Ex. 1. For this exercise you'll have to log on to the Mac side of your computer. Open an application called Garage Band, probably already in your application bar (it looks like a guitar). If you see a small window with 4 options on it, click on the top one for a New Project. Give it the name you want.

a. The Virtual Keyboard. You should see one track in the project called Grand Piano. There is probably a keyboard window opened. You can play on on this keyboard with your mouse (try it if you have headphones). From the Window menu at the top, switch to Musical Typing. Now you can play this instrument using the designated keys from the keyboard.

If you don't see a panel at the right of the window called Track Info, click on the "i" button at the right bottom of the page. Here you should see a whole list of other software instruments that can be played using the same keyboard. Try some of them for fun.

Let's record something now using this keyboard, in either version. Click on the big red button at the bottom of the screen, then start playing something on the keyboard (don't worry, we're not keeping this one). When you're done playing, click on the red button again to stop recording, and then on the play button to stop the playback. Move the cursor (top of the window) back to the beginning and play back the track to see the result.

On the left hand side of the window, find a button with a pair of scissors and click on it. This will open a dialog where you can edit the notes one by one, changing their pitch, position, and length. Then in the upper editing panel, placing the mouse over the bottom corner of each piece of sound in the track will let you adjust its total length.

Two controls to notice: first, a scroller in the left side panel will let you zoom in on the editing of the notes and of the sounds in the track (top and bottom editing). Second, a small ruler in the top right corner of each editing panel will let you adjust the subdivisions for editing purposes.

If you want to save the work that you've done so far, do it now and start a new project. Otherwise erase what you've recorded. The easiest way to do that is to go to the Track menu and do Delete Track, then from the same menu create a new track and choose software Instrument for the type of track.

b. Starting from a score. Let's open the following PDF version of the vocals for the song "Jingle Bells", taken from here. We'll try to reproduce the first 4 measures. Note that we have quarter notes, half notes, and one full note. The sequence translates into D D D | D D D | D F B C D. It's easier to play if we move it by one note higher, making it E E E | E E E | E G C D | E. In the musical keyboard, E translates to the white key right after the group of two black ones. If you switch to Musical Typing, then E corresponds to D and the other notes are distributed accordingly from there.

Switch to whichever version of the virtual keyboard you think will be easier to you. Click on the recording button to start recording, then play the notes in the 4 measures. For example, if you use the Musical Typing, you'd have to type DDD DDD DG ASD. Don't worry if you don't get the rhythm/duration quite right or if you have extra silence or extra notes in there. We'll edit them out later. Once you got all the notes you need, stop the recording. Close the musical typing window for now (the piano). You can open it again later form the Window menu - Keyboard or Musical Typing.

Open the Track Editor like before and start by selecting all your notes, and move them to the beginning of the track. Remove all the notes that represent typing mistakes by selecting them, then going to the Edit menu and doing Delete. Choose the grid for the track editor to be at 1/8 of a note. Adjust the length of your notes to correspond to the score, and move them in the right position in time-wise. Adjust their length to what the score indicates, keeping in mind that we've moved it up by one note.

For the editing part, note that the program lets you choose between seeing the notes in graphic view or in notation view. Choose whichever view you think is easier for you to handle.

Complete the song using copy and paste, then moving the notes around to match the changes. Save your project.

With the first track selected (it should be selected by default since we only have one track so far), switch the type of instrument and play your track to see the result.

c. Using Apple loops. Close the Track Editor panel at the bottom (click on its icon again) and open the Loop Browser, whose activating button contains an eye. This panel allows you to select pre-recorded loops to add to your composition.

Let's add some drums first. Click on All Drums, then try several of them to see which one might work best for our song. Once you've chosen it, drag the loop over the large empty area above. It should be added to the song as a new track. Move the loop to the beginning of the track, then make as many copies as you need to cover the song. Play it back to see the effect.

At your discretion, add any other predefined loops to your song, in any combination you think sounds good. Once you have several tracks, adjust the volume for each of them in the mixer until you're happy with the result.

d. Exporting an Audio File. Once you have made all the changes you wanted to the composition, export it as an audio file. For this, from the Share menu, click on Export Song to Disk..., then choose the mp3 format. This is the end of the lab.

Note. When you close Garage Band or your project, it will ask you if you want to save your project with an iLife preview. Just say no.

Note. This is the first part of the homework which will be due the next week.