In this chapter: • Explore GarageBand's built-in Software Instruments • Learn to use GarageBand's Onscreen Musical Keyboard to play Software Instruments • Learn to use a MIDI keyboard to play Software Instruments • Record Software Instrument tracks • Edit Software Instrument tracks • Record a song using Software Instruments Playing GarageBand's Software Instruments Perhaps the coolest thing about GarageBand is that for your $49, you get over 50 great-sounding instruments with it. You get practically an entire orchestra inside your Mac. Previously, when you bought a MIDI sequencer you either had to buy add-on Virtual Instrument packages costing hundreds of dollars or have MIDI hardware sound modules hooked into your Mac.
No more, thanks to GarageBand. Let's find out just what Software Instruments are. Also, how you can use either GarageBand's onscreen Musical Keyboard or a MIDI keyboard to play music with Software Instruments. What Are Software Instruments?
In GarageBand there are two kinds of instruments. • Prerecorded sound files (such as Apple Loops and imported sound files) or a live audio input (such as a guitar or vocals) plus any effects added to them to form a RealInstrument. • Sounds generated within GarageBand plus any effects added to them form a Software Instrument. GarageBand calls these built-in sound generators Software Instruments. The important thing to know is that you can play Software Instruments in GarageBand with GarageBand's Onscreen Musical Keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard.
Another thing about Software Instruments is that they use your Mac's processor to do some very complex calculations to generate sound, so the more powerful your Mac is, the more software instruments you can use at any one time. Before we actually start to play these things, let's find out a little more about MIDI. NOTE Refer to Chapter 1, 'Getting Started with GarageBand,' when using Software Instruments to make sure you have your system set for optimal performance.
Adding More Instruments to Garageband Garageband makes it really easy to get in there and easily set up virtual instruments that come built-in. However, if you're. Hello, I’m running macOS 10.12 and under storage management it says that 'GarageBand instruments and lessons are using 1,02 GB. You can manage these files using.
You can learn more about exporting your song to iTunes in Chapter 7, 'Finishing Up.' What Is MIDI? Kelly Baggett No Bull Speed Development Manual there. Back in the early '80s someone thought it would be a great idea if they could use one keyboard to control a whole stack of synthesizers.
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) was born. MIDI is a language that allows a controller musical instrument to talk to a bunch of other instrumentsmuch the same way your keyboard talks to your Mac. Someone else figured out that you could record those musical instructions and save them to a file. Then, you could play that file back and control not only the original stack of synthesizers, but also any stack of MIDI-compatible instruments that you wanted.