So You Want To Record Authentic-Sounding Guitar In Your DAW
In this article, I’ll show you exactly how to plug your guitar into GarageBand. The way that I find works best is the most convenient and sounds pretty good as well while minimizing latency and other problems.
How to Plug Your Guitar Into GarageBand
- GarageBand features a built-in tuner, accessed via the button to the right of the LCD display in the transport bar. This examines the incoming audio signal, whether it’s from a connected mic or guitar input, and displays its pitch on a circular readout, so you can use it to check whether your instrument is in tune before you record it.
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GarageBand for iPhone and iPad. Drum machine, and tuner—may be the most inspiring musical iOS app I’ve ever used. And at a meager $5, it’s an astonishing bargain. Musician or not, it’s.
There are a few different ways of doing this, and some are significantly better than others. I’m just going to show you the way that I do it.
I have a couple of pieces of necessary gear:
- Obviously, your guitar.
- A Firewire to USB Cable
- an Audio Interface (I use the Focusrite Saffire 6USB. The Scarlett 2i2 is good too.)
- A USB-C to USB cable (The only reason this adapter is necessary is I’m using the latest edition of the MacBook Pro. The older generation MacBook Pro doesn’t need this adapter).
- Regular Guitar Cable.
If you’re new to music production, understand that a lot of this equipment will come in handy for years to come.
If you’re serious about recording and producing, much of this equipment and more are a necessity, so just grab some of it off Amazon and be done with it.
Without further ado,
The actual steps:
1) Connect your Firewire cable to your MacBook Pro. In most cases, this cable will come with your purchase of an audio interface, or a MIDI keyboard. However, if you don’t have one for whatever reason, I’m sure you can pick one up from Amazon for cheap.
2) Usually, the port for the firewire cable is on the back of the Audio Interface. Plug the other part of the firewire cable into the back of the Audio Interface.
In my case, the Firewire to USB has to go into the USB-C adapter that I mentioned earlier.
3) Now, assuming you have the Focusrite Saffire 6USB, it should be powered by your computer. You don’t have to plug it in or anything like that, so all of its lights will turn on which you can see on the front of the unit.
4) Open GarageBand.
5) Click “Open Project,” or one of your old existing files. It doesn’t matter.
6) Once it brings up the “Choose A Track Type Page,” Click on where it says: “Built-in Input.”
7) This should be all that’s needed for this part of the process. However, assuming this is the first time that you’ve ever done this, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to click on where it says, “Built-in Output.”
8) That should bring up your “Output” and “Input” Devices under the Audio-MIDI region preferences.
9) Make sure you’ve selected “Built-in Output,” if you’re using your computer as your speaker, or the speakers that are hooked up to your laptop.
10) Select your Audio Interface for the “Input Device.”
11) Now, once you’re back at the “Choose A Track Type Page,” then click on one of the two subheadings below, either the “Guitar option,” or the “Microphone option.” This should bring up your MIDI Region and all of your controls.
12) In the “Smart Controls Area,” make sure that you’ve selected your audio-interface where it says, “Input.”
13) Now, plug your guitar into the front of your Audio Interface.
14) Click on the “Monitoring Button,” which looks like an upside down Wi-Fi symbol. This part is important, otherwise, you won’t be able to hear what you’re even playing.
15) You can now select whatever kind of amp you want, whether it’s a “clean guitar,” “crunch guitar,” “acoustic guitar,” “distorted guitar,” “experimental guitar,” “clean bass,” “crunch bass,” and “experimental bass.”
16) You want to hit the “Monitoring” button beside your track-header as well. I’ve highlighted the upside down Wi-Fi-looking symbol with a black circle. It’ll turn orange once it’s been selected.
Under each heading, there are quite a few options that all sound pretty good, especially after you tweak them to your preferences.
And it’s pretty much as simple as that.
There are some problems that you can run into when doing all of this for the very first time. For that reason, I’ll explain some of the problems that I’ve had when I first started out.
Common Problems and Annoyances As A Beginner
1) Make sure that the gain on your Audio-Interface isn’t turned up too much, otherwise, you’re going to be feeding GarageBand too hot of a signal, which will make it sound distorted and bad.
2) Make sure the “Pad,” and “Inst,” buttons are turned off on your audio interface, assuming you own a Focusrite Saffire 6USB. I imagine there are similar controls on other audio interface models.
I find that these buttons make the signal too powerful as well, and thus, create distortion.
3) Latency. I’ve never actually had latency problems when using an Audio Interface, but some people do have this problem. I have an entire article on Latency which you can read more about here.
Essentially, if you’re having latency issues, there could be a number of different causes, however, most of them will be a result of your set-up and incorrect settings for your gear.
For instance, you want to make sure that – if you’re running more than one track – you have the monitoring button turned on for only one of them, rather than every single track.
Other Ways Of Recording Your Guitar In GarageBand
1) You can also use your MacBook’s microphone. This is for very rough demos, obviously, because this way of doing it is going to make a very low-quality recording. However, if you’re desperate, and want to record something, this method will work.
- To do this, you just open a new “Audio” track in your workspace.
- And then click on the “Record” button.
- Start playing the guitar with your amplifier close to it, and that should be enough for a very rough demo.
2) You can also purchase a Guitar to USB cable and hook your guitar directly up to GarageBand. This is an inferior way of recording guitar tracks as well, but it works if you’re running on a string budget.
(This is what a guitar-jack to USB looks like. I don’t own one so I couldn’t take a picture. I had to piece these two images together, but this is what it looks like).
GarageBand will immediately recognize this as an input, so you don’t have to worry about there being compatibility issues.
However, like the method above, you’ll likely run into latency.
3) Use a small portable audio interface if you plan on only running one instrument through your DAW. This is pretty much the same as the main method which I described in detail above.
The only difference is that you’ll be using a much smaller, and likely, limited audio interface. The good thing about this is that it’s relatively inexpensive. Small interfaces are becoming exceedingly popular, like the iRig for example.
I haven’t picked one of these up yet, but once I start traveling around Europe, I imagine I’ll eventually purchase one. I’ll make sure to write a review on it once I do.
Update: You have to use the iRig HD if you want it to work with a PC computer or Mac. The iRig 2 is only good for mobile.
4) Another popular way would be to mic your guitar amplifier up to your audio interface and then through GarageBand.
This is a decent option, but I prefer just to run my guitar directly through GarageBand, rather than doing this. Amplifiers are too big and cumbersome, and I would much rather limit the amount of gear I own.
Before playing your guitar in GarageBand, know that there’s an actually fairly useful tuning mechanism set up in the DAW. It’s not as good as a good old fashioned Korg tuner, but it still works pretty well. I usually use it if I’m too lazy to go over and grab my tuner.
How To Tune Your Guitar Using GarageBand
1) Your guitar is plugged into your audio interface in the computer, so it’s as simple as clicking on the tuning fork beside the center of the DAW where it shows the time signature, tempo, and key signature.
2) When you click on the tuning fork icon, it’ll bring up the meter where you can tune your guitar.
Other Features
One of the great things about using a DAW for your guitar is all of the great VST plug-ins that you can use for your guitar.
For example, you can download amplifier simulators and cabs for your set up, and while it may not sound good as the original which the plug-ins are modeled after, they still sound good enough to use, and they’re good enough for the vast majority of people who aren’t tone-purists.
I’ll show you how to download plug-ins into your DAW in a later article.
That’s all for now. If this helped you out, do me a favor and share it on social media.
YouTube Video Tutorial
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
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.
Where Is The Tuner In Garageband Ipad 3
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.
Where Is The Tuner In Garageband Ipad 6
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.