GarageBand: record electric guitar - how it works

The Mac app "Garageband" is a huge program with which you can also record your electric guitar professionally. We show you how to do this in this guide.

Record Electric Guitar with GarageBand: Equipment for Mac recording

In addition to a Mac and an electric guitar, you also need an amplifier:

If you have a guitar amplifier, connect it to the audio input of your Mac via line-in and a jack cable.
If you don't have an amplifier yet, you need an audio interface or a multi-effects device. It is important that the device has a USB or FireWire connection.

Prepare Mac and garage tape for recording

When everything is ready, connect your guitar to the Mac. Optionally, you can connect headphones or speakers to the audio output. Now open the Garageband program. For better clarification, we have shown the different settings in our picture gallery.

In the "New Project" tab, select "Electric Guitar" as the instrument.
In the next window, choose the name and location for your project. With the speed slider you regulate the speed, as a signature you have various options for the clock. You can freely change the beats per minute (bmp). You can also set the desired key here. Then click on "Create".
In the "GarageBand"> "Settings" menu under the "Audio / MIDI" tab you can see whether your audio interface has been correctly recognized. If the settings were not made automatically, you have to enter them manually.
If you click on the small note symbol in the blue window at the bottom center, you can also switch from here to the project settings and change the tempo.

Let's go - recording with GarageBand

Make sure that you have activated your guitar track. You can recognize this by the red dot under the track name.

Configure your virtual guitar amplifier for the desired sound yourself or select one from the list. You can find it by clicking on the selection list below the button "Guitar Track".
Click on the red recording button to start recording.
If you want a high-quality recording, you can use "Fade In" and "Fade Out" effects. To do this, press the [CMD] + [B] buttons to show the master track. Here you simply set two or more control points that activate the effect.
When the piece is finished, stop recording and save the file using the "File"> "Save" menu.
If you'd like to upload your recording to iTunes, choose File> Share and the options to play it instead.