Mad Max's - Importing Starwars into GarageBand

A second example

Here is another example of borrowing music from Midi files.

For the movie "Seduced by the Dark Side!", I want pieces of music that sound like Starwars.

Therefore, I start with actual music from Starwars. Later, I butcher this so it not longer is anything like the original but still has the same feel.

Step 1 - Locate the file on the Internet

There are a large number of midi files on the Internet from Starwars. I am interested in the music from the first Starwars movie. The name of this file is "swtheme.midi". Use Google to find this file and download it to your computer.

Step 2 - Clean up Midi file

GarageBand will not accept this Midi file. Therefore, I open the midi file in QuickTime Movie Player and export it as a Midi file which cleans the file up.

In the picture to the right, you see the file open in QuickTime Pro's Movie Player. It is being exported as a Midi file (to a different location or with a different name.)

Step 3 - Drag to GarageBand

After I cleaned up the midi file, I drag the icon of the midi file from the Finder to GarageBand.

Note: The Finder rarely looks to good. I cleaned it up and simplified it for this example.

Step 4 - importing into GarageBand

GarageBand creates multiple tracks during the import.

Step 5 - Fully imported

When completed, the import of the midi file looks like this.

Step 6 - Locate the start of the desired theme

Now I need to find and then isolate the notes I am interested in. I do this because otherwise the file is too large and awkward to work with.

I select all the tracks and put the play marker before the notes I want. Then I select SPLIT from the menu.

Don't worry about accuracy. If I get extra notes included in the section, I can eliminate them later. Better to have too many than not enough.

Step 7 - Locate the end of the desired theme

Now I need to find the end of the notes I am interested in.

I select all the tracks and put the play marker after the notes I want. Then I select SPLIT from the menu.

Don't worry about accuracy. If I get extra notes included in the section, I can eliminate them later. Better to have too many than not enough.

Step 8 - All the regions before I begin deleting

After I have broken the song into regions, I am ready to delete the unwanted regions at the beginning and the end of the midi file.

Step 9 - Select the first batch of regions

After I have broken the song into regions, I must first select the ones I do not want so I can delete them.

Step 10 - The remaining notes

I delete the unwanted regions at the beginning and then I must select the ones at the end I do not want so I can delete them.

Step 11 - The remaining notes

After I have deleted the both unwanted regions, this is all I have left. Now it is a manageable size.

Now I need to move the remaining notes much closer to the beginning of the song.

Step 12 - All the regions before I begin deleting

I see that some tracks have not notes. So I highlight the tracks and delete them.

Step 13 - Listen to all the tracks separately

This is all that I have left after trimming the unwanted notes at the beginning and end of the song and then deleting all empty tracks.

Next, I need to listen to each track individually to see if I like the notes or not.

In my example, this is all I have left.

Step 14 - Isolate the good tracks

First I listen to the tracks separately and find the interesting tracks. Then I play just the interesting tracks with the ugly sounding tracks turned off.

Step 15 - The good tracks

After importing, cropping, and thinning the Midi file, this is what I end up with.

The next steps

I have successfully reduced the Starwars music to a simple theme.

Now I must turn this into a film score.

The music is not simple enough

Even after all I have done, the music is not simple enough. And it is not clean enough.

Not classical music

Because this is not classical music (old music), I cannot use the exact music. I must butcher it more to make it copyright free.

The next page

Continue this lesson on Simplifying Starwars in GarageBand

Contact your instructor

Your instructor for this film scoring class is Robert Elliott.

You can email me by clicking here.