iLife 05: The Missing Manual

2017-07-07 02:10:07

29.3. Publishing the Song

Suppose that the music sounds great, the mix is on target, and everybody who hears the song playing in GarageBand is blown away. This is the moment you've been waiting for. You're about to liberate your tune, freeing it from GarageBand and getting it into a program that's far better at playing and distributing digital musiciTunes. From there, you can burn it to a CD; convert it to an MP3 file; use it as background music for iPhoto, iMovie, or iDVD; and so on.

Here's how the process works.

Choose GarageBand Preferences .

The GarageBand Preferences dialog box appears.

The music you create in GarageBand will wind up in one iTunes playlist (a subset of your music collection that you've built for a certain purpose). Unless you specify otherwise , iTunes will name it "Casey's Playlist" (or whatever your account name is, as identified on the Accounts panel of System Preferences in Mac OS X). Here's your opportunity to assign your collected GarageBand works a more resonant title.

Click the Export tab. Edit the iTunes Playlist, Composer Name, and Album Name boxes (Figure 29-8) .

Figure 29-8. In iTunes, almost every song displays labeling information: composer name, album name, and so on. All right, maybe you're not much of a composer yet, and you probably don't yet have an album out. But at least you can pretend by filling in the boxes here in GarageBand's preferences.

(The new options at the bottom of the box are intended for Macs shared by several people, each with a Mac OS X account. These buttons let you specify whether or not you want your masterpiece available to everyone's iTunes collections.)

Once you've filled out the last line of the dialog box, click once in another one of the text boxes to make your changes take.

Close the Preferences box .

The only information you didn't have to fill in is the name of the song. But of course, iTunes already knows that informationit's whatever name you gave your GarageBand project when you created it.

Specify which tracks you want to export .

Most of the time, you'll want to export all of the tracks. In certain situations, though, you may not want some tracks to be a part of the finished mix. If you really do have a garageband, for example, you might want to make yourself a track that includes the backup band but omits your part, so that you can practice by playing along with it.

Note: You may be too young to remember the Music Minus One albums, but they were really cool. Each record was intended to help you learn to play a certain instrument. A full orchestra played on the left stereo channel, and your solo part was recorded on the right. As you got better at playing, you could gradually turn down the right channel until only the accompaniment remained audibleand you, the soloist, provided the missing part.

Maybe, too, your intention is to create a karaoke album of your own greatest hitsthat is, minus the vocals.

Or maybe you just want to send a record company's talent scout a couple of different mixes , each with a different instrumentation. (Some people, for example, like to try out a couple of different drum loops for the same song. Each one lends a different flavor to the piece. So for comparison, you can export the song twice, one with each drum track playing.)

Either way, silence the tracks you want omitted by clicking each one and then pressing the letter M key (or clicking the little speaker in the track header). Doing so mutes the track. Now when you export your song to iTunes, they won't be part of the mix.

Specify how much of the song you want to export .

In most cases, you'll want to export the entire song, which is fine. In that case, skip this step.

But selecting a specific part of the song can be useful now and then. Maybe you've got a shorter version that you want to keep distinct from the extended mix, for example.

Maybe, too, you want to export a region that's longer than the song. You might want to incorporate a few seconds of silence at the end, so that your listeners can reflect thoughtfully on the impact of what they just heard . Or, more practically, maybe you've discovered that GarageBand exports only up to the end of the last region, and is therefore chopping off a little bit of reverb that rings past that moment.

In any case, the trick to specifying how much of the song you want to export lies in the cycle region. Figure 29-9 explains.

Figure 29-9. Press the letter C key, or click the cycle button, to make the yellow highlighting bar appear at the top of the GarageBand window. Zoom out as much as necessary, and then drag the edges of this yellow bar until it brackets the portion of the song you want to include. GarageBand will export only as much of the song as you've indicated with this cycle region.

Give the piece one last listen .

Put on headphones if possible, press the letter Z key to rewind, press the Space bar to play, and watch the output-level meters at the lower-right corner of the GarageBand window to make sure that the two little clipping dots are turning redor that your piece isn't so quiet that the dancing meter bars never even touch the yellow region. (See the box on Section 29.1.2.)

Choose File Export to iTunes .

GarageBand takes a moment to create your final mix, merging all those tracks down to just two channels: left and right stereo. In a moment, the iTunes window appears automatically.

As shown in Figure 29-10, a new playlist has joined the others in the Source list at the left side of the window. This is where you'll find your exported GarageBand masterpieces.

Tip: Of course, you can always change the playlist name in the GarageBand Preferences dialog box. Doing so will build a second playlist in iTunes, containing all your GarageBand exports henceforth.
Tip: Behind the scenes, your exported GarageBand song is saved as an AIFF file in your Home Music iTunes iTunes Music Import folder. Back up this folder if you want to make safety copies of your finished projects.

Figure 29-10. Your GarageBand creations ultimately land in iTunes, which also came on your iLife DVD. (You can find it in your Applications folder.) Many of the keyboard shortcuts are exactly the same as in GarageBand: Press the Space bar to start and stop a selected song, press -up arrow and -down arrow to adjust the volume during playback, and so on.

