Those karaoke CDs can be imported into GB, but only as a stereo track. You can also search the web for midi files of popular songs, then you can mix and tweak the instruments. Garageband Karaoke Song Download Free GarageBand User Guide for iPhone JamStudio - create music beats - free online music mixing & songwriting tool - quickly create backing tracks, karaoke songs, soundtracks & demo songs with professional sounds. Drag the MP3 onto Garageband and it will make a new track with that. Then make a new real instrument track with the input set to be your mic, then press record (make sure that only the vocal track.

Home music production really took off with the introduction of Apple's GarageBand, included with all new Macs. The massive collection of Apple Loops and software instruments included with the program, as well as the huge variety of third-party content available, make it easy for even beginner users to produce professional-sounding songs.

Inevitably though, the time will come when you'll want to add your own vocals to a song you've created in GarageBand. Or perhaps you want to record a podcast or some other non-musical material. So, in this tutorial, we'll show you the basics of recording vocals into GarageBand '11.

Equipment

Before you can begin recording your vocal track, you'll need something to record your voice with and a way to hear what you're doing. Now, you could record your voice through your Mac's built-in microphone and in some cases, like recording a podcast or a simple video voiceover, you could get useable results. However, for recording vocals for a song, unless you're going to be heavily processing the voice track or are looking for an intentionally raw sound, you'll want to use a reasonably professional vocal microphone.

There are a million different mics available that are appropriate for vocals, and we aren't going to recommend any specific ones here. But if you're looking to get a vocal sound that compares with professional recordings, one of the standard types of mics used in the recording industry is what's called a large-diaphragm condenser (LDC) microphone. There are many of these available too, with prices that can run into the thousands of dollars for a top-of-the-line model. But for home recording purposes, you can do well for under two hundred dollars.

The advantage of an LDC mic is that they're more sensitive than the standard dynamic mics you're more likely to see on a live stage, and they tend to 'warm up' a recorded voice, which is why they're favored for studio recording. Condenser mics do require an external power source, referred to as phantom power, so if you go for a standalone condenser mic, you'll need to be sure that your audio interface supplies phantom power.

However, there's a more recent development in the world of home recording that you should investigate also: the availability of a variety of USB-powered large diaphragm condensers. These are especially useful for beginner home recordists, because they combine an LDC and an audio interface in one device. Many of them even provide a headphone jack for monitoring. A USB LDC connects directly to the USB port on your Mac; the USB port supplies the phantom power for the condenser. In addition, the USB mic is its own audio interface, so you don't need to purchase a separate interface to plug the mic into. And, as mentioned, most USB mics also have a headphone output that you can use to monitor your GarageBand inputs and outputs.

This is important because if you listen (on external speakers) while you're recording your vocals, the mic will either feedback into itself, or you'll pick up your instrumental tracks through the mic along with your voice, and you won't be able to mix the final results properly.

By the same token, you'll ideally want to use closed-ear headphones rather than earbuds for monitoring; closed-ear phones generally sound better than earbuds, and also provide more insulation against audio leakage into your mic while recording. And because LDC mics tend to be more sensitive to picking up Ps and other popping sounds, a pop filter is also a good investment. Pop filters are small screens that you mount in front of the microphone to reduce the force of those 'P' vocal sounds (called plosives) without affecting the basic tone quality of the voice.

Step 1 - Create a New Track

OK, assuming you have all your vocal recording gear set up and that you already have an instrumental track in your GarageBand project to record over, you'll need to create a new track to record into. Choose Track > New Track... (Command-Option-N), then click Real Instrument. Under 'My instrument is connected with', choose your mic input (if you're using a USB mic, it will probably appear as USB Audio CODEC rather than the actual name of the mic). Under that, choose your input channel (which for a USB mic will probably default to Mono 1). Under 'I hear sound from', choose your monitoring output (again, choose USB Audio CODEC if you want to monitor through the mic's headphone output. Otherwise choose your available output device). Finally, click the 'I want to hear my instrument as I play and record' checkbox to hear your voice through your monitoring device as you sing:

Then click 'Create' to make the new track.

Step 2 - Set Your Monitor Source

When you create the new track, the Track Info Pane will automatically open to the right of your tracks. You've already set your input source, so don't worry about that. But you do want to set your monitor source in the Monitor pop-up menu: choose 'Off' to disable monitoring, choose 'On' to monitor your mic and the instrumental track through speakers, or choose 'On (no feedback protection)', which is specifically designed for headphone monitoring, which is what we want here:

Step 3 - Set Your Record Level

Next, sing or speak into your mic and look up in the track name area at the record level meters for your new track (it's located above the slider). Note that this slider doesn't affect the input level, just the playback level. For a USB mic, the recording level is probably set on the mic itself; otherwise you set it in the Track Info area where we just set the Monitor source.

So, while singing or speaking, adjust your recording level so the meters read, on average, in the upper end of the green area. It's OK if the meters go into the amber range occasionally, but don't hit the red marks at the ends of the meters otherwise you'll get distortion in your track.

