Matching up tracks-Garageband

Hello,

I just recently started using Garageband and I am currious as to whether or not there is a way to automatically sync up tracks to a master track. I'll give a little more detail on what I mean below.

When me and a few friends started recording we layed everything down track by track on Yamaha AW16G Music workstation. We are still using the Yamaha because I'm not always available with the computer when some of my freinds want to record something.

So as of now I am initially recording a master copy of all the tracks combined (so that I can time out when the instrument kicks in on a given track) and then I record each track individual so I can add different effects to each of the tracks.

My problem comes in when I start to peice together all the tracks to match where each track should begin in order to match up with the "master track".

Since I am recording from the box I cannot consistently begin recording each track exactly when it starts.(I have to hit record on Garageband and then hit play on workstation)

Depending on the song this usually leaves me with +/- a few seconds on each track. When I begin the process of matching one of the individual tracks up with the master copy I have recorded, I end up with the tedious task of constantly trying to line the track up perfectly.

I was kind of hoping that maybe someone out there new of a way to do this automatically or at least someway to simplify the process for an idiot.

Thanks

I'm not in front of my Mac right now, but you should be able to import the new tracks into GB, set the "snap to" feature to the appropriate timing accuracy (whole note, quarter note, 32nd note, etc.) and slide the new tracks along the timeline so the new track is located at the correct spot in the overall master song (that is, if a guitar solo begins on the 2nd beat of bar 18, set the snap to, say, quarter notes and slide the solo track to the 2nd beat of bar 18).

If the Yamaha tracks come into GB as a single track, rather than individual tracks for individual instruments, then you're kind of hosed and the only thing to do is to use the Yamaha to mix its tracks down, and then bring that "mixed track" into GB and match everything in GB up to the Yamaha track (since the Yamaha track cannot be edited, any new GB tracks would have to be lined up using the Yamaha track as the master).

I'm not familiar with that Yamaha, but a lot of standalone recorders are not terribly friendly about letting you dump each individual track to a computer workstations for further editing. My band faces that with our Fostex 16 track recorder. When we want to use Tracktion or Sonar to work on stuff recorded on the Fostex, we end up dumping the individual instrument analog track off the Fostex through a Mackie Onyx Satellite onto the iBook or iMac we use. This works, but you're putting that track through multiple analog/digital/analog/digital conversions, which ultimately hurts the quality of the track.