GarageBand User Guide for iPad
You can connect an electric guitar or electric bass and play it using a variety of highly realistic amp sounds that combine a guitar or bass amp with one or more stompbox effects. You can adjust the amp controls, add stompbox effects to customize your sound, and visually tune your instrument.
Choose a guitar or bass sound
Drag the Noise Gate slider until the noise stops or decreases to an acceptable level. Turn on monitoring for an external microphone When an external microphone or other audio device (such as a headset or an audio interface) is connected to your iPad, the Monitor button under the Out level slider becomes active. Drag the Noise Gate slider until the noise stops or decreases to an acceptable level. Turn on monitoring for an external device When an electric instrument or audio interface is connected to your iPad, a Monitor switch appears below the Noise Gate controls. How to use the Noise Gate in GarageBand iPhone/iPad (noise reduction) Close.
Jan 18, 2017 No problem—meet GarageBand's noise gate. Effects like distortion, overdrive, and amp simulators involve amplification of the Real Instrument's input signal. This amplification may also boost otherwise unnoticeable instrument and background noises. The noise gate can prevent these unwanted, low-level sounds from entering the effects. Feb 23, 2018 In this video, I show you how to use volume automation in GarageBand iOS (iPhone/iPad) to remove or reduce the sounds of breaths to clean up you vocals and make them sound better in. Play the Sampler in GarageBand for iPad. You can record (or sample) a sound using a microphone, or add an audio file, and then play it back like a melody on the Sampler keyboard. You can save samples to use in other GarageBand songs, and edit them in several ways.
- Tap the name at the top of the screen, then tap the sound you want to use. You can also swipe left or right to change to the previous or next sound.To switch between guitar and bass sounds, tap Guitar or Bass. To view sounds in a different category, tap one of the category names.
Change the amp
Adjust the input level
When you play your guitar or bass, a circle next to the Input Settings button lights green to show that GarageBand is receiving input from your instrument. If the circle turns red, lower the volume on your instrument to prevent distortion.
- Tap the Input Settings button, then drag the Level slider left or right to set the input level.The Level slider is available if your input source supports software level control.
- To set the level automatically, tap the Automatic switch next to the Level slider.
- If the input device supports left and right channels, tap Left or Right to select the input channel.
Adjust the amp controls
- Touch and turn the knobs to adjust the amp controls.
Reduce unwanted noise
You can use a noise gate to reduce low-level input noise when you record. A noise gate cuts off the sound when it falls below a certain minimum level.
- Tap the Input Settings button , then turn Noise Gate on.
- Drag the Noise Gate slider until the noise stops or decreases to an acceptable level.
Turn on monitoring for an external device
When an electric instrument or audio interface is connected to your iPad, a Monitor switch appears below the Noise Gate controls.
- Tap the Input Settings button .
- Tap the Monitor switch to turn monitoring on. Tap the switch again to turn monitoring off.
Add, replace, or remove a stompbox effect
You can add up to four stompboxes, and change the order of stompboxes by dragging them left or right.
- Tap the Stompbox button in the upper-right corner to show the stompboxes.
- To add a stompbox, tap an empty stompbox slot, then select a stompbox.
- To replace a stompbox, tap the stompbox you want to replace, then select a new stompbox.
- To remove a stompbox, drag it down toward the bottom of the screen.
- Tap the Amp button in the upper-right corner to return to the amp controls.
Turn a stompbox on or off
- Tap the Stompbox button in the upper-right corner.
- Tap the round On/Off button on the stompbox. If the small round LED (usually red) on the stompbox is lit, the stompbox is turned on.
- Tap the Amp button in the upper-right corner to return to the amp controls.
Adjust the stompbox controls
- Tap the Stompbox button , then double-tap the stompbox you want to adjust.
- Turn the knobs to adjust the stompbox controls.
- Swipe left or right if you want to work on a different stompbox.
Use the wah pedal with Face Control
If your iPad supports facial recognition, you can move the pedal on the Modern Wah stompbox by moving your mouth while you play. When you record, any pedal movements you make with Face Control are also recorded.
- Tap an empty stompbox slot, then select Modern Wah from the list.
