Making Multiple Versions of a Track

Welcome! The topic for this activity is: making multiple versions of a track. Under this topic, we'll do three subtasks - create a new track with duplicate settings, copy the contents of the previous track onto the new track, and mute the previous track. And for this, we are working with a GarageBand project that has a single audio track named “main”.

Subtask 1: Creating a New Track with Duplicate Settings

The first subtask is to create a new track that has the exact same settings as the existing audio track. Which means the new track will have the same volume and panning, the same audio effects, and everything else. To do that, follow these steps:

  1. Use control-option-right arrow to go to “Tracks”. Interact with “Tracks” by pressing control-option-shift-down arrow.
  2. Inside “Tracks”, there will be five items. Navigate to the fourth item called “tracks header” using control-option-right arrow. Interact with the “tracks header” using control-option-shift-down arrow, and you should hear VoiceOver say, “in tracks header, Track 1, main.”
  3. Now that you are on Track 1, you need to open the context menu. You can do that by pressing control-option-shift-M.
  4. Inside the context menu, use the down arrow to go to the fourth item called “new track with duplicate settings”, and press Enter.
  5. We’ve completed the first subtask!

Subtask 2: Copy the Contents of Older Track on to the New Track

Now we have a new track with the same settings as the old track, but this new track does not have any content. We still need to copy the contents from the old track. To do that, follow these steps:

  1. Select the old track by pressing the up arrow, and you should hear “track 1, main”. Press command-C to copy the contents.
  2. Press down arrow to select the new track, and you should hear “track 2”. Press command-V to paste what you copied.
  3. We’ve completed the second subtask!

Subtask 3: Muting the Previous Track

Now that we have two exact copies of the same content - we want to mute the old track. To do that, follow these steps:

  1. Press the up arrow to select the older track.
  2. Press M - where M is for “mute” - to mute the older track.

Great! We’ve completed all the subtasks of this activity. Now you know how to make multiple versions of a track. Goodbye!