Click here to download

Working with Loops in GarageBand 5 revision 06

Feel free to pass this around.

Please read all of this document before trying to work with loops. I know that reading guides is not a whole lot of fun, but, in this case, it really is necessary. If you leave out a step, it won't work for you.

***It is highly recommended that you have 2 GIG of ram , to allow Snow Leopard and, or, GarageBand 5 to run most effectively.

If you are going to be working with GarageBand 5, please take the time to download the GarageBand 5 guides, as they become available from:
www.icanworkthisthing.com
under MAC with Voiceover in Audio and Recording with Mac and Voiceover,
or at: http://www.lioncourt.com/
or http://groups.google.com/group/vimac-audio/web?hl=en

From time to time, I may be quoting from the Book,
Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand, GET THIS BOOK!
I don't have all of the answers, but, maybe just enough of the answers to help you to find the rest of the answers for all of us.

But first of all, onto moving a loop.

This will be helpful; pressing c will make your loop repeat and pressing c again will make it stop.
Using the item chooser find track info and media browser and uncheck these boxes.
In menus, under control menu, press enter on "show loop browser,
or just press command-l, or use the item chooser and type loop, which should take you to the show loop browser box and check it.

Before you go any farther, what do you want to do? Loops, jingles, stingers and sound effects are separated.

Using the item chooser again, search for podcast. You should land on the Podcast Sounds View button. Now you can choose from the Musical Buttons View or Podcast Sounds View Button.

If you choose Podcast Sounds View Button, you need to make yet another choice.

With the item chooser, search for Unknown and VO keys-space on this choice. Down arrow to a list of choices.

If you choose the Musical Buttons View, you will find a group of check boxes.
The first thing is to move your selection from the loop browser to the tracks window, or scroll area. Once you have done this, GarageBand will create a new track for your loop.

Apple has made things a good deal easier in GarageBand 5 and Snow Leopard, in that now the loops buttons are overlaid with checkboxes which give the name of the loop type. To choose a type,, check the box.

How does this work? As you check a box to select an instrument, mood, genre, etc, the number of entries in your list will change to reflect your choices. To find the list, using the item chooser, VO keys-i, search for horizontal splitter. VO keys-space on it and move once to the right with VO keys right arrow

If you like, you can also search for loops, another way of doing the same thing.
Searching for loops. Do the following. With the item chooser, VO keys-i, search for, "search text field". Once you have found this field, leave the item chooser with VO keys-space bar. Now type in your choice, lets say drums and press enter.

Using the item chooser again, search for, horizontal splitter. Vo keys-space on this and VO keys right arrow once to the table. You should find a list of choices.
You will see the name of the loop, sound, jingle, or, stinger, and some information about it. If the table is empty, move 3 times to the right with, VO keys-right arrow to the search field and try another search.

If you do have choices in the table, Interact with one of the names on the list and make sure the mouse is on the name, with, VO keys-f5. If it is not, route the mouse to the name of the loop with, VO keys-command-f5 and check with VO keys-f5 to make sure that the mouse has moved.

Now that you have found your loop and the mouse is on your selection, you need to move it to your project.

I am going to give you two methods for this. The first one is drag and drop.

While you are on your selection press, control-option-command-shift-space bar to pick up your selection and move to the scroll area, you can use the item chooser to find this area. This is the place where your timeline is located and press, control-option-command-shift-space bar to drop your selection.
If you have stopped your project in the place where you want the selection placed, it should be, more, or, less where you want it, however if you would like to be able to place your selection, more exactly, do the following.

When you dropped your selection, it became highlighted. Now you can use the cut command, command-x and if you like move back to the beginning of your project and press command-v to paste your selection. If it is a loop that you want repeated several times like a drum loop, you can paste as many times as you like to have the proper length.

.

Method 2.

1 Make sure that num-pad-commander is turned off.

2 Make sure that you have mouse keys enabled.
Mouse-keys has to be set up by going to System Preferences > Universal Access. In the Mouse tab, you can enable mouse-keys and/or check the check box so that pressing the option key five times toggles mouse-keys on and off. You will hear a sound something like an electronic rattle snake every time it toggles on or off..
Once mouse-keys is enabled, you can use mouse-keys by pressing the option key five times quickly to turn mouse-keys on or off.

At this point you can play your loop with the 5 key on the num-pad and stop it with the 5 key again. If this for some reason does not work try, control and the 5 key on the numpad, or try this from another GarageBand user which may work well for Laptop users.

