Garageband Backing Tracks
Free guitar backing tracks for Jamtracks in MP3 format. Download for free. Here is a tutorial for how I create backing tracks with Garageband and Toontrack's EZ Drummer 2 and EZ Keys. These tools from Toontrack are very helpful for songwriters. You can create good sounding backing tracks or songs really quickly. You can learn more about Toontracks software over at toontrack.com. Using Toontrack tools, I can create.
The track is the basic building block of a song; each song is made up of one or more tracks. In GarageBand, you can record only one track at a time so that you can adjust and mix separate elements. For example, when you begin laying tracks, you can record everyone in your band playing a song together or record yourself playing the piano and singing at the same time. If you do, however, you can’t adjust only the drums or only the vocals later in the mixing stage. If you want to adjust, say, the guitar or the vocals separately from the rest of the song, you have to record each part individually — on a separate track.
To record a track in GarageBand, follow these steps:
1. Open GarageBand and create a new song.
You can create a new song in one of two ways:
• If this is the first time you’ve launched GarageBand or no song was open when you quit GarageBand, a “Welcome to GarageBand” dialog box appears. Click the Create New Song button, and that’s what will happen — a new song window appears.
• If a song opened when you launched GarageBand, you can create a new song by choosing File –> New.
2. When you see the standard OS X Save As dialog box appear, as shown in Figure 1, give your song a name and tell GarageBand where to save the file.
Figure 1: GarageBand’s Save As dialog box offers adjustable settings.
Check out How to Record an External Keyboard With iPad GarageBand by Ed Ahead on Snapguide. /garageband-ipad-keyboard-input.html.
You can also set some basic settings for the song. The settings that are shown in Figure 1 are the default and the most common settings for a song. Of course, you can change these settings for any song using the menus and slider, as follows:
• Tempo: Use this slider to adjust the tempo.
• Time: The pop-up menu lets you adjust the time signature. The adjacent bpm box indicates the beats per minute as selected with the Tempo slider. (If you type a new number in the box, the Tempo slider will move by the appropriate amount.)
• Key: Use this pop-up menu to adjust the key.
Omnisphere 2.6 includes a stunning new “Hardware Library” with over 1,600 new patches created by Eric Persing and the renowned Spectrasonics Sound Development team. Each hardware profile has a corresponding set of sounds in the Hardware Library which were specially designed using that hardware synth as an Omnisphere controller. Select the Folder Icon Button or click on the Patch Name Display to open the Full Patch Browser. Full Patch Browser The Patch Browser can also be accessed from the Mixer page (Patch Name Displays), from the LIVE MODE page when Mixer Controls are enabled, and from the STACK MODE by control/right-click its Part Region and selecting the “Popup browser to choose new patch” option from the context. The omnisphere 2 patch browser.
It’s probably a good idea to leave the Tempo, Time, and Key settings alone if you don’t know what they mean, at least for now. You can always change them later if you like.
After you save the file, you see the timeline, where your new song is just waiting for you to put something on its tracks.
3. Create a track by choosing Track –> New Track, by pressing Command-W, or by clicking the New Track button on-screen.
Whichever you choose, the New Track dialog box appears.
4. Click the name of the type of track that you want to create (at the top of the window): Real Instrument or Software Instrument.
GarageBand offers three different kinds of tracks: Real instrument tracks, software instrument tracks, and one master track per song. You can have as many real and software instrument tracks as your hardware can handle, but each song has but a single master track.
When you’re laying down tracks, real and software instrument tracks are the ones that you need to focus on. The master track comes into play in the mastering stage.
Here’s how to choose the right type of track for the instrument that you want to record:
• Real instrument tracks: If you connect an instrument — an electric guitar, electronic piano, synthesizer, or any other electronic instrument or a microphone — directly to your Mac when you record, this device requires a real instrument track in GarageBand. Vocals are also considered real instruments in GarageBand, so you record them on real instrument tracks. There is one exception — a MIDI keyboard.
