It is difficult to change the tempo of an individual track in GarageBand because all tracks will match the tempo of the song by default. But if you copy tracks into new loops, you can hold the speed of those tracks steady as you adjust the tempo of the song.

1. Garageband Download For Mac

Check out MacMost Now 601: Changing the Tempo Of Tracks in GarageBand 11 at YouTube for closed captioning and more options.

Change song settings in GarageBand for iPad. Every GarageBand song has settings for the metronome and count-in, as well as the song tempo (speed), key, and time signature, which you can change at any time.You can also add an automatic fade-out.

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost Now. On today's episode let me show you how to change the tempo of a single track in GarageBand.So you can search all over the internet on how to change the tempo of a single track in GarageBand and come up with the answer that it can't be done.Most of those sites don't bother to explain why you can't do that at least not easily and of course there is a work around.Let me show you. So here I've got a pretty simple set of two loops in GarageBand. That's what it sounds like. And suppose I want to increase the tempo of this drum track here without increasing the tempo of the electric guitar track.So doubling the speed of this keeping the speed of this the same well it doesn't seem like you can do that. If you go to this one track here and simply go down to the bottom I have project selected down here I can increase the tempo, double it, and it will double the tempo for the entire thing. Now, if I want to increase just the one track it doesn't matter how I select it or what I do to select which one. It's going to increase the tempo of the entire project which isn't what I want.But first let's take a look at why is this happening. Its pretty easy to find out if you go down here and you look at the track editor you could see that if I have a track selected it has follow tempo and pitch turned on. Both of these tracks have follow tempo and pitch.Now this is a fundamental part of GarageBand because you have all these loops here on the right and they're actually all recorded at different tempo and pitches and when you bring them into a single project it matches them together. That's how you can use all of these different loops together. Otherwise you'd only be able to use loops of a certain tempo and pitch with other loops of the same.So if I were to select this one here and turn that off you can see what happens that track actually is shorter in one measure. It's actually a lot slower. This is what it really sounds like if I solo it. A little faster if I turn on follow tempo and pitch. That is matching to the 120 beats that the track is set to.So because I'm using follow tempo and pitch for all the tracks of course if I adjust the tempo it adjusts them for everything. So I want to get away from follow tempo and pitch in order to adjust a track. If I turn it off of course then it's not going to match.But if I leave it on and then go to edit and add to loop library I get to basically make a copy of that loop and this could be something I recorded so it doesn't have to be something from the actual loops there. And I'm going to just do a test one and go into create it and that's going to create a new loop. Now it won't actually even be there I'm gonna search for it here on the loop browser and just search for it by the name that I gave it test and there it is. I'm gonna to bring that in and you can see that its identical to this one. Matter of fact if I were to solo both of the tracks I'd just get double that. They're both the same.The difference is is that if I start this one and I say don't follow tempo and pitch you can see it doesn't change because its default tempo and pitch is the 120 beats down here whereas the default for here is the original recording.Now I can delete that track and I have this track here - the guitar track set to be follow tempo and pitch so it's going to change speeds and this one here to the the default for each track that's not going to follow tempo and pitch. It doesn't matter if I select that cuz they're both 120 beats per minuteso now what I can do is I can change the tempo of the entire thing and I could double it and what will happen is because I've doubled that and this is not following tempo and pitch it actually slows down this track. It stretches it out over twice the amount of time.So when I play back, what's happened is I‘ve doubled the tempo of this one cause it's following tempo and pitch but I have not doubled the tempo of this one at all. It's remained the same because it's not following tempo and pitch. And in fact, I've sped that one up twice and I've kept that one the same.So it's kind of counterintuitive because what you're doing is you're taking the tracks where the speed is exactly what you want and you're duplicating them as a new loop and then you're turning off follow tempo and pitch.So those are kind of like locked in to that speed. Then the remaining track or track where you want the speed to adjust those are still set to follow tempo and pitch and you can adjust your entire song as necessary to speed up or slow down those while the other ones are held steady.Of course the other solution is to this that you may see elsewhere is to isolate the parts that you want to speed up in a single GarageBand project and then speed them up get them the perfect speed export them and then bring them back in as an audio file. You could do the same thing using another sound program like say audacity go and change the tempo of them as a separate audio file and bring them in.I think this is a little bit easier and still leaves everything open and editable in some way.So there are some options for you. Hope you found this useful. Until next time, this is Gary with MacMost Now.

1) To change the tempo in Garageband, click on the “Tempo” number in the top-center of the DAW along where it also lists the bars in each measure, as well as the Key Signature. 2) Then just double-click on the actual number, and type in the desired tempo. Feb 27, 2018 GarageBand on a Mac has more flexibility. It has now a tempo track and a transposition track, where we can change the overall tempo and key within the project. But it took many years, before Apple added these useful features. The first versions of GarageBand on the Mac had a fixed tempo and key for the whole song, just like GarageBand iOS now.

