You can connect real instruments, such as electric keyboards and guitars to your Mac for use in GarageBand. Using real instruments with GarageBand produces not only better sound, but realistic practice, as you finger the actual instrument and not an on-screen keyboard/string set.
- How to Connect Two Microphones to GarageBand. About Switching to Mac. Welcome to Switching to Mac - a blog that is dedicated to convincing you that switching from Windows to Mac is a great choice! My name is Aseem Kishore and I am a full-time professional blogger. I graduated from Emory University with a degree in Computer Science.
- Apr 10, 2018 i recently purchased an irig 2 to record my guitar on garageband using my macbook air (2015 v10.11.6). I've plugged it into the headphone jack but garageband is only offering audio of built-in microphone. Does this mean i have to buy some sort of usb adapter to connect the irig with and then plug it into the macbook?
You can connect a real MIDI keyboard through a USB cable (on most newer gear) or a MIDI adapter (on older equipment). You can connect other MIDI instruments, including guitars, woodwinds, and drums, and record onto a real instrument track in GarageBand. Click the red Record button when you’re ready to rock. Move the playhead to just before where you want to start jamming.
Jun 03, 2019 How to Import Beats to Garageband on PC or Mac. This wikiHow shows you how to import music, or beats into GarageBand for macOS. Although there is no version of GarageBand for Windows, you can use a similar (but slightly more complex) app.
MIDI is geek shorthand for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a standard that has been around for years.
If the high-quality instrument you have in mind is your own singing voice, connect a microphone (in lieu of the Mac’s built-in microphone) to an audio input port on the computer.
Open System Preferences, click Sound, click Input, and then select Line In. Drag the Input volume slider to an appropriate level. Choose Vocals and the instrument that most closely matches your singing style, such as Epic Diva, Helium Breath, or Megaphone. Garage Band will tailor the effects to your voice.
Don’t worry if you don’t know how to characterize your singing voice; one of your other options is No Effects.
Good microphones are also useful when you’re recording podcasts. If you choose to use a microphone not for singing but for recording your speaking voice, set the option to No Effects (unless you’re going for a comedic effect).
To add the instrument to a recording, click the Create a New Track (+) button, choose Track→New Track, then select Real Instrument and click Create.
Choose an input source (stereo or mono), depending on how the instrument is connected to the Mac. Select Monitor from the pop-up menu to be able to hear the instrument as you play it, with or without feedback.
Does this sound familiar? You want to starta podcast. You’re on a budget. You’ve already decided to use GarageBand and foundthe perfect mic, but after a little bit of research, you realize the soundquality would be significantly improved using two microphones instead of one. Theproblem is that GarageBand won’t recognize the secondary input.
It seems like it should be easy to connecttwo different microphones to your computer, but it’s not as straightforward asit seems. Even if you do connect two separate microphones, you can end up withtwo individual audio streams.
Here’s how to record input from two separate microphones into a single audio stream. Also, check out my previous post on using GarageBand to record a real instrument playing.
How to Connect Two Microphones to GarageBand
GarageBand only recognizes a single input,but it is possible to record using two separate devices. You just have to trickthe program into thinking two connections are one. Here’s how to do it.
1. Open Finder and choose Go > Utilities, or hit Command + Shift + U with Finder open.
2. Open the Audio MIDI Setup application.
3. At the bottom left corner of the screen, click the “+.”
4. Choose Create Aggregate Device.
5. When you do this, a new aggregate devicewill appear in the list above. Double-click the device name to rename it.
6. With this device selected, you will see a list of all available audio devices in the Audio Devices window. Select the inputs you want to use. You would select the two microphones you want to use, but make note of the order you select them in. The order they are checked determines the order the system will view the inputs.
7. When you select multiple devices, youwill have the option to select the clock source. Without getting too technical,this will be the audio input the time is based on. Choose the source with themost reliable clock speed.
8. When you have selected the twomicrophones you intend to use, exit from the Audio MIDI Setup.
Choosing the Aggregate Device in GarageBand
Now that you’ve created an aggregatedevice, it’s time to go back into GarageBand and select the proper device.
1. Go to File > New and select the type of project you wish to use.
2. Look in the bottom left corner and click on the arrow beside Details.
3. Click Input Device and select the aggregate device from the list.
4. Choose the output device you want touse. Note: you do not want to use the Built-in Output, as it can cause audiodistortion in the recording. Instead, use headphones or another output source.
5. Click Choose.
6. Next, go to GarageBand > Preferences and select Audio/MIDI.
7. Select Aggregate Input from the Input Device menu.
8. From there, navigate back to the GarageBand screen and press the Smart Controls button (or just hit the B key.)
9. In the Smart Controls menu, select Input and choose Aggregate Device from the list if it isn’t already selected.
And with that step, you should be set upand ready to record from two microphones. There are still a few issues that mayarise, however. If you have two identical USB microphones, it can be difficultto get the computer to recognize them as individual devices because theirdigital signatures are identical. This may be easier to pull off using separatetypes of microphones.
How To Hook Up Garageband To Mac Pro
If you try to record and find one of themicrophones isn’t working, don’t make the mistake we did and repeat every stepabove—not at first, anyway. The first step should be to check that the secondmicrophone is turned on. Congratulations, and good luck with recording.