Step 4 - Set Effects for the Track

At this point, you can just start recording your vocals, but many people like to hear what vocal effects will sound like on the track as they record it, so they can respond to the effect while singing. This is strictly a matter of taste but for now, let's apply effects while recording.

So, with the track selected, click on Vocals in the right side of the Browse tab in the Track Info Pane, then choose different vocal effects settings while singing and listening to the results. Again, this is a matter of taste and you can always change the effects setting after recording. For now, choose Pop Vocals from the list:

Step 5 - Record!

Alright, let's record: with your new track selected, drag the playhead to the location in the track where you want to start recording (or click the 'Go to the beginning of the song' button in the Transport), then click the Record button to begin recording. You'll hear your instrumental track playing back (adjust its playback level with the Set the track volume slider if necessary) and as you sing, you'll see your vocal track appear in red in track window. When you're done recording, hit the Spacebar to stop, after which your track will appear in purple:

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Rewind back to the beginning and hit Spacebar again to hear your recording, adjusting the relative track volumes as needed. If you don't like what you just recorded, simply undo to remove the recording and record again.

And those are the basics. From here you can, for example, try applying different vocal effects to your vocal track by just choosing them from the browser, or you can add another vocal track by recording into a new track.

Did you know there are plenty more tricks on recording audio in GarageBand? Learn more in Garageband'11 101.

In today’s tutorial, I’m going to show you how I recently used pitch correction in the manner consistent (at least in sound) with Travis Scott and other hip-hop artists of the day. The first thing I’ll do is give you a brief summary on how to simply use the auto-tune/pitch-correction feature in Garageband, and then I’ll walk you through a step-by-step tutorial later on.

Pitch-correction is almost always used in the recording process, and every artist uses it, from metal bands, rock bands, pop singers, and so on and so forth. Similar to ghost-writers and professional producers/writers working on your favorite artist’s latest record, it’s just a part of the business and it’s a part of how the game is played at a high level, how do you go about using it in GarageBand?

To use Garageband’s autotune and pitch-correction plug-in:
1) Select the proper signature in the Key Signature Display
2) Double-click on the vocal recording to select it
3) Click “Track,” in the Smart Controls
4) Check the “Limit to Key” box
5) Slide the Pitch Correction dial to around 70

This is the easiest way to go about it, however, there are many things you can do with vocals, especially if you’ve purchased a really good audio editing software like Melodyne 5 Editor from Plugin Boutique. Melodyne is a whole other tutorial on its own (my guide), so we’ll just talk about the default one that comes with Garageband today.

How To Use Auto-Tune (Pitch Correction) In Garageband.

First things first.

You need to know the key signature of the music. This should be the first step you make.

If you want to know the key signature of the song, I just find the tonal center of the music, and then I play the notes of that scale.

For instance, when I jammed along to Dave East’s “Type Of Time” recently, I knew it was in the key of C Minor (relative major: Eb Major).

I figured it out, just by searching around on my guitar for the note on which the entire song is built, and then I played the natural minor scale up from the root note, carefully listening for each note to hear any dissonances.

If you don’t know anything about major or minor scales, I suggest checking out MusicTheory.net, as they have great tutorials for beginners to music theory or Mark Sarnecki’s book on Amazon including the Answer Book.

You can also use the tool, TuneBat.

TuneBat is a pretty good resource for quickly finding the key signature of a song. They have quite a bit in there.

Personally, I like figuring it out for myself that way I don’t have to depend on the software, however, if you’re only a music producer rather than a musician, sight-reading or improvising skills really aren’t that important.

Also, understand that pitch-correction and auto-tune are used only for recordings and obviously not MIDI recordings.

1) Open a new project/already existing project.

2) Hit (Command + Option + A) to bring up an Audio track.

3) You’ll see down in the Smart Controls the way the Audio looks in wave format, in addition to a few different settings including, “Limit to Key,” and “Enable Flex.”

4) From here, what you want to do is hit the “Enable Flex” and “Limit Key” check-boxes to ensure that when you record some vocals or other music, the pitch correction tool will come in keep everything in the key.

5) At this point, I’m sure you’re already familiar with the key signature option at the top center of the DAW, but for the sake of clarification, I’ll speak of it anyway.

Just go up to the top-center where it displays the beats per minute, measure, time signature, and the tempo (more on these parameters in my key signature guide). You can adjust the key signature from there.

6) Now, if you want to make auto-tune work in the style of, say, for example, T-Pain, you’re going to need to know the key signature of the track in which to sing.

7) Depending on how much auto-tune you want to use, you can adjust the pitch correction on a 1-100 scale within the Smart Controls.

If you put it all the way to 100, that’s obviously the most amount of pitch-correction you can use.

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8) The next step is to begin recording your vocals, and then listen to how the pitch correction tool has changed the way your vocals sound.

In the Instagram post below, you can see what it sounds like without pitch correction and with the pitch-correction all the way up to 100.

The first thing that you hear is the out-of-key version of “Stargazing” from Travis Scott.

You’ll notice when I say the word, “Stargazing,” it sounds out of key. But then after I adjust the pitch the correction to 100 it starts to sound good.