Changing the tempo in Garageband is as easy walking and chewing bubble gum.

Let’s do like DeFranco and just jump right into it.

How To Change The Tempo in Garageband – (The Easy Way)

1) To change the tempo in Garageband, click on the “Tempo” number in the top-center of the DAW along where it also lists the bars in each measure, as well as the Key Signature.

2) Then just double-click on the actual number, and type in the desired tempo.

Now, using this tool is helpful in a number of different ways, but for the moment, we’ll talk about another handy feature recently introduced into the Garageband user’s arsenal.

I believe in 2014 (although I could be wrong), Apple released the new tempo system where you can introduce different tempos at different times of the song.

That’s right, you can actually play a song at separate tempos in corresponding regions of your music.

In fact, you can change the tempo of your track as many times as you’d like. It doesn’t all have to be the same pace.

How To Change Only A Portion Of A Song’s Beats Per Minute

First things first.

1) Head into the Garageband settings where it says, “Track.”

2) Select, “Show Tempo Track” (or use the ‘Shift + Command + T’ shortcut)

3) Now, you’ll see that Garageband has shown the tempo track where you can adjust at which point precisely, the tempo will change.

4) Similar to the volume automation function, create automation dots wherever you want to begin.

5) Create one dot where you want the automation to begin. Click the other dot where you want the automation to end.

6) Now, drag and drop the line created to your desired tempo, and you can turn off the ‘Tempo Track.’

It functions a little bit different than the yellow Automation lines, but it still works perfectly, nonetheless.

*Unfortunately, you can’t adjust the tempo by decimal places in the same way that you can with volume automation. Although, minuscule changes in tempo aren’t particularly useful anyway.

Tips and Tricks Involving Tempo Changes

The ‘Enable Flex’ button.

This button down below in the smart controls allows one to do a couple of different things.

1)To bring up the ‘Enable Flex’ option, double-click on your ‘MIDI Region’ within the DAW’s ‘Workspace.’

2) Then, click on the option, ‘Track,’ rather than ‘Region,’ and you’ll see right away three different options, ‘Pitch Correction,’ ‘Limit to Key,’ and ‘Enable Flex.’

The ‘Enable Flex’ function is useful for changing the tempo and key signature of an uploaded sample – or un-checking the box in case of the opposite, which we’ll explore right now.

How To Change The BPM of an Audio Recording

Firstly, you can change the BPM of an audio recording by hitting the “Enable Flex,” and then adjusting the BPM at the top centre of the DAW.

1) Click “Track” down in your smart controls.

2) Check the box “Enable Flex.”

3) Change the BPM at the top-center of the DAW.

You’ll notice that it’ll actually change the BPM of the audio recording now, rather than just adjusting the track’s position in the Workspace according to each beat and time signature.

*It’s worth noting that if you don’t want to change the audio recording at all, and just want to re-arrange the way in which the recording falls in time for the sake of synchronization, just don’t hit the ‘Enable Flex’ button. But we’ll explore that in the next section below.

How To Change The Song’s BPM Without Changing The Audio

From what I understand, it’s not actually possible to do this in Garageband without jumping through significant hoops. However, there is a way of doing it in a way that takes a bit of time.

You can’t adjust the beats-per-minute without changing the way the audio sounds in the DAW, unless, it’s an audio recording, rather than a MIDI file. However, through the use of Apple Loops, one can actually do this.

If you adjust the beats-per-minute then pretty much every sound in GarageBand will change unless you’ve used loops.

Let’s say, for example, you’ve just uploaded an Apple Loop in your Workspace.

If you want to adjust the tempo of your music, without touching the tempo of the Loop, it’s as simple as changing one of the settings in the Smart Controls.

Down in the Smart Controls, in the ‘Region’ section, there is a button that says, “Follow Tempo and Pitch.” If you haven’t checked the box, the Loop won’t change in accordance with Tempo and Key Signature adjustments

For a step-by-step process:

1)Highlight the Track and Go into the Smart Controls.

2) Click on ‘Region.’

3) Uncheck the box, “Follow Tempo and Pitch.”

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This should allow you to change the rest of the song, without messing with the tempo and pitch of the Loop. Unfortunately, however, we can’t use this feature for MIDI or audio recordings.

How To Change The Tempo Of Just One Track

Due to the limitations of GarageBand as a software, there are some things we cannot do, but on the other hand, many we can. With that said, it’s still a great program for a beginner or intermediate music producers and musicians.

Fortunately, through trial-and-error, there are ways of making things possible with a little bit of innovation and initiative.

