My friend, Lekowala, texted me: “How do you get the guitar tracks to go stereo?”
I don’t know about other GarageBand users, but here’s how I do it. There are two main possible ways:
- Use the “Chorus –> Spread Stereo” effects setting
- Create a duplicate track (or record a second track), then adjust the Track Pan settings to create a Left and Right track
METHOD #1: CHORUS – SPREAD STEREO (click on the image to see larger sizes)
GarageBand records in Mono (I’m using iLife ‘06). At the Track Info panel, under Input, it says “Channel 1 (Mono)”. It’s still Mono even if you select “Channel 1 & 2 (Stereo)”.
“Chorus” effect. You can instantly hear the difference.
One easy way to get the stereo effect is to select the “Spread Stereo” option from the
If you don’t want to use any effects to distort your original recording, here’s an alternative to using the Chorus Spread Stereo effect.
METHOD #2: Track Pan settings (click on the image to see larger sizes)
After you’ve recorded your track, make a Duplicate Track. Then copy the recording (from your first track) and paste to the duplicate track.
Click on the “Track Volume/ Pan Curve” button (i.e. the little triangle icon). The choose “Track Pan“.
Adjust the tracks to pan to the left and right respectively.
TIP: If you can’t seem to be able to get both tracks to have the same Pan curve number, don’t stress yourself out. Seems there’s always a +1 difference between the left and right pan. In my case, I have the top pan track set to “-34″ and the bottom track to “+35″. You can never get “-34″ and “+34″.
Out of curiosity, I searched if there were other related blog posts/ sites. Here’s a few, although some may not have specific instructions on stereo tracks:
- Homerecording.About.com – An introduction to GarageBand
- Apple.com Mac 101: GarageBand
- Synthtopia.com – Advanced audio effects in Garageband and GarageBand Tips and Tricks
- TidBITS – Tips and Tricks for recording with GarageBand (this one talks about recording two tracks at once, so maybe that’ll help)
- Apple’s Garageband manual – PDF file (it covers the basics of using GarageBand)
7 October, 2007 at 11:25 am |
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17 January, 2009 at 2:57 am |
I’d agree with your stereo tips except for one thing. Duplicating tracks is a great way to create stereo tracks, but it’s not the most effective. When you duplicate tracks, sure we have our L and R headphones each with a different track, but in reality all we are doing is just raising the track level all together. For a stereo effect, what I do, is either re-record the first rhythm track or add an accompanying track with minor differences than the original. Pan each to L and R and it sounds more real, giving the idea that two guitarists were used in the creation of my project, instead of just dup’ing the first track. Love your post, as many people are looking for more garageband tips and tricks!
17 January, 2009 at 9:11 pm |
Thanks for the comment, Kris. I’d forgotten about this post until your comment! Good tip on recording two different tracks. I also use that technique when I want to achieve a more interesting overall sound. But I won’t say duplicating tracks is “not as effective”. It’s just a different effect. For instance, let’s say I only want one guitar recording rather than two. After recording the track in Mono, the only way is to duplicate the track and create a Left and Right pan track.
But what I’ll correct in my post is not to say they are two “main” ways. More correct to say two possible ways, and I’ve incorporated your preferred method in the second point. Thanks!
17 January, 2009 at 9:28 pm |
[...] 17, 2009 This comment by Kris reminded me I had this post on how to create stereo tracks in GarageBand. I’m [...]
23 September, 2009 at 11:10 pm |
How do you deliberately make a monaural mix in Garageband?
24 September, 2009 at 1:47 am |
Hi Loonesta, as far as I know, you can record a “live” instrument as a mono track (open up Track Info and select ‘Mono’ under the Input Channel) and that’s about it. You can’t really make a “mono” mix in GarageBand if your mix contains stereo tracks. All the software instruments are stereo by default. So if you have tracks that are from software instruments mixed with live instruments “mono” tracks, you still get a stereo track. An alternative method is to use a free Open Source software like Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net). Import your completed track to Audacity, convert to a Mono track using one of its option there. Hope this helps.