If they are not immediately unavailable, click the arrow next to the name to download it.

For each loop you want to use, simply drag it from the Library onto the Track Area. You will be able to add it to a new track, as well as to place it into a specific position.

When it comes to Apple's loops, you can have them on separate tracks, or you could put multiple loops next to each other, on a single track.

Once in place, you can move the loop along the track, putting it earlier or later in the piece. Click on the snippet to select it then hit Delete or right-click then Delete to remove it.

Mouse over the right side of the loop to bring up handles, with what happens to the clip depending on where the cursor is positioned. Use it high on the track's edge and pull to the right to lengthen the loop clip by repeating the track from the start.

However, use the lower half of the handle on either the right or left side to shorten the clip or loop. The difference is that, while you can shorten the loop with the higher repeat option, it will only shrink down to the original size, while the lower position can shorten the original clip.

To help with making a basic beat, you can loop a specific section of the composition. Click the bar count line at the top of the Track Area to turn off the yellow coloring, then click and drag the section you want to repeat.

GarageBand will automatically snap the selected section to match a fraction of the beat, helping you achieve a good loop that takes up entire bars.

Once selected, click the Cycle button in the middle of the top menu, then press play. It will repeatedly play back just the selected bars, looping back to the start of the selection once it reaches the end.

If a clip is too long and you want to split it into two sections, you can do that by first lining up the playhead in the right position. Then, with the clip selected, right-click it and select Split at Playhead.

This will result in two instances of the same clip, separated at a point. Each is an instance of a clip, so you can extend the length again by dragging the ends sideways.

At the start of each track is a section called the Track Header. It includes some controls for that track specifically, including:

• The name of that track layer
• An icon representing the instrument or type of track it is
• A Mute button to silence the track for playback
• A Solo button so you only hear that track during playback, nothing else
• An Input Monitoring button, useful when recording audio
• A volume slider for that specific track. It is separate from the overall project volume control
• The Pan/Balance knob, to change whether a track plays evenly or louder in one ear.

With this alone, you can quickly put together a song using supplied loops. But you can always go further.

GarageBand: Recording your own audio

If you are a budding musician or a singer, you will want to add your instrument or voice to a song, While you could record clips separately and import them in, GarageBand does have its own capability to capture audio.

First, in your project, click the Plus arrow above the Track Header section to add a new track. This brings up the Create New Track dialog box.

You have four different options available:

• MIDI: Use a MIDI keyboard or a similar MIDI-equipped instrument.
• Drummer: Add a drum track using the built-in virtual drummers.
• Mic or Line: Using a microphone or a line-in audio connection to capture raw audio.
• Guitar or Bass: Capture the signal from a guitar or bass guitar. This can be put through virtual pedals and apps to affect the sound for the track.

Depending on what you select, you may see elements under Details to select what your preferred input source will be, such as a microphone.

You'll also be offered sources for playback. While you may want to use speakers, you should instead use headphones or earbuds if you're recording with a microphone that can pick up environmental audio. You can also elect to hear the instrument you're playing as you record, so you can monitor your input.

Mic or Line

This is the most obvious of the available connections, and is great for capturing both singing and raw audio from an acoustic instrument. Ideally, you could use a proper microphone and hardware interface for this, but simple microphones work well for scratch audio.

Select Mic or Line, and then Choose. This adds a new layer to the bottom of the Track Area. Move the playhead to before you want to add audio, then click Record, ideally with the count-in timer enabled.

Once you have finished recording the clip, click Stop to finish the recording. You'll gain a new clip on the track for your recorded audio.

To edit the recording further, you can double-click it to bring up the Editor screen. You can use this to adjust the recording, including stretching and adjusting the timing of elements and adjusting the pitch.

You can also add effects to your recording by opening the Library on the left. For vocals, this can help tune the voice in various ways, and the same can be performed for instruments and other sounds.

Further tweaks can be made to the audio recording by selecting Smart Controls with the audio segment selected. This brings up dials to change elements like the compressor, the delay time of effects, the EQ, and how much reverb is to be applied to the clip.

You can also toggle between the Track and Master, which affects the track alone or the entire project, respectively.

EQ is also available here, giving you a visual representation of the frequencies being heard in the recording. This can be used to massage your recording further, such as by cutting down on high-pitched frequencies or raising lower tones.

On the left, you can find some general settings for instruments and voices, though you can also manually tweak them as well. Mouse over the graph to see spline dots that you can move up and down, changing the graph's shape.

Guitar or Bass

The Guitar or Bass works in a similar way to Mic or Line, but with some changes.

As an aside, while it is named Guitar or Bass, there's nothing stopping you from hooking up an electric violin or other instruments instead.

Hardware-wise, you're plugging an electric guitar or bass into your Mac using some form of interface. Again, proper audio interfaces are the best choice here, but anything works so long as the signal reaches the Mac.

There are no real changes to the recording process, nor for editing after recording. However, you will need to head into the Library's Electric Guitar and Bass section to pick some effects.

This will let you switch between a number of amplifier styles, which affect the sound of the guitar on its final output into the recording. The dials change with each selection, but you can adjust the levels of the app as you wish.

