ENHANCE TIMING HINT 2, DianaDee GarageBand

"ENHANCE TIMING" is the wording GarageBand uses; other programs call it "QUANTIZING" ---- ensuring that the spacing of a note fits with the timing rather than sliding a bit sooner or later.

Why do you want to enhance timing? So you can add drumkit tracks and they'll fit right in.
Why do you sometimes NOT? Sometimes you have a song with "loose" timing, especially jazz and blues.
But if you do: Hint 1 gave a super-quick "draft" enhancing. Hint 2 is also an easy trick I learned but haven't seen elsewhere, if you want to go a step further without literally touching every note. HINT 3 will provide another easy hint for Detailed Enhancing of every note.

Hint 2:
Even in jazz & blues, if you have a note on count 1, you'll most likely want it to start on "001". Example while in a GarageBand track: Select Control > Show Measures in LCD; then hit the keyboard's home key. Your marker will move to 1.1.001. For any measure with straight timing, you'll want count 1 to be at .001.

But if you followed my HINT 1 in the previous blog, 
doing a quick enhance-timing to 1/8th notes, 
count 1 of a measure might actually be 1.1.086 even though you look at the score and your note is sitting right beside the measure bar looking like count 1. That means your drum hits a fraction before your note. Most people won't notice. But if you care:

Unlike for Hint 1, it is not any easier to first join regions.
And sometimes you may NOT want to join regions.... a future hint!

1. Select your MIDI track (notice it is always green in GarageBand; audio tracks are blue).
2. Select Score (not Piano Roll; it's harder to see measure marking and whether your note is 1/4 or 1/8).
3. Individually -- even for 1/8th and 1/16th notes -- select the first note in each measure ("note" including chord set of notes; choose together)

and hit "Enhance Timing" > "Align to" > "1/4 Note". 

This will NOT change the length of your note; it will still be a 1/8th note, or 1/16th, or whatever. But it does ensure that the note hits exactly with the drum kit.
OPTIONAL: For even more precise sound in 4/4 time, do the same for Count 3. But it doesn't usually matter for counts 2 and 4 -- our ears don't hear each slight off-ness of those counts. But we instinctively listen for the first note to be exactly on count 1....

Quantize: to restrict something to discrete values --not a continuous set of values. That is, to put the note exactly in its place instead of one of the set of {almost-good-enough} places.

Much Joy in Music to you! ©2018, 2011 DianaDee Osborne


Updated Version Reprinted 5 January 2018

ENHANCE TIMING HINT 1, DianaDee GarageBand

The purpose of DianaDee Osborne GARAGEBand Hints is simple:
I had to learn a lot of tricks by trial and error. EVERY one I know who writes music has been very frustrated at times by trying to get the "music in my head" into Garage Band, to share with the world. I'VE LEARNED SOME REALLY EASY TRICKS, and just want to share, in case it makes *your* life more fun as you record your music!

Some examples from new songs will be provided at times.... 

They can be found in FREE down-loadable MP3 format (full song) 

with FREE matching PDF music files for many of these, 

at my website: www.DianaDeeOsborneSongs.com     CLICK HERE 

No cost, no commitment, no registration input boxes!
Just ideas from one musician to others!
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ENHANCE TIMING HINT 1 (MIDI tracks only.... the PIANO ROLL screen with "squares")
This feature is in the bottom left corner when you hit the snowflake at the bottom of your GarageBand screen. Why do you want to do this? To make the drum kits hit exactly "on" beat with your music notes (if that's what you want your music to do, of course!). A super-quick method for NON-syncopated music... does not work for jazz and blues, sadly!:

If you can join every region on your MIDI track, this is faster. However you might not want to.... a hint as to why will come soon! For each region on your one MIDI track:

1. Ensure that the signature (like 4/4) is correct so that the measure bars will be in the right places.
2. Select your track.
3. Select the snowflake in the bottom left corner to show the editing music feature.
4. If it's not already showing, press the Score button to show actual music notes. This method works well for Piano Roll.... but not in *this* hint:)
5. Touch your cursor on a single note (it turns green when selected).
6. Go to your top GarageBand menu and select Edit > Select all. (Or type the shortcut apple-a).
7. Every note in the region will now be green. The "Enhance Timing" label now says "Align to". Click on the up-down edge of the bar to change "none" to "1/8 note" or whatever is the smallest (shortest) note in your piece.
8. IF YOU DID NOT JOIN all the regions in your MIDI track, just repeat steps 1-7 for each region.

Now it's time for the more detailed work, but you're already a lot closer to matching whatever drum track you choose. Hints for DETAILED Enhance Timing will be provided in Hint 2. Have Fun with *your* music to the World! Much Music Joy to you!
©2011 DianaDee Osborne.com

Updated Version Reprinted 2 January 2018