Mixing Vocals Garageband Ipad

How To Mix Vocals In Garageband Part 1. Getting your Vocals sounding ‘just right’ is perhaps the most important part of your mixing job. The overall quality of your produced Vocals can be the difference between a good project and a great project There are no set in stone rules when it comes to putting together a great sounding Vocal mix.

GarageBand User Guide for iPad

Using the Audio Recorder, you can record your voice, an instrument, or any other sound using the microphone on your iPad, and play it back in GarageBand. You can also record sounds using an external microphone connected to your iPad.

The Audio Recorder has two sets of controls you can use to change the sound. Fun view lets you quickly change the sound of your recording, while Studio view gives you more options to enhance your recording.

Switch between Fun and Studio view

  • Tap the Fun or Studio button at the top of the Audio Recorder.

Record a sound

  1. Tap the Record button in the control bar.

  2. Play, sing, or make sound into the microphone.

  3. When you are finish, tap the Play button in the control bar to stop recording. Tap the Play button again to hear your recording.

Adjust the microphone input level

While you record, the In level slider on the left shows the input level from the microphone. If the level turns red, drag the slider down (or record the part again more softly) to prevent distortion.

  1. Drag the In level slider up or down to set the input level.

    The In level slider is available if your iPad or input source supports input level control.

  2. If the input device supports left and right channels, tap Channel button under the In level slider, tap Input 1 or Input 2 to select the input channel, or tap Stereo to record in stereo.

Set the input level automatically

When an external microphone or other audio device (such as a headset or an audio interface) is connected to your iPad, the input level can be set automatically.

  • Tap the Input Settings button , then tap the Automatic switch.

Reduce unwanted noise

You can use a noise gate to reduce low-level input noise when you record. A noise gate cuts off the sound when it falls below a certain minimum level.

  1. Tap the Input Settings button , then turn Noise Gate on.

  2. Drag the Noise Gate slider until the noise stops or decreases to an acceptable level.

Turn on monitoring for an external microphone

When an external microphone or other audio device (such as a headset or an audio interface) is connected to your iPad, the Monitor button under the Out level slider becomes active.

  • Tap the Monitor button to turn monitoring on. Tap the button again to turn monitoring off.

Change the sound using a preset

The Audio Recorder includes presets that appear after you record a sound. Each preset adds an interesting character to the recorded sound.

  1. Do one of the following:

    • In Fun view, tap or turn the dial to select one of the presets.

    • In Studio view, tap the icon in the middle of the screen and choose a preset from the list.

  2. Turn the knobs to change the sound of the preset.

You can try out different presets by tapping them and turning the knobs.

Set the key and scale for Extreme Tuning

The Extreme Tuning preset is a popular vocal effect that changes the pitch of your recording based on your song’s key and scale settings.

  • Tap the Settings button , tap Key Signature, then tap a new key or a different scale (major or minor).

If the actual key or scale of your song differs from the key or scale setting, the effect might be less pronounced, or might change the pitch of individual notes in undesirable ways.

If you're new to GarageBand or the process of recording vocals using Apple's free DAW, join Richard Lainhart's step-by-step guide through the basics.

Home music production really took off with the introduction of Apple's GarageBand, included with all new Macs. The massive collection of Apple Loops and software instruments included with the program, as well as the huge variety of third-party content available, make it easy for even beginner users to produce professional-sounding songs.

Inevitably though, the time will come when you'll want to add your own vocals to a song you've created in GarageBand. Or perhaps you want to record a podcast or some other non-musical material. So, in this tutorial, we'll show you the basics of recording vocals into GarageBand '11.


Equipment

How To Mix Vocals In Garageband Iphone

Before you can begin recording your vocal track, you'll need something to record your voice with and a way to hear what you're doing. Now, you could record your voice through your Mac's built-in microphone and in some cases, like recording a podcast or a simple video voiceover, you could get useable results. However, for recording vocals for a song, unless you're going to be heavily processing the voice track or are looking for an intentionally raw sound, you'll want to use a reasonably professional vocal microphone.

There are a million different mics available that are appropriate for vocals, and we aren't going to recommend any specific ones here. But if you're looking to get a vocal sound that compares with professional recordings, one of the standard types of mics used in the recording industry is what's called a large-diaphragm condenser (LDC) microphone. There are many of these available too, with prices that can run into the thousands of dollars for a top-of-the-line model. But for home recording purposes, you can do well for under two hundred dollars.

The advantage of an LDC mic is that they're more sensitive than the standard dynamic mics you're more likely to see on a live stage, and they tend to 'warm up' a recorded voice, which is why they're favored for studio recording. Condenser mics do require an external power source, referred to as phantom power, so if you go for a standalone condenser mic, you'll need to be sure that your audio interface supplies phantom power.

