GarageBand Guide: Merging Audio Clips and Manipulating Audio Effects
Welcome! The topic for this activity is: merging multiple audio clips and manipulating audio effects. Under this topic, we'll do three subtasks - merge two audio clips on the same track, pan the audio all the way to the right, and turn on reverb. And for this, we are working with a GarageBand project that has a single audio track. The track has two audio clips - one between 0 to 4 seconds, and the other between 4 to 18 seconds.
Subtask 1: Merging Multiple Audio Clips
The first subtask is to merge all the audio clips on the track. To do that, follow these steps:
- Press the Up arrow to make sure the track is selected.
- Press Command-A to select all the audio clips on this track.
- Now, press Command-J, which is the keyboard shortcut for merging audio regions. If it works, Voiceover will say “join regions notes”.
- We’ve completed the first subtask!
Subtask 2: Panning Audio to the Right
Now, let’s play with some audio effects. For the second subtask, we will pan the audio track to the right. This means, if you wear a headphone, it would seem like the sound is coming entirely from your right-hand side. To do that, follow these steps:
- Use Control-Option-Right Arrow to go to the “Tracks” area. Interact with “Tracks” by pressing control-option-shift-down arrow.
- Inside “Tracks”, there will be five items. Using Control-Option-Right arrow, Navigate to the fourth item called “Tracks Header”.
- Interact with “Tracks Header” by pressing Control-Option-Shift-Down arrow - and you should hear VoiceOver say, “in tracks header. Track 1 - rice.”
- Interact with “Track 1, Rice” by pressing Control-Option-Shift-Down arrow. Inside, use Control-Option-Right arrow to navigate to the last item called “Pan 0”. This is the panning knob.
- Interact with the panning knob using Control-Option-Shift-Down arrow. Then keep pressing Control-Option-Right arrow, until it says “63 of 63, right channel pan.”
- If you can’t go farther than 63, then you have successfully panned the audio all the way to the right.
- We’ve completed the second subtask!
Subtask 3: Applying Reverb
Now, for the third subtask, let’s add another effect called the reverb - which gives your audio a fuller and richer vibe. To find the reverb effect and turn it on, follow these steps:
- Bring up the item chooser by pressing Control-Option-I. Type “master” using your keyboard to narrow down the list of items. Choose “Master Reverb” from the remaining options and press Enter.
- Now you will have the text label of "Master Reverb" selected - the actual master reverb checkbox is on its left. So, press Control-Option-Left once - to find “Master Reverb, checkbox”, which is currently unchecked.
- Press Control-Option-Space once - to turn on the “Master Reverb.”
Great! We’ve completed all the subtasks of this activity. Now you know how to merge audio clips and apply some effects. Goodbye!