how many LVers using GarageBand?

Post by **TriciaG** » October 31st, 2016, 1:43 pm

if this content does go up on the wiki someplace, would there be a place there to host the images? just thought I'd check on that. right now they're in a random blog draft post.

Yes, you can upload the images to the wiki, and they're hosted right there.

plaidsicle · Post by **plaidsicle** » November 6th, 2016, 7:43 am

maybe it would make sense for this little GB tutorial to be added to the wiki officially, and then I could relink the images here so they show up properly, in case people search the forums for help before they search the wiki?

another thought: I see there is a sticky "Audacity Help" thread in the Need Help, Got Advice forum-- would it be a good idea to create a companion "GarageBand Help" sticky, too? I know we are in the minority, but it could still be worth it for a few of us to have a go-to place to troubleshoot things.

jhWang · Post by **jhWang** » January 22nd, 2017, 9:49 pm

Hello! I'm new to Librivox and I'm using garageband, too!

Thank you for your post! I finally know how to do mono. However, I can't seem to change the volume to under 92. The test recording I did is 92.8, and no matter how many times I changed the volume, it doesn't seem to keep the change when I export it. Can anyone tell me what to do?

Thank you!

plaidsicle · Post by **plaidsicle** » January 23rd, 2017, 7:04 am

yay, I'm glad this post helped.

for volume adjustments I usually use the MP3Gain tool. it works for me, though I know some people have trouble getting the files to save after amplifying/de-amplifying.

tonythewonderful · Post by **tonythewonderful** » January 26th, 2017, 2:53 pm

Hi guys,

I am new to LV, and I am trying to use GB for recordings, however, with no success - it cannot make 'mono' mp3.

I can select 'mono' in the input source all right, however, the export dialog simply does not have the 'Custom' option, only the choice of different bitrates, and AAC-MP3-AIFF switch. So, no matter what I do, the resulting mp3 is always 'Joint Stereo', and fails in Checker.

My GB version is 10.1.3, whereas plaidsicle is talking about 6.0.5. Obviously Apple have done away with the "unnecessary" 'mono' option somewhere on the way.

Just wondering if anyone with a newer GB version has a similar problem?

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » January 26th, 2017, 4:03 pm

I don't use Garageband, but I thought that others may have had the same problem. This is from http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/119943/convert-an-already-recorded-stereo-track-to-mono-in-garageband

I've no idea how well these methods work. The advice was on an Apple site, so the first method uses an Apple function, but the second seems to get round that.
Peter

Re .. converting an existing stereo track to mono ...

JHerran
I found an easy way,

Record your stereo track (the one that can only can pan to one side).
Record another track but set all the controls to the minimum levels (Gain, track volume, etc.) the track can be recorded with silence.
Select both passages and join them (⌘ + J) GB will show an option to join the tracks in mono!

Ferrock
This was driving me mad, but I now use a very smooth way based on JHerran's answer. It has the virtue of only requiring Garageband and is quick.

N.B. I assume your track has a single region: if not you will have to shift-click to select all the regions in the track that you want to convert.

Click on the track that you want to convert. The single region should automatically be highlighted.
Command-D or >Track>New Track with duplicate settings to create a new track
Command-V to paste the original regions to the new track
Shift-Click on the original region(s) to highlight it again
Command-J to join the regions, select "Mono" for the mix-down
The mix-down will replace the original stereo track - you can now click on the temporary track and Delete it.

tonythewonderful · Post by **tonythewonderful** » January 26th, 2017, 6:37 pm

Sorry, Peter, this approach does not work for me

Peter Why wrote:This is from http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/119943/convert-an-already-recorded-stereo-track-to-mono-in-garageband

I found it too when I tried to figure out what to do with GB. The recipe there works only up to a point... I can convert the track into mono by joining it with itself, that's correct. However, GB exports it into stereo mp3, even though it is just one mono track...

At the moment I am thinking about installing Audacity...

Post by **annise** » January 26th, 2017, 6:54 pm

It's a while since I asked in the forum about GB becuse I wanted to set up a wiki guide for ir and there are probably changes to GB since then, but the general response I got from people who had used it at first was "I should have switched earlier, it's really designed to record music . Tell them to use Audacity for voice recording."
Just saying - I am not a Mac user though.

Anne

tovarisch · Post by **tovarisch** » January 26th, 2017, 7:42 pm

Their (GB) MP3 export is rather dumb. No choice of variable bitrate (good for us, eh?), and only 4 constant bitrates to select... No choice of stereo vs joint stereo (controls compression), no tags... Very unsophisticated. Used to be more, now has been dumbed down almost to the bottom.

plaidsicle · Post by **plaidsicle** » January 30th, 2017, 5:21 pm

tonythewonderful wrote:Hi guys,

I am new to LV, and I am trying to use GB for recordings, however, with no success - it cannot make 'mono' mp3.

I can select 'mono' in the input source all right, however, the export dialog simply does not have the 'Custom' option, only the choice of different bitrates, and AAC-MP3-AIFF switch. So, no matter what I do, the resulting mp3 is always 'Joint Stereo', and fails in Checker.

My GB version is 10.1.3, whereas plaidsicle is talking about 6.0.5. Obviously Apple have done away with the "unnecessary" 'mono' option somewhere on the way.

Just wondering if anyone with a newer GB version has a similar problem?

aw, I didn't realize my GarageBand was so outdated. now I'm afraid to update anything.