Beginning of note,

Here is what I do.

1. open GB.
2. Either create a new song or open an existing one.  
3. I have my view set to buttons so I vo to the wright and check the box for the type of loop I want to play then continue to  vo wright arrow

     till I come to the table of loops  and then I down arrow till I find the loop I want to play.
4. Interact with the name of the loop and  route the mouse using vo command f5 and  vo shift space once to click and play the loop.
It does not work in column mode for me only with buttons selected.
Peggy Fleischer
peggyfleischer@bellsouth.net

End of note.

When you find one you like, you can move your loop in to your project by doing the following:

If you have a num-pad, Press and hold the 5 and 4 keys for a count of about 4 or 5 seconds. You will need to practice with this to get it right, your loop has landed and GarageBand has created a new track with your loop in it.

***, note, I have not done full instructions for those who use laptops, I did not have one handy. If someone would like to do this, I will add those instructions to the guide.

A loop is only a few seconds long, and, you may want it on the track for longer than a few seconds, for instants a drum loop, so, do the following while you are on the loop. in the scroll area of your project, Press command-c to copy the loop. Make sure that you are at the beginning of the song, not at the end of  the loop and start pasting.  Paste as many times as you need to.  No brake, no fake!

You may want to add another loop, jingle, stinger, or, sound somewhere in your music project, or, short podcast. Use the same process outlined above, but, this time:

1. Play your project to the place where you want to drop in something new. Remember, GarageBand 5 will create a new track for each drop-in you add. This makes it possible for you to set levels or EQ for each drop in.

2. this time, as you hold down the 5 and 4 Keys, hold them down for about 3 seconds.
***This is assuming, that your project is 1 minute, to, 1minute and 30 seconds long. If your project is longer, 3, 5 minutes, you will need to hold the 5 and 4 keys longer. It takes some time for your drop in to move across the timeline. The longer the timeline, the more time it takes.

If your drop-in is not quite where you want it, press command-z to undo, follow the instructions above and adjust your count.

It takes a little practice, but, you can do this.

Adding drop ins to your longer podcast

The above method works well for a small project, just a few minutes long, but if you want to put something in to a 45 minute podcast, this will be helpful.

You can add a jingle, stinger, or, sound to your podcast and put it just where you want it.

Do the following:

1. Create a blank GarageBand project and call it something like, moving drop-ins.
2. Using the steps above copy your drop-in in to this project.
3. While in the scroll area, use command-a to select all.
4. Command-c to copy.
5. Go to your podcast, or project and create a new software instrument track, or real instrument track if it is something other than a loop.
6. find the place where you want the drop in to be placed and pause your recording with the space bar.
7. Paste your drop-in in to your newly created track with Command-v.

If it is not exactly where you want it, press command-z to undo and paste it again.

But you say I have already sent my interview to iTunes, or, I want to use a song from one of my play list.. No problem You can move anything from any of your play list in iTunes from the media browser.

Do the following.

1. Create an empty GarageBand project and call it something like moving drop-ins.
2. Create a new track, a real instrument track will be fine.
3. Now use VO keys-end to go to the media browser box and check-it.

use the item chooser to search for the audio button and select it.
4. Using the item chooser find the horizontal splitter. Vo keys-leftarrow once will take you in to a list of your play list and to the right of the splitter will be a list of the items in that play list.
5. When you land on the item you want to move move the mouse to that item with VO keys-command-f5.
6. Now interact with the item and make sure that the mouse is on the item with VO keys-f5.
7. Now you can either use the drag and drop method outlined above, or, with the mouse keys enabled on the num-pad, hold down the 5 and 4 keys for no longer than 5 seconds.
8. With the item chooser find the scroll area and command-a to select all and press command-c to copy.
9. Close your once empty GarageBand project.

Now find your project and create a new real instrument track. Now listen to your project until you find the place where you want your copied information to be place, press the spacebar to stop your project, then, command-v to paste. If it is not exactly where you want it, command-z to undo and try it again.

That's it! You are done. And I am done, at least for now.

Special thanks to, my wife Suzie for helping me to learn these screens.

Keith Reedy

wa9dro@gmail.com

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided as a public service to the blind and visually handicapped community. While we have done our best to ensure the information provided is accurate, please realize the use of any information on this site is solely at your discretion and we take no responsibility for use or attempted use of this information.