MacMost: GarageBand

GarageBand is a complex app with a lot of functionality, but you can use it just to trim, merge and mix simple audio files. Also learn how to add a fade out and filter before exporting.

The free GarageBand app from Apple allows you to play your iPhone like a piano, guitar, bass, drum kit or a variety of other instruments. You don't need to learn how to use GarageBand's complex recording and editing tools, you can just jumpo to one of these instruments and play live.

If you haven't taken the time to play with Apple's GarageBand app on your Mac, here are 10 quick things you can do with it. Some are useful, like merging and trimming many audio files. Others are fun like turning your Mac's keyboard into a piano or drum kit. You can even import MIDI files and edit the audio of a video with GarageBand.

With GarageBand on your Mac you can import audio files as samples and play them using a virtual or MIDI keyboard. The controls to do this are burried deep, so it isn't obvious how to do it. You cna save these instruments as patch files to use again.

You can turn any standard sound file into a ringtone right on your iPhone using the free GarageBand app from Apple. You can also use some music from your library, and download audio files and music online, even from YouTube, to use as ringtones.

There are many ways to record audio from your Mac's built-in microphone or a mic you have connected. You can use the Voice Memos app or the QuickTime Player app to record quickly into a file you can use in another app or send online. You can use GarageBand for more complex recordings and editing. You can also record audio directly into some apps like iMovie, Keynote and Pages.

Instead of using music from a collection or jingles from iMovie you can easily create your own video soundtrack in GarageBand. It only takes a few minutes to combine a drum track with other loops and then export some music that you can drag and drop into iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Then your video will have unique royalty-free music that fits the content.

You can use more than one microphone or input device with GarageBand on your Mac. Instead of buying more hardware, you can configure your Audio MIDI Setup utility to create an aggregate device that treats each mic like a track in a single input. Then you can set up multiple tracks in GarageBand to use those tracks so each mic records to a different track.

A tape stop is when a song sounds like it is being played on a tape deck and the speed of the tape comes to a halt very quickly. Both the speed and pitch ramp down. This is a common effect in modern music. Some audio and music apps have a fairly simple way to do this. GarageBand doesn't have a tape stop effect, but you can combine some techniques to get the same result if you know how.

A seemingly simple thing to do is GarageBand is have your track or song fade in or out. But finding the method for doing this can be difficult. A fade is an automation. To fade, you need to show automations and then edit the automation line to change the volume over time. You can do this on a single track, or on the master track to fade the entire song.

When you use Software Instrument Loops in GarageBand, you can switch the instrument used by the loop to something else. For instance, a piano loop can be changed to use guitar or orchestral strings. You can also change the drum kit instrument used by drum loops. Software Instrument Loops can even be edited at the note level to create unique loops.

You can bring video into GarageBand as a track and then use that video to sync your music, recording or sound effects to the action in the video. The preview window lets you operate with precision. You can then export the result as audio to bring into your video editing software, or export both the video and audio as a finished product.

There are many different ways to start a song in Garageband on the iPad. The Beat Sequencer is fun to play with all by itself, and can create a unique beat for your own song. You can set the location for each hit of each drum along a timeline, easily turning them on or off and adjusting the details if you want to get more specific.

You can open standard MIDI files in GarageBand. You can then view the notes in each track, change them, and change the instrument being used to play that track. You can combine MIDI tracks with other Apple Loops to create interesting remixes of music.

You can slow down a section of a recorded track in Garageband. You'll need to isolate the track in its own Garageband file and then set things up just right to slow down the track.

Live Loops is a new feature of GarageBand for iOS that makes it easy and fun to create music. You can use one of the provided set of loops, or full in cells in a grid with recordings or loops to create your own. Then you can play Live Loops in real time and record. When you are done, you can go into the normal GarageBand interface to add more or fine tune.

Apple released a new free app for iPhone and iPad this week that allows music creators to easily capture new ideas. You can sign or play an instrument and record it. You can add backing bass and drums and play around with the song. You can then export to Garageband or upload to a number of different places.

The latest version of GarageBand allows you to create drum tracks using various settings rather than picking a fixed drum loop. You can select a drummer, and then change the style, which drums are used and many other factor to create a unique drum loop for your project. If nothing else, the drummer function in GarageBand is fun to play with!

You can use GarageBand as a basic audio editor. You can import most standard audio formats into a project and then proceed to trim, split or re-arrange the track. You can also use filters and add sound effects and loops. Then you can export the finished product as a new audio file.

You can use GarageBand on your Mac to create custom ringtones for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. You can combine your voice, GarageBand loops, instruments and external files to create almost anything you want. Then you can export them to iTunes and use iTunes to sync the ringtones to your iOS device. They can be assigned to ringtones, message tones, alerts or anywhere tones are used.