Creating Your First Project

Before you record a single note, it's worth spending five minutes getting your project's basic settings right. Fixing these after the fact is possible, but starting clean saves you headaches later.

Setting your tempo

Your project's tempo (speed, measured in BPM — beats per minute) shows in the LCD-style display in the control bar. Click it and you can type in a new number directly. If you already know the tempo of the song you're working on, set it now — GarageBand uses this to line up loops, the metronome, and any timing-based effects.

If you don't know your tempo yet, don't worry. A common approach is to record a rough guitar or vocal idea first with the metronome off, then figure out the tempo afterward and adjust.

Key signature

Next to tempo, GarageBand also tracks a key signature. This mostly matters for Apple Loops (which transpose automatically to match your project's key) and for the built-in scale/chord tools covered in the Advanced track. For now, set it to match the song you're working on, or leave it at the default if you're just experimenting.

The metronome and count-in

Two small icons in the control bar control:

• Metronome — a click track that plays while you record, to help you stay in time.
• Count-in — plays one bar of clicks before recording starts, so you're not scrambling to begin the instant you hit record.

Turn both on for now. You can always turn the metronome off for a specific take later if it's throwing you off.

The transport controls

These live front and center in the control bar:

• Play / Pause — starts and stops playback from the playhead.
• Stop (or pressing Play again while stopped) returns the playhead to the start.
• Record — the red circle. Starts recording on whichever track is currently record-enabled.
• Rewind / Fast-forward — jump the playhead backward or forward.

The spacebar is the fastest way to start and stop playback — you'll use it more than any on-screen button.

Saving as you go

Save early and often — File > Save, or the standard save shortcut. GarageBand doesn't aggressively auto-save older versions of your work, so it's a good habit to save right after anything you wouldn't want to redo.

What's next

With tempo, key, and the transport controls out of the way, you're ready to add your first real track and record into it — which is exactly what the next lesson covers.