How to Mix Music on GarageBand
Mixing is the procedure used to adjust the volume, pan position and effects of the individually recorded tracks of a song to create a coherent, musical whole. A well-mixed song will assure that the listener will hear the lyrics of the vocal part, the notes of a screaming guitar solo, while feeling the thumping of the bass line and drums. GarageBand comes with advanced mixing tools.
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Things You'll Need
- An Apple computer that meets the minimum system requirements to run your version of GarageBand software
Instructions
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Volume. The most basic step in the mixing process is adjusting the volume level of each track. In Garageband, this is accomplished by moving each track's individual volume slider to an appropriate level.
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Panning. After the track volumes are balanced, the pan positions of the track are set. This is accomplished by dragging the pan control clockwise or counter-clockwise to put the instrument in the left or right side of the mix.
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Effects. Whether adding reverb or delay to vocals, or distortion or wah-wah to a guitar part, effects play an integral role in adding excitement and interest to your mix. To add effects, double click on a recorded track to bring up the "track info pane" and then click the "edit" tab to open the effects page.
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On the effects page, mouse over an empty gray rectangle, and a drop down menu of available effects will open. After choosing an effect, clicking on its image will bring up adjustment sliders which can be used to adjust its parameters. An effect can be turned on or off by clicking on the rectangular tab on the far left side.
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Automation. Volume changes, panning, and other parameters can stored in automation curves so they happen automatically during playback. To display an automation curve for an individual track, select the small, gray triangle in the track's header, and from the drop down menu, choose the type of automation curve you want to edit. This may be the volume or pan curve, and once selected it will displayed in the timeline.
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To make an edit to an automation curve, a control point must be added to the curve. For example, to change the volume of the kick drum at the beginning of bar four, create a control point by clicking on the automation curve at the gridline of bar four, and then drag the point up or down to change the volume level. Control points can also be dragged left or right to move them to new positions in the timeline.
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