GarageBand Importing & Editing Basics

[usagora]

In another thread, forum member dc2bluelight questioned the ease of use of GarageBand as an option to make some edits to an mp3 file. I was honestly surprised by this notion, as I've always found GarageBand eminently easy to use, so I told him I'd start a separate thread about it. So, here's how you'd import an audio file (be it mp3 or any other format) into a GarageBand project for editing. I am using the latest version of GarageBand, version 10.3.2.

(tl;dr: Open GarageBand, click "Choose", click "Create", drag audio file onto track, have fun editing)

1. Open Garageband. You'll see this window:

"Empty Project" is selected by default, and that's what you want, so all you have to do is click the "Choose" button (or simply hit the Enter key on your keyboard).

2. You'll now see the project with another window prompting you to choose a track type. "Record using a microphone or line input -- or drag and drop audio files" is selected by default, and that's what you want, so all you have to do is click the "Create" button (or simply hit the Enter key on your keyboard).

3. You'll now see the project with the empty audio track you just created. By default, the metronome is on, and you won't want to hear that during playback, so click on it to toggle it off.

4. Then either:

A. Open Finder and navigate to where the mp3 (or other audio format) file that you want to work with is located. Then simply drag and drop that file onto the track.

B. If the audio file you want is in your iTunes library, click on the Media Browser button at the top right of the project window (or press the F key on your keyboard) and you can browse/search for the file there and drag it onto the track.​

5. You'll now see the audio waveform in the track, and you are now ready to work with the audio.
Note: Click the following image to see full-size.

6. Basic Edits

A. To adjust the track's volume, simply drag the volume slider back and forth.

B. To trim the audio clip (for example, if you have dead air or white noise at the beginning or end of the audio), simply move the playhead to the spot in the audio you want to trim at, then press CMD + T (or in the menu bar: Edit > Split Regions at Playhead). Now click on the region you want to delete (you'll know it's selected when the "bar" at the top of the region is the same color as the audio waveform) and simply press the delete key on your keyboard. To move the remaining region to the beginning of the track, simply click the top of the region and drag it over to the left.

Note: if you want to locate the playhead more precisely, drag the horizontal zoom slider to zoom in on the audio.​

C. To add plugins, such as EQ, compression, or reverb, click on Plug-ins down in the Smart Controls section at the bottom of the project window. If you don't see this section, simply press B on your keyboard. You'll see slots for 4 plugins, and Compressor and Channel EQ are already in slots 1-2 by default (and Channel EQ is turned on--indicated by its blue color--by default, but the EQ settings are all set to flat). The actual "smart controls" (on-screen control knobs and switches that let you visually adjust the plug-in settings) are prominently displayed in the right section of this area. Notice when you hover your cursor over a plugin, you see it turns into 3 buttons: a power symbol (far left), sliders (middle), and up/down carets (right). Clicking the power symbol toggles the plug-in on or off; clicking the sliders symbol opens the plug-in's settings window; clicking the up/down carets lets you remove the plug-in or insert a new one in its place. When you open a plug-in's settings, there is a drop-down menu with preset settings for that plug-in, or of course you can adjust the settings manually.​

7. Export the audio to a new mp3 file (or whatever format you choose) when you're satisfied with the results by going in the menu bar to Share > Export Song to Disk.

Obviously, a ton more could be said, but those are the basics. Apple has an online user guide here and sometimes the best tutorial is to play around with the software on your own. Hope that helps!

 

[dc2bluelight]

Thanks Jonathan.

What do you do if your file needs more than +6dB of gain? And how do you determine how much gain is enough?

 

[usagora]

Thanks Jonathan.

What do you do if your file needs more than +6dB of gain? And how do you determine how much gain is enough?

You can add the Gain plug-in (Utility > Gain in the plug-in menu when adding plug-ins in the Smart Controls section) which lets you go up to +24dB of gain. I think you know the answer to the second question since you're the audio engineer, not me, but my simple answer would be as much as you want to add without clipping the meters

 

[dc2bluelight]

You can add the Gain plug-in (Utility > Gain in the plug-in menu when adding plug-ins in the Smart Controls section) which lets you go up to +24dB of gain.

OK, got it. I never did find a "gain" plugin. I did find the EQ plugin, and there's an overall gain control in that, but to use it I had to click off all 9 EQ sections to apply just gain only. Then I had to drag the EQ window off the meters so I could see the result in real time.

I think you know the answer to the second question since you're the audio engineer, not me, but my simple answer would be as much as you want to add without clipping the meters

I don't know the answer as it relates to efficient use of GB though. The problem is the meters aren't scaled at all. I assume the top of the meter is clipping, but real meters show clearly in dB what's going on, even past clipping. The second problem is that if you make a gain change you then have to check the result, either by spot checking the file at high points in the wave form, or by playing the entire thing watching the meters. Playing the whole file takes time, and spot checking is prone to missing peaks.

Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not trying to shoot down GB. It has it's place and function, but also it's limitations. I do look at the practical and work-flow side of problems every day. This all does work, of course. The tools work, and are available to every Mac user for free. And might be ok to tweak an individual track or two, but what do you do if you have a dozen or so? Wouldn't it be easier to just click one check box in iTunes (Sound Check) and be done? Or wouldn't it be faster to open the file in Audacity, apply one function (normalize) and be done?

I can see there's a lot in GB, and I thank you for pointing the features out. As you expected, I don't care for that tool in particular, but I'm glad it's there. I do think that applying Sound Check and not rewriting the file is a bit safer and fool-resistant for the average user.

The advantage of Sound Check or Replay Gain is several fold, the analysis is automatic and doesn't depend on user input or judgment. The analysis is based on perceived loudness (the meters in GB are not loudness meters). And of course the biggie: no duplicate files, or permanently re-written files. Non-destructive gain correction.

The advantage of using a normalizer is that its adjustment is based on an established reference level of 0dBFS, and a fixed user choice of how much peak margin to allow. Again, no user judgement involved.

Probably not relevant here, but just throwing this in: Audacity can be scripted to do and process or group of processes on a batch of files and save-out to a new file for each. Audition has built in drag/drop batch processing too.

And there's this app https://www.beatunes.com/en/itunes-replay-gain.html for doing a mass of files with Replay Gain.

And if you hate Audacity (free, but people actually do hate it anyway), there's Sound Studio from the app store. Drag a file to it, click the "normalize" button, save the file. Not a bad little app for $29.

Thanks for your insight into GB's functions and features.

 

[usagora]

You're welcome. As I said in the other thread, GB is just one more option I wanted to throw in the hat for making basic audio edits.

 

[chscag]

Hey guys....

Just wanted to compliment both of you on the great professional thread and our thanks to Jonathan for providing the tutorial.