29.3.1. Converting to MP3, AAC, WAV, or Apple Lossless

When it arrives in iTunes, your GarageBand masterpiece has been frozen into what's called an AIFF file (Audio Interchange File Format). AIFF files truly sound spectacular. In fact, they're what the record companies put onto commercial music CDs.

These are not, however, what you'd call petite files. A typical pop song occupies 40 or 50 MB on your hard drive, Web site, or iPod. That's a shame, because not many people will tolerate a 50 MB download just to hear your work.

Fortunately, iTunes makes it very easy to convert your songs to other formats, most of which take up far less space. MP3 files, AAC files, WAV files, and Apple Lossless files are all examples of formats you can use. Here's an introduction to each one:

MP3 files . The most popular music files online are MP3 files, which you can find on the Web by the hundreds of thousands. (MP3 is short for MPEG Audio, Layer 3.

And MPEG stands for Moving Pictures Experts Group , the association of engineers that also defined the specifications for DVD video, among other formats.)

And why is it so popular? Well, suppose you copy a song from an Outkast CD directly onto your computer, where it takes up 47.3 MB of hard disk space. Sure, you could now play that song without the CD in your CD drive, but you'd also be out 47.3 megs of precious hard drive real estate.

If you let iTunes convert it into an MP3 file instead, it will still sound really good, but now only takes up about 4.8 MB of space on your hard driveroughly 10 percent of the original

MP3 files are so small because they omit frequencies that are too high for humans to hear, along with any sounds that are blotted out by louder sounds. All of this compression helps produce a smaller file without overly diminishing the overall sound quality of the music.

AAC files . The Advanced Audio Coding format may be relatively new (it became official in 1997), but it has a fine pedigree. Scientists at Dolby, Sony, Nokia, AT&T, and Fraunhofer collaborated to come up with a method of squeezing multimedia files of the highest possible quality into the smallest possible spaceat least small enough to fit through a modem line. During listening tests, many people couldn't distinguish between a compressed high-quality AAC file and an original recording.

What's so great about AAC? For starters, this format can do the Big Sound/Small File Size trick even better than MP3. Due to its tighter compression technique, a song encoded in the AAC format sounds better (to most ears, anyway) and occupies less space on the computer than if it were encoded with the same quality settings as an MP3 file. Encoding your files in the AAC format is how Apple says you can stuff 10,000 songs onto a 40 GB iPod.

The AAC format can also be copy protected (unlike MP3), which is why Apple uses it on the iTunes Music Store. (The record companies would never have permitted Apple to distribute their property without copy protection.)

WAV files . WAV is a standard Windows sound format, although Macs can play these files, too. Windows fans download WAV recordings for everything from TV-show snippets to system-alert noises. A WAV song usually sounds better than the same song in MP3 but takes up more room on your hard drive or iPod.

Apple Lossless Encoder files . As you now know, programs like iTunes create MP3 and AAC files by throwing away some of the audio data (mostly stuff you can't hear anyway). Geeks call these lossy formats. But for true audiophiles with impeccable taste and bionic ears, lossy formats make music sound thin, tinny, and screeching.

Of course, WAV and AIFF are losslessno audio data is lostbut these files take up a huge amount of hard drive space.

In iTunes 4.5 or later, you can use the Apple Lossless Encoder instead. It offers great-sounding files that take up about half the space of an uncompressed CD track. (This format requires not only iTunes 4.5, but also QuickTime 6.5.1 or later.)

29.3.1.1. How to convert your files

All right, suppose you're now sold on the benefits of converting your GarageBand masterpieces into smaller files. Here's how to proceed:

In iTunes, choose iTunes Preferences. In the dialog box, click Importing .

You see the dialog box shown in Figure 29-11.

Figure 29-11. Here's where you specify what kind of file format you want for your converted GarageBand songs. Using the Setting pop-up menu, you can also specify what bit rate you want used, keeping in mind that higher bit rates sound better but also take up more disk, Web, or iPod space.

From the Import Using pop-up menu, choose the file format you want .

Choose AAC, Apple Lossless, MP3, or WAV. Also specify a Setting, if you like (see Figure 29-11).

Tip: If you intend to post this masterpiece online or send it by email, consider using MP3. It's the most widely compatible format.

Click OK. In your GarageBand playlist, select the song or songs you want to convert .

To select one song, just click it. To select all of them in the list, choose Edit Select All (or press -A). To select a consecutive subset of the songs, click the first one, and then Shift-click the last one. To select a random assortment, click the first, and then -click each additional song.

Choose Advanced Convert Selection to MP3 .

Beware: The menu command changes according to your selection in step 2. For example, it might say Convert Selection to AAC instead.

iTunes flies into action, simultaneously playing your song and converting it.

To look at the finished product, click the Library icon at the top of the Source list .

You'll find your song mixed in with all of your other iTunes files, in alphabetical order ( assuming you're sorting your list by song name).

Of course, the original AIFF version is here, too. One way to tell which is which: Highlight the song's name and press -I (or choose File Get Info ). The resulting dialog box identifies the file format.

