GarageBand
From TechHelp
The following article was contributed by Commander Andy Raab at the Rochester Challenger Center. Take a listen to his podcast,Space Cast, and see what he has done with GarageBand.
Podcating With Garage Band
Contents |
[edit] An Overview
Alright, here’s the deal. Garage Band is not the most user friendly software ever. But once you learn to ignore the 99% of it you won’t use, it’s actually pretty cool for podcasting.
It all breaks down to four steps.
- Recording
- Editing and Adding Effects
- Exporting
- Uploading
First, a few vocabulary words:
- mp3
- The file format most people use for podcasts.
- m4a
- Similar to the mp3, but with pictures that show up in iTunes
- iTunes
- The apple music downloading software that can subscribe to your podcast
- RSS feed
- The file you create that allows your podcast to be subscribed to.
[edit] Recording Using Garage Band
[edit] Checking Your Audio Inputs
First, you have to make sure you have a computer that will accept a microphone, or has a built in one. If you are curious about a decent type of microphone you can pick up decent USB microphones and headsets at you local computer store for between $30 and $50.
Whenever you are working with audio on a computer you will want to check out the audio inputs. On an Apple computer these are located under your Apple menu
under System Preferences. Once you open this you will see a list of all of the different system preferences.
You will want to click on the one with the speaker called Sound. Clicking on the speaker icon will open your sound preferences.Since we are working with the sound inputs you will want to click on the tab called input, then speak into your microphone and you should see the sound monitor increase. You should use your normal speaking voice and the sound monitor should jump towards the top, but not stay at the very top.
[edit] Opening a New Project
Garage Band Nuisance: The default is to open up with a Grand Piano instrument. Like we’re all Mozart or something, just ignore it.
To actually start recording your voice as a track you will want to go to File > New Track > Real Instrument. Now underneath You’ll see a new track with a speaker for a logo. Now, try your microphone, talk into it, and see if you see sound levels responding at the bottom window.
Just as in your system preferences you will want to speak in your normal voice and only where you add inflection should the mic levels jump into the red. This will give you a nice sound while you are podcasting.
Go over to the right side of the screen where it says Input. You can experiment with stereo, mono or 1-2 microphones. You should be able to use stereo as the input, but if all else fails you can simply use mono.
Once you start to see sound levels, adjust your input level so that you are not seeing red when you speak loudly. Otherwise your sound can get distorted.
Time to Record!
Garage Band Nuisance: When you first start to record you will notice that the metronome is ticking. Aaaargh that’s distracting, especially since it will record! Go up to Control and uncheck the metronome.
Press the Record button, the red dot, and record your podcast. When you are ready to stop recording press the Play button.
When you are finished recording:
You can save your project. Keep in mind, like iMovie, it saves it as a Garage Band project, NOT an mp3 or m4a file. You will still have to export it later.
[edit] Editing and Adding Effects
[edit] Editing
Admittedly this takes practice. With Garage Band, you can layer in the sound, but it must be done on separate tracks. In other words, if I want to paste in my light saber humming over my threatening dialog, I have to create a new track for the light saber. Knowing how to layer sounds and adjust the volume can come into play here.
[edit] Cutting out the bloopers
Let’s say you mess up, sneeze, burp, or do something that’s gotta go. Go above the colorful track where you see the audio wave form and position the playhead the little arrow, to the spot where you want to cut. You may need to fiddle with the size of the wave form shown (the little scroll bar in the lower left of the screen can help you zoom in) . Then go up to Edit > Split or Apple + T. This will cut the track as though it were audio tape. Repeat this for the point after your blooper.
So now you have three segments. The good part before the blooper, the blooper itself, and the good part after the blooper. Click on the blooper part itself. It should darken. Then delete it, and drag the good parts together to close the gap.
[edit] Adding Effects
OK, so you’d like to make your voice sound like Alvin & the Chipmunks? Or perhaps Darth Vader? Or you’re wondering what your rendition of the National Anthem would sound like in a Baseball Stadium? Well, here’s where effects come in. They are pretty fun to try out, and don’t worry, you can always de-select them,undo them, or not save them.
Over to the right under Track Info 
click on Vocals and you will see a big list of popular effects. You can click on each of them, and use your playback controls to sample the effect. Notice the ones like Female Basic and Male Speech, these can amp up a voice recording a bit and make it a little less flat.
Want even more? See that little Speaker Logo that says Details? Click the little arrow by the word Details. Then see under Effects where there is a little drop down arrow? Click it and scroll down to Vocal Transformer. Then go where it says Manual and click to see even more choices. Yes, Chipmunk is one of them! As well as Droid, Monsters, and other goodies. The cool part is you can tweak these even more to your liking with the little pencil icon to the right. Add some more reverb, a bit more flanger... give your C-3PO that extra bit of panache. The sky is the limit.
[edit] Adding Music
There are lots of good royalty free music cues and sound effects in iLife. You can simply add new tracks and bring these in.
Click on the little Eyeball icon at the bottom left of the screen, then click the tiny Podcast icon next to the little musical notes icon at the bottom 
. Click on Jingles and then double click some of the music tracks to sample them. Found one you like? Drag it up to the tracks area, and it’ll create a new track for itself. Pretty cool.
