How To Download Samples Into Garageband
In this tutorial, I’ll explain to you how to go about adding samples to your music in Garageband. It’s a fairly simple process with just a few steps.
- How To Download Samples Into Garageband
- How To Download Samples Into Garageband Version
- Download Samples Garageband
- Free Music Download Samples
- Download Garageband For Free
First things first, there are a number of ways of creating samples. For one, you can download them from places online, or you can simply make your own.
- Oct 16, 2019 When you’re making music in GarageBand, you may want to pull in other types of audio.Maybe you have a song in the Music app or an MP3 file in iCloud that you want to use in your tune. You can import music and audio files into GarageBand on both Mac and iOS and here’s how.
- Import a song from the Music app into GarageBand for iPhone. You can import songs from the Music app on your iPhone into Tracks view. You can import a song to an existing Audio Recorder or Amp track, or have GarageBand create a new Audio Recorder track for the song.
- Jan 10, 2018 In GarageBand for iOS 2.3, use the Sound Library to download additional free sound packs to use in your songs. Sound packs contain individual or combinations of Touch Instruments, Apple Loops, Live Loops templates, and guitar and instrument presets.
Where to buy Apple Garageband Instruments & samples, download garageband demo instruments and install garageband samples. Jan 10, 2018 In GarageBand for iOS 2.3, use the Sound Library to download additional free sound packs to use in your songs. Sound packs contain individual or combinations of Touch Instruments, Apple Loops, Live Loops templates, and guitar and instrument presets. GarageBand loops Download free Apple Mac, iPad. Apple has brought a new feature now that you can import Garageband loops to your iPad.The import is done using an audio file. The audio file is imported from your PC into Tracks view.
Whenever I use a sample, I typically make it by myself, usually through YouTube videos.
It doesn’t make a lot of difference how you find samples but for the sake of brevity, I’ll explain how I get samples.
For the most part, nearly every song that you could ever want is on YouTube in some way or another. Moreover, you can access all kinds of other content for sampling, including stand-up routines, TV shows, movies, and so on and so forth.
My favorite person to sample is the comedian, George Carlin (RIP), so whenever I need content to sample, the first thing I do is I go into YouTube and select what part of his routine that I want.
I’m going to show you how to take an hour-long stand-up special, grab the part that you want, and then upload it into Garageband and use it for your music.
Without further ado…
How To Create Samples And Upload Them To Garageband
For this tutorial, I’m using the clip from Carlin’s routine, “Saving The Planet,” from his show in, I believe, 1999.
1) First things first, you want to find your clip, assuming that it’s on YouTube.
2) Grab the URL for the video.
3) Now take your link and copy and paste it into the input bar on YouTube to Mp3 converter at https://ytmp3.cc/
4) Download the Mp3 file. Depending on how long your file is, it could take a few seconds or a few minutes.
5) Open up Garageband, and select Software Instrument.
6) Drag and drop your Mp3 file into the DAW’s workspace.
7) Make sure that you turn off the metronome once it’s in your DAW, otherwise, when you go and try and use this clip later, the metronome will be playing in the background, and that’s no good.
8) Select the part of the clip you want to use. You can either use the (Command – T) function, to isolate the desired part, or you can shorten the track using the Resize Pointer.
9) Export the track as an AIFF or WAV file. I usually just keep it simple and export it as a WAV file to my desktop, that way I can see it in case of a problem later.
10) Open up Garageband and open up a software instrument track.
11) Go into your Plug-ins down in your smart controls.
12) Choose AU Instruments.
13) Then Choose Apple.
14) Then click on AUSampler.
15) Choose Stereo, and this should bring up the Sampler which looks like a regular old MIDI Keyboard in your DAW’s top-left-hand corner.
16) Click on the little gear icon on the bottom of the Sampler.
17) Click on Add Sample.
18) Upload your WAV file into the sampler, and voila! You can now play your sample at a different pitch and so on.
19) The last thing you need to do is click on the check-mark beside where it says “Sine 440 Built-In” because it’s going to play the sample as well as the keyboard at the same time and you don’t want that.
