Feb 08, 2017 How to set up a new track in GarageBand using the built-in microphone. Made by students in the 7th grade Digital Music elective at Hillbrook School in Los Gatos, CA.
One of the major perks of GarageBand in iLife 11′ is the recording features. Before you can start your rock and roll career, you need to assign the sound input. To assign sound input to your Mac’s built-in microphone, or to its line-in connection for recording with GarageBand in iLife from an external microphone or an electric instrument with a line-level output, follow these steps:
For a line-in connection, connect your instrument, microphone, or sound source to the line-in connection on your Mac.
If you don’t have a line-in connection, you can use a USB audio input device.
Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu in Mac OS X.
The System Preferences window appears with icons—separated into sections—for setting preferences.
Click the Sound icon in the Hardware section to open the Sound pane, and click the Input tab.
The Sound pane’s Input pane appears.
Select Line In or Internal Microphone from the list of sound input devices.
The change takes place immediately, by activating the line-in connection or internal microphone.
Quit System Preferences by choosing System Preferences→Quit (or click the red Close button in the upper left corner).
Setting up the Mac’s line-in connection for recording.
To set the volume level for sound input, follow these steps:
Start playing the instrument you’re recording or start singing/talking into the built-in mic.
The internal microphone or line-in connection is always on and detecting sound.
Watch the Input Level meter on the Input tab.
As the volume grows louder, the oblong purple dots are highlighted from left to right. If all dots are highlighted all the time, you’re way too hot (too loud). If none of the dots is even highlighted, you’re way too low. You want the dots to be highlighted about three-fourths of the way across, from left to right, for optimal input volume.
To adjust the volume, drag the Input Volume slider.
You can still record from an audio interface, a line-in connection, or an internal mic while your system sound preferences are set differently. Choose GarageBand→Preferences and click the Audio/MIDI button to see the Audio/MIDI pane. You can then set the audio input to Built-In Microphone, Built-in Line Input, or System Setting (to reflect whatever you set your system sound preferences is set to). You can also set the audio output to Built-in Output or System Settings.
Whether you run a podcast or like recording musical covers, you can probably benefit from live monitoring your audio input. That is, with the input turned on, the sounds you input are automatically fed through the output so you hear back the sounds as you’re making them. The effect is similar to using a microphone on stage and hearing the sound instantly pump through the speakers around you.
Having this feature is important for testing out your microphone’s volume level, the proximity to the speaker, audio quality and more. Perhaps you also just want to capture a bit more reverb. Here are two ways on the Mac to enable live monitoring for free.
Note: This will work for both your Mac’s built-in microphone as well as third-party microphone accessories.Download AudioMonitor
AudioMonitor is a free application for OS X that lets you monitor and edit the audio input coming into your Mac. You can download it at Softpedia. Note that it downloads as “MTCoreAudio” but for our intents and purposes, the application itself is AudioMonitor.
When you download the program, it’ll reveal itself as a package of contents. The only one you need to be interested in is AudioMonitor. Drag that icon over to the Applications folder on your Mac to install the program. Feel free to discard the rest.
Once you can launch AudioMonitor from Applications, you’ll notice it’s a very basic and lightweight app. Before you turn on live monitoring, make sure you select the proper input at the top. If you’re using your Mac’s microphone, keep the Built-In Microphone and Internal Microphone options selected. Otherwise, choose the name of your accessory in the drop down menu when it’s connected.
Also verify the output source is correct at the bottom. When you’re all set, click Play Through to turn on live monitoring. You can test it out by turning up the volume on your computer and speaking into the microphone. You should hear your own voice play back to you in realtime, which means live monitoring is working.
Use GarageBand
GarageBand is typically used for musical instruments and recording projects, but if you don’t want to download a new app, GarageBand also has a live monitoring feature. I prefer using AudioMonitor because it’s way more lightweight and straightforward, but GarageBand works fine too.
All you need to do is open GarageBand and make sure you’re starting on a blank slate, i.e. not opening a previously worked on file. For your new project, select Empty Project then click Choose.
GarageBand will ask you about your input settings. Select Record using a microphone or line input at the top. Then underneath, make sure the checkbox to the right is ticked that reads I want to hear my instrument as I play and record.
Proceed to your new project and you’ll notice your first track has a lit icon that looks like an upside Wi-Fi signal. That’s live monitoring, enabled. Make sure you have a pair of headphones ready, then try speaking into your mic to test out hearing your own voice.
Also SeeGarageband Microphone Input
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