Creating the Final Mix

When you've refined each track, turn your attention to the big picture: display the song's Master Track to apply final-mastering effects and optionally to create a fade-out at the end of the tune.

Once you've polished your song until it glitters like a platinum record, you can export it to your iTunes music library, where you can burn it to an audio CD, transfer it to your iPod, and use it in the other iLife programs.

Echo Presets

Reverb Presets

Working with the Master Track

GarageBand's master track is a special kind of track that doesn't hold notes or regions, but instead controls certain aspects of your entire mix. Specifically, you can transpose the entire song (page 328) and you can apply effects to the master track and create a volume curve to have your song fade in or fade out.

To show the master track, choose Show Master Track from the Track menu ( -B).

Applying effects. Apple has created dozens of final-mastering effects settings for common musical genres. Explore and apply them by double-clicking the master track's header. And, of course, you can customize them and create your own final-mix effects using the techniques I've described on previous pages.

Creating a fade. To fade a song, create a volume curve for it in the master track.

Tip

To create a musically appealing fade, edit the volume curve so that the fade ends at the very beginning of a verse or measure. Don't have a fade end in the middle of a measure it feels abrupt.

Customizing reverb and echo. In GarageBand, reverb and echo effects are controlled by the master track. As described on page 340, you can adjust how much echo and reverb you want on a specific track, but to adjust the actual echo and reverb parameters that GarageBand uses, use the master track's Track Info pane.

GarageBand's dozens of reverb and echo settings (shown at left) are worth exploring. The reverb presets are spectaculareverything from a living room to a large cathedral, with some offbeat stops in between. Explore them to add just the right sonic ambience to your track. And if you're into dance and electronic music, you can while away a weekend trying out and customizing GarageBand's echo presets.

Exporting to iTunes

When you've polished your song to perfection, add it to your iTunes music library by choosing Send Song to iTunes from the Share menu. GarageBand mixes your tracks down to two stereo channels and saves the song as an AIFF file.

GarageBand saves files in full CD-quality form: 44KHz, 16-bit. To convert a song into AAC, MP3, or Apple Lossless format, configure iTunes for the format you want to use (page 22), then select your song and choose Convert from the Advanced menu. iTunes won't replace the AIFF version of your song, so if you want to free up space in your iTunes library (and iPod), use the Show Song File command to move the AIFF file out of your music library.

Exporting an excerpt. At times, you may want to export only part of a song. Maybe you want to email it to a collaborator or mix it down in order to bring it back into GarageBand (see page 353). To export a portion of a song, turn on cycling and then resize the yellow cycling region in the beat ruler to indicate the portion you want to export.

Preserving effect tails. If your song has reverb or echo effects that last well beyond the last note, you may find that these effect tails are cut off after you export to iTunes. To fix this, turn cycling on and then resize the yellow cycling region so that it extends beyond the point where the effects die off. Now export the song again.

Customizing tags. To customize how your song is categorized in iTunes artist name, album name, and so onuse the General portion of GarageBand's Preferences dialog box.

A Closer Look at Software Instrument Loops

On page 327, I mentioned that software instrument loops contain more than just piano-roll MIDI notesthey also contain audio. To see this for yourself, drag a green loop into a real instrument trackinstead of the usual piano-roll notation within a green region, you'll see a waveform display within a blue region.

Two in one. How does this work? A software instrument loop is really two loops in one. It contains not only the MIDI note data that can be used by a software instrument track, but also a rendered version of the loopan actual audio recording, complete with effects.

Here's another way to see this for yourself. Use the Finder's Find command to locate a software instrument loop, such as Southern Rock Guitar 01. You'll notice the loop's file name ends in .AIFit's an audio file in AIFF format. You can open and play this file using QuickTime Player or iTunes. You can even drag it into iMovie or iDVD. But embedded within the AIFF file is MIDI note data that GarageBand can use.

The fact that software instrument loops also contain audio data has an important ramification: As I mention on page 352, if you plan to use a software instrument loop as is, you can lighten the load on your Mac's processor by using the loop in a real instrument track.

If you haven't yet created the track for the loop, take advantage of the following shortcut: press the Option key while dragging a green loop into the timeline, and GarageBand creates a real instrument track for it.

If you frequently use software instrument loops without changing them, you can use the Loops portion of the Preferences dialog box to have GarageBand always create real instrument tracks when you drag green loops into the timeline.

The downsides. There are some downsides to using a green loop in a real instrument track. You can't edit individual notes or change instrument or effect assignments, since all these things are part of the audio recording. Also, you can't transpose an audio region over as large a range. But for those times when you want to use a green loop as is, adding it to a real instrument track is a great way to improve GarageBand's performance.