the greatest features to be ported over from the Mac OS version of GarageBand to
the iOS version the drummer allows you to quickly and easily add a living
breathing rhythm track to your projects you do this by selecting from a roster
of virtual drummers who play in a variety of different genres and sounds
find drummer and garage bands sound browser not that while you can select
between acoustic electronic and percussion flavor drummers from the
sound browser directly you can change this at any time from within the drummer
interface so don't sweat the decision know
it's dead easy to find your way around the interface and start creating your
beat at the top you'll see the drummer region that has been created for you
below that is the currently selected drummer the default acoustic drummer is
good old kale but it can swap em out for other virtual drummers by tapping on his
portrait here you can choose from different drummer presets doing so will
change the pattern in your drummer region the XY pad lets you adjust the
loudness and complexity of your selected drummer region in real time the swing
menu lets you change the swing value in real time you can tap to select or
deselect specific pieces of your drummer's kit here to have them be
present or not in your selected regions pattern you can choose different
patterns for specific pieces of your drummer's kit here and you can increase
or decrease the amount of fills your drummer will play with this slider
as of right now there are 21 drummers to choose from 13 acoustic drummers who
play in four different genres rock alternative songwriter and R&B there are
five electronic drummers who play in the hip hop and electronic genres and three
percussion drummers as well Apple add new content including new drummers and
drum kits to garriage band for iOS on a regular basis via the stone library so
keep an eye out for more drummers being added in the future bear in mind you can
only have one drummer loaded paired drummer track though your project can
include two drummer tracks if you want to mix things up a bit
you can scroll through the preset list here to change the pattern that your
drummer will play this also changes the pattern and any selected drum regions
just tap the play button to hear the currently selected preset
okay so using the XY pad you can adjust the loudness and complexity of the
pattern in your drummer regions these changes happen in real time on drama
regions that you currently have selected so I can make the current pattern really
simple and loud
or I can make it quieter and more complex or I can set it to somewhere in
between with the XY pads you have the ability to really make your otherwise
stock drummer pattern more unique by tapping on the different pieces of the
drum kit you can choose whether or not your drummer will play them during the
selected pattern so if I feel like adding some tambourine action to this
pattern I just need to tap on the tambourine icon to add it to the
currently selected drummer region during playback
same goes for pieces of the drum kit itself if I want my drummer to play the
right cymbal instead of the high hats I just need to tap the cymbal icon on the
kit here
you get the idea you can also adjust the pattern played by these individual
sections of the drum kit - in this particular kit I have three percussion
patterns to choose from for hi-hat or simple patterns and eight kick and snare
patterns available
the customization options available to you will vary depending on whether
you're working with an acoustic electronic or percussion drummer you can
adjust the swing value by tapping on this swing button and selecting a value
from the pop-up menu here the fill slider adjusts the amount of fancy stuff
your drummer will insert into their performance cranking it all the way up
will turn your drummer into a flashy show-off and more like a real-life
drummer f-word honesty
dialing things down a bet results in a more restrained low-key performance
so that's how to get you up and running with GarageBand drama track here's a
couple of tips and tricks to help you take your rhythm section to the next
level using the fill slider to add some
personality to your dramas performance as a great way to keep things sounding
as natural as possible you may not want your drummer slotting elaborate fills
into the performance every two seconds though a good way around this is to use
the split function to create a smaller region a point in the project where you
want your drummer to play a fill just before a vocal comes in or before the
chorus or whatever make sure the appropriate drummer region is selected
then move the playhead to where you want the fill to come in
tap twice on the region to bring up your editing options select split from the
menu and cut to separate your region into two now if you select the larger
region Anton the Phil Slater way down then select your new mini region and
turn the slider way up your drummer will put a fill right where you want it and
nowhere else plus by making small adjustments to the fill slider you can
radically alter the fill that your drama please so this is a great way to make
sure your GarageBand project sounds like no one else's
you can have the kick and snare portions of your drama track follow the rhythmic
groove of another track in your project select your drummer region then swipe
the follow switch right to turn it on then choose a track from the pop-up menu
that appears and it's as easy as that really your
drummer will know take the lead rhythm wise from another track in your project
GarageBand for iOS allows for two drummer tracks our time so use them
doubling up on drummers is a great way to fill out your sounds and add
interesting rhythmic overtones to your project personally I think adding a
percussion drummer alongside an acoustic drummer from the rock or songwriting
genres works best but dive in an experiment and it won't be long before
you'll be creating dynamic drummer dues of your own
so there you have it that's how to get to grips with GarageBand for iOS is
excellent drummer feature which of garage bands rhythm options do you find
yourself using most let me know in the comments below
I've been Patrick from the GarageBandGuide.com and I'll see you next time bye