How to: Make podcasts in Garage Band
1 ROCK THE MIC
Connect a USB microphone if you’re using one, open Garage Band and create a new song. Navigate through the instruments until you see the Audio Recorder, which enables you to record speech or instruments.
2 TURN IT UP
You’ll see a little icon of a jack plug towards the top right of the window. Tap that to bring up the input level slider and adjust the volume. Enable the Noise Gate to shut off the mic when you’re silent.
3 GIVE IT ROOM
By default, Garage Band expects to record short clips. To change that, tap on the ‘+’ icon at the right-hand side of the timeline. You should now see a window showing Song Sections. Tap where it says Section A: 8 Bars.
4 AUTOMATIC OPTION
If you choose the Automatic option under Section Length, the app won’t stop recording you after 8, 16, or 32 bars: it’ll keep going until you run out of words and hit the stop button (the square button at the top).
5 START TALKING
All you need to do now is to tap the red circle at the top of the window to start recording. The dial in the main bit of the window will move to show your volume level; try to keep it out of the red — audio becomes distorted at this level.
6 SEE YOUR SPEECH
When you’ve finished recording, tap on the Tracks button (third icon from the left at the top of the screen) and you’ll see the Tracks View. The blue bit is the audio file you’ve just recorded. Tap on it for options.
7 STOP, TRIM, RESTART
If you’ve made a mistake, you can just use the grabber at the right of the audio track and pull it back to shorten the recording. Now, tap the timeline at the point you want to restart and then hit record again.
8 ADD AUDIO
You can add audio by tapping the loops icon, which gives you access to Apple Loops, audio files on your device or iCloud Drive, and Apple Music tracks. You can’t add Apple Music songs you haven’t downloaded and paid for.
9 DROP THE BEAT
You can add a loop or audio file by simply dragging it from the list and into the main window. Garage Band then creates a new track, and you can add more tracks if you have multiple audio files to include.
10 MIX IT UP
To adjust the relative position and volume of tracks, tap the mixer icon and you’ll see options for volume, pan and special effects. The compressor’s good for speech as it keeps the volume at a consistent level.
11 SAVE YOUR SPEECH
When you’re finished, to save your podcast, tap on My Songs and you’ll be returned to the main Garage Band library. Give your podcast a meaningful name, select it and then tap the share icon at the very top left.
12 TELL THE WORLD
Garage Band can transfer completed projects to iCloud Drive or to iTunes, and it also works with third-party services such as the popular Sound Cloud. Just scroll through the Share sheet to see your options.