Throughout this lesson, you have been mixing the song by adjusting the individual tracks. The song has come a long way since the arrangement you started with, and the mix is almost finished.
There's one thing left to work with, and that is the Master track. Unlike individual tracks, the Master track controls the entire song. In the next series of exercises, you'll work with the Master track to change the volume and effects for the overall song.
There are two ways to show the Master track:
Choose Track > Show Master Track.
Press Cmd-B.
Let's try it now.
1. | Choose Track > Show Master Track. The Master track appears at the bottom of the Timeline. The Master Volume curve shows the Master track by default. |
2. | Click the Master Track header to select it. The Master Track header changes from grey to purple. The Master Track Curve pop-up lets you show either the Master Volume curve or the Master Pitch curve. |
3. | On the purple Master Track header, click the Master Track Curve pop-up and select the Master Pitch curve. You can set control points on the Master Pitch curve to change the pitch of (transpose) the overall song. |
4. | In the Master Track Curve pop-up, change back to the Master Volume curve. |
There are four different volume controls to consider as you finish your song. Each volume control adjusts a particular level.
Track volume is the volume level of an individual track. You adjust it using either the track's Volume slider or the track's Volume curve. The purpose of adjusting the track volume is to balance the levels of the different tracks in order to make them higher or lower in the overall mix.
To dynamically adjust the volume levels of the overall song, you adjust the volume of the Master track, which is a combination of all the mixed individual tracks. To change Master track volume, you adjust the control points in the Master track's Volume curve. The time to adjust Master track volume is after you have balanced the levels of all the individual tracks.
It is important to understand the difference between the overall song volume, which you control through the Master track, and the master output volume. The master output volume is the volume level that goes out of GarageBand to the computer. This output level determines the level your song will have when it is exportedfor example, when it is output from GarageBand to iTunes.
You can control the master output volume of the song by using the Master Output Volume slider, located in the lower-right corner of the window.
This slider should only be adjusted after you have mixed the levels of the individual tracks and then adjusted the Master track volume. Once the overall song is mixed, you use the Master Output Volume slider to raise or lower the output level. This step ensures that you avoid clipping and that the export volume of the finished song is not too low.
The computer output volume is how loud you hear your GarageBand project through your headphones or computer speakers. You should always use volume controls for your computer to adjust the loudness in your headphones and speakers. You should not use the Master Output Volume slider in GarageBand for this purpose. Adjusting your computer's output volume level lets you listen to your GarageBand music as loudly or quietly as you like without changing the output level of the actual project so that it exports too loudly or too quietly.
Note
The volume controls for your computer can be accessed through the speaker icon in the menu at the top of the screen or in the Sound pane of your System Preferences window.
Now that you understand the difference between the different volume controls, let's focus on the Master track volume and the master output volume.
One of the most important features of the Master track is that it can be used to dynamically change the Volume curve of the overall song. Let's add control points to the Master track Volume curve to fade out the end of the song.
To add an effect to an individual track, you used the Track Info window for the track. The Master track also has a Track Info window that allows you to make changes to the overall song.
There are three ways to open the Master Track Info window:
Select the Master track and press Cmd-I.
Choose Track > Show Track Info.
Click the Track Info button. The button is located between the Add Track (+) and Loop Browser buttons. The Track Info button will open the Track Info window for any selected track, including the Master track.
Let's open the Master Track Info window and add an effect to the entire song.
Now that you've added control points and effects to the Master track, it's time to check the output level for clipping. This is the last thing you do to your final mix to prepare the song for export.
You've finished your final mix, adjusted all of the track levels individually, and made adjustments to the overall song. The last thing you need to do is play the song from the beginning and watch the Master Output Volume meters to make sure the song output levels are good, and not clipping.
When the output level is good, the average volume levels (solid green bars) move as high as the middle or upper third of the meters, and the peaks (green lines) never turn yellow or red.
To change the output volume for the song, you click-drag the Master Output Volume slider.
Let's raise the master output volume to illustrate clipping.
1. | Click-drag the Master Output Volume slider to the right so that it is near the highest level. It doesn't need to be at the highest level to cause clipping. Note You may wish to take a moment to lower the volume of your computer because the playback will now be louder than normal. |
2. | Press the Home key and then the spacebar to play the song from the beginning. As the song plays, watch the Master Output Volume meters for any signs of clipping. If the clipping indicators turn red, press the spacebar to stop playback. |
3. | Click the red clipping indicators to reset them. |
4. | Click-drag the Master Output Volume slider to the left to lower the output volume of the song. |
5. | Repeat steps 2 through 4 until you find a good level for the Master track volume. Make sure your output level isn't too low. Try to set the output level as loud as you can safely, without the meters reaching the yellow or the red clipping range. |
6. | Press Cmd-S to save the finished mix. |
Technically, the song is complete. However, I added two instrument tracks and one vocal track at the end. The instrument tracks are empty so that you can record your own part to go along with the song. For the vocal track, I added a spoken introduction to the song. Sorry, I'm not a vocalist, and there isn't a filter that can make my singing voice sound good enough for this song. You can still test the vocal effects on my spoken words, and if you really want to add some singing, go for itafter the lesson.
1. | Select the Female Basic track (the lowest track) in the Timeline. |
2. | Press M to unmute the track. |
3. | Press the Home key to move the playhead to the beginning of the song, then play the first few measures to hear the vocal part. |
3. | Press S to solo the track, then press C to turn on the cycle region. |
4. | Create a cycle region over the first 2 measures of the song. |
5. | Press Cmd-I to open the Track Info window for the selected track. |
6. | Select the Helium Breath vocal preset to hear what I sound like after inhaling a dose of helium. When you stop laughing, use the up and down arrow keys to try different vocal effects. The Male and Female presets are designed to accentuate those respective voices, but they will not make a female vocalist sound like a male or vice versa. |
7. | Select Female Basic as the preset vocal effect. |
What if you like more than one preset? Suppose you want the first part of the vocal to use the Female Basic effect and you want the words highway bound to use the Ambient Vocals preset. So, based on everything you've learned so far, how would you do this? Easy enough. Simply duplicate the track, split the region, and place the parts on two separate tracks with different effects presets.
Now that you understand how to mix a song in GarageBand, let's put your ear to the test. In this exercise, you'll listen to the original, unmixed song, then the mixed song. See if you hear the difference in the two versions.
Congratulations! Now you know how to mix your songs to make them sound professional.
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