Posted by Gary Rosenzweig on 1/29/10.
You can follow Gary on Twitter.
You can use GarageBand as a simple audio file editor. Just drag and drop a sound file into GarageBand to edit it. You can adjust the volume, cut out parts of the sound and apply filters. You can then export as a standard sound file or a compressed file.
Video Transcript (Click to Expand)
On today’s episode let’s use GarageBand to edit some audio.
Some I am often asked how to edit a piece of audio on the Mac. Is their a program someone can use? Well GarageBand is a great audio editor. You don’t have to use all the music stuff in the special features. You can just use it to edit an audio file. Let’s do that right now.
So here I have created a basic GarageBand file. I just chose the piano default project. Now I am going to delete the only file that is there the Grand Piano by selecting by clicking Here and hitting Command Delete. So it gives me a completely empty GarageBand project. I’ve got an audio file here that I am going to drag into it. Now it can almost be any format in this case it is AIF format could be wav could be an mp3.I’m going to drag it and drop it into this area and it will import the audio right there.
I can playback the sound by pressing the play button at the bottom. I can position in the sound by dragging the marker up here and I can see the red line going as well so I can go to any point in the sound. Like here and can start playing. Now I can view the wav form closer by double clicking on it and it will open the Audio Region editor down here. You can see as I drag the cursor here at the top I can see the red line here and I can also se it down here. Here I can see a much better view of the audio wave form. Now if I want to split the track in some location say the edit out some sound at the beginning. Let’s say I want to edit out this first piece of sound here. So I want to edit that first bit out right there. So I want to cut it there. So what I want going to do is to go to Edit and Split and this will split it into to regions. You can see I can select the first region or the second region representing the rest. I can simply select this and I can also look over here and in the Audio Region editor and can see the two different sections right there. I can select this right here and I can simply press delete and I can move this over to the left just by dragging it. And now I have edited out that first bit of audio. I can also do that down below here. I can select this area here and simply press Delete and that will delete the region. I can then move it over. I can also do that in the middle as well and you see how it splits the track here.
Now you can also play with the volume of a track. So if you select the track click this little button here and it gives you the Track Volume. You can then click to create points and adjust the volume like I can gradually lower the volume here. Have it lower for a while gradually increase it hear here things like that. I could boost an area like that. Do all sorts of things and you can always preview your changes.
Now if I want to modify how it sounds I got to Track Info like so and I have a whole bunch of filters here on the left. So I can select one say Vocals and I can take one and say use Helium and then try to play it with that filter applied.
You can edit a filter as much as you want. Go to the editing tab here see all the effects that are applied to make that filter. You can select any one of them go ahead and change all sorts of things about it. So you can experiment to your heart’s delight making special affect for the sound.
Now after you’re done editing the sound and you get it just the way you want you can get it out of GarageBand by choosing Share and then Export Song to Disc. Here we’ve got some options if you don’t you select compress you get a AFI which is a raw audio file of the highest quality. If you select compress you can choose many things including Mp3 Encoder and select Quality and then hit Export and Name your file and save it anywhere that you want.
So I hope you like that quick look at editing audio in GarageBand till next time this Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost.
On today’s episode let’s use GarageBand to edit some audio.
Some I am often asked how to edit a piece of audio on the Mac. Is their a program someone can use? Well GarageBand is a great audio editor. You don’t have to use all the music stuff in the special features. You can just use it to edit an audio file. Let’s do that right now.
So here I have created a basic GarageBand file. I just chose the piano default project. Now I am going to delete the only file that is there the Grand Piano by selecting by clicking Here and hitting Command Delete. So it gives me a completely empty GarageBand project. I’ve got an audio file here that I am going to drag into it. Now it can almost be any format in this case it is AIF format could be wav could be an mp3.I’m going to drag it and drop it into this area and it will import the audio right there.
I can playback the sound by pressing the play button at the bottom. I can position in the sound by dragging the marker up here and I can see the red line going as well so I can go to any point in the sound. Like here and can start playing. Now I can view the wav form closer by double clicking on it and it will open the Audio Region editor down here. You can see as I drag the cursor here at the top I can see the red line here and I can also se it down here. Here I can see a much better view of the audio wave form. Now if I want to split the track in some location say the edit out some sound at the beginning. Let’s say I want to edit out this first piece of sound here. So I want to edit that first bit out right there. So I want to cut it there. So what I want going to do is to go to Edit and Split and this will split it into to regions. You can see I can select the first region or the second region representing the rest. I can simply select this and I can also look over here and in the Audio Region editor and can see the two different sections right there. I can select this right here and I can simply press delete and I can move this over to the left just by dragging it. And now I have edited out that first bit of audio. I can also do that down below here. I can select this area here and simply press Delete and that will delete the region. I can then move it over. I can also do that in the middle as well and you see how it splits the track here.
Now you can also play with the volume of a track. So if you select the track click this little button here and it gives you the Track Volume. You can then click to create points and adjust the volume like I can gradually lower the volume here. Have it lower for a while gradually increase it hear here things like that. I could boost an area like that. Do all sorts of things and you can always preview your changes.
Now if I want to modify how it sounds I got to Track Info like so and I have a whole bunch of filters here on the left. So I can select one say Vocals and I can take one and say use Helium and then try to play it with that filter applied.
You can edit a filter as much as you want. Go to the editing tab here see all the effects that are applied to make that filter. You can select any one of them go ahead and change all sorts of things about it. So you can experiment to your heart’s delight making special affect for the sound.
Now after you’re done editing the sound and you get it just the way you want you can get it out of GarageBand by choosing Share and then Export Song to Disc. Here we’ve got some options if you don’t you select compress you get a AFI which is a raw audio file of the highest quality. If you select compress you can choose many things including Mp3 Encoder and select Quality and then hit Export and Name your file and save it anywhere that you want.
So I hope you like that quick look at editing audio in GarageBand till next time this Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost.
Mention this post on Twitter!
Submit this post to Digg.
Check out the free MacMost weekly email newsletter.
Become a fan of MacMost on Facebook.
You couldn’t have posted this at a better time! I just imported a music CD into iTunes and the the CD is from a live concert and is only one track; the individual songs are not split into separate tracks.
I did find some instructions on the Internet on how to use iTunes to create individual tracks, but I think I’ll try it in Garage Band instead.
Thanks Gary!
Thank you Gary!
You really helped me with a project for my son with this one.
I hate the popup ad.
Popup ad?
Your little tutorials are invaluable. It’s amazing what you can do with the software that you actually have in your system, without having to go third party. Thanks, MacMost is great ,not too difficult to follow, and well illustrated.
Thank you! so handy for editing our mixtape!