Making song loops in Garageband on the Mac

Tags: posts, from dreamwidth, tutorial, music,

Mostly for my own reference because I always forget how I did it.

Garageband is free on Macs which is the only reason I use it.

I got my music from FREE MUSIC ARCHIVE.

GarageBand for Mac: Add and adjust automation points. Creating Seamless Loops

Create a new Empty Garageband project.

Move the window over so you can see your finder windows. Drag the mp3 you want to loop into Garageband.

Create a new track with duplicate settings. This will be for fade in and fade outs.

Create a third track, and click the "mute" button. This is for holding bits of the song you're not using right now, in case you want to add them back.

Play the song and figure out which section you want to loop. Move the playhead over the start point, make sure the track is selected, then select Edit -> Split region at Playhead (Command T). Do the same for the end point. Cut at points where the volume is very low.

Cut again just before and after the loop, again trying for points where the volume is low. These are your fade in and fade out parts. Move them into the fade track, matching them up to the start and end of the loop. Move everything else to the muted track.

Play the song and make sure the fades roughly match the main track, moving and cutting bits if you have to.

On the fade track, click the little "enable automation" button, and then click on the track to have a volume line show up. Click on the track itself to create volume points at the start and end of each fade section. Have the volume ramp down quickly to create the fades.

Select "Cycle" in the toolbar and drag to select the relevant part of the track. Listen to the start, the fast forward to near the end and hear it loop to make sure it sounds ok.

Make sure the muted track isn't longer than the main track, deleting it if you have to.

Export your song: Share -> Export to Disk