20) Another way of doing this is just highlighting “Sine 440 Built-in” and then hitting the “subtract” symbol below.
Important Things To Note
- Bring up your MIDI keyboard using the (Command-K) option and make sure you can play your sample through your computer’s MIDI controller. Make sure the AUSampler is playing your sample through the use of the MIDI keyboard, otherwise, it won’t record when you try and make a track.
- You need to “Enable Audio Units” within the Garageband preferences. They’re usually disabled by default for whatever reason.
- You may run into a few different hiccups on the way, including the fact that, if your “Count-In” button is selected, and you start recording the sample before the counter has reached 0.4, you’ll find that it won’t actually record. It has to be at beat 1. Or similarly, you could just turn off the count-in button and start recording right away. However, I like to use the count-in for keeping the beat.
- When sampling music, it’s essential that you figure out the beats per minute of the track, that way you can create a drum track and other instruments for it later. You do this through counting along to the song by bobbing your head or hitting the table and then matching the metronome with the speed at which your moving your head or hand. This will make creating accompanying music so much easier.
In my article, 16 Editing Tips For GarageBand (That Actually Work) (Link Here), I explained how to set your sample to the proper BPM that way you can add drum tracks and other instruments and have everything sound perfectly in time.
How To Enable Audio Units in Garageband’s preferences.
1) Go into Garageband’s preferences.
2) Click on Audio/MIDI
3) Check the box, “Enable Audio Units.”
This should take care of this common problem that users run into.
About The AUSampler
Whenever I use the AUSampler, typically, I’ll hit the (Command-K) function, bringing up Garageband’s MIDI Keyboard. I’m pretty sure that you have to use this keyboard if you want the DAW to actually record the sample.
There are a few knobs in the AUSampler, like “Tuning,” “Pan,” and “Global.”
“Tuning” adjusts the pitch of the sample.
The “Pan” knob adjusts on which speaker the sample is heard through. If you pan it to the right, you’ll hear from your right speaker headphone, and through the left speaker and headphone if you pan it to the left.
And the “Global” volume adjusts the total volume of the sample. I usually just leave these knobs as they are, but you can adjust them and play with them at your will.
You can adjust the octave at which you’re playing through arrows on the left-hand and right-hand side of the keyboard.
Another popular feature that DAW users like to use the AUSampler for, is uploading other people’s drumkits and using them as your own.
For example, you’ll see online that a lot of producers sell their own drum kits, and in my experience, they usually just come in a Sample format, and you have to upload each one of them into your DAW and through the Sampler.
To do this, it’s essentially the same process as uploading the sample that I showed at the beginning of the article, except you don’t have to change the file format.
Tip: One of the cool things about using the AUSampler and loading drumkits into it, is that you can adjust the pitch of a hi-hat or a snare, creating an entirely different effect. You can really get creative with this method.
An important thing to remember is that if you accidentally delete these sample files, they’ll disappear from your DAW. You can’t upload them, save them into your DAW, and then delete the file. It doesn’t work that way.
Where Do I Find Samples?
Sample packs are incredibly useful for beat-makers. You can find all kinds of sounds like bass drums, hi-hats, claps, snare drums, and other percussive instruments.
In many cases, they come with noise samples, like the sound of fire, rain, or the noises from out in the street; synth notes, piano chords, and old jazz and blues songs.
Through the combination of unique elements, you can create your own particular sound that no one else has. Producers who are just starting out can make plenty of use of samples, including drum loops and so on.
Online Websites
Like I mentioned above, there are other places you can find sample packs. You can also find sample packs within Garageband’s Apple Loops.
Try out these websites:
musicradar.com
bedroomproducersblog.com
freesound.org
hiphopdrumsamples.com
YouTube
Pretty much every song that you could ever want is available on YouTube, as well as movies, stand-up routines, and more. YouTube is definitely a great resource for people looking to find samples.
If you’re going to get samples from YouTube, you just have to use a standard converter website that turns YouTube videos into Mp3 files. It’s not difficult. A simple search in Google will likely bring a site up right away.
