If you are a Cubase fan or iPad user (or both!) then the new Steinberg Cubasis app really is a no brainer. We have had a few iOS apps that promise to behave like full blown DAWs but have perhaps fallen short in a few areas so far.
Apr 06, 2020 Hi all Ive just bought Garageband and trying to create a tune in 3/4 time. Can anyone suggest how I would do this.? Apple iPad Forum. Garageband help with time signature. Discussion in 'iPad Apps' started by daibeer, Jun 22, 2011. Previous Thread Next Thread. Jul 07, 2019 If you want to change the tempo in the middle of a song who is going to stop you? You’re the performer, you can play the song backwards if you wish, but it’s going to take quite a while to learn how to accomplish that!
Cubasis seems to tick all the boxes, on paper at least, and with Steinberg’s heritage could this be the only serious audio app you’ll need on the road? Let’s get under the hood and see how it performs.
The Spec Sheet
So before I get into what I actually think of Cubasis and how well it works, I thought I’d cover a few key aspects of the App’s specs. This isn’t usually that important with an iOS app as it’s pretty rare that you are able to produce entire projects on them. Well, things are changing and the specs of this app are pretty impressive!
Cubasis has over 300 MIDI and Audio loops bundled with it, 70 Virtual instrument sounds (based on HALion Sonic) and 10 Studio grade effect processors. You also get the ability to export to Cubase 6 or 7, SoundCloud, AudioPaste, Wi-Fi servers and iTunes. You can also perform traditional, straight up, audio and MIDI exports.
Some of the Cubasis key features list.
Although all of this is really impressive, the real key feature here is the ability to add unlimited audio and midi tracks to your Cubasis projects. That’s right you heard me, unlimited tracks! There are of course a few real world limitations on this and they are actually based on the hardware you are using.
If you are on the iPad 2 or iPad mini, you will be limited to 48 voices of polyphony (either audio or virtual instruments). If you have the iPad Retina or v4, you will be upgraded to 64 voices. Either way, this is enough to put together a decent sized project and blows Garageband’s 8 tracks well and truly out of the water.
First Impressions
After having a small lie down, due to learning that I had 48-64 voices available to me, I was ready to start testing Cubasis out for real.
It’s worth mentioning here that Cubasis is $49.99/£34.99 but for what’s on offer, that seems perfectly reasonable to me. You have to put this into perspective and realize it’s probably about half the amount you would pay for a basic plug-in in a full DAW.
The default view in Cubasis.
On loading up a demo project in Cubasis, I was pleasantly surprised by how similar the interface was to that of my latest version of Cubase. The continuity they have managed to achieve here really is bang on.
Loading up projects is pretty straightforward.
Without even thinking about it, I was navigating my way around the different tracks and devices in the project, editing audio and accessing the mixer. If you are proficient in any DAW the learning curve is about zero here and even the beginner should find this straightforward to operate. If you get stuck there is an awesome built-in help facility.
The included Help system.
Touching Bass
The fact Steinberg have managed to adapt a completely mouse controlled environment for a touch screen interface is a feat in its own right to be fair. Everything works well and even the most fiddly job like editing MIDI notes works smoothly.
Zooming using a two finger pinch gesture is extremely smooth.
Other functions such as zooming in and out in the arrange window actually work a little better! There are also some very nice touches for customizing your view of the interface. The tools area and inspector for example can be quickly folded away to free up valuable screen real estate for the arrangement or editing.
The MIDI note editor in the lower section of the screen.
On the subject of editing, most extra windows needed when editing either audio, midi or indeed the mix, will be brought up at the bottom of the interface. Each one of these windows is tailor made for its purpose and everything is laid out very well.
The Audio Editor.
Other windows you can expect to see as pop-ups are the fully featured mixer (with pan, solo, mute, record arm, edit and monitor buttons), a scalable keyboard and drum pads. As I dug deeper here, I was honestly impressed with every new feature I explored. This really is very well put together.
The Cubasis Mixer.
In The Mix
This is actually my first phase of testing of the Cubasis app, so I only really had enough time to get into the demo audio and projects. As far as I could tell, everything worked perfectly and with little to no noticeable lag or latency.
I was able to edit audio, add effects and edit MIDI sequences without any glitches. Things ran so smoothly it’s almost in danger of running better than a fully blown computer based DAW. Some of the demo projects have a good number of tracks and effects running simultaneously too.
Cubasis has ten studio quality effects.
Change Time Signature Garageband
The effects here are excellent and pretty much identical to those you would expect to find in Cubase. There are ten in total with all of your EQ, dynamics, spatial and modulation needs covered.
The Compressor effect.
... And the Reverb.
You can have three insert effects per track and up to three send return effects as well. You can also process you master output, to create a basic mastering chain. This is far beyond anything we have seen on the iPad so far.
The Cubasis keyboard.
I really can't stress how smoothly this thing runs. After hours of editing, playback and exporting, I didn’t experience one hiccup. I really think you could run this as a pro mixing tool on the road. Obviously, we are missing a lot of features here but there are enough to get by until you are back in studio.
