GarageBand – Creating a Jingle

Open up GarageBand and select New Project. From here choose Loops.

A new window will open up asking you to name and where to save your project. Go ahead and pick a place and click Create

You may notice that there are no tracks on the left hand side. This is normal and OK. You should notice that there is a pane open on the right hand side. This is where you will build your jingle.

On the right hand side you will see this intimidating list of genres. Don’t worry it isn’t all that bad. Many loops fall in more than one category so it is easier to find them.

To check them out, simply click on a category and then select the loop.

Once a clip is selected it will automatically start to play. This is a preview and it has not been added to your project yet. The Beats column let you know how many beats it is before it loops (or starts over).

This is why they are called “loops” because they can “loop” forever and sound fine.

You may notice that you select more than one genre of loops at a time to help narrow your search, but how do you start over? It is easy just click the Reset button at the top.

This is super simple. Just drag the loop you want into the workspace and GarageBand will automatically add it.

It is just like the first step but make sure that you add it on it’s own track. This is important as it will be easier for you to manage all the tracks and manipulate them.

You may notice that your loops are a little short and the 30 second jingle you were hoping to create only lasts about 4. Here is what you need to do.

Take your mouse and move it to the top right part of the track. It will change from a pointer to a bent pointer (look at the image below). Then click and drag it to the left. GarageBand will start to duplicate the loop over and over again for as long as you like.

You can also copy, cute, paste, and move those separate sections anywhere you want. GarageBand makes it easy.

Be sure to explore all the loops GarageBand has to offer and definitely experiment by putting lots of loops together. It is a lot of fun and it is wild to see what you can create.

To listen to your project all you have to do is click on the Play button at the bottom of the screen. The other controls are pretty self explanatory.

You’re done recording and editing and are ready to export your track. GarageBand gives you a few options. To get to the options click on Share in the menu bar (at the very top). Your options are pretty straightforward. If you want to save it somewhere other than iTunes though, select Export Song to Disk…

This will allow you to save it anywhere on the computer or a USB drive.

When you click Export Song to Disk… this window will open up. You can select MP3 or AAC formats (read about them here or go to http://bit.ly/vuNw9s). Select between Good, High, and Higher quality. Obviously the higher the quality the larger the file size.

If you know what you’re doing then you could also select Custom.

Then hit Export and let GarageBand do its thing.

You’ve recorded, edited and published your first GarageBand project. Nice work! Just an FYI, you now have two files: a GarageBand file and an audio file.

GarageBand files will NOT play on any mp3 player (including iPods/iPhones/iPads). You need to use the exported file for that. Enjoy!