I’ve been playing music since I got my first guitar at age five. I dabbled around for a while, but began to get serious about my playing during my teen years. Ever since then I feel like I hardly ever put it down.
After playing for a while I got the urge, as every musician does, to record myself. My first real recorder was a Tascam MKII multitrack cassette recorder. I spent hours recording everything I could play into that machine.
Fast forward a couple years, and I had moved from the analog to the digital world, full of fast CPU’s and DAWs. I’ve used a lot of different recording programs out there, and they all have their pros and cons. But when it comes to ease of use and just plain getting stuff done, I’m a fan of the simple Apple application Garageband.
Now before you start saying how limited it is compared to programs like Pro Tools or Logic, please know that I agree. There are many audio editors out there that can do much more than Garageband. I even have a Pro Tools rig at my house for certain projects.
But, like I said earlier, Garageband does a great job of helping me get my work done simply and quickly. And not every church can afford to shell out the cash for a Pro Tools system or some other expensive audio editor. And so, here are my reasons why I think Garageband is a great choice for most people working in the local church.
1. It Comes on Your Computer
If you buy an Apple computer you own Garageband, a fully functional audio creating and editing program. You don’t have to go out and spend tons of money on software or sound loops.
With the amount of royalty free loops and samples that come with it, you could create tons of original songs without ever having to spring for an audio interface.
And even if you get tired of the same old loops, you can always edit the MIDI files or download free loops from around the internet.
2. Compose Music for Videos, Messages, and More
We all need cool music for our videos.
Most of a video’s appeal comes from the chosen soundtrack and the way it interacts with the flow of the video. Not everyone can afford to spend tons of money on stock audio files, and sometimes it is hard to find a song that fits just right. With the large amount of loops in Garageband it is easy to create a song that fits with almost type of video.
If you need a short jingle, grab a couple of loops that fit the mood of your project, throw in some automation and effects, export it out, and you have an original jingle for your video.
What if you have a longer project and don’t want the same loop for 3 minutes? Garageband comes with a MIDI editor that allows you change and add notes to a MIDI loop without having to own a MIDI controller. Take a loop, move the notes around so that it plays different chords in the key, and you can make a 2-3 minute song that doesn’t sound repetitive.
3. Record Voiceovers for Your Projects
Need to record a quick voiceover for one of your projects? With Garageband, you can! Plug in any audio interface, plug in your mic, set some levels, and press record. After the fact you have tons of options for post production, including compressors, parametric EQs, delays, reverbs, even pitch correction.
Edit to your hearts content, export the audio file, and you have the voiceover you need for your project. I know these options are available in other audio programs as well, but remember that Garageband came free on your computer. And these days, free is good.
4. Record Sermons and Acoustic Sets
Since Garageband can record up to 8 inputs at a time, you could use it to record band rehearsals. Or, set up a few extra mics and record the acoustic set during the midweek service.
You could even use Garageband to record your pastor’s sermons, having them readily available in digital format as soon as the service is over.
5. Simple and Clean Interface
Garageband’s interface is quintessential Apple, simple and clean.
There isn’t a lot of real estate used up by unwanted windows, and they manage to fit everything onto one screen, which is nice for editing on a laptop. If you’re used to some of the more feature rich audio editors, the layout can be a little confusing at first. Play around with it for a little bit though, and it all makes sense.
When editing MIDI it is easy to bring up the MIDI editor and do what needs to be done. The same is true for the effects section. It is simple to add a quick reverb or compressor to your audio files, and each effect comes with tons of presets that will get you started if you’re not sure what each parameter does.
I’m not saying that Garageband is the best audio editor out there. I know that it has limited features compared to the likes of Pro Tools, Logic Pro, and others. But what I am saying is that for a free audio application that comes standard on your computer, it really can do 90% of the audio tasks that are needed in the local church.
If you need a quick, simple, and inexpensive solution, this is it.
Nick Shoemaker says
w00t!
Great post man! I use Garageband for our weekly podcast. It more than does the job. Thanks! 🙂
Stephen Bateman says
Agreed. Gband is a Godsend for less tech savvy churches with lower man power. It really makes podcasting a lot easier, and a whole lot of other things.
Calum Henderson says
Garageband is a great piece of software.
Just about as close to professional as you can get without paying through your nose.
JayCaruso says
Great post. What is needed to hook a guitar directly into my iMac in order to record to Garage Band?
greenhornet79 says
Get an audio interface. Don’t use the line in on your computer. There are many interfaces out there, but here’s a cool one if you only need to plug in your guitar.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GuitarLink/
Personally, I use an M Audio Fast Track Ultra.
oschurch says
I’ve heard great things about GarageBand from a lot of people. If you’ve paid the “Mac tax” it’s a great way to recoup your initial investment. I would say the percentage of use cases it hits is much higher than 90%. Most good audio editing is just using simple tools really well.
If you haven’t paid the Mac tax and just need simple multi-track recording and editing, Audacity is a simple, but great audio application. Even if you have a Mac, it might be good to use rather than GarageBand if you collaborate with others that don’t have Macs. It has a very decent noise reduction plugin for sermon or interview audio with background noise you’d like to remove.
If you’re looking for serious audio and video editing solutions, I’d recommend playing around with Ubuntu Studio. It includes a plethora of really great audio and video applications that are extremely powerful. I’ve used Ardour (available on Linux and OSX) as a DAW (similar to Pro Tools or Logic Pro) with great success and expect to finally get into Linux MultiMedia Studio (available on Linux and Windows) for more Reason-esque music creation soon. If you start synchronizing the audio (and video) applications using JACK, Linux has a very powerful suite of integrated projects. If you’re interested I’ll be posting tutorials over many of these and other related applications over the next year at http://opensourcechurch.com.
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com
greenhornet79 says
That Ardour program looks pretty cool. I’ll have to check it out.
Stuart says
If a musical numpty such as myself (I used to play trumpet but never kept it up) can use GarageBand to create something half decent as a backing track then I reckon any musician should fly …
Great post.
greenhornet79 says
Thanks!
Garageband does it make so easy, doesn’t it?
John Ho says
Good article. Will consider this when we are moving to macs in the next couple of months due to introducing cameara in our setup. We currently have a simple setup of recording one channel(speaker mic) from the sound desk into the the line in of the pc (windows) and we use Audicity. Would you use the same setup for audio recording when you are recording a mixed live feed separetely? Would this work to sync the audio back with the recorded video feed?
greenhornet79 says
I would recommend getting an audio interface that would allow you to send your audio into Garageband using USB or Firewire. It won’t degrade the audio like using the line input would, and you have the option of adjusting the input gain using the preamps on the interface.
As for the audio for the video, you could do a couple things. Record the audio into Garageband, export it out to your video editing program, and manually sync it with the video; or just send a matrix out from your sound board to your camera and record the audio direct to tape (or whatever medium your camera uses) along with the video.
Hope that helps.
Robert says
I just wanted to thank you for your GarageBand article. I am new to GarageBand as well as multimedia and I am exploring using it to record the pastor’s sermons and the music. I appreciate your review. If you ever expand it to include how to setup recording a sermon for the first time I would be very interested in reading such an article. I am looking for specifics that I can follow step by step including procuring the components. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, I just want to follow the step by step path of an experienced audio visual tech oriented to the needs for a church service. If you have any links that would help me in this I would be grateful to receive them.