Recording narration in the Sound Studio Confirm Hardware Setup Turn on right & left Speakers (also referred to as ‘Monitors’).

Check that the M-TRACK “Mixer” is connected to the computer via the USB cable. Also ensure that the cables are attached as in the following diagram. NOTE: Please do not disconnect any of these cables.

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The Mixer controls should be set as in this diagram: 1. Set Input selectors to MIC/LINE. (Step 1) 2. Set the GAIN levels (volume) for the 2 Microphones. Start with the left one (2a) at the 3 O’clock position and the right one (2b) at its max position. This may be later adjusted. 3. Set power switch to +48V. (3) 4. Set the MAIN LEVEL, which controls the Monitor (speaker) volume. Start with the dial at the middle. (4) 5. Set the MONITOR MIX to USB. This ensures that our Monitors (or speakers) are hearing the sound through the Mixer (5)

6. To fine-tune the Gain levels for the 2 Microphones:  Have someone speak into each microphone and adjust each GAIN (2a and 2b).  As they speak you will see the LEDs light up (6). You want the levels as high as possible (ideally) so that the yellow LEDs just start to illuminate. If it is too high you will get distortion.  The settings for these 2 Microphones will be different as the older (round headed) Mic is not as sensitive as the newer (cylindrical) Mic. You will repeat this process after you make a few test recordings. 2

Starting GarageBand  Logon to the computer using your NEXUS account  Open GarageBand from the applications menu at the bottom of the screen.

 Single-click on New Project, click on Voice, and click the Choose button.  Give your project a name and click the Create button

Choosing the Track to record on When GarageBand starts it creates two tracks. For simple recordings you are only going to be recording you will only use one track. (Search the Help for “Record on Multiple Tracks” for info on mulitrack recording which is beyond the scope of this document.) The blue track is the active track. You make a track active by clicking on them. One track is setup for default effects for the Male and one for the Female voices.

You can control and change the effects for the track. This ranges from tweaks to improve the quality, to crazy effects. (See the Special Effects section later in this document.) 3

Setting input sources (Stereo or Mono) To use both Microphones (when recording more than one speaker), from the lower right of the GarageBand, confirm that these settings are as follows: Input Source: Stereo 1/2 (M-Track) Monitor: On

If you are just recording one voice you may wish to just use the better microphone (#1 the blue, cylindrical Mic). In that case set the input source to Mono 1 (M-Track). The Monitor is always kept On so that we can hear what we are recording.

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Ready To Record The Record buttons at bottom of GarageBand behave in a standard manner: Rewind, Fast Forward, Stop, Play, Record:

Some shortcuts:  The R key on the keyboard starts the recording  The spacebar stops recording or playing  The Home, Return, or Enter key rewinds to the beginning  To start or stop playback, press the spacebar  More shortcuts are under the Help menu in GarageBand For your first recording, your “Playhead” (where the recording will be placed in your “Timeline) will be at the far left of the Timeline window. It is the triangle with the red line:

When you press the record button the playhead will move across the screen. The recorded piece will appear as red when you are recording and turn purple when you stop recording:

When you have recorded some clips, you can drag the play head back & forth to play back from any spot or to record at any spot.

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You can trim unwanted bits off an audio clip, or split a clip in multiple pieces for moving around. To do so, click on the clip, move the playhead to the desired spot, and choose Split from the Edit menu.

You can delete clips by clicking on them and pressing the delete key. To delete multiple clips, click and drag over clips to be erased and then pressing the delete key. Similarly, you can copy/cut and paste clips. You can move the clips by clicking on them and dragging them.

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Special Effects The optional special effects are on the right side of GarageBand. If they are not visible, choose Track menu > Show Track Info.

You are not limited to Podcasting or Vocals effects, but any of the other effects will create possibly strange (intriguing?) results. Even some of the Vocals effects (such as Mouse Voice or Megaphone) are unusual! The effect impacts all clips on the track. To only have the effect apply to a few clips, create a new track (the + button in the bottom left of GarageBand) and drag the clip(s) to this track.

Note: If you create this new track, you will need to set the Input Source for that track as you’ve done previously:

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Saving your track When editing is complete you can export the narration or song from the Share menu. Simply click Share/Export To Disk:

You can choose to compress using AAC or MP3 Encoders. You may want to consider using the MP3 encoder as it is more universal than AAC (Apple Audio Codec). Note: Only use AAC if you are going to be using this audio track in an Apple product like iMovie. You can also choose the quality of the Audio Setting. It will tell you the estimated file size. It is always recommended that you save as high of a quality as possible as you can always make it smaller (and lower quality later on) but not visa versa.

FOR MORE HELP There is a lot of great resources out there for GarageBand. For starters check out the Help menu. If you are trying to do something that is not covered here or under the help menu, just Google it!

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Troubleshooting If the audio signal is not coming through, you can try these troubleshooting techniques: Check the Mac’s audio settings (Apple Menu > System Preferences > Audio. For both the Output and Input tabs, M-Track should be selected:

Otherwise double check the settings such as  Are the speakers turned on? (page 1)  Is Monitor set to On? (page 4) If the Green and Yellow LEDs on the M-Track Mixer are not turning on when someone is speaking into the Microphones, there is probably a loose connection or unplugged wire, so double check that these are correct.

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