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Garageband 10 Drummer Track Secrets

Garageband 10 Drummer Track Secrets

Garageband 10’s Drummer track is brilliant, isn’t it?

It’s the next best thing to actually recording an actual drummer playing on an actual drum kit. I find myself using it much more than any other of Garageband’s features.

Turns out you lovely Garageband Guide readers like it just as much as I do! Back when Garageband 10 was first released I asked which of it’s shiny new features you would like to see me cover first…

HUNDREDS of emails later it was clear what you wanted to see.

The resulting tutorial has gone on to become one of the most popular in the history of The Garageband Guide.

Check it out here if you haven’t already: How To Use Drummer

Fast forward a year and a half (has it really been that long?!) and not only has the Drummer track been updated with shiny new kits and virtual drummers, i’ve had a chance to really get to grips with some of the more in depth and advanced features of Apple’s automated rhythm section.

So, without further ado, here’s some secret advanced techniques that you can use to get the most from Garageband 10’s Drummer track…

 

 

 

Did I miss anything out?

What secret tricks do you know about in Garageband 10 or it’s features?

Leave a comment below and let me know!

Show Comments (27)
  1. Dear Saint Patrick,
    I’ve been trying to figure out how to have two different drummers on the same track. (Or to have one drum track sound completely different during a solo or break.) Thanks for sharing your solution.
    You have also opened up an entire universe by demonstrating how to copy the drum track into a melodic instrument track. Now with piano, organ or horn following the exact drum rhythm, it’s like ‘instant’ prog-rock/jazz fusion.
    Much Thanks!

  2. I am amazed what you did with the drummer track in the section before you created the software track. Then, your expertise left me in the dust, WHOEVER, how ever I am so ready to try the secret tips up to that point.

    I so much like the ‘online tips’, I am not a good reader so books scare me but am wiling to try $$ book if it goes deeper than Lynda.com which I already dropped a month subscription to. The wife of my life limits my $$$ with hobbies so maybe next month.

    I will seek your YOUTUBE channel.

    In small payback I am telling all my ‘old fart musician friends’ about you and your passion and service to the pro and hobbyist (not Hobbits), who wanna be better and have fund doing it, and they all have jobs with $$$ flow, so who knows.

    1. The wife of MY life is exactly the same way. It’s probably for the best to be honest…

      I appreciate you taking the time to spread the word Joe! 😉

  3. These tidbits are golden. I noticed you leveraged some fine editing techniques.

    Might you be interested in sharing some focused bits on the various editing features and how to use them? Example the midi level editor. Also, the envelope like one you show in your “bits” example here?

    Thanks

  4. Very informative video. Would be great if they could bring EZ Drummer to iOS. Also, can you tell me who is doing the background music in the video?

  5. Hi Patrick,

    I do use the methods mentioned here,editing some drummer tracks but being an actual ex pro drummer before my other instruments (still learning them) I have another method.

    I’m huge on things being in perfect or near perfect time so what I do is use a loop that has a similar feel to the drummer track OR a drum part I create myself on my keyboard controller.

    I put the loop at the top of the track window and I align every beat to that used as a guide.
    It’s a but time constraining BUT once its there I use ‘Track Lock on both the guide drum track and my newly created one.

    Then everything else should line up very exact and sounds very professional! Unless of course its a blues based track and you want a human feel…that’s another story.

    cheers

    Phillip R 🙂

  6. Hey Patrick,
    Very good trick this one. The ability to mix individually drum track components is something I thought it was possible just using Logic. Thanks a lot, dude!

  7. Thanks Patrick- I’ve been struggling in GB 10.1 to copy a drummer track and not have the beats redo themselves if it’s not at the beginning of a bar (to freeze a region so it will be identical when moved). Any secret way to do this?

    1. I’m having the same challenge and would love to get instruction on how to adjust off the start of a bar. Help!

  8. Hey Patrick,
    Been a subscriber and have followed yr GB ‘Schtick’ for a couple of years now and love yr work thank you. I too love the ‘Drummer’ for ease and speed of getting great sounding tracks down and thanks for the vid.

    But I have one question regarding the way I (and possibly only me) like to make new songs, regarding drums.

    Once the song/tune/ditty flies into my head from heavens knows where???…. My first step is to get a drum beat/groove at the correct tempo and feel for my song idea laid out for a few bars (usually lots). I then ‘noodle’ guitars / riffs / vox etc etc on top of that to slowly build the song.

    One of the frustrations is that with all that amazing myriad of different drummers and styles available… it would be great to set up a few bars of rhythm, and then ‘click audition’ all the different drummers, presets etc in real time as the bar is playing along, to see who ‘gets the gig’ and with which style and drum kit.

    Currently, if I click a different preset playing in real time, the little yellow ball flies off to ‘complex’ ‘hard’ ‘soft’ wherever the preset takes it, and the parts of the drum kit chosen change… and I have to slide it back and click kit parts on/off etc to get back to the the ‘groove’ I like.

    Hope you know what I’m on about here mate. (I read it back and now I’M confused!)
    Would love to know if I’m missing a ‘trick or tip’ re this feature.
    Cheers and lov’n yr work.
    Mark – Queensland Australia

  9. Having recently converted from Windows based recording to IOS, I too was extremely frustrated with trying to lay down drum tracks on my first iOS recording effort. This has absolutely given me insight into how precise note editing might be accomplished using SmartDrums, as Drummer is not in iOS garageband. Thank you, and great work.

  10. YAY! I can’t thank you enough for this session! I had no idea that the drummer track could be pasted & then adapted & split like the wonderful “Green Drum Loops” I thought Mac had eliminated.

    I didn’t even conceive of it & figured the yellow strip was it’s own universe.

    Now, finally, I can eliminate those maddening, mid-bar double kick hits. And, I can stop yelling at the screen “no! Don’t play boom boom – chick you freak! This isn’t a Nickleback song. Just play boom – chick, boom – chick!!!” Plus, the Mac folks might appreciate me not firing off my “Annoyed By Your Drummer Again” feedback notes (there were a LOT of them) anymore.

    Hopefully, we’ll soon see a few female drummers added to the stable. Maybe even someone who can play drums with brushes! Thanks very much Patrick!

  11. I actually have made good use of putting the drum track into a software instruments like horns and transposing the pitch to the right key of your song, and because it is a perfect copy of your drum track, your horn and rhythm section is tight.

  12. That’s great! Thank you. Enables me to get some classic dub sounds. Do you have any tips on getting the auto drummer to play in 5/4, 6/8, or even weirder time signatures?

  13. More precisely, how do you set different time signatures within the same song. For example, a section of 5/4, then 4/4, then 7/8.

  14. Jon Greenbaum:

    From what I’ve read, it’s not possible to have multiple time signatures within one song in GB. You would have to buy Logic X to do that. (Or some other DAW software.)

  15. Hey folks,

    Another Tip I use quite regularly to get me off to a good start.

    Use the arrangement track to position your intro, verse(s), chorus(s), bridge, outro
    Then create new drum regions on your drum track, the regions will automatically correspond to the arrangement.

    This give me a really good starting point before any fine tuning.

    Hope someone finds that helpful

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