Pipe Organ Garageband Ipad

08-05-2021 by

Here in North America the NHL playoffs are now in full swing and perhaps you're inspired to play some rocking organ! With GB on the iPad we get some great keyboard sounds with nifty screen controls! N
  • Nov 24, 2018 This is a faithful, ultra high-quality reproduction of the organ in St. Just in Roseland church, Cornwall, and is fully playable using a single MIDI controller keyboard.
  • May 25, 2011  Again, think of the iPad screen as the controls for the organs drawbars or synths filters. Unfortunately GB won’t record this data during recording. Pitch bend and Mod wheels will respond on your controller as will velocity and after touch. Also, there are no ways to assign a KB controller’s sliders or knobs to say.

Here in North America the NHL playoffs are now in full swing and perhaps you’re inspired to play some rocking organ! With GarageBand for iPad we get some great keyboard sounds with nifty screen controls! Not only can we use these keys in our songs that we’re recording, but as I explained in a recent tutorial, live use is also a possibility!

With GarageBand for iPad, we are also closer then ever to having a full professional recording studio in a very thin package. And at a price of $4.99, who can complain? For those who are just starting out, here's a first tutorial on recording guitar to get you and your iPad rocking. Setup and Equipment needed.


Garageband For Ipad App

Setup and Equipment Needed

There are a few things we need.

  • Controller Keyboard with power supply - There are many to choose from and I use an Axiom Pro 61. You will definitely need the power supply as the iPad does not provide power through it’s dock port. If you want to use the Korg Nano series, you will need a USB hub with power supply.
  • Camera Connection Kit - Our keyboard controller communicates with GB through this device.


Axiom Pro 61

Apple's Camera Connection Kit

Controls

Each instrument has it’s own layout (organ with drawbars, synths with filter controls) but also there are some functions just above the keyboard and these will vary with the instrument selected. For example, “Sustain” will be on piano but not organ, organ will have the “Rotary” switch for the Leslie, all depending on the instrument.


Although we’re going to be using a keyboard controller, if you want to use the onscreen keyboard, you get different controls for how your screen keyboard responds. On the far left is an “Octave” plus and minus. A middle button for “Glissando”, “Scroll”, “Pitch” which vary again depending on the instrument selected and the right side has a “Scale”, “Arpeggiator” and “Keyboard Layout”.

“Glissando” lets you slide across the keys like a real keyboard would. Think of the piano player using the back of his hand and sliding up or down the keys.

“Scroll” allows you to play a note and while holding it, slide the keyboard up or down. Useful if you need to get into different octaves of the on screen keyboard quickly.

“Pitch” is a like a pitch bend wheel but lets you pitch up or down between notes simply by sliding your finger. Great for the vintage synths!

“Scale” is great for solos if you want to try different sounding scales in a piece of music. Once you pick the scale you want to use, the keyboard becomes more like a single row marimba minus the #/b keys. If you use a kb controller, you will still have all the notes available but you can learn what notes are used by playing them on the iPad and matching them on your keyboard. You’ll soon be playing “Klezmer” with ease!


“Arpeggiator” is your freedom to play multiple notes with one chord held down. You can choose note order, rate, and octave range. Great for dance tunes or your version of “Teenage Wasteland”! Unfortunately, the arpeggiator does not work with a KB Controller.


“Keyboard Layout/Velocity/Key Controls” - You can choose how you would like the onscreen keyboard to be set up with choices for one or two keyboards and octave range.
“Velocity” on and off is simple enough but you also can control the velocity range depending on the instrument (no velocity for organ since there is none!) left to the middle of the screen.
“Key Controls” simply turns on and off the view of the middle button for “Glissando”, etc.
There is also a hidden feature that is very cool and similar to an aftertouch on a KB controller. Load in the “Vintage Lead” preset under “Synth Lead” and strike a note. Now move your finger up and down that note... instant filter sweep!

Keyboard Controller

Plug your keyboard into your Camera Connection Kit and make sure it’s secure as I find it can pop out easily. If it does, you may need to restart your iPad to get control again. Open up GB and navigate to the “Keyboard” instrument. Once this opens you can then select from pianos,organs, synths, etc. by tapping on the instrument in the middle of the screen. You can even store your own presets.
Again, think of the iPad screen as the controls for the organs drawbars or synths filters. Unfortunately GB won’t record this data during recording. Pitch bend and Mod wheels will respond on your controller as will velocity and after touch. Also, there are no ways to assign a KB controller’s sliders or knobs to say, organ drawbars or synth knobs, although I did find my “master” slider with MIDI CC#7 controlled instrument volume.

Using “Smart Instruments”

One feature I wish GB would allow is the use of “autoplay” but controlled via the KB controller. But there are some interesting ideas you can do by combining the “autoplay” feature and your keyboard. For example, select “Smart Keyboard” and choose one of the 4 “autoplay” modes. You then will see 3 bars with a chord on the top bar. The bar with the chord plays both left and right hand accompaniments, the middle bar is right hand only and the bottom is left hand bass. If you hit the top bar, you could solo on the KB controller. The middle bar could allow you to try bass combinations such as G-G/F-G/E or perhaps a piano bass line with a distinctive melody. Be careful though as the sustain is used most likely and can mush up your sound in the bass line. Using the bottom bar would allow you again more right hand solos or your own accompaniment.

