how do I set loops to indefinite repeat so i can jam over em

Expounding on HT's answer, if you zoom in, you can set the yellow Cycle Region to the exact point of the end of the loop (I'm assuming it starts at the zero point) so it won't miss a beat. It'll just repeat that same section over and over.
Alternately you can loop the loop out as far as it will go; 10, 20, 30 minutes or more, but that's not indefinite.

cranky messiah wrote:
I can't find any way of getting a beat/loop to repeat indefinitely. I just want to plug in a bass or a guitar turn on some drums and improvise over the top. I could do this in five minutes with the old drum machines and four track recorders we had at school how do I do this on garage band?

To add to what others have said; you first need to click on the 'Cycle Region' button. That's the button in the bottom of your GB pane next to the Play/Pause buttons. The 'Cycle Region' button looks like a couple of circling arrows. Once you click on that, at the top of your working window, you will see a yellow section along your timeline markers. You can expand, make smaller to move this to any size and any section of a song.

What this does is exactly what the button says, it keeps cycling around the selected region. Say if you were trying to create a solo for a 12 bar blues deal and onlt want to cycle (or loop) a section that you want to solo to for twelve bars. You would move that yellow marker deal at the top to the area you wish and slide the beginning and end point of that yellow region to where you wanted the region to start and where you want it to end.

Once you've done that, when you hit Play, it will play only that section.

Just as a tip...Give yourself at least a few beats for a lead in to a section so as to be prepared for what you're working on. Kind of like a count off at the beginning of a song...

Hope that helps.

I may not "have it" yet. When you set the loop recycle length and then hit RECORD doesen't the record langth only last as long as one cycle of the loop?

What if he wanted to record/jam over this 8 beat loop for 20 min? Can that be done without actually extending the 8 beat loop to the full 20 min length?

Randy

RandyHiatt wrote:
I may not "have it" yet. When you set the loop recycle length and then hit RECORD doesen't the record langth only last as long as one cycle of the loop?

correct. he's not recording.

What if he wanted to record/jam over this 8 beat loop for 20 min? Can that be done without actually extending the 8 beat loop to the full 20 min length?

no

HangTime wrote:

RandyHiatt wrote:
What if he wanted to record/jam over this 8 beat loop for 20 min? _Can that be done without actually extending the 8 beat loop to the full 20 min length?_

no

I am not sure how HangTime is interpreting this question but my answer is YES. One of the main uses of the cycle region is to record multiple takes over small parts of your song. You can then go back and selectively use/edit these takes to create/build your parts.

poflynn wrote:
Sure, but then you only get that one short recording you chose, not the whole jam.

This is how I get around that. I might do 15 or so cycles/takes just jamming over a certain section. Usually half of them suck with really bad mistakes so I delete those via the little drop down menu. I then copy the track with the remaining 7-8 takes the number of takes I have, so 7 takes = 7 tracks. I then delete all but 1 of the takes in each of these tracks so that I now have a whole bunch of different tracks with individual takes that made the cut. I then edit from there.

I am not sure how HangTime is interpreting this question

simple, if you want to jam for 20 minutes with an 8 count loop, you have to extend it. cutting and pasting is a heck of a lot of work when you could very easily zoom out and extend the loop for your 20 minutes.

HangTime wrote:

I am not sure how HangTime is interpreting this question

simple, if you want to jam for 20 minutes with an 8 count loop, you have to extend it. cutting and pasting is a heck of a lot of work when you could very easily zoom out and extend the loop for your 20 minutes.

Ok, I see where you are coming from. I was coming from a small section of a larger unit.

click the Cycle Region button, and stretch it to encompass your loop(s)

I not really sure what you mean by your answer.

sorry, something got lost in that post. click the button with the chasing arrows icon and stretch *the yellow bar in the timeline* ...

thanks

Sure, but then you only get that one short recording you chose, not the whole jam.