Written By : There are a few reasons why your GarageBand recordings can sound bad. However, I’m going to show you only the reasons I’ve encountered.
The first reason your GarageBand recording sounds bad could be that you’ve loaded the Amp Designer by accident. Make sure you use a fresh audio track with nothing on it. The next most common reason is that you’re using far too much input gain on your audio interface.
Two Ways to Fix Bad GarageBand Recordings
1) Make Sure Your Audio Track is Completely Empty
The image shown above is what an empty track looks like. Press ‘B’ on your keyboard to bring up the Smart Controls, so you can see what plugins are currently turned on.
Usually, an empty track will say ‘Audio’ on it followed by a number, depending on how many tracks there are.
As I explained in my YouTube video above, I’ve done this many times by accident.
You want to be careful that you’re not running the Amp Designer, the Pedalboard, or some other plugin in the Smart Controls.
If you’re just trying to record vocals or your guitar amp, you’ll want a completely empty track with nothing on it.
You can add noise gates, channel EQ, compression, and other processors once you’re ready to start mixing.
Personally, it isn’t clear to me what the Master Echo and Master Reverb are even for.
I imagine it’s probably used in the case if you decide to run Echo and Reverb on the Master Track..
Either way, I never use them so I typically just disable the plugins by unchecking the boxes.
The next possible reason why your recordings sound bad is due too excessive input gain.
2) Turn Your Input Gain Down on Your Audio Interface
This means you’ve either increased the gain too much on your audio interface or you’re recording a signal that’s too loud.
The good news is that it’s an easy fix. You just have to turn down the gain a bit on your device, regardless of the device you’re using.
Have a look below:
The key is to have it loud enough so the waveform is nice and thick but not so loud that a loud strum or abrupt spike in vocal volume will cause clipping.
To dial it in, sing or strum as loud as you would during a performance and check how much the audio is peaking.
If a relatively hard strum causes clipping, keep turning it down. The same thing goes for singing.
Clipping should almost always be avoided because it occurs when a signal exceeds what a recording system can handle. The end result is a harsh, unpleasant, distortion.
Once you’ve clipped a signal, there’s not much you can do about it after the fact either.
So it can ruin an otherwise solid recording.
That all said, some people use distortion as an effect for different purposes. This is how overdrive and distortion, for example, was invented for guitars.
A lot of hip-hop producers these days use clipping and distortion on their 808 bass instruments too. But anyway, I digress.
All-in-all, these are the two main culprits for why your GarageBand recording could sound bad.
Of course, there could be many other reasons as well.
For instance, a lot of people like to use those low-quality USB to 1/4” cables for guitar recording, rather than purchasing a proper audio interface.
I would avoid those.
Do you have any thoughts, comments, questions, or concerns? Let me know in the comment section below. If you have any tips, it would be great if you would share.
Other Articles You May Be Interested In
- Why You Can’t Hear While Recording In GarageBand
- This Is The Best Set-Up For Recording In GarageBand
- How to Stop GarageBand From Connecting to Bluetooth Devices
- How to Multitrack Record in GarageBand (macOS/iOS)
- How to Record A Seamless Loop in GarageBand [macOS]