Try some of the stingers and sound effects too. Remember, you can drag any track from your iTunes in here too. It’ll import right in. Over the years, I’ve collected a TON of sound effects I like. I keep them in iTunes and just drag ‘em in when I need them.
You can also use some of the different sound effects and music that is available out there, but be very conscience about copyright, especially since by posting this to the web you no longer are covered by the TEACH Act. Here are a few resources for music that is Podcasting safe.
Even better have students create their own and have them add their sound effects and music.
If you are looking to add your own recorded music you will need to go to Control > Show Media Browser, which will open up a window on the right where you can look at the photos, video, and music that you have saved. By clicking and dragging the track that you want you will import the audio as another track.
[edit] Fading Out
Maybe you have a track of music that you want to fade out? Go to the track icon which you want to fade in or fade out. See those little tiny buttons to the right of your track name? One is a dot, then a speaker, headsets, and a lock? The one you want is the last one. It’s a down arrow. Click it, and it will open up a Track Volume indicator. You can drag little points down to set key volumes at any time for the music. Dragging it down to zero will fade it out.
[edit] Make it a Podcast
Podcasts are of two general file types Apple's specific type is m4a, which is playable on a variety players. The more standard file type is mp3 which is playable on all types of computers and players.
The following step is specifically for adding graphics to m4as . Click Track > New Podcast. You’ll see a purple podcast track appear at the very top. This is where you can add photos for an m4a file, and it also opens up some music options. Make sure you do this before going on to the next step.
[edit] Adding Pictures to Your m4a file
I may be wrong, but I think most people use mp3s. But your Mac Users will worship you if you treat them to m4a files with the cute little pictures. You can also set up the pictures to hot link out to the web when the listener clicks them. Powerful stuff.
Go Control > Show Media Browser, then Go Control > Show Editor
Now in the Media Browser window, click Photos and you will see your iPhoto library. Just drag a picture into your podcast track (The purple one at the top). At the bottom, you can give this a title, and importantly, a URL! This is a web link that will launch when listeners click the photo in iTunes. Just make sure to start it with http:// !
For each additional photo you want to add, position your playhead to the point where you want the new picture to pop up, and drag the photo down to the chapter listing below. Pretty nifty, eh?
If you don't have photos in your iPhoto library then you can simply drag the icons from a window into the purple podcast track
You can even drag a photo to give your episode some specific artwork that’ll appear in iTunes.
[edit] Exporting
When you are all saved and ready, go Share > Export Podcast to Disk. It will export as an m4a file.
Now is a good time to open up the m4a in iTunes and check that the little pictures in your m4a file are working. Give it a listen, make sure it is perfect. If not, go back to Garage Band and edit it, then export it again, deleting the previous version.
Don’t like m4a files? You can open it up with iTunes, and within iTunes, convert it to an mp3 file. To do this, open up your m4a file using iTunes. Once in iTunes, click Library. Find your filename and click it once to highlight it. Then click Advanced > Convert Selection To MP3 Then, find the mp3 version of the file in your iTunes library and drag it to your desktop. Boom! You've just converted your m4a into an mp3
[edit] RSS Feeds
RSS Stands for Really Simple Syndication. This is how you "get your podcast out there". Unfortunately, creating an RSS feed involves making an ugly looking document filled with lots of tough to understand code. Fortunately, once you set it up, it's easy to add new episodes onto it.
Here are some RSS templates for you to use: link RSS Templates You will need to right click and save both files to your hard drive to open them. The Annotated one explains each line of code, and shows where to make changes. The rss.xml one is for you to actually use.
Once you have your RSS file created, you must upload it to your own server, or a server your school will allow you to host it on.
The method I use is an Internet Based FTP program called FireFTP. First, you will need to download Firefox, which is a free internet browser. Then you will need to add on the FireFTP plug in. Once you are in FireFTP, you create an account (You will probably want to get a Tech person to help you set up the account.) and then upload both your mp3 file and your RSS file to your school server.
[edit] iTunes
Finally, go to the iTunes Music Store and Click on the Podcasts section. From there, click on Submit a Podcast. They will ask you for the address of your podcast feed. This is your school server's http address where you keep both your RSS file and your Episodes.
iTunes Nuisance: It takes the iTunes server sometimes as much as 48 hours to add your new episodes. It can be frustrating, but there are ways toping their server and make the new episodes appear in your own iTunes. Check out the Podcasting Tech Page for iTunes podcasting. Here’s the link for that:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html
Good luck with all of this. I can see this process being even more streamlined in the future, especially the RSS feed part. It takes a lot of time and work to make a podcast, but if you enjoy doing it, and your listeners enjoy hearing it, isn’t that what it’s all about?
[edit] Adding Episodes
As you create new episodes, you will need to upload each episode to your school server. Then you will need to add the episode information to your RSS file. Once you change that RSS file, it tells iTunes that a new episode is available. Your subscribers will automatically download the episodes! It makes it very easy! Once you get 2 or 3 episodes out there, you will find your rhythm and your own shortcuts to making it go a lot easier.
