GarageBand User Guide
- Welcome
-
- Play a lesson
- Choose the input source for your guitar
- Customise the lesson window
- See how well you played a lesson
- Measure your progress over time
- Slow down a lesson
- Change the mix of a lesson
- View full-page music notation
- View glossary topics
- Practise guitar chords
- Tune your guitar in a lesson
- Open lessons in the GarageBand window
- Get additional Learn to Play lessons
- If your lesson doesn’t finish downloading
- Touch Bar shortcuts
- Glossary
- Copyright
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Before recording software instruments in GarageBand on Mac
You can connect a USB or MIDI music keyboard to your computer to play and record software instruments. You can play and record the software instruments built into GarageBand or software instruments you add as add as Audio Units plug-ins. Before you record, you also need to add a software instrument track and choose a sound.
GarageBand’s built-in sounds are sorted into categories, such as Bass, Guitar, Orchestral, Piano, Synthesizer and so on. When you choose a sound patch from any of these categories, the Smart Controls area updates to show you controls for the patch. You can use these controls to adjust the sound. See Intro to Smart Controls in GarageBand on Mac.
Connect a music keyboard to your computer
In GarageBand on Mac, do one of the following:
If the keyboard is a USB music keyboard, connect the USB cable from the keyboard to your computer.
If the keyboard is a standard MIDI keyboard, connect the keyboard to a MIDI interface using standard MIDI cables, then connect the MIDI interface to your computer.
Make sure you follow the instructions that came with the keyboard, which may include installing the correct driver on your computer. Check the manufacturer’s website for the latest driver software. If you’re using a MIDI interface, make sure you follow the instructions that came with the interface.
Add a software instrument track and choose a patch
In GarageBand on Mac, do one of the following:
Choose Track > New Track.
Click the Add Tracks button
above the track headers.
In the New Track dialogue, select MIDI.
Click Create.
In the Library, select a patch category from the list on the left, then select the patch you want to use from the list on the right.