

#Use a mac for beginners free
You can also choose the key signature and also the time signature so most songs are going to be in 4/4 but feel free to use what suits your song. If you have a tempo in your head you can also just tap it in with the mouse. So you can choose your tempo by moving the bar or typing it in. In different genres of music, we have different tempos. So the tempo is measured in BPM (beats per minute). Like the tempo section which is basically the speed of the song. Hip hop – this is a mixture of drums and analog synths.Īt the bottom of this pop-up window, you will see a details drop-down button, here you will find a few more settings for your project. Voice – this has a lot of different vocal presets for spoken word, male vocals, female vocals etc. Keyboard collection – this is basically just a selection of different keyboards and synthesizers.Īmp collection – so you can use GarageBand as an amplifier so you don’t necessarily need to have a load of different guitar amplifiers instead you can just use some amps that sound similar. I personally believe that’s it’s best to start with an empty project but I’ll just explain what some of these presets are in case you want to go through and have a look at them.

So a preset is basically just a selection of instruments and sounds that are already there for us to choose from. This gives you a few different presets to choose from. When you first startup GarageBand on a mac you’ll have a pop-up window appear that looks like the one below.
#Use a mac for beginners how to
Related: Home Recording Studio Equipment List – 8 Essentials for Beginners How to use GarageBand on a Mac – Getting Started I definitely recommend buying an audio interface as it will give you much better quality audio than just plugging instruments etc directly into your mac. The audio interface that I would recommend to get you started is the Scarlett 2i2 by Focusrite and that has two microphone inputs. Whereas if you use an audio interface you will be able to plug in multiple mics at the same time. You connect your audio interface to your computer via USB, Thunderbolt or Firewire.Īnother option if you are just using one microphone is you can use a USB microphone (which will work without an audio interface) but you will only be able to record with that one microphone. An audio interface is a box that converts the analog signal, so analog signals from the microphone or instrument and converts them into a digital signal. If you’re planning on recording with a microphone or an electric instrument such as electric guitar or bass then you’ll need an audio interface. There are a few ways to use GarageBand on a mac to record and make music.
