Recording Audio in GarageBand

You will work with a partner. Your partner will be the sound engineer and will help you record your audio.

1. Create a new track by clicking the plus sign in the lower left corner of the GarageBand window.

Choose "Real Instrument"

2. Plug in your USB microphone.

You will get a message that GarageBand recognizes the microphone, in this case, the Blue Snowball

3. Checking your level. You now will speak into the microphone to check the input level. Place the microphone about 1-2 feet away from your mouth. Just begin to go through exactly what you are recording. 

As you are speaking, the sound engineer checks the level (the green bars that go up and down as you speak.)

The most important thing here is that the level is not clipping (green bars go into red.) This means that the incoming signal is too loud and the recording will sound distorted.

You also don't want the levels to be too low in the green. This means that the recorded level will be too quiet. 

Ideally, you want the levels to be in the middle of the green.

The level will be determined by two things, the distance you are from the microphone and the volume of your voice. 

Once your level is set, you are ready to record. Do not change your distance from the mic.

4. Recording. Click the red record button on the bottom of the window. 

Make sure you are speaking clearly and your voice has personality. 

If you make a mistake, do not stop the recording, keep recording. Go back to the beginning of the sentence your mistake was in and say that again. You will edit this when you are done recording.

Good Luck!