- Hold your iPad 10–20 inches (25–50 cm) away from your face, then tap the Face Control button .The first time you use Face Control, GarageBand asks for permission to access the camera on your iPad.
- As you play, open and close your mouth to move the wah pedal up and down.You can tap the Amp button and adjust the amp controls while continuing to use Face Control.
- To turn Face Control off, tap the Face Control button again.
Note: GarageBand uses ARKit face tracking features to translate your facial expressions into instrument effect controls. Your face information is processed on device, and only music is captured during your performance.
Tune your guitar or bass
- Tap the Tuner button in the upper-left corner.
- Play an open string you want to tune, watching the tuner.The red horizontal lines show whether the string is too low (flat) or too high (sharp). When the string is in tune, the note name in the center turns blue.
- Tap the Tuner button again to close the tuner.
Save your own custom sounds
- Modify an existing amp sound by changing the amp, adjusting the amp controls, adding or removing stompboxes, or adjusting the stompbox controls.
- Tap the name at the top of the screen, then tap Save.
- Type a name for your custom sound, then tap Done.The first time you save a custom sound, a new Custom category appears, with an icon for your sound. You can rename or delete the sound by tapping Edit, then tapping the icon (to rename the sound) or the red circle (to delete the sound).
Turn crosstalk protection on or off
When your guitar or bass is connected to the headphone port and monitoring is turned on, you may experience unwanted feedback due to crosstalk. GarageBand includes crosstalk protection to help protect against feedback caused by crosstalk. Crosstalk protection is especially useful when using high gain settings on a guitar or bass amp, or when using an overdrive or boost stompbox together with a high-gain amp such as the Modern Stack. In such cases, feedback caused by crosstalk can result in sudden, unpleasantly high output levels.
Crosstalk protection can change the sound of the instrument while monitoring is on, but the sound returns to normal when monitoring is turned off or another track is selected. You can turn off crosstalk protection to hear how it changes the sound; however, it is recommended that you decrease the volume of your iPad to a low level before doing so.
- Close GarageBand.
- Open the Settings app, choose GarageBand, then turn Crosstalk Protection on or off.
Getting rid of background noise in Garageband is pretty simple, and while there are many more sophisticated plug-ins for noise gating available on the internet, I would say that, from what I’ve experienced thus far, the stock noise gate that comes with Garageband works just fine.
In this tutorial, I’m going to run through how to quickly use a noise gate to eliminate unwanted sounds in a Garageband recording, and I’ll also direct you to a more sophisticated noise gate plug-in.
Moreover, I’ll also show you how to manually go into your vocal tracks and actually delete the undesirable sounds from your recordings, rather than just gating them.
First things first, I’ll show you how to set up a simple gate.
How To Set Up A Noise Gate
With Garageband open,
1) Go down into the Smart Controls with your vocal track selected, and notice the little box and the text beside it that says, “Noise Gate.”
2) Check the box off, meaning that now, your noise gate is turned on.
3) Slide the noise gate bar over to the desired dB setting until the noise has been completely eliminated – usually between -50dB and -15dB
You can choose at which rate you’re going to set the noise gate, and of course, it really depends on what you’ve recorded and how loud the signal is, however, there is typically a range which sounds the best, and I would say that between -50dB and -15dB is the best area to be in.
For instance, on the latest track that I mixed for a client, I set the Noise Gate to around -20dB, and I’m sure that the client used a gate when he was recording as well.
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Be careful not to turn the noise gate up so much that you eliminate all of the little sounds (transients) that make it sound authentic and human unless your goal is to make it sound “too perfect.”
Moreover, you might find that too much gating will create a choppy vocal during a quieter part of the singing/speaking. In combination with a compressor, the noise gate is very useful.
In terms of where it should be in the signal chain, you want to use the Noise Gate right after wherever the noise is coming from.
If you’ve used a compressor to increase the quiet sounds and decrease the loud sounds, you might find that it brings up the undesirable sounds in the background.
In this case, you can use the Noise Gate after the compressor rather than before.
Here’s what I mean by the order of the plug-ins in the signal chain – the image below illustrates what I’m talking about.
Noise Gate Tips
Also, notice that the Noise Gate comes with its very own pre-sets in Garageband.