If you want any electric or acoustic bass instruments, you will need to use “Smart Bass”. Using the acoustic bass gives a feature that is hard to emulate on the KB controller unless you get good with the pitch bend wheel... sliding your finger along a fretless neck. Simply select Acoustic Bass, switch the “Chords” to “Notes” and tap on the screen. It adds some realism to the bass line and with some practice, can give some convincing results. Further editing can be done on GB on your Mac.

Garageband for ipad manual

“Smart Guitar” is very similar to the smart keyboard and bass features with one additional feature. If you use your KB Controller, you can strike chords on your keys!Now you can use the “autoplay” feature for arpeggiated chords and “strum” chords on your keyboard. Great too for having ostinato picking patterns with multiple chord changes.


Recording Tips

First and foremost... PRACTICE! Yes... I said that again as I did in the last tutorial. GB on the iPad does not allow editing like GB on a Mac . Not even MIDI editing for wrong notes. Maybe in version 2... BUT... you can slow down the tempo, unlike the Guitar/Audio recording section, and speed it up after. If needed later, you can open up the song on your Mac and edit it there. You also can save time by recording repetitive parts and then looping them. Simply record your part, double tap on the track region and select “Loop”.

If your timing is not that great or you need to tighten up a section, “Quantization” will help. Simply tap on the top right “Mixer” in the Track view and select your quantization value. Use the fastest value you played. For example, if a lead synth line played as fast as 16th notes, use the 1/16 Note value. Quantization will also affect all of the tracks regions in a section! But... you can have different quantization on each section if a part gets moved from one section to another. Confused? Yeah... me too at first. If you quantize a part in Section A to 1/8 notes but then move it to Section B that is quantized to 1/16 notes, the new part will show “Multiple”. This is something I seriously hope Apple fixes as it’s frustrating if you need multiple quantizations within a section.

Also, don’t be afraid to record a part and try different instruments as your song may take on a whole new flavor choosing a clav instead of a piano for example. Try duplicating the track with a similar synth but with a different filter cutoff and panned hard left and right. Or use two totally different synths. Bass lines can get really fat with this idea! Slow your song down and play in your own idea of an arpeggiated pattern... speed up and loop!
Stay tuned for more GarageBand for iPad tips and tutorials. Till next time...don’t drive your neighbors nuts with the Minimoog playing Axel F or Tom Sawyer synth leads.

Garageband Ipad Tutorial

After seeing one of THE best live bands (RUSH!) this week with one of THE world's best rock drummers (Neil Peart), it's only fitting to be inspired and do a tutorial on recording drums with Garage Ban

After seeing one of THE best live bands (RUSH!) this week with one of THE world's best rock drummers (Neil Peart), it's only fitting to be inspired and do a tutorial on recording drums with Garage Band for iPad. If you're lucky enough to have a seat close to the stage, it's quite an experience to see the 'Professor' up close and actually hear his drum sound coming from the stage. So on with the tutorial... and a mean mean stride...

Ipad

Let's look at the setup and equipment needed and the different options - Acoustic and electric - we have...

Acoustic Kit (Never Turn Your Back On a Monster!)

1. Stereo Blue Microphone Yeti Pro or other USB microphone.

Stereo is crucial if you want to get a fat sound. IK Multimedia has released the cool iRig microphone but it's mono and you can't combine 2 of them on the iPad. Now, this being said, perhaps you're going for a mono drum sound like the Beatles.

2. Griffin iMic or the upcoming Alesis iO Dock with a multichannel mixer and your own mic collection.

If a stereo mic isn't enough and you want more mics and control, then simple run the mics to a mixer and attach it's stereo outputs to the inputs of the iMic or Alesis I/O. For example, you may want a Kick/Snare/stereo overheads setup. The only caveat in this setup is that you will need to not only balance your volume levels between the mics but also pan and EQ them to the sound you want BEFORE you record. GB does not allow volume, pan or EQ separation of each mic after the recording is done as it's a stereo file. Here's hoping Ver. 2 has at least EQ. The other issue I came across was the headphone output of the iMic is low especially when playing the drums. You can either get a headphone amp or plug in the outputs of the iMic to your mixer and setup an aux monitor section. Be careful though to properly assign this headphone mix as you don't want to end up recording the metronome click and music tracks to your drum track.

Electric Kit with Camera Connection Kit (The Body Electric)

As mentioned in a previous article, in order to get MIDI control for the iPad, you will need the Camera Connection Kit and a USB MIDI interface.

Korg Nano Pad or other drum finger pad trigger

You will need a powered USB hub to use the Korg NanoPad. Also, if you need to assign different MIDI note mappings to the pads, this will have to be done in Korg's editing software on your Mac.

V-Drums
For even more drum like control, you can plug in a set of V-Drums into the iPad. The V-Drums doesn't have a USB out but you can use a MIDI to USB converter, like the M-Audio UNO into the Camera Connection Kit. A Google search will show many MIDI USB devices compatible with the iPad.

