Importing a GarageBand Project


If you have listened to the beginning of the podcast, you'll notice that it is pretty darn boring without any music. Not to mention it's just a voice without any visuals, which you will also fix shortly. First, let's add a good podcast jingle to the beginning and end of the project. You could choose from one of the many professional jingles included with GarageBand 3. However, since you'll be using them extensively in the next lesson, let's instead use one of the projects you built from scratch.

Remember the project SpaceBass from Lesson 4? That musical piece was designed for a podcast, so let's use it. You could mix and export the finished song, then import it into the podcast project, or simply import the GarageBand project. That's right, import a project into another project. If you save a project with iLife preview, you can preview and use it in any of the other iLife applications, including GarageBand.

Saving a Project with iLife Preview

In this exercise, you'll open the project SpaceBass final from your My Garage-Band Projects folder and save it with iLife preview. If you didn't complete and save the project in Lesson 4, you can open the project Lesson_04 > 4-4 SpaceBass final. You may also remember at the beginning of the book I had you turn off the alert that asked if you want to save a project with iLife preview. It takes longer to save projects with iLife preview, and the feature is only for the projects you want to share with other iLife applicationsor GarageBand itself. So this is the first time you've needed that feature.

1.

Save the current project. Then choose File > Open and select either SpaceBass final from your My GarageBand Projects folder or 4-4 Space Bass final from the Lesson_04 folder.

2.

Play the project once for nostalgia's sake.

You've come a long way since you built this project. Luckily, it still sounds cool and will work well for your podcast project. Feel free to mix the track levels and add effects if you'd like before continuing, or you can always tweak it later.

3.

Choose GarageBand > Preferences. In the Preferences window, click the General button.

4.

At the bottom of the General Preferences dialog, select the iLife Preview option, if it is not already selected.

Now, each time you save this project, a rendered preview of the project will be created so you can preview it in other iLife applications.

Note

If you turn on this feature, an alert about saving with iLife preview will appear when you save other GarageBand projects until you turn it off again. When the feature is on, saving each project will take longer. You can always go back to Preferences and turn off iLife preview as needed.

5.

Close the Preferences dialog.

6.

Press Cmd-S to save the project with iLife preview. If you see an alert asking if you'd like to save with iLife preview, click Yes.

A progress alert appears, showing you that the iLife preview is rendering as you save.

That's it. The project has been saved with an iLife preview.

Adding GarageBand Projects to the Media Browser

Saving the project with iLife preview means that you can add it to your Garage-Band Timeline. First, you'll need to place it in the Audio pane of the Media Browser. By default, the Media Browser gives you access to your iTunes library in the Audio pane of the Media Browser. You can also add other folders containing audio files, including GarageBand projects. Let's reopen the Podcast start project and show the Media Browser.

1.

Choose File > Open Recent and choose the Podcast start project you were working on earlier in this lesson.

2.

Press Cmd-R to show the Media Browser. Click the Audio button to show the Audio pane within the browser.

Your iTunes folder and default GarageBand folder are automatically showing in the Audio pane. You've been saving your projects to a folder on your computer's Desktop, so they won't show in the browser until you add your folder.

3.

In the Dock, click the Finder icon to switch to the Finder.

4.

In the sidebar of a Finder window, select the Desktop.

5.

In the Finder, scroll through the Desktop contents and locate your My GarageBand Projects folder.

Note

If you used the 4-4 SpaceBass final project from the Lesson_04 folder, navigate on the Desktop to the GarageBand 3 Lessons folder and locate the Lesson_04 folder.

6.

Drag the folder containing the SpaceBass project saved with iLife preview from the Finder to the Audio pane of the Media Browser.

7.

Switch back to GarageBand.

The folder appears in the Audio pane of the Media Browser.

8.

In the Media Browser, click the folder you just added (either My GarageBand Projects or Lesson_04).

9.

Scroll through the folder contents in the lower pane of the Media Browser.

Normal GarageBand project file icons look like a document (paper) with a guitar printed on it. GarageBand project files saved with an iLife preview show only a guitar icon.

10.

Drag the SpaceBass final (or 4-4 SpaceBass final) project from the Media Browser to the beginning of the Jingles track in the Timeline.

The project file appears in the Timeline as an orange Real Instrument region. The small guitar icon in the upper-left corner of the region shows that it is a GarageBand project instead of a normal audio file.

11.

Play the first part of the project to hear the SpaceBass project as the intro music for the podcast.

Notice that the ducking controls are working as they should and automatically ducking (lowering) the volume level of the Jingles track to give volume priority to the narration track.

12.

Press Cmd-S to save your progress.

You will see an alert asking if you'd like to save the project with iLife preview.

13.

Click No.

There is no reason to save this project with iLife preview at this time.

You've successfully added a GarageBand project to the Timeline of another project. Of course, you might wonder what the big deal is about that. You can also export a finished mix of a song and just add the mixed audio file to a project the same way. Well, what if you change your mind? More importantly, what if your clients change their minds? It happensmore often than not, depending on the client. What if someone wants you to make changes to the song in the Timeline? Then what? If it is an audio file, you have to find the original project, or re-create it, then make the changes and export it again, then add the exported mix to the project. On the other hand, if you have a project in the Timeline, you simply open the project in the editor, click the Open Original song button, and voila! You're working on the original song again. Best of all, when you save the changes, the project automatically updates in the Timeline. It sounds more complicated than it is. Let's just try it.

Editing a GarageBand Project Within Another Project

To demonstrate editing a project within a project, you're going to open the SpaceBass project from the Podcast start project, change the panning on several tracks, then save it so it automatically updates in the Podcast start project.

1.

In the Timeline, select the SpaceBass project. Then press Cmd-E to open the editor.

2.

In the editor, click the Open Original button to open the original song project.

A dialog appears, asking if you want to close the current project and open the other.

3.

Click Open Original Project.

Note

If another dialog appears, prompting you to save the changes to the Podcast start project, click Save to continue.

The original SpaceBass final, or 4-4 SpaceBass final project opens.

4.

Pan the Elec Piano track two dots to the left (10 o'clock position).

5.

Pan both Nylon Shimmer tracks two dots to the right (2 o'clock position).

6.

Press Cmd-S to save the changes to the project. If prompted with an alert, click Yes to save with iLife preview.

7.

Press Cmd-W to close the current project.

The Podcast start project automatically reopens. An alert appears, asking if you want to update the changes to the SpaceBass final region.

8.

Click Update Region to update the project within the current project.

The project updates, and the Podcast start project automatically saves. You've just witnessed a very advanced maneuver, new to GarageBand 3.

Note

If you choose not to apply the changes when you return to the project you started from, the link between it and the imported project is permanently broken. Also, extending the length of the imported project can result in regions being deleted when you apply the changes to the project it is imported into.

There's just one more thing to do: add the SpaceBass project to the end of the project. No problem. You'll just copy the file and paste it at the end of the song.

9.

Hide the editor if it is showing. Select the SpaceBass project at the beginning of the Timeline and choose Edit > Copy, or press Cmd-C. Then move the playhead to 00:05:30 in the Timeline.

10.

Make sure the Jingles track is selected, then choose Edit > Paste, or press Cmd-V to paste the project at the playhead position.

11.

Play the end of the project from the playhead position to hear the SpaceBass final song with the rest of the tracks.

Excellent! The song works well at both the beginning and end of the project.

Now that the audio tracks are in place, including a jingle at the beginning and end of the project, it's time to add some artwork.




Apple Training Series GarageBand 3
Apple Training Series: GarageBand 3
ISBN: 0321421655
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 134
Authors: Mary Plummer

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