At this point, you can turn the new file into a bona fide, independent file icon by dragging its name out of the list to any visible spot on your desktop. It's now ready to send by email, post on the Web, copy across the network, and so on.

29.3.2. Burning GarageBand CDs

Controlling your own private recording studio isn't the only traditional function that you're whisking away from the big corporate record companies. You're in charge of your own CD-pressing plant, too.

In fact, iTunes can burn your GarageBand hitsor any songs in your iTunes Libraryinto three kinds of discs:

Standard audio CDs . If your Mac has a CD burner , it can record selected sets of songs, no matter what the original sources, onto a blank CD. (For maximum CDplayer compatibility, leave your GarageBand projects in AIFF format for this kind of CD.) When it's all over, you can play the burned CD on any standard CD player, just like the ones from Tower Records. This time, however, you hear only the songs you like, in the order you like, with all of the annoying ones eliminated.

Tip: Use CD-R discs. CD-RW discs are not only more expensive, but may not work in some standard CD players. (Not all players recognize CD-R discs either, but the odds are better.)

MP3 CDs . A standard audio compact disc contains high-quality, enormous song files in the AIFF format. An MP3 compact disc, by contrast, is a data CD that contains music files in the MP3 format.

Since MP3 songs are much smaller than the AIFF files, many more of them fit in the standard 650 or 700 MB of space on a recordable CD. Instead of 74 or 80 minutes of music, a CD-R full of MP3 files can store 10 to 12 hours of tunes.

Just about any computer can play an MP3 CD. But if you want to take the disc on the road or even out to the living room, you'll need a CD player designed to read both standard CDs and discs containing MP3 files. Many modern players can play both CDs and MP3 CDs, and the prices are not much higher than that of a standard CD player. Some DVD players and home-audio sound systems can also play MP3 CDs.

Backup DVDs . If your Mac has Mac OS X 10.1 or later and an Apple SuperDrive (that is, it can play and record both CDs and DVDs), you have another option. iTunes 4 can back up 4.7 GB of your music collection at a time by copying it to a blank DVD. (You can't play this disc no matter what kind of player you have; it's merely a glorified backup disk for restoration when something goes wrong with your hard drive.)

Select the type of disc you desire in the Preferences dialog box (Figure 29-12). Then proceed as follows :

Select the playlist you want to burn .

To ensure that all of the playlist's songs will fit on a CD, consult the readout at the bottom of the window. It tells you how much playing time is represented by the songs in the playlist.

Note: If it runs out of room on the first CD, iTunes asks you to insert another disc and then picks up where

Figure 29-12. Choose iTunes Preferences, and then click Burning. Here, you select the recorder you wish to use, as well as what kind of CD to make: a standard disc (Audio CD) that will play in just about any CD player, an MP3 CD that will play in the computers CD drive (and some newer home decks), or a backup just for safekeeping.

When you're ready to roll, click the Burn Disc button at the top-right corner of the iTunes window .

The icon changes into a yellow-and-black graphic that resembles the symbol used for fallout shelters in the 1950s.

Insert a blank CD into your computer's drive when prompted. Click the Burn Disc button again after the program acknowledges the disc .

iTunes prepares to record the CD, which may take a few minutes.

Once iTunes has taken care of business, it lets you know that it's now burning the CD. Again, depending on the speed of your computer and CD burner, as well as the size of your playlist, the recording process could take several minutes.

When the disc is done, iTunes pipes up with a musical flourish. Eject the CD (by pressing the Eject key found in the upper-right corner of the Mac keyboard) and label the top of the newly minted music storehouse with a magic marker (or your favorite method).

Tip: You can set up your computer to auto-eject the CD when it's finished rippingideal if you plan to copy a bunch of CDs to your hard drive, assembly linestyle.In iTunes, choose iTunes Preferences (Mac). Click the General icon or tab. Where it says, "On CD Insert," choose "Import Songs and Eject." From now on, each CD spits out automatically when its done.

29.3.3. "Save as Archive"

As long as you use only the built-in Apple loops in your composition, you can freely exchange your GarageBand "document" with any agents , producers , or groupies who also have GarageBand. They'll be able to open the project and hear it exactly the way you did. After all, your composition is made exclusively of built-in Apple Loops, the same ones your audience also has on their Macs, and any Real Instrument recordings that you made, which are embedded inside the GarageBand package icon.

But what about other loops? What about Jam Pack loops, or loops you've made yourself, or loops bought from other companies? Your audience does not have these on hand. These folks will not hear your masterpiece as it exists on your Mac.

The solution is the File Save as Archive command. It creates what looks like a standard GarageBand document iconbut inside, it actually stores copies of all the loops you've used in your piece.

Needless to say, the resulting file takes up a lot more disk space than a regular GarageBand document. In fact, it can be huge. But at least it's self-contained and ready for glitch-free distribution.

29.3. Publishing the Song

29.3.1. Converting to MP3, AAC, WAV, or Apple Lossless

29.3.1.1. How to convert your files

29.3.2. Burning GarageBand CDs

29.3.3. "Save as Archive"

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