Final Thoughts And Conclusion
So all in all Cubasis is a hands down victory. Everything supplied here works and works perfectly. If you are a Cubase user and own an iPad, this is simply a no brainer, you have to have it. For just under £35 you can’t really go wrong.
Cubasis running on the iPad 2.
Time Signature Garageband Ipad
I have only two criticisms of the Cubasis system, one minor and one pretty major. The first (minor) thing I’d like to see changed is a zoom function on the mixer. The channels are quite wide and take up a decent amount of screen. The ability to ‘crush’ them when less info is needed would be fantastic.
My second criticism here would be the lack of any automation. At first I was certain I just hadn’t come across the controls and that I would unveil it at any point, but the further I delved I realized that it just wasn’t going to materialize. I got very upset and then finally accepted reality.
I’m not sure if it was omitted due to the lack of support on the hardware / OS or if it’s simply a CPU resources issue. I would certainly sacrifice some polyphony for the ability to record basic automation. It’s a real shame and could actually see it being a bit of a handicap in larger sessions. Maybe it’s something that will get introduced at a later date, I certainly hope so!
Download Cubasis from the App Store here.
Changing the tempo in Garageband is as easy walking and chewing bubble gum.
Let’s do like DeFranco and just jump right into it.
How To Change The Tempo in Garageband – (The Easy Way)
1) To change the tempo in Garageband, click on the “Tempo” number in the top-center of the DAW along where it also lists the bars in each measure, as well as the Key Signature.
2) Then just double-click on the actual number, and type in the desired tempo.
Now, using this tool is helpful in a number of different ways, but for the moment, we’ll talk about another handy feature recently introduced into the Garageband user’s arsenal.
I believe in 2014 (although I could be wrong), Apple released the new tempo system where you can introduce different tempos at different times of the song.
That’s right, you can actually play a song at separate tempos in corresponding regions of your music.
In fact, you can change the tempo of your track as many times as you’d like. It doesn’t all have to be the same pace.
How To Change Only A Portion Of A Song’s Beats Per Minute
First things first.
1) Head into the Garageband settings where it says, “Track.”
2) Select, “Show Tempo Track” (or use the ‘Shift + Command + T’ shortcut)
3) Now, you’ll see that Garageband has shown the tempo track where you can adjust at which point precisely, the tempo will change.
4) Similar to the volume automation function, create automation dots wherever you want to begin.
5) Create one dot where you want the automation to begin. Click the other dot where you want the automation to end.
6) Now, drag and drop the line created to your desired tempo, and you can turn off the ‘Tempo Track.’
It functions a little bit different than the yellow Automation lines, but it still works perfectly, nonetheless.
*Unfortunately, you can’t adjust the tempo by decimal places in the same way that you can with volume automation. Although, minuscule changes in tempo aren’t particularly useful anyway.
Tips and Tricks Involving Tempo Changes
The ‘Enable Flex’ button.
This button down below in the smart controls allows one to do a couple of different things.
1)To bring up the ‘Enable Flex’ option, double-click on your ‘MIDI Region’ within the DAW’s ‘Workspace.’
2) Then, click on the option, ‘Track,’ rather than ‘Region,’ and you’ll see right away three different options, ‘Pitch Correction,’ ‘Limit to Key,’ and ‘Enable Flex.’
The ‘Enable Flex’ function is useful for changing the tempo and key signature of an uploaded sample – or un-checking the box in case of the opposite, which we’ll explore right now.
How To Change The BPM of an Audio Recording
Firstly, you can change the BPM of an audio recording by hitting the “Enable Flex,” and then adjusting the BPM at the top centre of the DAW.
1) Click “Track” down in your smart controls.
2) Check the box “Enable Flex.”
3) Change the BPM at the top-center of the DAW.
You’ll notice that it’ll actually change the BPM of the audio recording now, rather than just adjusting the track’s position in the Workspace according to each beat and time signature.
*It’s worth noting that if you don’t want to change the audio recording at all, and just want to re-arrange the way in which the recording falls in time for the sake of synchronization, just don’t hit the ‘Enable Flex’ button. But we’ll explore that in the next section below.
How To Change The Song’s BPM Without Changing The Audio
From what I understand, it’s not actually possible to do this in Garageband without jumping through significant hoops. However, there is a way of doing it in a way that takes a bit of time.
You can’t adjust the beats-per-minute without changing the way the audio sounds in the DAW, unless, it’s an audio recording, rather than a MIDI file. However, through the use of Apple Loops, one can actually do this.
If you adjust the beats-per-minute then pretty much every sound in GarageBand will change unless you’ve used loops.
Let’s say, for example, you’ve just uploaded an Apple Loop in your Workspace.
If you want to adjust the tempo of your music, without touching the tempo of the Loop, it’s as simple as changing one of the settings in the Smart Controls.
Down in the Smart Controls, in the ‘Region’ section, there is a button that says, “Follow Tempo and Pitch.” If you haven’t checked the box, the Loop won’t change in accordance with Tempo and Key Signature adjustments
For a step-by-step process:
1)Highlight the Track and Go into the Smart Controls.
2) Click on ‘Region.’
3) Uncheck the box, “Follow Tempo and Pitch.”