Click the Noise Gate plug-in the Smart Controls, and then in the Drop-Down menu, you can see the presets that come with it.
There are seven of them: Acoustic Bass Gate, Backing Vocal Gate, Electric Bass Gate, Fast Gate, Hard Floor Noise Cut, Percussion Gate, as well as Tighten Up.
How To Eliminate Unwanted Background Noise Manually
In many cases, you might find that it’s better to move to actually go into the vocal track and eliminate the unwanted sounds manually, rather than gating merely everything.
Here’s how to do this:
1) Double click the Audio Recording in the Workspace to highlight it.
2) Zoom in to the track by using the Zoom function on your trackpad.
Zooming in on the audio file in the Smart Controls will allow you to see all of the little noises in the wave format.
3) Isolate the parts of the audio recording that you want to get rid of, and then use the (Command + T) function to actually cut them out.
a) Use the (Command + T) function to cut the first offending part.
b) Then move the Rule over to the next part and use the (Command + T) function again.
You’ve created a little square, and you can select the square, and then delete it from the audio track entirely.
By doing this manually, we can actually delete the offending parts straight up, including the moment the singer takes a breath before starting to sing.
You can isolate the breath in the audio track and then delete it.
Once you’ve done this, you’re going to find that you run into problems later, however, when it comes to whether you want to duplicate that very same audio region and then loop it.
For instance, if you go through your vocal track, deleting each undesirable audio region, you’ll notice that you can’t loop it, due to the fact you deleted the parts out of it, essentially separating the vocal track from each other, and making it more than one track, rather than all combined as one.
If you try to use the (Command + J) function to merge the tracks together again, you’ll be right back where you started – the breaths and unwanted noises included, however, there is a way of getting around this.
Through the creation of a brand new audio file, as well as the (Command + J) function, you can actually make a new and improved audio file where the breaths and all of the undesired sounds have been eliminated, however, if you try and do it without creating a brand new file, the (Command + J) function will just combine the tracks together and those mistakes and little errors that you deleted before will come right back again.
This is a little bit tricky, so pay close attention.
How To Create A New Background Noise-Free Vocal Track
At this stage, you’ve gone through your vocal track and cut out all of the undesirable sounds, including the unwanted breathing right before the vocalist sung their first word.
1) Use the (Command + D) function to create an entirely new track with duplicate settings.
2) Copy and Select all of the edited vocal track, the one where you’ve eliminated all of the undesirable sounds, and then copy and paste it into the new Track Region, which is going to look like what you can see in the image below.
3) Select the new audio track and use the (Command + J) function to create an entirely new audio region without the unwanted noises and breathing.
Garageband will bring up a warning that says that for a new file to be created out of “noncontiguous” audio, a new track has to be created.
It’s worth noting that if you don’t get this warning sign, then what’s going to happen is that you’re just going to merge the tracks together again and wind up with very same breaths, errors, and background noise in the new track.
Garageband Noise Gate
You want to click Ok, and then voila, you have a brand new track without the breathing and mistakes, and then you loop it however much you want.
Noise Gate Plug-Ins
In terms of what plug-ins you can actually get your hands on, I would say the most popular free plug-in for Noise Gates is the Bob Perry Noise gate which can be found on VST4Free at the link here.
This noise gate is more sophisticated than the stock plug-in that comes with Garageband, and it’s more realistic to the analog noise gates that you’d actually see in a professional recording studio or in a musician’s home.
Similar to the compressor, it has a few different parameters, including the Threshold, Attack, Hold, Release, and then the Range.
It has a few other parameters as well, including two toggle switches on the left and right-hand side.
Noise Gate Garageband Ipad 7
On the left side, it has the “Curve” toggle switch.
Noise Gate Garageband Ipad Pro
The curve has three parameters, Curve, Log, and S-Curve
And then on the right side, there is the “Source” toggle switch.
This toggle switch goes back and forth from Side Chain and Channel.
We’ll talk about how to set up a more sophisticated noise gate plug-in in the future, as well as some of the other functions of a gate.
YouTube Video Tutorial
Conclusion
I hope this was helpful to you. In the future, I’ll dive deep into the Noise Gate, its parameters, and how to really get the best out of one.