On the right-hand side of the Smart Controls area is a button for Pedals, which brings up a software version of a guitarist's pedal board. These pedals form a chain that affects the signal between your guitar and the amp, and apply a variety of effects.

Much like a physical pedal, tap the buttons and move the dials on each to change how they function. Bear in mind that they are in a chain, so the order you place the pedals on the board matters.

MIDI

MIDI is a way for purely electronic instruments to communicate with a DAW by recording what notes are played. Rather than recording actual audio, it's a series of notes played over time, like an automatic player piano's scroll.

The easiest way to use this is to hook up an electric keyboard up to your Mac using USB, so long as the instrument supports MIDI. However, you can also create MIDI tracks without an instrument.

Other options exist, including clicking Window, then Show Keyboard to have a visual keyboard you can click.

If you want to mimic a physical musical keyboard, select to show Musical Typing. With this enabled, you can tap any of the shown keys on your Mac's keyboard to play a specific note.

The process of recording is pretty much the same, except you click to add a new track and then select Midi from the list. A track for a software instrument will appear, which you can then adjust using the Library's virtual instrument selection.

You're not limited to just keyboards here, as there's a selection ranging from glockenspiels to guitars, and even a drum kit.

As before, click Record with the track selected to start the recording, then play your physical keyboard or software keyboard. Stop the recording once complete.

Once again, you can change the instrument and make changes to the MIDI recording after the fact. However, you can get more detailed control over the notes themselves.

If you double-click the MIDI clip, you get to see the Piano Roll, which shows which keys and notes are played at which moment. Click on each note to select it, and then stretch and move them on the grid to fix any mistakes.

The Piano Roll is also a good way to create the melody without actually "playing" an instrument at all, as you can simply draw notes onto it.

You can also change the view to the Score, which shows the MIDI section in the form of traditional sheet music notation.

GarageBand: Drummers

Adding drums to your composition can be done in a few ways. If you have a drum kit and the requisite microphones, you can capture your playing and insert it straight into the piece.

You also have the ability to use the drum virtual instruments with MIDI to create the beat, too. However, there is another way, and it uses GarageBand's house drummer collection.

In the Create New Track section, select Drummer, which is described as one that can automatically play along with your song. Click Create.

This creates a drummer, typically colored in yellow, with an eight-bar pattern. You should place this where you want the drums to start from, and then to repeat it as much as necessary by extending the bar.

With the drum track selected, open the Library to see sections for Drummers and Sounds.

Drummers are different variations of drumming, usually based on a particular style within a genre. For example, under Rock drummers, you can select from drummers in the pop, retro, hard, punk, funk, and Britpop styles.

Under Sounds, you can change the drum kit that the drummer will play. While the Drummer changes how the drums are actually played, Sounds affects the sound element independently.

With the drum section selected, you can make further tweaks to both the Drummer and Sounds by going to the Editor or Smart Controls, respectively.

The Editor will let you fine-tune the drummer's play style, including a number of beat presets to get you off and running. You can also adjust how simple or complex the beat is, along with the loudness and softness.

Next to it is a representation of the drum kit that you can order the drummer to use. This includes setting which percussion or drum kit part they should use, complete with sliders to change the pattern.

If your current composition is compatible with it, you can have part of the drum automatically following in time with another audio clip. For example, the Kick and Snare could be set to follow a bass beat on a different track.

On the far right are options to adjust the level of fills and swing that the drummer will perform.

Using Smart Controls, you can also adjust the individual drum kit element loudness, as well as any effects note. This is good if you want to lower the volume of cymbals in your composition, or to raise the impact of other parts.

GarageBand: Exports and Sharing

Once you've finished making your music, the next thing is to distribute it to others. In most cases, this will involve the creation of a finished file, rather than the project itself.

Before you do so, you may want to go to the Main Menu and select GarageBand, then Settings. Under the My Info tab, enter your composer name, artist name, album name, and playlist, which will be applied to all shared tracks.

In the main menu, select Share to see your options.

Share to Music will save a copy of your track to your own personal Apple Music account. The options allow you to set the title and update your artist settings, change the audio quality, and choose between exporting a selected section of the project or the entire thing.

Share to AirDrop will let you share the song or the project with another device over AirDrop. Again, you can change some settings before sending the file over.

Share to Mail is the same as AirDrop, except clicking Share will open a new blank email in Mail containing the project or song. You can then email the package to someone else.

Share Project to GarageBand for iOS will package the project in a way that can be opened and edited from the iOS version of GarageBand. The project is then shared to iCloud, which can then be opened on an iPhone or iPad.

Export Song to Disk will create an audio file of the project as an AAC, MP3, AIFF, or WAV file. The interface asks where you want to save it, the quality of the recording, and if you want to export only the selected part of the project.

GarageBand: A Primer

This guide doesn't cover every feature available in GarageBand, but it does go over a lot of the stuff included in the DAW.

While a seasoned pro may want something more powerful, a beginner or anyone dabbling in music creation will have a lot to learn from and play with in this tool.

Who knows, this may even turn you into the next Billy Eilish if you're lucky.