How To Make Music With Keyboard Garageband Mac

  1. How To Make Music With Keyboard Garageband Mac Download
  2. How To Make Music With Keyboard Garageband Mac Download

If you’re sick of using the Musical Typing keyboard in Garageband, then look no further than this article. Connecting a keyboard MIDI controller to Garageband is incredibly simple.

Apr 29, 2018  In this video I share my top 5 tips to help you get started with GarageBand on Mac! Get Set Up: 0:29 Track Types: 2:02 How To U. Ideally you could attach a USB keyboard or controller to your Mac, but maybe you’re just getting started with Garageband and don’t have access to one? Or maybe you’re on the move and didn’t have room to pack your keyboard/controller? Luckily Garageband has an ingenious built in solution – Musical Typing. What Is Musical Typing? Mar 25, 2020  GarageBand is Apple's application for creating, editing, and just plain having fun with music on your Mac. This free download from the Mac App Store works well with MIDI instruments, but if you don't have a MIDI keyboard, you can turn your Mac keyboard into a virtual musical instrument.

Without further ado,

This is how you connect a keyboard into GarageBand.

The process for connecting a keyboard into your computer and DAW is identical for nearly all of them nowadays. However, with Apple and other laptop makers opting for USB-C, you may have to purchase a USB-C to USB cable. Click the link here to get one.

You don’t have to purchase an Apple one, necessarily. There are other good ones as well that are half the price, but I have the Apple one, and it’s the one I use, so I recommend it because I know it works from experience.

When purchasing a new MIDI Keyboard, it’ll likely come with all of the cables necessary for use, including the USB Firewire Cable, which you can also pick up at Amazon for fairly cheap if your keyboard, for whatever reason, didn’t come with it.

1) Assuming that you have the brand new MacBook Pro, you can connect your MIDI Keyboard by a USB Firewire cable directly into the back of the Keyboard.

2) Plug your *USB-C to USB adapter into your laptop.

3) Plug your USB Firewire into your *USB-C to USB adapter.

4) Now open Garageband.

5) After you’ve opened up the program, you don’t have to use musical typing anymore. The keyboard will automatically work right away, without any problems.

*If you have an older computer, it’s possible that you may not even need this adaptor. The keyboard, through the USB port, should be able to connect to your laptop.

In the past, MIDI Keyboards were connected through the use of Pin Drivers, but new MIDI Keyboards usually use USB. If you want to connect an older keyboard into Garageband, you’ll need a MIDI to USB adaptor.

What MIDI keyboard should I use for Garageband?

Considering you’re likely in the beginning stages of music production, I would recommend getting an Acorn Masterkey 49.

You can pick one of these up on Amazon. Click the link here to read more about the one I own. It has 49 keys, which is essential if you’re trying to get the full range of the piano (it‘s the one in the display picture for this blog post).

In my opinion, a 25-key is good for traveling and when you need something on the road, but for regular music production, a 49-key or larger is best.

It’s a nice little starter keyboard and it works perfectly for a beginner. There are even more options available, like a 61-key, and an 88-key.

Perhaps the most popular keyboard out right now is the Akai MPK Mini Mk2. A lot of people prefer this little machine, and there are more expensive, larger, and superior versions available.

In addition to the price, the Akai MPK Mini Mk2 only has 25 keys, so I didn’t want to get it for that reason.

Once you’ve gotten some experience under your belt, you can pick up a more professional keyboard like the Akai MPK, but it’s certainly not necessary for a beginner to drop this kind of money.

How To Assign Sounds to MIDI Keyboard in Garageband?

From what I understand, it’s not actually possible to assign individual samples to different keys in GarageBand anymore. I don’t know how to do it, and after scouring the internet for answers, I, unfortunately, can’t find a way.

In prior versions of the software, it was possible, but I don’t think you can anymore, for whatever reason. What Apple giveth, it also taketh away.

I could be wrong. Let me know in the comment section below if you know how to do this because I don’t.

If you have the older version of Garageband. The tutorial video at this linkwill show you how.

How To Use A MIDI Keyboard in Garageband?

Background and General Information

The moment you connect your keyboard into your computer, it should work right away. Garageband will recognize exactly what tool you’re using the moment you connect it.

It works the same way that the Musical Typing option does, but with a much bigger range, which makes writing music a lot easier, especially if you like to use the piano.

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. The ability to change phrases of music after you’ve recorded it is the main benefit of using MIDI.

For instance, if you’ve written a piano riff using a MIDI Controller, you can go back and adjust the timing, velocity, rhythm, as well as the pitch of the note.

It’s a lot easier to change and modify music created through a MIDI Controller, in comparison to an analog recording.