Old Music Collection
The very first producers in the hip-hop scene created samples through the use of vinyl records. This method laid the foundation for rap music sampling.
Although some people like to say that using samples is like “cheating,” some of rap’s most iconic producers would likely disagree, including Kanye West, for one.
One of my favorite producers, and perhaps one of the most underrated, Nujabes, used all kinds of super unique samples that I think sound amazing.
You can go to your local record store, ideally a thrift shop, and find an old-school house, jazz, metal, rock, or blues records. I wouldn’t recommend going to a formal record chain, because these places charge like $40 for a vinyl LP or $25 for a CD.
After listening to your new albums, you can rip them to your computer, cut and copy the parts you want, and organize all of the files into some kind of folder or library.
This takes a lot more time to do, but you’ll find some serious gems this way, rather than relying solely on sample packs created by others, who, in many cases, might even charge you money.
Many producers worry about the use of samples, but that’s not a big deal for the average producer or even professional producers.
According to DJPain, who I get most of my music industry advice from, clearing samples so they’re permissible for commercial purposes is the record label’s responsibility, not the producer’s.
Thus, in the case that you write a hit song that has a sample in it, the record label is actually responsible for getting the permission to use it, rather than the producer.
Admittedly, however, using samples will decrease potential earnings, in comparison to a 100% original song.
Field Recording
Another great way of recording samples is to do it on your own with a Zoom H2 or the Apogee One, which has a great reputation for its size and the quality of sounds recorded. The Apogee One is an audio interface that you can connect right to your iPhone.
There are producers out there who have created entire albums using just field recordings, whether it’s the sound of rain, the subway, or the sound of a combine taking corn off in the fields. You can make music out of almost anything through the use of a DAW and a recorder.
Through the use of the AUSampler in Garageband, you can adjust the pitch of the sample, thus, turning it into an entirely different and new sound.
For instance, you can record the sound of a car, drop it down a couple of octaves, and it sounds like a bizarre low-end sound that is practically impossible for someone to imitate.
Think about it, if you record the sound of something that’s unique, that no one else has recorded, a producer can have their own sounds that are completely different to what everybody else is doing.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I hope this article was helpful to you. Make sure to share this article on social media if you found it helpful.
YouTube Video Tutorial
VST plug-ins are probably one of the greatest things about using a digital audio workstation, in addition to the fact you can go back to your work at any time and fix whatever you have to make your song sound good.
GarageBand, like many other DAWS, comes with the ability to install plug-ins and they’re fun to use.
In this tutorial, I’m going to lay out a step-by-step process for installing plug-ins into GarageBand. At first, I struggled to make this work, but it became like second nature after a few tries. it’s really quite simple.
Where Do I Find Plug-Ins?
First things first: If you want to get your hands on some solid VST’s, check out VSTforFree.com. It’s a great place for all kinds of plug-ins. Many of them aren’t compatible with Mac, however, there are still some great ones on there.
In this article, I’ll show you some of the more popular plug-ins to use in Garageband so more on that later.
One of the great thing about VST’s is that you can find them all over online. Many YouTubers show you what plug-ins they use, and where to find them, so finding a great plug-in is as simple as just going on YouTube or Google to find them.
Without further ado, this is how to download VST’s for Mac in GarageBand.
How To Install Plug-ins In Garageband
For this tutorial, I’m going to be using the DSK Dynamic Guitars Plugin which you find here at VST4Free.
On this page, you can see the different options for downloading the plugin. We want to use the Mac AU version.
1) Click on the Mac AU file and download the Zip File. I prefer to put it all on the desktop, that way it’s easy to find later when I want to drop it into the library.
It shouldn’t take longer than a couple of minutes for it to download.
2) After it’s finished downloading, you can open up the Zip File, and it’s going to show you the components for the plug-in. It looks like a little white lego block.
How To Download Samples Into Garageband
3) Now, go to your computer’s home-screen, then into the settings on the top left-hand side and click on where it says “Go.”
4) During this part, you have to hold the “Options” button on your keyboard so that it brings up “Library” in the drop-down menu. You have to hold the “Options” button, otherwise, it’ll disappear.
