Looking at Loops In Garageband
Here’s a quick introduction to loops in Garageband.
Almost without fail, the first thing I’ll do when I start to record a song is find an appropriate drum loop to use instead of the default click track. I don’t know about you, but my timing abilities are questionable enough without having to try to keep up with that metronomic ticking sound. Playing along to a drum loop feels more natural to me – less robotic – plus it adds an extra sense that I’m actually playing the song rather than just trying to keep time. Here’s how I do it….
After opening Garageband (generally using the Songwriting template), I’ll pick up my acoustic guitar and play my song along with the drum loop. Since I’m using the acoustic guitar I don’t bother mic-ing it up yet. I just sit back and causally play along.
The first thing I look for is whether or not the tempo needs to be adjusted. If so, I play around with the tempo setting, making it faster or slower, until it feels right. Once it feels good, I’ll play through the song and get a sense as to whether this particular drum loop gives me the feeling I want to have when I’m playing. If not, I’ll take a listen to other drum loops and play along with them until I find one that feels right. Then I’ll pull that loop into the session as described in the video above.
Once that’s decided, I’ll record the basic guitar track, add a scratch vocal so I’ll have an idea of what’s going on in the song, and then add a few more musical parts as I see fit. At some point I’ll need to make a decision about the drums.
Now, if you’ve listened to any of my songs you’ll probably notice that the drums never really stand out. That’s simply because drumming is an art form that I have a hard time wrapping my head around! Hopefully you’ll fare better, and here are a few tips that might help:
1) If the drum loop you’ve chosen is an audio loop (signified by the blue icon, as we discuss in the video), consider finding alternating parts that you can pull into the drum track as fills and change-ups during choruses, bridges, etc. If the loop is a midi loop (the green icon), you can edit the pattern as needed, or even change the kit that’s playing the drum part by clicking the “i” at the bottom of the right side panel and selecting a different drum kit.
2) You can also try to recreate the drum loop with your own particular beats and sounds by creating a new software instrument drum track and playing along with the loop you originally chose, changing some parts here and there to suit your song. This is possibly the best but most time-consuming option. I’ve recently started doing this (with mixed results) and it’s helped me gain a better understanding of the mystery that is the drums.
3) At the very least, even if you choose to use the basic drum loop you played along with while recording, consider adding percussion parts to give the song a somewhat varied feel throughout. Percussion loops can be pulled into the session from the Loop Browser, or you can play your own parts using any of Garageband’s included drum/percussion instruments.
We’ll be looking at some of the included software instruments in an upcoming post, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, please feel free to use the comments to let me know of any topics you’d like me to cover, or if you’d like me to clarify any of the things we’ve already discussed. Thanks!