Tip: After making a melody with a MIDI Controller, open a new track with whatever instrument you want, and then copy and paste it into the new Software Instrument Track.

For instance, if you’ve created a melody using the Steinway Grand Piano, you could copy and paste your music into a new Software Instrument Track like String Movements, thus, filling out your mix within seconds.

Using the MIDI Keyboard

To use the MIDI Controller, you’ll have to open a “Software Instrument” track. On the left-hand corner of the string, Garageband has all of the different instruments and settings that you can use.

When using the MIDI controller for creating drums, the drum sounds will usually be within the first octave of the keyboard. Most drum-kits have a limited number of sounds, usually around 9-12.

When creating melodies, whether, through the use of the Steinway Grand Piano, or a Synth, the MIDI controller offers the range of however many keys you have with your controller.

Creating A New Software Instrument Track

If you want to create another Software Instrument track, click on the Track Header using the “secondary click (right click)” function, and choose New Software Instrument Track, or New Track With Duplicate Settings.

Deleting the Software Instrument or Audio Track

If you want to delete the existing Software Instrument Track, use the (Command + Delete) function.

Changing the Timing, Pitch, and Velocity (loudness) Of Your MIDI Notes

Through the use of the “Piano Roll Grid,” at the bottom of Garageband, you can adjust the timing and pitch of each note played.

Some people don’t even use the keyboard to create melodies and drum tracks, you can manually type in each MIDI note by double-tapping your trackpad and selecting the “create note” option.

Like I said before, the best part about using a MIDI controller is that you can fix mistakes that you’ve made simply by changing the position of the MIDI note.

How To Change The Timing Of Your MIDI Notes

The notes, which are little green squares, can easily be moved around by clicking and dragging it to the desired pitch and time.

If you use the Zoom-In function on your Mac, you’ll see that the Piano Roll Grid is divided up with equally distributed lines.

If you want your music to be perfectly in time, just drag and drop the MIDI notes to the closest line, that way your melody is in time, and when you create drums later, everything will be synchronized.

This is legitimately important. Otherwise, your melody is going to sound off-balance and weird. Although, maybe that’s what you want.

How To Change The Pitch Of The Notes

Drag and drop the MIDI notes either up or down to the desired pitch. On the left-hand side of the “Piano Roll Grid,” you’ll notice there is a vertical keyboard, showing at which point each note is played respectively to the piano.

Also, if you hover your cursor of the note, it’ll tell you the pitch, as well as the velocity (strength) of the sound.

How To Change The Velocity (loudness) of the Notes

To my knowledge, there are two ways of doing this in the newest version of Garageband. On the left-hand side of the “Piano Roll Grid,” you’ll see a slider along with the title, “Velocity.”

After selecting your note, you can change the loudness or strength of that note by dragging the slider to the left or right. Increasing the value, (0-100), will make it louder, and decreasing it will make it softer.

Underneath that option, there is also the “Controller” option. You get to this setting by clicking on the button, “Show/Hide Automation.”

Click the power button that looks like a typical “Power” Function.

Then you can drag the vertical slider up and down to change the loudness of that note.

Truthfully, using a MIDI Keyboard in a DAW is a straightforward process, and through a bit of trial and error, you should be able to figure it out.

How To Open Keyboard in GarageBand

Use the (Command + K) option to bring up musical typing in Garageband. You can also select the “Show Musical Typing” option in the settings in the toolbar up top in the DAW.

Additionally, if you want access to a much bigger, but more limited way of playing the keyboard, then click on the option, “Show Keyboard.”

This isn’t nearly as good as using a regular MIDI Keyboard, but it’ll do if you don’t want to go out and buy a keyboard, which you definitely should do.

Why Isn’t My MIDI Keyboard Working?

1) Make sure that you’ve selected the correct input and output options within your Garageband preferences to start. Usually, this part isn’t even necessary, but if your MIDI controller isn’t working for whatever reason, you can adjust these settings.

2) If your MIDI Keyboard isn’t working, go into your Garageband Preferences, Select “Audio/MIDI,” and then click the “re-set the MIDI Drivers” button.

3) Is it possible that your Instrument Track has been muted? In the “Track Header” region, you can see there are two buttons, one that looks like a loudspeaker with a line through it, and another one that looks like a pair of headphones.

The one that looks like a speaker is the “Mute” button, and the Headphones button is the “Solo” button that isolates that particular sound within your mix, in case you want to just hear that one track, and not the others.

You’ll know your mute button is selected because it’ll turn a turquoise green and the MIDI region is no longer green, but a darker shade of grey.

When the “Solo” button is turned on, it’s yellow.

