This week, I added a lead guitar part to my GarageBand recording. This was an interesting activity because I am learning lead guitar as my passion project this semester; it was a fun way to tie both of my projects together, as well as incorporate my lead guitar practice into a real-life playing situation.

As I was editing the track, I noticed that in GarageBand there are preset effects for lead guitar that, with one click of a button, can add many effects at once. I browsed through these preset effects and found one that worked nicely with the song called “Clean Echoes.” Within “Clean Echoes,” there are level controls for gain, tone, distortion, compression, echo, and reverb. I experimented with changing these controls and found a nice combination of levels to fit the tone of the guitar with the song. The top image above shows the levels that I selected.

In addition, I adjusted the EQ levels of the track, noticing that taking out some of the high frequencies and raising some of the mid frequencies gave the guitar a nice sound. These adjustments are shown in the bottom image above.

It was neat to notice the preset effects that exist in GarageBand. There are certain presets that suit different kinds of music, such as hard rock, jazz, country, etc. They exist as well for voice, acoustic guitar, and bass tracks. These could come in handy in future recordings.

For this week’s focus on my recording project, I recorded vocals for my cover of “I’m Yours.” I began by setting up the recording, which required: plugging the microphone into my VoiceLive Touch 2 interface, plugging the interface into my computer, and opening up my GarageBand recording.

Once I recorded the vocals, I found that they sounded very dry – there was no room ambience or natural reverb transmitted through the microphone. Because of this, I added reverb and ambience to the vocal track through GarageBand. Ambience is the sound of a specific location or space.  It gives a natural sound to the recording by adding some slight ambient noise to the otherwise silent background.

I also adjusted the EQ levels, raising the high EQ slightly, keeping the mid EQ the same, and lowering the low EQ level slightly (as shown in the photo above). I also added compression in order to create a more level volume throughout the track (by lowering the volume of any note that peaked in volume).

For all of my edits, I wore headphones to find levels that sounded appropriate for the style of the song.

A reference I used this week was:

Ambience (sound recording)

For this week’s focus on learning GarageBand, I recorded electronic drums for my cover of “I’m Yours,” and played around with how compression, reverb, and EQ adjustments affected the overall sound. Attached are two images to show the levels of these effects that I ended up with.

In the lower image, the specific frequencies that are raised give some punch to the bass drum, snare drum, and hi-hats/crash cymbal (from left to right). Dragging those frequencies to the left or right changed the emphasis of the sound of each of these instruments, but this placement sounded best to me. Before recording the drums, I had to adjust the individual volumes of the bass drum, snare drum, hi-hats, and crash cymbal to create a nice balance between them.

As I have read over and over again in my research on mixing instruments, there is no formula or correct way of doing it. It is highly subjective, and the best way to know what to listen for and to get better at finding a great sound is to practice mixing lots!

A resource that I used for this part of my recording was:

A Complete Guide to Mixing Drums

This week for my tech inquiry project, I recorded the bass line for the short cover of “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz that I will be making. Bass is not my strong suit, however I used to play it in school band so I can “fake it” pretty well. But because of this, I wasn’t able to record the full track in one go. So I used the feature in GarageBand that allows a person to start the recording part way through (at the beginning of a beat), and continue on from what has already been recorded.

For the bass mix, I edited the compression, reverb, and EQ levels (as I did with the acoustic guitar mix). The top photo above shows the final mix for these effects. As well, I adjusted the EQ in a very specific way (not just through dials for high, middle, and low EQ, but for specific frequencies). I listened through good headphones to the track and played around with which frequencies brought out a nice sound (and raised them in volume), and which frequencies brought out an unclear or muddy sound (and lowered them in volume). My specific EQ frequency adjustments are shown in the lower photo above.

A resource I used for this part of my recording was:

Mixing Bass

For my tech inquiry project this week, I recorded the first instrument for my cover of “I’m Yours.” I recorded acoustic guitar by plugging it directly into my audio interface, which ran directly into my computer. Having set the tempo and time signature for the song last week in GarageBand, I was able to listen to a click track through headphones to keep my playing at a consistent tempo during the recording.

I then explored the various editing options within GarageBand to make my track sound even better. I used three different effects on my guitar track: 1) compression, 2) EQ adjustment, and 3) reverb. Compression smooths out the track by lowering the volume at any point when the instrument is too loud, and raising the volume when the instrument is too quiet. EQ is short for equalization, and one can adjust the high EQ, mid EQ, and low EQ on a track. Lowering the high EQ on a track will lower the volume of the higher pitches on the instrument, lowering the mid EQ will lower the volume of the middle pitches on the instrument, and so on. Finally, reverb is a very popular effect used for many instruments as well as vocals. It enhances the sound of the instrument to sound like it is being played in a particular kind of room or environment; that place can be anything from a studio to an auditorium. Different levels of reverb are appropriate for different kinds of music.

Attached is a photo with the compression, EQ, and reverb adjustments I made to my acoustic guitar track.

Reference I used to help find and learn about effects in GarageBand:

GarageBand – Add and edit effect plug-ins

In learning about GarageBand this week, I focused on the basics of setting up an instrument to record. The default audio input setting when first opening up GarageBand is the built in microphone on the computer. Despite it being a convenient means of recording a musical idea, the built-in microphone picks up a lot of extraneous noise and is not ideal for professional recording.

I looked into how to change the audio input, and figured out that the materials I would require are: a microphone (or instrument), a cable for the microphone (or instrument), an audio interface (to plug the microphone/instrument directly into), and a cable to plug the audio interface into the computer. These four elements are shown in my set-up in the picture attached. As an audio interface, I am using the VoiceLive Touch 2 by TC-Helicon (because I already owned this device), however there are simpler/cheaper interfaces that exist.

After setting up these four elements, I had to change the audio input setting, so that GarageBand would pick up sound from my microphone, instead of from the built-in audio input of my computer. To do this, I went to GarageBand —> Preferences —> Audio/MIDI and changed the built-in input to “VoiceLive Touch 2.” Now I am ready to record!

I can replace the microphone with any electric instrument (including an acoustic guitar with pick-up, an electric bass, and electronic drums, all of which I will try to record in this project).

The resources I used to learn how to set up my audio input for recording were:
Audio and video interfaces and connectors
GarageBand for Mac: Connect a microphone
Selecting Inputs/Outputs in GarageBand