5) Go into your “Library,” and find the folder that says “Audio.”
6) Typically, it’ll bring up four different folders, “MIDI Drivers,” “Plug-Ins,” “Presets,” and “Sounds.”
7) Open up “Plug-ins.”
8) Open the file, “Components.”
9) If you’ve followed the instructions I’ve laid out, you’ll have the Dynamic Guitars Component sitting on your home screen, that way you can simply drag and drop the component into the “Components” file.
10) In most cases, getting access to this plug-in simply requires you to open up GarageBand and you’ll find your new plug-in in your Smart Control’s plug-in settings.
However, some people struggle with this part, because, for whatever reason, they have to turn their computer on and off in order for the plug-in to show up.
11) So turn your computer on and off just to be safe.
12) Now open up GarageBand.
13) Go into your Smart Controls and find the plug-ins in your options.
14) Open up the Available plug-ins.
15) It should say, “Dynamic Guitars,” and you just click on the “Stereo” option that it brings up afterward, and now you’ve successfully uploaded your new plug-in and it’s ready to use.
16) In some instances, you might have to adjust the octave, otherwise, the plug-in won’t work correctly depending on the VST.
However, with this particular plug-in, you won’t have that problem because it’s a guitar, and the designer of the VST made it so that you can play the guitar at many different octaves.
With my DrumPro plug-in that I always use, that isn’t the case, and it has to be at Octave 3, or “C3,” as GarageBand refers to it.
Why aren’t my Plug-ins showing up in GarageBand?
Like, I mentioned above, most people can’t find their plug-in in GarageBand because they haven’t turned their computer on and off. I’ve noticed that other tutorials forget to mention this.
How To Install Lepou Plugins in GarageBand?
If you want to get your hands on LePou Amplifier Plug-ins, just click on this link here.
On the right-hand side of the page, you can scroll down and see where it says, “Amp Sim Pack,” and underneath that, “Mac AU (Universal Binary).”
You want to click on that, and then download the 5 different components listed in Google Drive. There’s a download button on the right-hand side of this page where you can download all of it.
After that, just follow the steps that I laid out above. Just as a quick refresher, you’ll have to unpack the downloaded ZIP file and then open up the file and drag and drop the individual “component” files into your library.
When I was having trouble, I turned my computer on and off, and then I had to reboot GarageBand in order for the LePou plug-ins to show up in the “Audio Units” file.
These are quite possibly some of the best Amplifier plug-ins that you can use in Garageband in my opinion. The Clean setting in the LePou plug-in is pretty great.
What Are The Best Plug-Ins for GarageBand?
Like I mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are a ton of free plug-ins on the internet that are a lot of fun to use. I’ve scoured the internet looking for the best VSTs, and I came up with this list.
As a side note, even though they’re paid plug-ins, I included Superior Drummer and Amplitube 4 because they have such a good reputation.
Superior Drummer, especially, is a great program for people interested in making rock and metal songs. However, I’m sure that hip-hop producers can put it to good use as well.
Additionally, for this list, I polled users online and asked them what some of their favorite VSTs are to use, so I can’t vouch for all of them personally.
Without going too far off topic, here’s the list (I provided links to where you can find each one):
This is a synth plug-in made by U-he and based off of the Roland Juno-60 which came out in 1982. It’s a classic. This plug-in has quite a bit more functionality, however, and it’s powered by Amazona.de. U-he has a reputation for imitating analog models well.
This is a collection of 28 plug-ins that are extremely popular with not only GarageBand users but for other DAW users as well. You can pay for the license for added functionality and other features, but from what I understand, most people just take the free version and are happy with that.
This package includes reverb, mixing and mastering tools, modulators, filters, compressors, flangers, phasers, tremolos, tuners, vibratos, limiters, loudness analyzers, notepads, oscillators, and shapers.
This plug-in is known for its “classic” stereo reverb which is very simple to use but sounds great. It also has a bunch of different presets that you can use.
LePou guitar amplifier simulators are pretty awesome. However, I actually like the clean version of the amps they give you, rather than the distorted channel.
