How do I record an acoustic piano using GarageBand?

Question

How do I record an acoustic piano using GarageBand?

Hello,

I'm trying to record an acoustic upright piano using GarageBand on my iPhone. I was using the Voice Memos app previously, but the sound was distorted. GarageBand allows adjusting the recording input level on the slider called "IN", so I figured this would prevent distorted recordings.

So far, I figured out not to choose "KEYBOARD" but to instead choose "AUDIO RECORDER", as the former brings up a facsimile of a keyboard but doesn't seem to allow recording of an acoustic instrument.

To start the recording, I pressed the button with the red dot, but all that happened was where the metronome turned on for eight bars and then the recording stopped.

Could someone explain how I can make a recording please? Also, could someone explain what the "Tone", "Presence", "Compressor", and "Room" knobs do?

GarageBand is no doubt more powerful than Voice Memos, but also more complicated.

Thank you very much for any help in advance.

iPhone 5, iOS 10.3.2

Posted on Jul 14, 2017 2:39 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,273 points

Jul 16, 2017 3:13 PM in response to slaveToTechnology

You may need to adjust the adjust the microphone input level, when you record your piano, see: http://help.apple.com/garageband/iphone/2.0/index.html#chs39283a21

Also, you will probably get better results with an external microphone, than with the built-in microphone.

The pause after eight bars is caused by the song sections. GarageBand on the iPhone will by default record sections of eight bars. You can add more sections to the song, if required.

The sections are explained here: http://help.apple.com/garageband/iphone/2.0/index.html#chs3c3ef5dc

If you just want an easy way to record your piano, you could try to use Music Memos instead of GarageBand. It comes for free with an iPhone and is as easy to use as Voice memos, but will give a better audio quality for musical recordings, i.e. a guitar or piano.

See this Help Page: http://help.apple.com/musicmemos/1.0/

You can share your Music Memos to GarageBand and add loops and edit them.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

197,273 points

Jul 16, 2017 10:48 PM in response to slaveToTechnology

I like Music Memos too!

As to external microphones, I am only using them with my Mac, connected to an Apogee Jam audio interface. I'm using the Blue Yeti Pro, but I am not sure, if it is still available.

Here is a Help file for Music Memo: http://help.apple.com/musicmemos/1.0/

And this user tip explains how to edit a recording:

https://discussions.apple.com/update-advanced-comment.jspa?id=31993804&draftID=1 4259052

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/iosapps/how-use-apple-music-memos-3633815/

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Answer 3

Jul 16, 2017 8:35 PM in response to léonie

Thank you very much indeed for answering my question and providing many useful links.

Regarding external microphones, are there ones you recommend? Currently, I place my iPhone midway width-wise on the upright piano, on the rear edge, microphone facing rearwards. This placement sounds OK, but maybe a bit percussive. I haven't figured out whether the sound quality is due to my unsmooth playing though...

I took a look at the links you've provided. I've changed some of the settings in GarageBand, including one that automatically sets the number of bars based on how long you've played. However, I can't even locate this setting any more! ;-) The app is chock full of incomprehensible buttons and pressing one of them brings up a new window of unknown function. Hence, I downloaded and tried out the Music Memos app. This app is quite easy to use. After reading the instructions once, I was ready to go. I found out that hitting the "AUTO" button enables automatic recording whenever music is playing. What's amazing is that when reviewing music waveforms, a time signature and some kind of key signature are somehow automatically generated. How clever! Also, the music wasn't distorted like when recorded in Voice Memos. I have a pair of electrostatic headphones which are quite revealing of such defects, but I didn't hear any this time around.

Thank you very much again léonie! :-)

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Answer 4

Jul 20, 2017 3:38 PM in response to léonie

Thank you for your additional reply.

I looked up what Apogee Jam was and it seems to be a device used to connect a guitar to an iOS device. However, I also saw that they offer a microphone that can connect to iOS devices. I'll keep it simple for now and use the built-in microphone in my iPhone 5, which sounds pretty good.

Thank you for the link but I couldn't access the user tip that explains how to edit a recording. As Music Memos allows trimming of recordings, I'll just stick with that app for now. Automatic recording is very useful as manually hitting the record button makes me tense up and make more mistakes. Also, recordings aren't distorted like in the Voice Memos app. Thank you very much for recommending Music Memos again.

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