Cut pre-song silence tip
Saturday, August 18 2012 @ 09:24 PM CDT

Frequently, when I record with a click track in Garageband, I end up with a couple of seconds of silence on the track when I mix it down to iTunes. Here's an easy way to get rid of that silence without firing up Audacity:

1. Export an AIFF file from Garageband by not checking to create an MP3 version.
2. In iTunes, select the song and "Get Info" (CMD-I)
3. Go to the "options" tab
4. Select a starting time that corresponds with when the actual music starts. This might be 0:02:00 or 0:01:30, for example.
5. Listen to your track to be sure you didn't take out any music, adjust as needed
6. Now, with the track still selected, go to the Advanced menu in the menubar and select "create MP3 (or AAC) version"
your MP3 (or AAC) track will not include the seconds of music you removed from the track.
7. Profit?

KF

Re:Cut pre-song silence tip
Sunday, August 19 2012 @ 12:39 PM CDT

in GarageBand you can set the loop region to start where you want the song to begin, and set the end of the loop region to where the song ends.

when you share to iTunes or export to file, only the loop region is used.

Re:Cut pre-song silence tip
Sunday, August 19 2012 @ 01:20 PM CDT

Beautiful! Even better! Thanks for the tip!

Re:Cut pre-song silence tip
Sunday, August 19 2012 @ 01:46 PM CDT

My DVD player often chops off the first second of an mp3, even on a professionally - done tune, so I leave a bit of space at the beginning to allow for such peculiarities. When mastering, I use the Command - C thing to set the start and end of a recording.

Re:Cut pre-song silence tip
Sunday, August 19 2012 @ 04:14 PM CDT

Quote by: karmicfreak Beautiful! Even better! Thanks for the tip!

you're quite welcome. i find that feature really useful to capture just a portion of a song - like to make a section to practice with by looping it on an iPod.

Re:Cut pre-song silence tip
Monday, August 20 2012 @ 08:38 AM CDT

Quote by: grah3am My DVD player often chops off the first second of an mp3, even on a professionally - done tune, so I leave a bit of space at the beginning to allow for such peculiarities. When mastering, I use the Command - C thing to set the start and end of a recording.

I've found that when working with a multitrack recording with any automation data, I can't simply Select All and then re-paste at an earlier time - all the automation data on the tracks stays on the time it was before mucking everything up. With no automation, that wouldn't be an issue, however.

Re:Cut pre-song silence tip
Monday, August 20 2012 @ 09:15 AM CDT

Quote by: karmicfreak ... I've found that when working with a multitrack recording with any automation data, I can't simply Select All and then re-paste at an earlier time - all the automation data on the tracks stays on the time it was before mucking everything up. With no automation, that wouldn't be an issue, however.

i assume you mean in GarageBand 09 or later (?) if so, there is a mode under the Control menu:
Lock Automation Curves to Regions - that should help.

Re:Cut pre-song silence tip
Monday, August 20 2012 @ 11:53 AM CDT

[/QUOTE]i assume you mean in GarageBand 09 or later (?) if so, there is a mode under the Control menu:
Lock Automation Curves to Regions - that should help.[/QUOTE]

That's very handy. I must use that.

Re:Cut pre-song silence tip
Monday, August 20 2012 @ 02:53 PM CDT

This seems weird to me; I always make sure there's a short silence at the start of a track, so seeing people putting effort into removing one brought me a smile. No doubt my way will seem weird to others...