It comes with five amplifiers: the Hybrit, Le456, LeCto, LeGion, and LeXtac. Each one is great for its own reason. I would say that my favorite, thus far, is the LeGion and the LeXtac.
- Crystal Synth
This is an old-school synthesizer plug-in that has been around for a long time and comes with all kinds of effects. The effects, honestly, sound pretty authentic for a free VST. Some users claim there are better plug-ins and there probably are, but this is great for what it is.
Made by TAL, the purpose of this plug-in is for voice processing, but it can be used for a number of different functions. From what I understand, it’s not compatible for Mac’s that are 10.10 and higher, unfortunately. But I’m sure there is a way to make it work.
The Blue Cat audio plugin comes with a range of different modulation effects, including a 3-band equalizer, a gain-suite, a chorus, phaser, flanger, and a frequency analyzer.
This is an EQ plug-in that is now compatible with almost every DAW, depending on whether you get the professional version or not. It’s styled after the Pultec EQ.
- Amplitube 4(Costs Money)
Amplitube 4 is a great plug-in for many users because they have an official Mesa Boogie Amplifier pack, including the dual rectifier, the triple rectifier, the Mark-III, and the transatlantic TA-30.
It has more features than that, including a cabinet section where you can choose microphone placement and a bunch of other settings. Moreover, Amplitube has worked with a bunch of other companies, including Orange Amplifiers.
You can actually get a free demo version of Amplitube though with the purchase of an iRig HD 2, which you should get anyways (if you’re a guitar/bass player).
You can read more about the iRig HD 2 and some of my other favorite products here.
- Superior Dummer 2.0(Also Costs Money)
Created by ToonTrack, Superior Drummer has a great reputation for being one of the greatest drumming software. It has over 50 GB of drum kits and samples that you can choose from, and like Amplitube, companies worked with them directly in the creation of the samples.
Also created by u-he in 2005, this is a fairly old plug-in, but is considered as a classic synthesizer that comes with a ton of different presets. It comes with a filter, an oscillator, an envelope, an arpeggiator, and a sequencer.
This is another legit synthesizer plug-in created by Archetype Instruments. It’s fairly simple to use, but can be used for a wide range of effects, including filters and distortion.
Another polyphonic synthesizer plug-in compatible for both PC and Mac. Modeled after an old Roland synth, the settings are adjustable with sliders rather than knobs, which some people prefer.
The SGA1566 is a virtual pre-amp that is used for boosting particular instruments and channels.
EZ Drummer, like Superior Drummer, is also created by Toon Track, but it’s simpler, less expensive (about half as much), and doesn’t come with as many drum-kits and settings.
The Nova-67P is another equalizer plug-in paired with a compressor. With this, you can input a side-chain signal.
This is akin to the Digitech Whammy Pedal, which you can see in the image for this blog post. Nonetheless, you can use this to make pretty bizarre sounds.
Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine is known for using the stomp-box from which this VST takes its inspiration. Essentially, the Pitchproof plug-in is a pitch-shifter and harmonizer.
I actually own the Digitech Whammy Pedal, and obviously, the real analog model is far superior to any form of a plug-in that you can use. It’s a great little piece of equipment for guitar playing. You can probably check it out on Amazon and get it for a good price.
Multiply is a nice little chorus effect that I like to use for guitars, piano, and vocals, primarily. Garageband comes with a chorus effect, but it isn’t quite as good as this one.
The Voxengo Marvel GEQ is a 15-band equalizer that allows you to really take control of the EQ of your track. I actually own an MXR 10-Band EQ, and it’s very similar to this plug-in, albeit, superior.
You can also grab one of those off of Amazon if you’re interested in a legit piece of equipment.
This is, basically, a super powerful and useful compressor that allows you to do more than the compressor that comes with Garageband. It’s pretty cool and worth checking out.
This, like the M-Audio FX Bundle, comes with over 20 effects and processors, 24 to be exact. It’s a fairly old set of plug-ins, but I’m sure it can be quite useful.
I use this one quite a lot whenever I can’t get ahold of my real acoustic and nylon string guitar. It’s superior to the guitars offered in GarageBand, but still, not quite as good as the real thing, of course. For what it is, it works great.
