Harmonica / Blues Harp sound out there?

Question

Level 2

352 points

Harmonica / Blues Harp sound out there?

Is there a setting or sound file that anyone is aware of to get a harmonica / blues harp sound out of GarageBand 2?

Or, if not, is there a way to get such sounds from my midi keyboard (Yamaha PSR740) into Garageband as a software instrument? The midi has nearly a thousand various lead instrument sounds. But those don't record directly into GarageBand. It seems I can only use GarageBand's software instruments when I play the midi connected to my iMac.

15 FP iMac 800mhz, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Dec 12, 2005 3:35 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 13, 2005 4:14 PM in response to WarriorAnt

All the great blues harmonica players recorded as if they were electric guitarists. They played the harmonica into a dynamic microphone connected to a small guitar amplifier turned way up loud, and then a second microphone in front of the guitar amp speaker grille picked up the sound of the amp and sent it to the mixing board to be recorded to tape.

Go get some recordings of Little Walter on Chess Records. Boom Boom! Out go the lights!

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Answer 2

Dec 12, 2005 5:23 AM in response to DHodges

Go to http://www.sf2midi.com/ and do a search with "harmonica"!

(For information on how to install soundfonts you can search this forum.)

In order to record the sound of your keyboard, you have to connect the audio out of the keyboard with your Mac (through the line-in or some kind of audio device). However, you can only record it as a real instrument.

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Answer 3

Dec 12, 2005 3:21 PM in response to DHodges

The key to a useful blues harmonica sound is to run the sound through an amp simulator that recreates the sound of an overdriven, distorted tube amplifier. Try running clean harmonica sounds through one of GarageBand's dirtier amp models, and be sure to manually crank the input gain up high.

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Answer 4

Dec 12, 2005 6:42 AM in response to Christoph Drösser

There are real instrument loops of blues harmonica. Some are in the basic GB loops, and there's more Jam Pack 3. Of course, you can't edit the notes, but you can cut and splice them.

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Answer 5

WarriorAnt

Level 4

2,752 points

Dec 12, 2005 3:44 PM in response to Wheat Williams

Wheat,

Nice tip. I'll have to run my samples that way next time!

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