garageband—basic editing

After you setup a Finder window  in the upper right corner of your desktop drag a single file into a blank spot in Track Head area.

Each file you drag will appear in a separate track. 

The imported audio will appear in a new track.

The new track will have the imported audio file name as the track title. The track waveform will be orange. The orange track color indicates that this is an imported audio file. Voices and Real Instruments recorded directly into GarageBand are color-coded purple. Midi instruments are coded green. Loops are aqua.

Open the edit panel (1).

Click the play control or press the spacebar to play the audio. Press the stop button or the spacebar to stop the playhead at an edit point. Note that the playhead in the multitrack view (1) and the playhead in the Editor (2) show exactly the same point on the waveform. The waveform in the edit window is larger and can be zoomed independent of the multitrack view. This permits precision edits on the waveform.

After you select an edit point, select Split from the Edit menu. Note the Command T keyboard shortcut. Most of the work in editing is making cuts. 

The first edit is complete. Note the left edit has a unique region name—cryptobotany.raw.1—(1) and the right edit has a unique region name—cryptobotany.raw.2—(2). 

Now that the first edit is complete, you'll want to delete the left part of this edit—cryptobotany.raw.1 (1). However, after the edit note that both the left region, cryptobotany.raw.1 and the right region, cryptobotany.raw.2 are highlighted. 

If you hit the Delete key with both regions highlighted the entire track will be deleted. This frequent mistake is easily corrected. Hit the Command and Z key to undo the mistake.

Select just the left region—cryptobotany.raw.1—and press the Delete key.

The left region is deleted and the edit is complete.

Here's an example of garageband's non-destructive editing capabilites. Press Command and Z to undo the delete. Now, select just the right region—cryptobotany.raw.2—and press the Delete key.

Notice the special cursor that appears when the mouse is positioned over the lower right corner of the track in the precision editing window.

Click and drag the track to the right. The material that was just deleted reappears.

Removing a section in the middle of the track is only slightly more complicated.

Make a cut (split track) on each side of the sound section that will be removed.

Deselect all track regions by clicking in an empty grey area.

Select the section to delete and press the Delete key.

The section is deleted. The next task on the edit is to close the gap between the two remaining regions and join the two regions together.

Select the right region in the multitrack (upper) window—you cannot move a region by clicking in the Edit panel—and move the region to the left until it is adjacent to the the left region.

Highlight both the left and right regions.

Select Join from the Edit menu.

Two important changes occur. First the two regions are joined. The region label reads cryptobotany raw.3.merged. GarageBand has merged the two files and has written a new temporary file. GarageBand can now handle this file in the same way as a sound recorded directly into a GarageBand project.

Editing an interview primarily consists of cutting out reporter questions and removing segments of the interview that are not necessary for the report or project.