Mixing Vocals Garageband Ipad Pro

However, there's a more recent development in the world of home recording that you should investigate also: the availability of a variety of USB-powered large diaphragm condensers. These are especially useful for beginner home recordists, because they combine an LDC and an audio interface in one device. Many of them even provide a headphone jack for monitoring. A USB LDC connects directly to the USB port on your Mac; the USB port supplies the phantom power for the condenser. In addition, the USB mic is its own audio interface, so you don't need to purchase a separate interface to plug the mic into. And, as mentioned, most USB mics also have a headphone output that you can use to monitor your GarageBand inputs and outputs.

This is important because if you listen (on external speakers) while you're recording your vocals, the mic will either feedback into itself, or you'll pick up your instrumental tracks through the mic along with your voice, and you won't be able to mix the final results properly.

By the same token, you'll ideally want to use closed-ear headphones rather than earbuds for monitoring; closed-ear phones generally sound better than earbuds, and also provide more insulation against audio leakage into your mic while recording. And because LDC mics tend to be more sensitive to picking up Ps and other popping sounds, a pop filter is also a good investment. Pop filters are small screens that you mount in front of the microphone to reduce the force of those 'P' vocal sounds (called plosives) without affecting the basic tone quality of the voice.


Step 1 - Create a New Track

OK, assuming you have all your vocal recording gear set up and that you already have an instrumental track in your GarageBand project to record over, you'll need to create a new track to record into. Choose Track > New Track.. (Command-Option-N), then click Real Instrument. Under 'My instrument is connected with', choose your mic input (if you're using a USB mic, it will probably appear as USB Audio CODEC rather than the actual name of the mic). Under that, choose your input channel (which for a USB mic will probably default to Mono 1). Under 'I hear sound from', choose your monitoring output (again, choose USB Audio CODEC if you want to monitor through the mic's headphone output. Otherwise choose your available output device). Finally, click the 'I want to hear my instrument as I play and record' checkbox to hear your voice through your monitoring device as you sing:


Then click 'Create' to make the new track.


Plugins

Step 2 - Set Your Monitor Source

When you create the new track, the Track Info Pane will automatically open to the right of your tracks. You've already set your input source, so don't worry about that. But you do want to set your monitor source in the Monitor pop-up menu: choose 'Off' to disable monitoring, choose 'On' to monitor your mic and the instrumental track through speakers, or choose 'On (no feedback protection)', which is specifically designed for headphone monitoring, which is what we want here:


Step 3 - Set Your Record Level

Next, sing or speak into your mic and look up in the track name area at the record level meters for your new track (it's located above the slider). Note that this slider doesn't affect the input level, just the playback level. For a USB mic, the recording level is probably set on the mic itself; otherwise you set it in the Track Info area where we just set the Monitor source.

So, while singing or speaking, adjust your recording level so the meters read, on average, in the upper end of the green area. It's OK if the meters go into the amber range occasionally, but don't hit the red marks at the ends of the meters otherwise you'll get distortion in your track.


Step 4 - Set Effects for the Track

At this point, you can just start recording your vocals, but many people like to hear what vocal effects will sound like on the track as they record it, so they can respond to the effect while singing. This is strictly a matter of taste but for now, let's apply effects while recording.

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So, with the track selected, click on Vocals in the right side of the Browse tab in the Track Info Pane, then choose different vocal effects settings while singing and listening to the results. Again, this is a matter of taste and you can always change the effects setting after recording. For now, choose Pop Vocals from the list:

Ipad


Step 5 - Record!

Alright, let's record: with your new track selected, drag the playhead to the location in the track where you want to start recording (or click the 'Go to the beginning of the song' button in the Transport), then click the Record button to begin recording. You'll hear your instrumental track playing back (adjust its playback level with the Set the track volume slider if necessary) and as you sing, you'll see your vocal track appear in red in track window. When you're done recording, hit the Spacebar to stop, after which your track will appear in purple:


Rewind back to the beginning and hit Spacebar again to hear your recording, adjusting the relative track volumes as needed. If you don't like what you just recorded, simply undo to remove the recording and record again.

Mixing Vocals Garageband Ipad Download

And those are the basics. From here you can, for example, try applying different vocal effects to your vocal track by just choosing them from the browser, or you can add another vocal track by recording into a new track.

Mixing Vocals Garageband Ipad 2

Did you know there are plenty more tricks on recording audio in GarageBand? Learn more in Garageband'11 101.

Mixing Vocals Garageband Ipad 2

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