Two Types of Tracks
| When you compose in GarageBand, you work with two very different types of tracks: real instrument tracks and software instrument tracks. The loops that GarageBand provides also fall into these two broad categories: loops with a blue icon are real instrument loops, and loops with a green icon are software instrument loops. But what's the difference between a real instrument and a software instrument? The answer lies in the fact that today's Macs are powerful enough to generate sound using more than one technique. In fact, GarageBand is able to generate sound using multiple techniques at once. Here's a look a how GarageBand makes its noiseand at what it all means to you. Photographic Historical Society of Canada Real Instruments: Recorded Sound A real instrument track holds a digital audio recordinga riff played by a bass player, some strumming on an acoustic guitar, a phrase played by a string section, or a vocal that you record. A real instrument track is blue, and a real instrument loop has a blue icon Variations. When you record an audio source, its regions are purple. If you import an audio file, its region is orange. See page 339 for all the colorful details. Software Instruments: Sound on the Fly A software instrument track doesn't hold actual sound. Instead, it holds only data that says what notes to play and how to play them. The sounds you hear when you play a software instrument track are being generated by your Mac as the song plays back. A software instrument track is a bit like the music rolls that a player piano usesjust as the holes in the music roll tell the piano which notes to play, the bits of data in a software instrument track tell your Mac which notes to generate.  A software instrument track is green, and a software instrument loop has a green icon Comparing Approaches Each type of track has advantages and capabilities that the other lacks. The real advantage. When it comes to realism, you can't beat real instrument tracks. Listen to the Orchestra Strings loops that come with GarageBand. They don't just sound like a string sectionthey are a string section. Compare their sound to that of the software instrument loop named 70s Ballad Strings 02. Another advantage of real instrument tracks is that they can hold your digital audio. When you plug a microphone into your Mac and belt out My Way, your voice is stored in a real instrument track. The software advantage. The primary advantage of software instrument tracks is versatility. Because software instrument tracks store individual note data, you can edit them in almost any way imaginable. You can even change the instrument entirely. Want to hear how your bass line would sound when played by a synthesizer instead of an electric bass? Just double-click on the software instrument track's header and choose a synth. On the down side, software instrument tracks make your Mac work harder than real instrument tracksit's harder to generate sound on the fly than it is to play back a recording. Common ground. Although real instruments and software instruments work differently, you can do many of the same things with both types of tracks. You can repeat loops within both types of tracks, and you can apply effects to both types. You can even transpose both types of tracks, including audio that you've recorded. However, you can't transpose audio regions across as wide a range as you can software instrumentsthey'd sound too artificial. By supporting audio recordings (real instruments) and also being able to generate sound on the fly (software instruments), GarageBand gives you the best of both worlds.
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. Notice that the track and the icon depict a waveforma graphical picture of sound, similar to what we saw back on pages 26 and 246.
. Instead of depicting a waveform, a software instrument region shows individual noteswhy, it even looks a bit like an antique player piano roll (see photo, left).