• Software instrument tracks: If you connect a MIDI keyboard to your Mac, you use a software instrument track. This is also the type of track to use if you want to record a track using GarageBand’s built-in software instruments.
After you select the type of track that you want to record, a set of related options appears in the left. At this point, recording a real instrument track becomes a little different from recording a software instrument track.
After you record a track, the “region” you just recorded appears on that track in the timeline in its proper color — real instruments are blue, and software instruments are green. The tracks even glow their proper color when you select them. Loops and real audio regions in the timeline are also colored this way. You’ll have it memorized in no time; blue tracks are real instrument tracks, while green tracks are software instrument tracks.
GarageBand for iOS saves songs within the app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. If you delete the GarageBand app, you'll also delete your songs. In case you ever have to delete and reinstall the app, make sure to back up your songs first. You can back up your songs by uploading them to iCloud, exporting them to iCloud Drive, or copying them to another Apple device using AirDrop.
You can also back up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. A backup of your iOS device includes the songs saved within the GarageBand app. Make sure to back up your device so you can access your songs in case you lose, replace, or damage it.
Upload songs to iCloud
When you upload your songs to iCloud, you can access them and keep them up to date on all your iOS devices. You can upload all your songs at once to iCloud.
- Make sure to turn on iCloud for GarageBand.
- On an iPhone or iPod touch, tap in the Control Bar, then tap My Songs.
On an iPad, tap My Songs in the Control Bar. - Tap Select.
- Tap the songs you want to upload.
- In the Control Bar, tap .
- Tap Upload Songs to iCloud. After your songs upload to iCloud, you'll see them in the My Songs browser with an iCloud icon.
If you delete and reinstall the app or if you get a new device, songs uploaded to iCloud automatically appear in the My Songs browser. To access the songs on a new device, make sure to sign in with your Apple ID.
Export songs to iCloud Drive
Using iCloud Drive, you can access your songs from another iOS device, a Mac, or a PC. You can export one song at a time to iCloud Drive.
- Make sure to set up iCloud Drive on your devices.
- On an iPhone or iPod touch, tap in the Control Bar, then tap My Songs.
On an iPad, tap My Songs in the Control Bar. - Tap Select.
- Tap the song you want to back up.
- Tap .
- In the Share dialog, tap iCloud Drive.
- Tap Project.
- Browse to the location where you want to save the song.
After reinstalling GarageBand or getting a new device, you can import a song from iCloud Drive to GarageBand on your device.
- On an iPhone or iPod touch, tap in the Control Bar, then tap My Songs.
On an iPad, tap My Songs in the Control Bar. - Tap , then tap Import from iCloud Drive.
- In the iCloud Drive dialog, locate and tap the song you want to import.
The GarageBand songs you keep in iCloud use your iCloud storage. When you sign up for iCloud, you automatically get 5 GB of free storage. If you use all your iCloud storage, you can buy more. Or you can use AirDrop to back up your songs to another device.
Back up songs using AirDrop
To back up your songs to another Apple device, you can use AirDrop. AirDrop makes a copy of the song on another Apple device.
- Make sure to turn on AirDrop on your Mac and your iOS device.
- On an iPhone or iPod touch, tap in the Control Bar, then tap My Songs.
On an iPad, tap My Songs in the Control Bar. - Tap Select.
- Tap the song you want to back up.
- Tap .
- Tap the name of the AirDrop user or Apple device you want to send the file to.
- Tap Project. AirDrop copies the song to the following locations:
Garageband Backing Tracks Download
- On a Mac, the song is saved to the Downloads folder.
- On an iOS device, the song opens in GarageBand. If GarageBand isn’t installed on that device, you can choose to get the app or save the song to iCloud Drive.
Learn More
- Use iCloud with GarageBand on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
- Use iCloud Drive.
- Use AirDrop with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.