Pipe Organ Garageband

Recording Control (We Have Assumed Control...)

Mic positioning ('Roll the Bones'): 3-4 mics and it captures the kit superbly with a nice room sound. If you're not sure of what his technique is, just do a Google search for 'Glynn Johns'. When using just a stereo mic, experimentation is key with the distance from the drums, in line with the kick or snare, placing it as an overhead, etc.

Room selection/dampening/drum tuning ('Workin' Them Angels'): Without a doubt, one of the key things to recording a great drum sound is TUNING! Wait... you can tune drums?I've lost count as to the amount of recordings I've heard from bands recording themselves on a budget with poorly tuned drums. When properly done, even cheap drums can sound great and if you're not sure on how to tune, check out this tutorial on Recording Drums.

The room you place your drums in will also be key to it's tone. Try to find a room with high ceilings, wood panel walls, or soft furniture to absorb and disperse the sound. Drums are LOUD and in a small, low ceiling room will cause all sorts of problems. Empty rooms with dampening can also cause standing wave problems. Perhaps ask friends with appropriate rooms or even small churches if you can spend some time recording. Lastly, get moving blankets or office dividers if the room is close but not quite perfect in sound to help alleviate problems such as slap back or an overly loud kick drum.

Recording then looping sections (Subdivisions). In a previous tutorial, I explained how GB does things in 'Song Sections' where you can specify how many bars each section is. Here's a trick though for drummers that's useful especially with demo's of songs or for experimentation of new ideas. With this method, it's likely the drummer won't be playing with any backing tracks on the iPad other then a click since he's going to repeat sections of the song, so perhaps set up someone playing the bass/guitar parts, etc. in his monitors. Otherwise, lay down a ghost track and copy/paste it numerous times for different drum takes. Set your 'Song Section' to 'Automatic' so that it will record an infinite number of bars.

The drummer then plays along to the click/ghost track and records various takes of the song or parts of the song. Here's an example. Verse 1 may be recorded three times with the same groove but perhaps a different fill on the end or with/without ghost notes on the snare. Now you can edit the track using the split tool and break apart the takes into various parts such as drum groove/groove with ghost notes/groove with ride/drum fill 1/drum fill 2/etc. Duplicate the track by tapping on the track icon and hitting 'duplicate'. A second track will appear but it will be empty. We have two options to get parts pieced on the duplicated track. You can 'copy' the recorded parts and 'paste' them into the duplicated track to form the song. Be sure to select the duplicate track after copying or you will be pasting over the original and move your playhead to where you want to paste the part in. OR... you can touch the section and drag it to the duplicated track and the bar you want. Looping is also available on these parts so you can easily repeat good takes. Once these parts are done, the original track can be deleted to free up tracks for other instruments. This method can also be applied for vocals, guitar, etc. but the trick is to have at least one track available to allow for duplication.

Using 'Smart Drums' (And the meek shall inherit the earth...)

When GB first came out for the Mac, one of the best things I loved doing was writing and recording a song then taking out the standard rock drum beat and replacing it with something totally unexpected. This allowed me to see the possibilities of different rhythmic combinations/instruments and perhaps give the song a unique flavor. One of order of Indian tabla coming up! If you're not a drummer, 'Smart Drums' with the 'Dice' feature will randomly play different drum patterns. Once you find something you like, simply move the playhead into position and hit record.
For recording drum parts on the screen, GB makes it easy by not having you play all the parts at once. You can start with just the kick drum. Rewind and add the snare. Now the hi-hat and so on. Quantization will also groove it better in most cases too. Also, the drums are 'touch sensitive' and hitting different areas of the hi-hat, snare and ride will give you various tonal aspects of their sound... very nice feature!

Recording Tips! (Closer To The Heart)

Set up drums, drummer joke, mic up drums, another drummer joke, and run if the words 'Hey Guys... I got an idea for a song!' are spoken by said drummer. As with most drum sessions, patience is a virtue. Drums are finicky and need time to be properly setup. Monitor your drum sound with speakers and headphones as each will present their own sound of the kit and problems. Don't skimp on using quality headphones either since they may make you aware of issues you wouldn't hear in regular monitors. Problems such as a squeaky kick pedal or drum stool, unwanted room slap back, badly tuned toms (tuning with headphones is quite useful too!), unwanted buzzing of an object in the room (i.e. picture frame/vase/acoustic guitar strings).

Good luck if you're recording a kit this big!!

If you're using multiple mics, check for phasing! You can't fix this in the mix since the drums will be summed to a stereo channel in GB. Your drummer also might consider spending some money on his own in-ear monitors since they will cut down on click track bleed. He also won't need the volume to be as loud since they will block out the majority of his live drum sound. Be safe on your volumes! Consider taking 2 days to track the drums... one to setup and experiment and the second to actually record. Let the drummer warm up for a while perhaps with the click of the song. Work on feel and groove with this click! Try different snare drums if you have the option. One likes to believe in the freedom of music!

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