These instructions are designed for GarageBand 3 plus the sounds of a symphony orchestra. GarageBand is easy and fast yet powerful enough to do film scoring. Please, tell me if you find anything as good!
After I download the midi file, I go to the finder and drag the icon of the midi file to GarageBand. This tells GarageBand to Import the file and assign it to multiple tracks in GarageBand.
Note: If GarageBand does not accept the Midi file, I open the Midi file in QuickTime Movie Player and export the file as a Midi file (going from Midi file to Midi file). This cleans up the file and prepares it for GarageBand.
As the file is imported into GarageBand, it expands greatly taking up very many tracks.
Then I play the file.
GarageBand with the midi file
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Step #3
Step 3 - Isolate the notes
I only want a small section of the music. Therefore, I must isolate the notes I want otherwise the file will be too large and awkward to work with.
To trim the file, I select all the tracks and put the play marker before the notes I want. Then I select SPLIT from the menu.
I do the same thing again at the end of the notes I am interested in. Now each track has three regions.
Don't worry about accuracy. Extra notes can be eliminated later. Better to have too many notes than not enough.
A track can be broken into regions
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Step #4
Step 4 - Delete unwanted regions
After I have broken each track into regions, I carefully select the regions that I don't want and delete them.
For this example, this is all I have left.
Now, the file is much easier to work with!
The same tune reduced to a few chords
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Step #5
Step 5 - Magnify the image
Now that I have elimiated everything except the chord, I magnify the image to full screen width.
I quickly see that many of the tracks have no notes. These tracks are empty.
I get rid of the tracks which are empty simply by deleting the entire track.
Now I see the notes more clearly in GarageBand
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Step #6
Step 6 - Turn off ugly tracks
Now I have only the tracks with notes. However, most of the tracks are either not interesting or have instruments which I do not find interesting.
In GarageBand, you can turn off the track by clicking on the icon for silencing the track.
It is much easier to see without empty tracks
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Step #7
Step 7 - Select better instruments
GarageBand uses general rules for importing Midi files. It assumes that all Midi files are designed for use with General Midi sound modules. Therefore, the imported file will sound good but not always great.
I can easily try each track using different musical instruments. I try either to find better instruments or to try to get totally different sounds. This part is really fun!
I have a whole symphony orchestra to select from
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Step #8
Step 8 - The finished file
Once I try all the tracks and change the instruments until I like the final results, I eliminate the unwanted (unused) tracks.
To make some of the notes more realistic, I fade the notes out and sometimes I even fade the notes in so it sounds real.
Now I have the final GarageBand file.
Adjusting note levels in GarageBand
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Step #9
Step 9 - Convert to OGG
I export the GarageBand file to an audio file. I open Audacity (or any audio processing program) and create a new page. I import the audio file and trim it if needed.
I save the audio file to my hard drive. Done!
The notes in Audacity
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Title of two box section
Listen to the music
Listen to the final result. I have taking a long piece by Beethovan and extracted just one set of chords.
This might seem like a lot of work for just two notes. But two notes from Beethovan sound much better than two notes from me.