In conclusion, the steps I laid out above is how you pitch-correct a vocal track. However, if you want to use auto-tune as a creative tool in the style of Travis Scott, then there are additional details.

It’s worth mentioning that between 65 and 75 is the best range for the pitch correction tool if you’re just trying to correct those imperfections.

Also, it’s best to give the best singing performance possible, because the pitch correction tool works at its most optimal when the notes are only slightly off.

If you just sing wildly out of tune, the benefit of using the pitch correction software is lost. You can try it for yourself some time to see what I mean. With all that said, there is software available that allows you to change the pitch of notes altogether without affecting the human quality, including Melodyne, which I’ve written about before.

How To Use Auto-Tune Like Travis Scott

For this, it’s pretty much the same thing as the steps listed above, but we have to add a few more effects, including delay, reverb, and a bit of compression as well, actually, probably a lot.

For the sake of clarity, I’ll run through these steps once again.

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1) Bring up your audio track using the (Command + Option + A) function.

2) Click on the Audio Region.

3) Click on Track.

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4) Check both boxes, “Limit to Key,” as well as “Enable Flex.”

5) Hit Record on your Audio Track, and then record yourself singing whatever it is that you want to sing.

If I were you, I would make sure that you have the “Feedback Protection” box clicked, just in case.

Also, if you’re going to use your computer’s built-in microphone, you’ll have to plug headphones in like Etymotic’s ER4SEs from Amazon due to the fact the microphone and built-in speakers are too close to each other.

If you plan on actually making legitimate vocals, obviously, it’d be a much better option to use a good microphone like the Audio Technica AT2021 which also can be found on Amazon.

Moving on…

6) Turn the pitch-correction all the way up to 100 that way it’s working as much as possible.

7) Go into your Plug-ins, and select the options, Compressor, Platinum Verb within the Reverb options, the Stereo Delay, as well as the Channel EQ

8) First, go into your EQ, and EQ the audio track so it looks like the image I’ve laid out below.

You can see that the Lows have been boosted considerably, as well as the highs, and then the mids are cut out almost completely.

9) Then, go into your Compressor and set it at the settings you can see below in the image.

10) For the Platinum Verb, I just keep it at the default setting.

11) Now that you have your final track, you can see that it kind of has that Washed out with Reverb/Robot style which is Travis Scott’s style. I don’t mean that derisively, those are just the mannerisms that come to mind.

12) For the next step, you want to copy and paste your audio track into two new duplicate tracks, however, you’ll pan the one to the left and one to the right using the pan buttons that look like this.

13) After this, make sure you turn off the Delay off the two duplicate tracks because otherwise, there will be too much of it.

Effects like Reverb and Delay kind of add up on top of each other, so make sure to not over-use these features.

How To Use Auto-Tune (Pitch Correction) In iOS

Setting up pitch correction and auto-tune in iOS isn’t much different from how you’d do it on the Mac.

Without further ado..

1) The first thing you want to do, is hit the option, “+” on the top right-hand side of the screen when you first open up Garageband iOS.

2) Select the option, “Audio Recorder.” 2

3) Now, you’ll come to a little dial in the center of the screen that kind of looks like a children’s toy. Choose the Golden Microphone option titled, “Extreme Tuning.”

4) From there, go into the drop-down menu on the top-left hand of the screen and click on the “Extreme Tuning” icon.

5) Then, click on the setting that says, “Vocals.”

6) Choose the option “Lead Vocals” from there.

7) We now have five dials from which to choose, Tone, Pitch Control, Compressor, Drive, and Vocal Hall.

6) Hit the dials (that looks like a Gear) of the top-right hand side of the screen, and then click on “Track Controls,” which whill then bring up all of the plug-ins.

How To Add A Karaoke Track To Garageband

7) Add a little bit of Reverb and then Delay.

8) You can adjust the compressor up or down, depending on how much you want to equalize the sound.

9) From here, as I mentioned in the tutorial above, you need to figure out the key signature of your song. Considering the fact it’s the song you’ve likely written, you’ll know what the key is.

10) If you need to adjust the Key Signature, click on the icon that looks a gear, then choose “Song Settings.” From there, you can see where it gives Tempo and Key Signature options.

If you’re using someone else’s song, try TuneBat.

***Having the proper key signature set up is an important detail because it gives the pitch correction software a standard by which to measure and adjust.

If you have the wrong Key Signature, auto-tune won’t work properly because the tool will adjust the wrong notes to the wrong pitch.

***There’s also an Application that you can download called, “Voloco,” which acts as a harmonizer and pitch correction tool. I don’t think it’s that necessary frankly, but you can try that out.

You can refer to the Instagram post above if you want to hear the final product.

As I’ve mentioned before, probably the most important things to remember when using auto-tune and pitch correction are as follows:

1. Adjust the amount of correction from 0 to 100
2. Use Delay and Reverb
3. Sing on key to really maximize the utility of pitch correction software.

YouTube Video Tutorial

Conclusion

And that’s pretty much it.

Anyway, I hope this helped you out. Make sure to share it on your social media if you enjoyed it.

Additionally, check out my recommended gear page for more recommendations.