This should allow you to change the rest of the song, without messing with the tempo and pitch of the Loop. Unfortunately, however, we can’t use this feature for MIDI or audio recordings.
How To Change The Tempo Of Just One Track
Due to the limitations of GarageBand as a software, there are some things we cannot do, but on the other hand, many we can. With that said, it’s still
Fortunately, through trial-and-error, there are ways of making things possible with a little bit of innovation and initiative.
While it’s technically “not possible” to change the tempo of just one track region in GarageBand, it actually is if we create Apple Loops.
It takes a little bit of work to make this happen, but it is possible. Basically, what you want to do is upload a MIDI region into Apple Loops, save it as a “One Shot” loop, rather than a “Loop.”
And once the Loop has been added to the Loop Library , you can add it to an Audio Track Region in your DAW without worrying about pitch or key signature adjustments.
Without further ado, here is the step-by-step process:
1) Highlight the track of which you want to change tempo.
2) Now click “File” in Garageband’s Toolbar.
3) Click the button, “Add Region to Loop Library,” or, you can use the Keyboard Shortcut, “Control + Shift + o” (the lower-case letter not the number).”
4) It’ll bring up the options for adding loops to the library, and you want to click on the check-box that says, “One-Shot.” So now you’ve created your loop.
5) Make a new “Audio” track as you normally would: (I use the Shift + Command + A option because it’s a lot faster).
6) Go into your Loop Library now by clicking on the “Loop” icon that looks like a hose on. the top-right-hand side of the DAW.
7) Find the loop you just created.
8) Now, drag and drop the loop into the Audio Track that you just created. *It’s important to note that you have to drag and drop the Loop into an Audio Track Region rather than a MIDI one.
9) And voila! Now you have a region of music in your DAW that won’t change whenever you adjust the tempo (beats-per-minute) or the key signature.
How To Change The Tempo By Just One Decimal Point
This is quite straightforward, but it’s a feature that not a lot of people are aware of. GarageBand users can actually adjust the tempo of the music by decimal points, rather than just whole numbers.
It’s intuitive. Just type in the number including the decimal places you want where you normally would in the BPM/Tempo part of the DAW.
How To Identify The Tempo Of A Song
As I’ve written in another article under the section, “Important things to Note When Chopping Music” (link here),identifying the tempo of a song can be challenging as a beginner, but after a few tries, you should be able to figure it out.
Every person, or most of them anyway, has the ability to find the beat of music naturally.
For instance, when a person nods their head to the beat or dances to the music, one has to have a natural feel for the tempo and beats-per-minute to do so.
There are a number of different ways of determining the tempo, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll outline how I do it.
Essentially, what I do is I tap my finger on the desk along to the beat of the track, and then I begin typing in the number that I feel is the closest to the Tempo, then I turn on the metronome in GarageBand and make sure that it matches the music.
Usually, it takes more than one try, but I’ll continue typing numbers until it has matched completely.
If you don’t already own a metronome, I highly recommend getting one. They’re great for practicing as well as recording.
Even though Garageband comes with one built in, an authentic wooden metronome is a lot better to use. You can read about the one I recommend here.
As I’ve written before in the article linked above, you can tell that the song/sample/track is perfectly in time based on how the region lines up in the DAW.
In the image above, you can see that the sample doesn’t line. up perfectly because the tempo hasn’t been set correctly. *It’s important to note, however, that this won’t work if you have the option, “Follow Tempo and Pitch,” turned on.
As you can see, the tempo is set at 90 beats per minute, the correct BPM, so the sample lines up perfectly in the DAW.
What Is The Best Tempo For GarageBand
For obvious reasons, this is a question whose answer depends almost entirely on what kind of person you are and the style of music you’re into.
Because I’ve been making a lot of hip-hop/jazz/rock style tracks lately, I usually create songs between 90 and 120 beats per minute.
Some people choose 150 beats-per-minute. For reference, I’ve included a chart below to illustrate each BPM setting.
You’ll notice that the terminology is in Italian, which is normal for standard musical notation due to its origins in Italy and Germany.
Garageband For Ipad Manual
Largo (super slow) – 40 – 60 BPM.
Larghetto (still extremely slow but not as much) – 60 – 66 BPM.
Adagio (slow but slowly speeding up) 66 – 76 BPM
Andante (Moderate speed. This area is starting to get more normal for music, and it’s usually the rate that I employ) 76 – 108 BPM
Moderato (Considered as moderate speed but it’s faster than Andante) – 108 – 120 BPM.
Allegro (Quite fast) 120 – 168 BPM
Presto (Very fast) 168 – 200 BPM
Prestissimo (Super fast. Almost no one will ever play at this speed, not in popular music, anyway) 200+ BPM
As you can see from the tempo ranges I’ve laid out, each range has a specific quality, and it’s up to you to figure out what tempo you want.
However, a good rule of thumb is in between 90 and 120 beats per minute, although, truthfully, it doesn’t matter that much, because the tempo is just how fast the beats are counted.
Conclusion
That’s all on tempo for today. I hope it helped and you enjoyed it too. Do me a favor and share this on social media to help out all of your producer friends.