Also, if you’ve accidentally isolated a track using the “Solo” button, you won’t be able to hear the MIDI controller, unless you’re currently playing the MIDI Controller through that particular “Software Instrument” track.

4) Another potential reason is that you’ve slid the “Volume Slider” all the way to the left, effectively muting the track. Change mac address teamviewer id.

5) Check your MIDI Keyboard connection. It may have something to do with your USB Firewire Cable.

6) If your computer isn’t recognizing your MIDI Controller, unplug and plug it back in after restarting Garageband.

A way to tell if your computer has recognized the controller is by hitting a note on your MIDI Controller, and seeing if it registers that note at the top of the DAW.

If you hit one note, a little circle will appear in the top right-hand corner of the “Beats Position Display” at the top-center of Garageband.

If you play a chord on the MIDI Controller, Garageband will tell you the exact chord.

Another way of checking to see if your computer recognizes the keyboard is to go into the “About This Mac” settings. Then click on “System Report.”

Go all the way down to where it says “USB,” and click on that.

On the right-hand side of the menu, it will say what’s connected to your computer currently. On mine, it says the name of the device, “masterkey 49.”

7) Try another USB (USB-C) Port on your computer. If you’re using the new MacBook, try a different device, it may be the adaptor.

Remember, the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

YouTube Video Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6w3i4sjLC0Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: How To Connect MIDI Keyboard To Garageband (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6w3i4sjLC0)

Conclusion

How To Make Music With Keyboard Garageband Mac

That’s all for this tutorial. I hope it was helpful for you.

If you are trying to download Garageband for PC/ Windows and you’re clueless about how to make it work for you on your Window PC/Laptop keep reading ahead, here’s the free guide for you.

I always have friends coming over to ask if they should invest in a desktop system to connect with their phone and MacBook to sync GarageBand, I understand exporting and being limited to the devices with software availability can be frustrating but I still tell them No.

To download GarageBand on Windows (computer/desktop), click on the button below. Click “Next or Accept” to proceed in the installation and enjoy the music composing app.

Also, Read – What is VMware and why you need it?

Watch this full tutorial of how you can install Mac OS on your PC

It is very important you watch the whole tutorial in order to install macOS High Sierra

Intel-based Processor: If you are running an Intel processor-based PC, then I would recommend you to go for VMware method only.

AMD-V: If you are an AMD user, you already must know that not many AMD-processors support AMD-V (AMD Virtualization) because it is a major factor to run a Virtual-based OS on your Windows PC. ( You will have to check whether your processor supports Virtualization or not). If you want to know more about AMD-V you can check out our detailed guide here :- What is AMD-V?

How do I know if my PC supports AMD-V?

You can find out if your AMD-processor supports Virtualisation before trying any of the methods.

Step 1: Download the AMD-V compatibility checker from the official AMD site.

Step 2: Once the download is finished, open the Compressed folder, and Extract it using Winrar.

Step 3: Open the folder, and Run as administrator “AMD Hyper-V.

Step 4: You have to enable it from your BIOS. Like my case, Unfortunately, my AMD-processor does not support AMD-V

The Android Emulators may work but won’t function properly.

Installation of Mac Sierra OSX

You need to enable Virtualization from the Bios, or it won’t work at all. You will face several errors. So, make sure to turn it on in the BIOS.

Step 1: Download the macOS Sierra from the button below.

Specifications of the File you download:

How To Make Music With Keyboard Garageband Mac Download

Content:Description:
Name:GarageBand for Windows
Size:56 MB
Requirement:Windows (All Versions)
Language:English
Author:Unauthorised
Last Updated:12-12-2019

Step 2: You need to download and Install VMWare Workstation player because of its a freeware.

Step 3: Now extract the macOS folder using Winrar.

Step 4: You have to open folder macOS Sierra > macOS Sierra 10.12 tools > Final Youtube Folder > unlocker208.

Step 5: Now run Win-install as Administrator.

Step 6: A Window will pop-up, which is a command prompt, which macOS will let the Windows know that changes are made after taking necessary permissions.

Virtual dj 7 le download mac. Step 7: Launch the VMWare from the desktop shortcut.

Step 8: Now click on the “Open Virtual Machine.”

Step 9: A Window will pop, and you have navigated it to macOS Sierra > macOS Sierra 10.12 tools > Final Youtube Folder > macOS Sierra folder and Select the OS.

Step 10: Click on “Edit Virtual Machine.”

Step 11: Select number of Processor Cores (Recommend two, if your processor is Quad-core.)

Step 12: Select number of RAM, you can dedicate to the VMWare, if your RAM is 8GB, then make it 4GB in the machine.

