Mastering The Transport Bar

Gaining quick control of the Transport Bar

Just about every piece of music software has inherited its playback controls from the days of the tape recorder, and GarageBand is no exception.

In addition to the Record, Play, Rewind and Fast-forward buttons, there is also a Cycle button, which can be used, in conjunction with the Time Ruler, to loop a specific section of a song.

Garageband's time display shows the current song position in beats and measures, or can be switched to display time in minutes and seconds. The current song tempo is also shown next to the time, in BPM (Beats Per Minute) which can be quickly adjusted using the mouse; simply click on the tempo and drag vertically.

Transport Bar Tip
If you want to quickly calculate the length of your song, you can use the Time Display window to display hours, minutes and seconds. Adjusting the tempo will change the playing time of a track accordingly.

The Transport Bar Explained.

The Transport Bar is GarageBand's central control panel.

• 1: The Record Button is used to activate recording on the currently selected track and works for basic tracks and Software Instument tracks.
• 2: The current song position displayed in measures (bars) and beats. Click on the note icon to switch into time-based mode.
• 3: The master output control and meter should be used to set the correct output level (ensure the round red indicators do not light during playback).
• 4: Displays the current playback tempo of the project. To set the tempo, click and hold, then use the slider to set a new value.
• 5: The Cycle Button can be used in conjunction with the Time Ruler to loop a section of a project continuously.
• 6: The familiar tape recording style transport controls are used to control the overall operation of GarageBand and your recorded tracks.