I use this plug-in almost every day, especially the Trap Kit setting it comes with. It comes with over a dozen drum-kits, which makes it pretty handy for hip-hop producers.
What Plug-Ins come with GarageBand?
When you download stock plug-ins in Garageband, it comes with a plethora of useful VST’s, including all of the software instruments.
Software Instruments
Garageband comes with 15 different categories of software instruments: bass, drum kit, electronic drum kit, guitar, mallet, orchestral, percussion, piano, synthesizer, vintage B3 organ, vintage clav, vintage electric piano, vintage mellotron, world, arpeggiator.
Each category has a number of different software instruments within it, especially the arpeggiator, which must have close to 50-70 models.
Plug-ins
How To Download Samples Into Garageband Version
In the plug-in settings, there are 12 categories of plug-ins with a ton of different sub-categories:
Amps and Pedals, Delay, Distortion, Dynamics, EQ, Filter, Imaging, Modulation, Pitch, Reverb, Specialized, and Utility are the main categories.
Amps and Pedals – Amp Designer, Bass Amp Designer, Pedalboard.
- The Amp Designer has 26 different Models, 26 Amps, and 26 Cabinets. Garageband’s Amp Designer is actually pretty solid considering Garageband is a free program.
- The Bass Amp Designer has 4 different models, 3 amps, and 8 cabinets.
Pedalboard –The pedalboard comes with 36 different effects. It pretty much has everything you could need for playing guitar, including overdrive, wah, a whammy pedal, delay, chorus, overdrive, and so on and so forth.
Their quality isn’t quite as good as some of the plug-ins that you can download or buy, but they’re sufficient, nonetheless.
Delay – Delay Designer, Echo, Sample Delay, Stereo Delay, and Tape Delay
Distortion – Bitcrusher, Clip Distortion, Distortion, Distortion II, Overdrive, and Phase Distortion.
Dynamics – Compressor, DeEsser, Enveloper, Limiter, Multipressor, and the Noise Gate.
Download Samples Garageband
EQ– Channel EQ and Single Band EQ.
Filter – AutoFilter, Filterbank, Fuzz-Wah, and the Spectral Gate.
Imaging – Direction Mixer, and the Stereo Spread.
Modulation – Chorus, Ensemble, Flanger, Microphaser, Modulation Delay, Phaser, Ringshifter, Rotor Cabinet, Scanner Vibrato, Spreader, Tremolo.
Pitcher – Pitch Shifter, Vocal Transformer
Reverb – EnVerb, PlatinumVerb, SilverVerb, Space Designer
Specialized – Exciter and Sub-Bass
Utility – Gain.
Audio Units – This setting has a ton of different dynamics tools, including AUBandpass, AUDelay, AUDistortion, AUDynamicsProcessor, AUFilter, AUGraphicEQ, AUHighShelfFilter, AUHighpass, AULowpass, AULowShelfFilter, AUMatrixReverb, AUMultibandCompressor, AUNBandEQ, AUMultibandCompressor, AUNBandEQ, AUNetSend, AUNewPitch, AUParametricEQ, AUPeakLimiter, AUPitch, AUReverb2, AURogerBeep, AURoundTripAAC, AUSampleDelay.
Where are the Plug-ins in GarageBand?
When you first open the program, Garageband shows you all of the 15 software instruments on the left-hand side, and as I mentioned above, there are a ton of instruments and pre-sets within each category.
The other plug-ins are located in the bottom within the Smart Controls area, including within the plug-ins option as well as within the Amp Designer, Bass Amp Designer, and the Pedalboard.
Whenever you download plug-ins through the way I showed earlier in the article, the plug-ins will often appear in the Audio Units tab.
The plug-ins are in several locations, but it also depends on how you define plug-ins. If we’re talking about the plug-ins that you’ve downloaded, then you’ll find these in the “Audio Units” tab within the Smart Controls plug-in settings.
Free Music Download Samples
YouTube Video Tutorial
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That’s It!
That’s all for now. Be a trooper and share this on social media.