GarageBand: You Already Have Audio Production Software

This is a quick how-to to get you up and running on GarageBand. I know that many of our high school teachers are recording students—particularly for IB submissions—and I honestly don’t think there’s a more intuitive Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) out there than GarageBand—which came pre-installed on your MacBooks. Some of our teachers and students are using Audacity, another excellent (and free) piece of recording software. As much as I admire the features on Audacity (such as 64-bit processing), I don’t think it’s nearly as user-friendly as GarageBand, so I want to make sure you have the tools to get GB off the ground.

If you are recording simple narration or Voice Over, there’s a template already built in just for you. When you open GarageBand, simply click “Voice” from the pre-formatted setups.

The first thing you’ll want to do is delete all the additional tracks in your workspace, so that you just have the one track, free of effects. Next, using either the built-in microphone on your MacBook or an external USB mic, you can begin recording. It’s as simple as pressing the big red record button at the top of your screen.

Note: GarageBand does not autosave your work, like many other Apple products, so be sure to give your project a name and save it regularly.

You can easily split your audio clips, drag them, rearrange them, and adjust them as necessary. Once you’re ready to export your audio file, choose “Share” from the top menu > “Export to Disk” From there, you can choose where you want to keep your file. You can also select what audio format you want it in (AIFF, WAV or MP3). Remember, this will bounce everything down to a single audio file; this is not the same as saving your project, which could have several tracks in it.

That’s it! Again, I really don’t think it could be any simpler. I began using GarageBand about 12 years ago, and as a professional musician I soon moved on to a more professional program called ProTools. Today, I do all my recording and producing in another program by Apple: Logic Pro X. But for quick setup, quality sound, and total ease of  use, GarageBand is often the way to go!