GarageBand User Guide for iPad
- Time Signature Garageband
- 5/4 Time Signature Garageband
- Garageband 5/ 4 Time Signature Online
- Garageband 5/ 4 Time Signature Blank Sheet Music
You can make music with other GarageBand users sharing a Wi-Fi connection. The bandleader creates a jam session, then up to three band members can join the jam session. Playback and recording are synchronized between all devices, so everyone can play and record together as a band. The leader can keep exclusive control of playback and recording, or allow all members to share control.
When members join a jam session, the song settings on their devices are matched to the current jam session song settings. Jam session song settings include the tempo, key, and time signature; the number and length of song sections; any master effects used; any custom chords; a fade-out; or a count-in. Only the leader can change the jam session song settings.
Dec 21, 2015 GarageBand will let you set and use pretty much any time or key signature, but you only get one time and key signature per project (at any given time). If your song is all in 7/8 it's easy and the time signature can be set from the adjacent control in the 'LCD' as the key signature. Outgrowing the garage: Moving from GarageBand to Logic Pro X. 3/4, 6/8, 5/4, and so on. The time signature you choose affects not only the feel of the song but also the metronome click you.
After members record tracks to add to the jam session, the leader collects all unmuted tracks from the members' devices. Playback and recording stop while the recordings are collected.
If any device cannot start playback because it is optimizing performance, all other devices remain stopped until the optimizing device is ready. If anyone in the band opens the Sound browser during playback or recording, the song stops playing but the jam session is still active.
Jam Sessions work with Touch Instruments and Tracks view, but not with the Live Loops grid.
Open the Jam Session controls
Tap the Settings button in the control bar.
Tap Jam Session.
Create a jam session
Share control of playback and recording
By default, the bandleader controls playback and recording for the jam session. When Bandleader Control is on, the transport controls appear dimmed on members’ devices.
Turn the Bandleader Control switch off.
When the leader turns off Bandleader Control, band members can share control of playback. When a band member taps Record, recording starts on their device, and playback starts on all other devices. While the song is playing, band members can tap Record to “punch in” or tap Play to “punch out” on their device.
Join a jam session
When the Jam Session controls are visible on the leader’s device, other nearby devices can join the jam session by using Wi-Fi.
In the Jam Session controls, under Join Session, tap the session you want to join.
The leader sends the jam session song settings to the open song on the member’s device. If the member’s song has a different time signature, a different number of song sections, or song sections with a different length than the leader’s, a new, empty song is created.
Collect band member recordings
The bandleader can collect recordings from all the band members, either automatically or manually. When the leader collects recordings, the unmuted tracks (including soloed tracks) from each member’s song are added to the leader’s song. While the leader collects recordings, playback and recording stop, and all GarageBand controls are paused.
By default, recordings are collected automatically after each recording when Bandleader Control is on. The Auto-Collect Recordings setting is available only when Bandleader Control is on. The leader can also turn off auto-collection and collect recordings manually.
Open the Jam Session controls.
Do one of the following:
Turn off Auto-Collect Recordings.
Turn off Bandleader Control.
Tap Collect Recordings.
If the number of tracks exceeds the maximum number (eight), the leader can delete tracks, or ask members to mute or delete tracks, then collect recordings again.
The collected tracks are muted in the leader’s song. If the leader starts a new recording or manually collects tracks again, all collected tracks are deleted and replaced by new collected tracks. However, if the leader unmutes or edits a collected track, it is not deleted. If the leader copies a collected track, the copy is not deleted. If the leader turns Auto-Collect Recordings on or off after collecting recordings, the collected tracks are not deleted the next time recording starts.
After collecting recordings, the leader can make changes to the song, and then email the finished song to the members as an audio file.
Leave a jam session
A band member can leave the jam session at any time.
In the Jam Session controls, tap Leave Session.
If members leave a jam session, either by tapping Leave Session, opening the My Songs browser, or because of a network problem, they can rejoin the session by following the same steps they used to join the session originally. When a member leaves a session, everyone in the session receives a message that the member has left. Other members can keep jamming.
Stop a jam session
The leader can stop a jam session at any time. All members receive a message that the session has stopped.
