pg. 1 getting started pg. 2 interface ilife ’09 & ‘11 · when it comes to creating a...

iLife ’09 & ‘11 Podcasting with GarageBand

Hobart and William Smith Colleges • Information Technology Services Digital Learning Center• 315-781-4420

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1. Open GarageBand. Locate it either in

the dock or in the Applications Folder. *** If you’re opening a project that is saved on a USB drive or external hard drive, drag the file onto the desktop and double click. Do NOT open the file directly from your USB drive. ***

2. From the Start up window

select New Project> Podcast.

3. Name the new podcast episode,

chose a location for saving (i.e. Desktop), and click Create.

4. The GarageBand Main window appears.

Pg. 1 Getting Started Pg. 2 Interface Pg. 3-4 Recording Voice Pg. 5-6 Editing the Voice Track Pg. 6-7 Incorporating Images/Audio Pg. 8 Tips for Working with Photos Pg. 9 Saving your Project Pg. 10 Exporting your Project

You do not need to change these settings

When it comes to creating a podcast in GarageBand, versions ’09 and ’11 are not too distinct. Features/buttons have been moved around. The blue outlined interface is GarageBand ’11.The red outlined images indicate how that particular feature would be viewed in the ’09 version.


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Media Browser

Loop Browser

Preview podcast


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Recording Your Voice If you want to create a separate file of just a voice recording begin by selecting New Project > Voice at the Start up window when first opening GarageBand. Then follow the rest of the instructions below. 1. Select GarageBand >Preferences and click on

Audio/MIDI. 2. From the Audio Input and Output pull-downs

select the appropriate audio device.

3. Note: If a separate microphone or headphone is not connected, Built-in Audio will be the only option. System Setting may also be an option.

4. Select the Voice track and make sure

the record button has been selected and is red.

In the ’11 version use the record button on the bottom toolbar.

While creating a podcast, you keep each “layer” of sound separate. So, you will be recording any voiceover in the Male/Female Voice track, music/sound in jingles, etc. Podcast Track is where you will place your images


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5. In the Track Info window make sure Monitor is set to On.

6. With “male/female voice” selected, the Track Editor will appear below (see image for step

#7). On the Track Editor place the Playhead at the spot to start recording, press the Record button, and begin speaking.

* Be sure to watch the meters. Make sure the meter level doesn’t go into the red.

7. Press the Play button or use the space bar

to stop recording. A Region is created in the Track Editor and in the Voice Track itself.

Voice Track

Track Editor


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Editing the Voice Track 1. In the Track Editor, place the playhead at

any point you wish to cut (split into two separate regions) the track.

2. Select Edit>Split. 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 as necessary. 4. The new regions can now

be moved or deleted independently.

IMPORTANT: If you move a region OVER another region, you will LOSE whatever is behind it!!


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5. Edit audio levels by using the Track Volume control located under the Voice Track. You can

open these controls by clicking on the triangle and selecting the box to the left of Track Volume (box should turn blue). Control points (the small blue dots) can be created by clicking along the bright blue line. These points can be manipulated to make changes to the audio level.

Incorporating Images, Photos and Additional Audio ALSO See page 8 for Picture Tips!

1. Click on the Media Browser button (bottom right) and select Photos.

2. Click and drag the desired photo to the Podcast Track. Move the

photo in the podcast track to the desired location and repeat with each of the remaining photos.

**Adjust the amount of time that the image is present by clicking and dragging the end of the image region to the desired end location.


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3. Click the Loop Browser button (bottom right) select Jingles

and the type. You can select a jingle to preview it.

Drag the desired jingle to the Jingles track to the appropriate place on the timeline.

4. Select the down arrow (blue) to set any jingles/music tracks to “duck”(make background

track). Make sure the voice track is set as “lead track” by clicking the up arrow (yellow). This way, your music/sound is in the background, and your narration can be heard.