While it’s technically “not possible” to change the tempo of just one track region in GarageBand, it actually is if we create Apple Loops.

It takes a little bit of work to make this happen, but it is possible. Basically, what you want to do is upload a MIDI region into Apple Loops, save it as a “One Shot” loop, rather than a “Loop.”

And once the Loop has been added to the Loop Library , you can add it to an Audio Track Region in your DAW without worrying about pitch or key signature adjustments.

Without further ado, here is the step-by-step process:

1) Highlight the track of which you want to change tempo.

2) Now click “File” in Garageband’s Toolbar. Registry tool virtual dj download.

3) Click the button, “Add Region to Loop Library,” or, you can use the Keyboard Shortcut, “Control + Shift + o” (the lower-case letter not the number).”

4) It’ll bring up the options for adding loops to the library, and you want to click on the check-box that says, “One-Shot.” So now you’ve created your loop.

5) Make a new “Audio” track as you normally would: (I use the Shift + Command + A option because it’s a lot faster).

6) Go into your Loop Library now by clicking on the “Loop” icon that looks like a hose on. the top-right-hand side of the DAW.

7) Find the loop you just created.

8) Now, drag and drop the loop into the Audio Track that you just created. *It’s important to note that you have to drag and drop the Loop into an Audio Track Region rather than a MIDI one.

9) And voila! Now you have a region of music in your DAW that won’t change whenever you adjust the tempo (beats-per-minute) or the key signature.

How To Change The Tempo By Just One Decimal Point

This is quite straightforward, but it’s a feature that not a lot of people are aware of. GarageBand users can actually adjust the tempo of the music by decimal points, rather than just whole numbers.

It’s intuitive. Just type in the number including the decimal places you want where you normally would in the BPM/Tempo part of the DAW.

How To Identify The Tempo Of A Song

As I’ve written in another article under the section, “Important things to Note When Chopping Music” (link here),identifying the tempo of a song can be challenging as a beginner, but after a few tries, you should be able to figure it out.

Every person, or most of them anyway, has the ability to find the beat of music naturally.

For instance, when a person nods their head to the beat or dances to the music, one has to have a natural feel for the tempo and beats-per-minute to do so.

There are a number of different ways of determining the tempo, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll outline how I do it.

Essentially, what I do is I tap my finger on the desk along to the beat of the track, and then I begin typing in the number that I feel is the closest to the Tempo, then I turn on the metronome in GarageBand and make sure that it matches the music.

Usually, it takes more than one try, but I’ll continue typing numbers until it has matched completely.

If you don’t already own a metronome, I highly recommend getting one. They’re great for practicing as well as recording.

Even though Garageband comes with one built in, an authentic wooden metronome is a lot better to use. You can read about the one I recommend here.

As I’ve written before in the article linked above, you can tell that the song/sample/track is perfectly in time based on how the region lines up in the DAW.

In the image above, you can see that the sample doesn’t line. up perfectly because the tempo hasn’t been set correctly. *It’s important to note, however, that this won’t work if you have the option, “Follow Tempo and Pitch,” turned on.

As you can see, the tempo is set at 90 beats per minute, the correct BPM, so the sample lines up perfectly in the DAW.

What Is The Best Tempo For GarageBand

For obvious reasons, this is a question whose answer depends almost entirely on what kind of person you are and the style of music you’re into.

Because I’ve been making a lot of hip-hop/jazz/rock style tracks lately, I usually create songs between 90 and 120 beats per minute.

Some people choose 150 beats-per-minute. For reference, I’ve included a chart below to illustrate each BPM setting.

You’ll notice that the terminology is in Italian, which is normal for standard musical notation due to its origins in Italy and Germany.

Largo (super slow) – 40 – 60 BPM.

Larghetto (still extremely slow but not as much) – 60 – 66 BPM.

Adagio (slow but slowly speeding up) 66 – 76 BPM

Andante (Moderate speed. This area is starting to get more normal for music, and it’s usually the rate that I employ) 76 – 108 BPM

Moderato (Considered as moderate speed but it’s faster than Andante) – 108 – 120 BPM.

Allegro (Quite fast) 120 – 168 BPM

Presto (Very fast) 168 – 200 BPM

Prestissimo (Super fast. Almost no one will ever play at this speed, not in popular music, anyway) 200+ BPM

As you can see from the tempo ranges I’ve laid out, each range has a specific quality, and it’s up to you to figure out what tempo you want.

However, a good rule of thumb is in between 90 and 120 beats per minute, although, truthfully, it doesn’t matter that much, because the tempo is just how fast the beats are counted.

Conclusion

That’s all on tempo for today. I hope it helped and you enjoyed it too. Do me a favor and share this on social media to help out all of your producer friends.