First macOS Sierra Boot

It’s incredibly simple, and you don’t need many instructions on how to do so.

1: You need to re-launch the VMware workstation 10 and “Play Virtual Machine.”

2: A snap will start showing up on your screen. It usually takes 5-10 minutes to load completely.

3: Now select your country.

4: Select your keyboard language.

5: Select the third option “Don’t transfer any information now.”

6: Enable location for better productivity of the apps.

7: Create or Sign up from the panel itself because you are going to need it.

8: Agree to the terms and conditions.

9: Choose the second and move on.

10: Now select your time zone, which is important.

11: The macOS will start setting up, and it usually takes one or ten minutes to complete.

12: You are now looking at the desktop.

Go to app store from the taskbar and the search for “GarageBand” and then download the first search result.

This is the only genuine method to freely download GarageBand for windows pc! I

Note: You need to have an active ID to proceed and download just like you do on Google Play Store. In case, you were unable to top create an ID back from the setup then you can create online using the official site.

1. Audiotool

There is another easy way to make music online. Ever heard of Audio tool? Guess not! This software is one of the most used applications for composing that should feature on your desktop. Once you are done making or creating your piece, you can directly publish your tracks on to YouTube, Sound Cloud or Facebook. This software is highly accessible and is an online music production studio which can easily be accessed from your browser.

Audiotool enables the user to all samples, presets and tracks in the cloud thus you can access them from any browser without worrying about software installations. Adding to this, you can directly publish your music.
What makes Audiotool highly smooth to function with is that: It makes it very easy to collaborate with different software and hardware.
You can effortlessly add all Audiotool devices to the app’s desktop. This makes the process of merging, splitting or routing of various synthesizers outputs a little bit simpler without many glitches. It is one of the best Garageband alternatives for PC.
You get a sense of brotherhood after you join the community. Not only do you get an access to an ever-expanding community fed cloud-based library with unlimited samples (over 250,000 but you also have the advantage of getting your hands on the many devices presets accessible through a wide range of preset browsers (over 50,000).

2. Ableton Live

How To Make Music With Keyboard Garageband Mac Download

If there is any app that goes through the excruciating yet fruitful process of making music, it is Ableton Live. It assists you throughout, right from songwriting, composing, remixing, live performance to recording. Some of the features that make Ableton a favorite among the live performers are the application’s ability to render powerful real-time editing along with providing live nonlinear, excellent flow as well as flexible performance options. These features are a boon for any music enthusiast and Ableton Live is the perfect choice to opt for.

Ableton Live has the latest Live 8 version which comes with new techniques and improvements. It is also equipped with a new groove engine which provides services and effects like live looping reworked MIDI editor and crossfade in the Arrangement View.

Recently Ableton Live announced a public beta for Live 9.7 which includes amazing new features:

  1. Advanced editing options which help to cut off samples by beta division.
  2. Amazing color customization from color clips which helps to make the live performances easier.
  3. It provides better playability due to its features pads sensitivity which allows you to play from chords to drums.

3. Music Maker Jam

Anyone who has music taste which encompasses many genres like Hip Hop, House, Metal, Techno etc and prefers expanding your music library. Music Maker Jam is the best application to use. Music Maker Jam is a free music application available for Windows 8 and works on iOS devices as well.

Using this application you can not only create tracks in a simpler and faster way but you can also remix the tracks with a great degree of ease. Adding real-time effects by shaking and tilting your device is just one of the many perks of this application.

Update: 05 June 2018

There are many sites that are trying to give you new methods of installing GarageBand app on your laptop. But beware of them, as most of them are just trying to lure you into visiting them and making money out of fake methods and downloads. We have added the exact working method of getting this software using VMware and our chief developer has spent 10+ hours in just installing and getting the ins and outs of this software so that our users face no problems. So, go ahead and use our download guide to make your day and use this magical software today for composing great music, fun, audios and entertainment.

  1. Is Garage Band for free?
    Ans: Yes, the mother company provides it for free in its devices like iPhone, iMac or MacBooks. Even when you access it on PC/Windows Laptop via VMware, the emulator may cost you for being a pathway from windows but the app is free.
  2. What is Ipadian?
    Ans: iPadian is a software emulator which once installed creates another desktop screen on your PC/laptop looking like iPad screen and making the app store and apps accessible to you just like on the orignal device. They have custom AppStore which comprises of more than 350 most popular apps which are sometimes not android accessible available to you.
  3. What apps are similar to Garageband?
    Ans: There are few options available which work as smooth as the original interface, Check our review and description on them here.

Contents

  • 1 How to I download the APP?
  • 3 Top 3 Garageband Alternatives