Pictures Tips for Podcasting

Hobart and William Smith Colleges • Information Technology Services Digital Learning Center • 315-781-4420

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Size: When choosing pictures for your podcast, make sure that: • You are saving them as you go along (some podcasts may require hundreds of pictures…

you don’t want to wait until you have finished to find all the citations1) • You are using the full size images, not the thumbnails. Avoid using any pictures under 100 KB,

but the bigger the picture the better the quality of the image will be in the final product. Storage: You are going to want to keep all of you images together in one folder. • If you are working off of only one computer, the easiest way would be to create a folder on your

desktop. • If you are planning on working on multiple computers, create a folder on a flash drive, external

hard drive, etc. • A third option would be to use a website (www.delicious.com) where you can “bookmark” all of

your pictures, and then use the link to your delicious account as your Works Cited (See the Research Librarians for more information).

View Space: Don’t forget that your view space is a SQUARE. Podcasts are meant to be played on

iPods; therefore the default format of the view space of a podcast is a square. ** Be careful that words/important parts of the picture are not cropped out. GarageBand

automatically crops each image to fit the square viewing space. Sometimes this means that words or important parts of a picture may be cropped out (decreasing the value of the entire picture). So, you will need to resize the image to fit! Do this by double – clicking on the image you wish to resize, which will pull up the tool that allows

you to zoom in or out, move the focus, etc. * This is why it is important that you are previewing your project as you go along. Screenshots: You can take “ Screen Shots” and use them just like any other .JPG/JPEG pictures.

If you find a part of a YouTube clip, video clip, website, etc. that you want to incorporate as an image into your project hold Shift – Command – 4 (on a Mac) which will turn your cursor into a grab tool. You can then drag the border to the selection you wish to take the picture of. The screenshot will automatically save to your desktop. You can simply drag and drop the image into the GarageBand project just like any other image.

Text: If you want to incorporate text into a podcast, the easiest way is to use PowerPoint.

1. Create a new PowerPoint project. 2. Put your text on the slide(s). 3. When you go to save the PowerPoint, change the format to “. Jpg” instead of “PowerPoint

Presentation.” Each slide will be saved as a separate .jpg image, which you can then drag and drop into you Podcast.

Note: The .jpg created by PowerPoint will be a rectangle. Remember that GarageBand automatically formats everything into a square, which may require that it crop the image. So, you can either format the PowerPoint .jpg in GarageBand to fit (leaving white on the top and bottom). Or try centering your text before you create the .jpg so that parts do not end up getting cropped out.

Moving Images: In order to move an entire group of pictures in the Podcast project (to keep the same timing):

1. Click Shift 2. Select all the images you wish to move 3. Drag the group to where you want them

*** You can also move the images with the music (in order to keep the image – to – music timing the same) by also clicking and selecting the music you wish to move with it.


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Saving Your Project During the Editing Process 1. The project file must be saved as an “Archive Project” before exporting to

QuickTime format. THIS PROCESS MUST BE DONE AFTER EACH EDITING SESSION UNTIL YOU EXPORT THE FINAL PRODUCT FOR SUBMISSION BECAUSE YOU RISK LOSING ELEMENTS OF YOUR PROJECT.

2. To enable the archive option, you will first need to add a jingle to your project. (Even

if there is one in the project already).

*There is a glitch in the GarageBand software that requires that you follow these (seemingly weird) steps…just go with it!

3. To add a jingle:

a. Click Loop Browser

b. Select a jingle

c. Drag selection to an existing or new jingle track

4. From the program menu bar, select File >Save As, check Archive Project and then click Save Note: You will delete this jingle next time you work on the project and when you are ready to export the final product for submission.


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Exporting the podcast to QuickTime format (.m4a)

1. When the podcast is completed select Share > Export Podcast to Disk.

2. This will open the “Export Podcast” dialogue box. Click on the Compress Using dropdown and select AAC Encoder.

3. Under the Audio Settings dropdown, select Spoken Podcast.

4. Click Export

5. Save the file to a location easily found. (Ex. Desktop) Note: Make sure the file has the .m4a file extension. This file type allows the podcast to be posted to the blog within Blackboard or played directly in iTunes or other media players.

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