garageband how to increase volume in certen parts

Garageband how to increase volume in certen parts how to#
Garageband how to increase volume in certen parts full#
Garageband how to increase volume in certen parts mac#

Down here is where your Kick Drum and Bass frequencies reside – all that you’ll find in the 20 – 125 Hz range of your vocal track is some gnarly sounding hum and irrelevant audio debris. Specifically, anything under 125Hz can – in my opinion – be chucked completely. That being said, there is one frequency area you will need to look at regardless of how your Vocals were recorded – the low end.

Garageband how to increase volume in certen parts mac#

The quality of your recording method plays a big part too – Vocals recorded using the built in microphone on your Mac will sound very different from vocals recorded through a studio quality XLR microphone.

Garageband how to increase volume in certen parts how to#

In the video below I walk you through step by step how to apply EQ to your vocal tracks.īefore diving in and trying out some EQ settings, it’s important to remember how much effect the way your Vocals were recorded has on their sound.įor example, recording Vocals with a Condenser microphone will result in more top end frequencies being present in the recorded audio than if recorded with a Dynamic microphone. Between 4 – 7 dB should do the trick, but see what works for you!

Gain: You’ll need to add some Gain here to make up for the amount of compression going on. It’s designed to bring the Vocal track to the forefront of your mix – take care not to over squash your audio! Unlike the last ‘recipe’, the purpose of these settings is to really let you hear the compressor at work. You should be using EQ to make your vocal track cut through the mix, not extra volume! Gain: You might need to boost the Gain by 2 – 4dB here, making sure not to have them overpowering the rest of the project.

The aim here is not to squash or really even bring the Vocals to the front of the mix – they’re designed to simply catch the occasional loud changes in frequency (or ‘transients’). Quick reminder you can find GarageBand’s ‘advanced’ Compressor in the SmartControl’s ‘Plugins’ menu. It might be a better idea to make use of GarageBand’s more advanced built in compressor for your vocal tracks – the extra control and flexibility available to you can really help your vocals sound more professional.

Garageband how to increase volume in certen parts full#

For more noticeable results, Cranking that wee dial almost the full way round (4 o’clock position) was required. There’s not much in the way of ‘fine tuning’ available on GarageBand’s default compressor and I find that you have to be quite heavy handed with it to get any half decent sounds.įor lighter compression I found turning it to just over half way (the 1 o’clock position) was sufficient. Remember, these settings are meant as starting points for you to work from, not precise instructions for you to follow – taking the time to experiment with what sounds right for your project is key here… If you plan to use GarageBand’s built in Compressor for your Vocals, you can try out these simple variations to see what sounds good for you. What do YOU think it needs? What is it lacking?

It’s particularly important to know what the purpose of adding Compression to your Vocal actually IS – so before diving in and cranking it up, take the time to listen through your ‘dry’, untouched track a few times… I won’t lie – learning to mix your Vocals in context with the rest of your project isn’t always easy or fun, but working this way will not only improve the quality of your projects, it’l l make you better at producing and mixing in the long run!Īpplying Compression to a Vocal track is a tricky business.

While it might seem easier at first to solo that Vocal track and work on mixing it without any other instruments or sounds in the way, you’ll undoubtedly run into trouble when you move on to the rest of the tracks in your project. This will make it 100 times easier when it comes time to ‘place’ them in your overall mix. Instead, keep your Vocals in mind as you Compress, EQ and Pan etc. I realize that might sound a little strange, what with this being the first of the four instrument specific guides, but trust me – leaving off fiddling with your vocal tracks till the end of the mixing process will save you time and frustration…