what's up guys I've been playing around with rollies song maker kit and
GarageBand the two are now fully integrated and it's really easy to start
making music I'm gonna walk you through how I create a simple beat if you're new
to music production don't worry I'm gonna go step by step but don't be
afraid to experiment because you're gonna be expressing your own style in no
time now once you've got your C board like pad and loop blocks turn on load up
GarageBand on your Mac if you need any help check out the instructions on
rollies website let's get started it's really fun to create a song to a drum
beat so let's do that first select software instrument to create a new
track and I'm gonna load up a drum kit I'm gonna choose electronic drum kit
beat machine the light pad block is ready to go if you don't see this
displayed on your life pad block hit the mode button until you see these drum
pads each square triggers a drum sound
I'm gonna set my tempo to 90 beats per minute I'm going to press the metronome
button on the loop block because the metronome is gonna help me keep time
also I'm gonna press the loop button on the loop block that's gonna repeat a
section of our song and helps us record new tracks without having to go back to
the computer because we want to do as much as we can right here hit record
when you're ready and let's make beat
now let's layer some high hats and some claps on top of that if you need to undo
and record again just hit the undo button and then the minus sign on the
loop block and then you can hit record again hitting the undo button and the
plus sign does a redo and restores what you undid GarageBand makes it really
easy to switch up your drum kit or any instrument even after you've recorded it
I'll select a big room instead let's see how that sounds that's awesome
no need to re-record the drums all right I'm dying to try out the Seaboard block
next
next I'm gonna add some simple chords to the drum beat to give the song some
emotion click the plus button in GarageBand and select software
instrument again I love the sounds enrollees equator player software let's
use that you can download equator player from roly's website it's free for roli
customers once you install it it'll be available in GarageBand if you don't
have it load up GarageBand strings or vintage electric piano they'll work
really well too below your track make sure you have
plugins open click on the up and down arrow and select equator stereo I'm
going to choose a sound from synth keys called hazy keys
I'm gonna use two simple chords you'll notice that GarageBand shows you what
chords you're playing at the top it's really great if you're just learning
sounds pretty good you'll notice that I slid my fingers forward on the Seaboard
to add a little variation in the sound you can't do that on any other keyboard
the equator player has a bunch of sounds that you can control in similar ways
next I'm gonna add a simple bassline to my song click the plus button again in
GarageBand and select software instrument this time I'll choose a bass
guitar from the available GarageBand sounds I'm loading up the fingerstyle
bass press the left arrow on the Seaboard block to lower the octave nice
now I feel the bass volume is too low let's adjust some of the volumes with
the loop block press the speaker button on the loop block you'll notice the
litepad block now looks different it shows volumes for each track you can
adjust the volumes right here let's raise the bass track volume and lower
the drums a bit click the mode button again to return to the default light pad
block setting
you
all right time to add a melody let's choose another GarageBand instrument I'm
gonna choose synthesizer rhythmic pulsing patterns that sounds pretty good
let's add that to the beat now check out this cool trick with the light pad block
press the mode button on the loop block and you'll see some different controls
on the light pad block these are just different characteristics of the sound
for different instruments on the pulsing pattern sound I can adjust delay and
reverb right here
Wow you can explore these controls with different instruments that you try out
let's try this same trick with the drums the plus and minus buttons on the loop
block lets you move between tracks press the minus button three times to select
the drum track check out the controls I have in GarageBand now I can adjust the
volume of individual drum sounds I'm gonna lower the snare it collapse let's
raise them up how about the kick the fourth control allows you to adjust the
high cut for the drums
I love the expressiveness of the Seaboard and the light pad and now with
the loop block and GarageBand it's really easy to make songs good luck with
your song maker kit make the music you love and I'll see you guys later