GarageBand comes with beautiful and highly expressive Touch Instruments that sound and respond just like the real thing. Play keyboards, guitars, and bass, as well as sounds designed for EDM and Hip Hop. Smart Instruments make you sound like a pro — even if you’ve never played a note.
Use the Audio Recorder in GarageBand for iPad. Using the Audio Recorder, you can record your voice, an instrument, or any other sound using the microphone on your iPad, and play it back in GarageBand. You can also record sounds using an external microphone connected to your iPad. Hi Nick – so it’s easy in the desktop (Mac) version of GarageBand: you can simply drag a midi file from the Finder on to an open Garageband project (either on to a software instrument track or into the empty space below any existing tracks). Once you’ve done that, you can reassign instrument sounds etc as needed. Yes, we do have some brass instruments here in GarageBand iPad and GarageBand iPhone like french horn and brass ensemble, but they can be a little hard to fi.
Hi. I'm new to GarageBand. I'm running GB '09 (Version 5.1). I'm working on a score and decided to try GB to hear some parts.
Can anyone tell me where I can find French Horns? Actually, (I'd like to find the sounds for the other orchestral instruments too.) In the Software Instruments section under Horns, it only lists Dub Horns, Horn Section, Live Pop Horns, Pop Horn Section, and Trumpet Section.
Are the other 'standard' orchestra instruments (oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, and tuba, for example, plus the sounds strings can make, like tremolo) somewhere in GarageBand? Does the latest version have these sounds?
Thanks for any advice.
Posted on May 7, 2011 9:40 PM
Garageband makes it really easy to get in there and easily set up virtual instruments that come built-in. However, if you're going in to Garageband with the intention of using a third-party plug-in, you might be scratching your head at first.
In this Quick Tip, I'd like to show you how to easily set up a third party audio unit plug-in (like EZDrummer, Addictive Drums, Superior Drummer, etc).
GarageBand For IOS - Apple
In this tutorial, I'll be using Addictive Drums!
Step 1
Create a Software Instrument Track!
Step 2
In the Software Instrument Tab on the Right, press the 'Edit' Tab.
Step 3
Under the 'Sound Generator' heading, click where it says 'Piano'. It will always default to the 'Piano' instrument when you create a new track.
Step 4
In the drop-down list that appears, navigate to the 'Audio Unit Modules' section and choose your desired instrument. In my case, I'll choose 'Addictive Drums'.
Step 5
Once you select your instrument, a little orange Audio Unit Icon will appear, with your instrument next to it. But you still can't see it, right? Click the Orange 'Audio Unit' icon.
Step 6
Once you click the Audio Unit icon, your instrument will appear with it's graphically-friendly interface, ready for your use!
Garageband Sound Kits
And that's really all there is to it! From here you can use your third-party instrument exactly the same as if you were using a built-in Garageband instrument! If you're using a MIDI Controller, you can trigger the instrument it the exact same way you would a regular Garageband Instrument.
One word of caution though: I would heartily recommend against running multiple versions of plug-ins like EZDrummer that use a lot of samples, or recorded audio. You can quickly eat up valuable system resources before you know it! Stick with one instance of EZDrummer, or Addictive Drums, and the rest should be smooth sailing!
Want to learn more? Check out these Garageband tutorials!