Working with the Master Track | Apple Training Series: GarageBand 3

Throughout this lesson, you have been mixing the song by adjusting the individual tracks. The song has come a long way since the arrangement you started with, and the mix is almost finished.

There's one thing left to work with, and that is the Master track. Unlike individual tracks, the Master track controls the entire song. In the next series of exercises, you'll work with the Master track to change the volume and effects for the overall song.

There are two ways to show the Master track:

Choose Track > Show Master Track.
Press Cmd-B.

Let's try it now.

Choose Track > Show Master Track.

The Master track appears at the bottom of the Timeline. The Master track's Volume curve shows by default.

Click the Master Track header to select it, if it is not already selected.

The Master Track header appears purple.

The Master Track Curve pop-up menu lets you show either the Master Volume curve or the Master Pitch curve. You can set control points on the Master Pitch curve to dynamically change the pitch of (transpose) the overall song.

Understanding the Different Volume Controls

There are four different volume controls to consider as you finish your song. Each volume control adjusts a particular level.

Track Volume

Track volume is the volume level of an individual track. You adjust it using either the track's Volume slider or the track's Volume curve. The purpose of adjusting the track volume is to make it higher or lower in the overall mix in order to balance the levels of the different tracks.

Master Track Volume

To dynamically adjust the volume levels of the overall song, you adjust the volume of the Master track, which is a combination of all the mixed individual tracks. To change Master track volume, you adjust the control points in the Master track's Volume curve. The time to adjust Master track volume is after you have balanced the levels of all the individual tracks.

Master Output Volume

It is important to understand the difference between the overall song volume, which you control through the Master track, and the master output volume. The master output volume is the volume level that goes out of GarageBand to the computer. This output level determines the level your song will have when it is exportedfor example, when it is output from GarageBand to iTunes.

You can control the master output volume of the song by using the Master Output Volume slider, located in the lower-right corner of the window.

This slider should only be adjusted after you have mixed the levels of the individual tracks and then adjusted the Master track volume. Once the overall song is mixed, you use the Master Output Volume slider to raise or lower the output level. This step ensures that you avoid clipping and that the export volume of the finished song is not too high or too low. You'll adjust the Master Output Volume slider in Lesson 10 when you learn to export and share projects.

Computer Output Volume

The computer output volume is how loud you hear your GarageBand project through your headphones or computer speakers. You should always use volume controls for your computer to adjust the loudness in your headphones and speakers. You should not use the Master Output Volume slider in Garage-Band for this purpose. Adjusting your computer's output volume level lets you listen to your GarageBand music as loudly or quietly as you like without changing the output level of the actual project so that it exports too loudly or too quietly.

Note

You can access the volume controls for your computer through the speaker icon in the menu at the top of the screen, using the volume control keys on the computer keyboard, or in the Sound pane of your System Preferences window.

Now that you understand the different volume controls, let's focus on the Master track volume and the master output volume.

Adding Control Points to the Master Track

One of the most important features of the Master track is that it can be used to dynamically change the Volume curve of the overall song. Let's add control points to the Master track Volume curve to fade out the end of the song.

1.	Move the playhead to the beginning of the 29th measure and play the end of the song to hear how it sounds. Did you notice that the strings keep going long after the last bass note? Let's fade out the Master track after the last note in the Electric Bass track.
2.	Click the Master track Volume curve at the beginning of the 31st measure to add a control point.
3.	Add another control point on the Master track Volume curve at the beginning of the 32nd measure.
4.	Drag the control point at the beginning of the 32nd measure down to the lowest volume level.
5.	Play the end of the song and listen to the Master track volume fade out at the end. Now the song has a nice clean fade after the last note.

Adding Effects to the Overall Song

To add an effect to an individual track, you used the Track Info pane for the track. The Master track also appears in the Track Info pane so that you can make changes to the overall song.

Let's open the Master track Info pane and add an effect to the entire song.

1.	Press Cmd-I, or click the Track Info button, to open the Track Info pane. The Track Info pane opens with the Master track info showing.
2.	Select Rock from the effects presets list.
3.	Select Rock Basic from the list of specific presets on the right. You may see a dialog that asks if you want to save the file before opening a new one. Click Discard. You just added a Rock Basic preset to the overall song. Let's listen to the song to hear how it sounds.

4.	Play the song from the beginning. While the song is playing, press the down arrow to hear the other Rock preset effects applied to the song. Stop playback when you have selected an effect. Did you find a favorite preset? I like the way the Classic Rock and LA Rock presets sound. You can select whichever you like best. The Master Track Info pane includes the Tempo, Time signature, and Key controls for the entire song.
5.	Click the Details disclosure triangle to view the other effects options for the Master track. The Details area includes other controls that work the same way they do for the individual track effects. You can even save master effects settings to create your own presets.
6.	Click the Details disclosure triangle again to hide the details portion of the pane, and then press Cmd-I to hide the Master Track Info pane.
7.	Press Cmd-B to hide the Master track.

Now that you've added control points and effects to the Master track, it's time to check the output level for clipping. This is the last thing you do to your final mix to prepare the song for export or sharing with other iLife applications.

Checking for Clipping

You've finished your final mix, adjusted all of the track levels individually, and made adjustments to the overall song. The last thing you need to do is play the song from the beginning and watch the Master Output Volume meters to make sure the song output levels are good, and not clipping.

The yellow and red indicate that the output level is clipping.

Good output level

When the output level is good, the average volume levels (solid green bars) move as high as the middle or upper third of the meters, and the peaks (green lines) never turn yellow or red.

To change the output volume for the song, you drag the Master Output Volume slider.

Let's raise the master output volume to illustrate clipping.

1.	Drag the Master Output Volume slider to the right so that it is near the highest level. It doesn't need to be at the highest level to cause clipping. Note You may want to lower the volume of your computer because the playback will now be louder than normal.
2.	Play the song from the beginning. Watch the Master Output Volume meters for any signs of clipping. If the clipping indicators turn red, press the spacebar to stop playback.

3.	Click the red clipping indicators to reset them so you will know if the problem has been corrected the next time you play the project.
4.	Drag the Master Output Volume slider to the left to lower the output volume of the song.
5.	Repeat steps 2 through 4 until you find a good level for the Master track volume. Make sure your output level isn't too low. Try to set the output level as loud as you can safely, without the meters reaching the yellow or the red clipping range. Note If the peak indicators reach one or two lines of yellow, that is still acceptable, just make sure that they never peak into the red.
6.	Press Shift-Cmd-S and save the finished mix as HB mixed to your My GarageBand Projects folder.

Testing Your Trained Ear

Now that you understand how to mix a song in GarageBand, let's put your ear to the test. In this exercise, you'll listen to the original, unmixed song, then the mixed song. See if you hear the difference in the two versions.

1.	Choose File > Open Recent > 7-1 Highway Brothers unmxd to open the original unmixed version.
2.	Play the first half of the song.
3.	Choose File > Open Recent > Highway Brothers mixed to open your finished mix. If you didn't complete all of the mixing steps, you can open 7-6 Highway Brothers mixed from the Lesson_07 folder.

4.	Play the finished mix. As the song plays, ask yourself the following questions: Does the mixed version of the song sound better than the unmixed version? Do you notice the left-to-right placement of the different tracks in the stereo field? Do you notice the overall balance of the volume between the tracks? Can you hear that the lead instruments (guitars) are louder in the mix than the supporting instruments? If you heard any or all of these things, you've trained your ear to hear beyond the basic song.

Congratulations! Now you know how to mix your songs to make them sound professional. Before moving on to the next lesson, there are two other elements of mixing and arranging that are good to know.