In the Jam Session controls, tap Stop Session.
If the leader opens the My Songs browser during a jam session, the session stops.
Introduction
While most music compositions and arrangements you’re likely to work on will be written in just one time signature, you may well find yourself needing to handle two or more time signatures in the same piece of music.
It’s generally accepted that GarageBand, Apple’s free music creation software for the Mac, cannot do this for you.
GarageBand 10 will happily handle tempo and key transposition changes, as well as a host of other automation, but time signatures are not its bag.
The “Ignore It” Solution
One solution to this issue is to ignore the written time signature completely and simply compose and construct your music with the tempos and keys you require, keeping a mental note (and perhaps through naming and note taking) of where time signatures need to change.
A couple of issues immediately spring to mind with this approach:
1. Some Apple loops are designed to only work with particular time signatures – that is a 4/4 loop won’t work in 3/4. This isn’t a big problem if you don’t plan to use loops, or can otherwise work around it by only using loops for one time signature.
2. If you plan on using the musical notation feature to view your music, you may well run into problems as many of the bar/measure lines and note values will be out of place.
The MIDI Solution
While there is not (yet) any way to directly change the time signature part way through a song, there is a workaround which uses MIDI files.
For this, you will need some software which is:
- capable of creating a musical structure with various time signature changes in it
- able to export standard MIDI files
Because I do a lot of score editing in its own right, I use the excellent (and free) MuseScore 2. Not only can it produce top-grade printed music, but it’ll output straight to MIDI.
Time Signature Garageband
I’ll be using it for the first part of the tutorial, as it’s what I’m used to. If you use another software package, you’ll need to find out how to export the required MIDI file in your own format, and then skip to the GarageBand instructions further down.
Here we go.
5/4 Time Signature Garageband
In MuseScore:
1. Create a blank manuscript (Apple-N). You can skip the score information on the first screen so click “Next”.
2. Create a treble clef document – it’s all that’s needed.
3. If you want to put in the initial key and tempo you can do so, but as GarageBand can change those, it may not be worth it. Either click one or click “Next”.
4. Enter the main time signature of your piece. I’d recommend using whatever the majority of your musical score is composed it.
In MuseScore, the top number can be anything from 1-63 and the bottom (note value) number 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64.
Enter the number of bars (measures) your piece has. Although you don’t have to create every bar in MuseScore, you at least need enough bars to accommodate all the time signature changes.
Click “Finish”
5. Here’s the manuscript you’ve created.
On the left-hand side of the window, you’ll see some Palettes. (If you don’t, make them visible from the “View” menu.)
Click open the Time Signatures palette.
Click the bar where you want the time signature to change, and then double-click the required time signature. Alternatively, drag and drop the required time signature to the required measure.
(Here I’ve got a 4/4 piece of music with 3/4 from bars 4 to 7 and 6/4 from bars 5 to 11).
If the time signature you want isn’t in the palette, you can create it from the master palette. Press Shift-T, click on Time Signatures, then add the time signature you require. Here I’m adding 7/4. Click on “Add”.
Now drag-and-drop this new time signature to where you want it. I’ve added 7/4 to bars 12-14.
Keep doing this until you have the structure required. Don’t forget to change back to the original time signature (if needed).
Garageband 5/ 4 Time Signature Online
You don’t need to add any notes – just the bar structure is adequate.
6. Click “File” and “Export” and then select “Standard MIDI File (*.mid)” from the drop-down file type menu. Give the file a name.
In GarageBand
7. Find the file, right click and select “Open with GarageBand”. (If this option isn’t available, you can open it directly in GarageBand from the file menu).
8. Your MIDI file should open in GarageBand. Look at the top timeline and you will see the time signatures and varying beat divisions exactly as created in the MIDI file.
You can now go ahead and create your music.
The only caveat is that (as far as I know) you can’t move time signatures around. You also can’t insert or delete blocks of time. So if you change your mind on the structure later, you’ll have to go back to your MIDI file creation software and redo the basic structure.
Garageband 5/ 4 Time Signature Blank Sheet Music
That said, if you already have a good idea of the structure of your song, this is a way of getting GarageBand to do what you want.
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