Apple's GarageBand contains scores of great software instruments and hundreds of audio loops. What it doesn't have is a sampler'a way for you to create your own instruments from audio files. Since GarageBand lets you use Audio Unit instruments, you can make use of samplers like Native Instruments Kontakt from within GarageBand. But, there's an easy way to make a simple sampled instrument without resorting to a third-party tool.
A perfect application for this is to create a 'sound effect' instrument. This is an instrument where each key contains a related sound effect. For example, you might create an instrument comprised of different types of footsteps or doorbell rings. Now, when you are adding sound effects to a movie, you can play and record keys on your keyboard rather than having to drag audio files into your song.
Little projects like this are really easy in GarageBand and do a great job of allowing you to mod your external instrument with some really powerful digital creativity. Take some time to experiment with the amp models and get used to the different sounds you have available. It’s designed to allow you to play Apple’s virtual instruments in a live setting, but also adds all of its loops and virtual instruments to Garageband after installation. April 5, 2016 lewis Reply. To improve the sound of your stock instruments in Garageband as well as in other DAWs, use dynamics plug-ins and effects, such as EQ, compression, delay, reverb, and then panning. How To Make Garageband Instruments Sound More Professional 1) Reverb to Make the Instrument Sound Bigger and Less Up-Front.
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Creating the Sampled Instrument
To start with, you need to create a software instrument track. Change it from the default 'Grand Piano' sound to 'Radio Sounds' under the 'Sound Effects' category. Then, bring up the musical typing keyboard from the Window menu (or use the shortcut Shift-Command-K).
You'll notice that the musical keyboard looks a little different than it does with most instruments. There are tiny speaker icons on the white and black keys. And, there is a 'Details' section below the keyboard. You can click the triangle next to the word 'Details' to reveal a list of the sounds mapped to each key.
Now for the fun part. Take any audio file from your disk (WAV, AIFF, MP3, and M4a files all work) and drag it over one of the white or black keys. The cursor will turn into a plus sign. When you let go of the mouse, the new audio file will now be assigned to that letter.
In the picture below, I am dragging the audio file 'DoorBellRing1980s.wav' to the 'A' key'a C note on the musical typing keyboard:
That's it! Press the letter on your keyboard or the associated key on your MIDI keyboard and you will hear your audio file played back. Assign other audio to other letters on your keyboard. You can even use the 'Z' and 'X' keys to move up and down the musical keyboard and assign new sounds to each group of 18 keys. In fact, you can assign a different audio file to every note from C-2 to F8!
Unfortunately, you can only drag one audio file out at a time, so it's tedious work. But, when you're done, you will have a new instrument that works like any other software instrument in GarageBand. You can record a part and play it back on a software instrument track. You can use the 'Save Instrument' button to save your new instrument and use it in other songs.
You can use this technique for more than 'sound effect' instruments. For example, you could record some sounds of your own (guitar chords, percussion hits, hand claps, mouth noises) and use those sounds to build a custom instrument. Just record the sounds in GarageBand, create a new Sound Effects software instrument as outlined above, and drag the audio files from the timeline to the musical typing window for the Sound Effects instrument.
Clearly, this technique is not the one to use for that thousand sample grand piano you want to create. There's no velocity sensitivity (you can't play back different sounds based on how hard you press a key) and there's nothing like scripting, round robin, or other features you find in a real sampler like Kontakt. But, for a sound effect instrument or even a simple musical instrument, this technique works perfectly.
As you can see there's more to GarageBand than meets the eye! Go deeper into GarageBand '11 here.
GarageBand inclusive of a standard keyboard instrument and a smart keyboard instrument. The keyboard in the GarageBand is set up like the standard keyboard and has a variety of keyboard instruments and some of which are customizable including grand pianos, electric piano, multiple organs, clavinet, synth tracks, and also the bass synth pads, and synths.
It also has several different sounds. The keyboard can play arpeggios and has a blend curve. The smart keyboard is designed like other smart instruments so that the individuals can play chords on the piano, electric piano, organ, clavinet, and four stretchable synthesizers. Also included is an autoplay purpose, which plays one of the 4 rhythms for each device.
There are two distinct types of drum instruments in the GarageBand App. The touch drum instrument comprises of seven acoustic drum kits termed as Bluebird, Classic Studio Kit, Live Rock Kit, Retro Rock, Roots, SoCal, and Vintage Kit with the realistic setup, as well as three electronic drum kits like Hip Hop Drums, House Drums and a drum kit with samples from Roland TR-808 and 909.
They have been configured as automated drums with customizable sounds that can be saved as separate drum kits. The other drum device is the Smart Drums instrument, in which the drum sounds can be organized in a grid according to the complexity and also the volume.
Includes classic studio kit, live rock kit, vintage kit, classic drum machine, hip hop drum machine, and homemade drum machine. The Chinese kit was attached to the GarageBand along with other Chinese instruments. The user can generate real Chinese sounds, such as a gong.
Garageband Instruments And Lessons Are Using
GarageBand includes four guitars as an acoustic guitar, two electric guitars, and a distortion guitar. Every guitar except acoustic has two distinctive speakers. The GarageBand virtual instrument is configured as a smart keyboard that can play various chords. Additionally, each note in a chord can be played separately or cut by holding down the left side of the order.
Garageband Instruments And Loops 1.0
The Smart Bass machine is structured like a guitar, with four strings representing multiple notes. However, the bass cannot play chords. It includes three electric basses, an orchestral acoustic bass, and four customizable synthetic basses. Like the virtual keyboard and smart guitars, there is an autoplay feature available in the app