Recording Midi in Garageband 11

Hi everyone! My name is Juan Manuel and I am from Lima, Peru Today, Ill be showing you how to add a software instrument, record MIDI and quantize

The ingredients...
As a DAW, Im using Garageband 11 for Mac

I will be recording Midi using an old Casio CTK-811EX (a keyboard with a Midi output)

I am also using a USB Midisport 2x2, as a Midi interface (from a Midi cable to a USB connection) with the latest driver installed on my Mac

Preparing the project

Ill start of by creating a new project, which I will save as Week 2 As you can see below, this creates a Project folder, where all the separate files will be stored:

Preparing the project

After the project has been created, I will set the digital audio preferences (its best to do this at the beginning) Garageband doesnt let you set the sample rate and bit depth arbitrarily, so Ill just have to accept the best predetermined settings (44.1 kHz and 24-bit)

Preparing for recording

Before recording, the first step is to actually plug in the Midi interface:
Mute the track in Garageband Plug in the Midi interface Turn the volume back up

The second step is to set the click (the metronome) and count-in on

Recording
I used headphones connected to my computer to hear the metronome, but I used the external audio (the amps) of the keyboard in order to hear what I play and avoid delays By hitting the r key, Garageband starts recording what you play The output of this process is a Midi track which contains the notes that you just played:

Recording
Theres another way to view the tracks contents and thats called the piano roll editor or the graphic editor:

Working on the track

As I was playing I unintentionally hit an additional note (I just suck at keyboard) My first step in editing is going to be to remove that extra note:

Working on the track

My next step involves selecting all the notes in the track and quantize note timing (I select 1/64 note): This step moves all the notes I played closer to the moment where I should have actually played them

Working on the track

After that, I listened to the track and noticed that the end note was still way off, so I selected that group of notes (marked in green in the screenshot) and quantized them closer (1/32 note):

Working on the track

Finally, I decided to use a sampler to make it sound like a set of strings:

Recording Midi in Garageband 11

Thank you for taking the time to read this document! In case youre curious, you can find the final audio here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL0uaux3_2Q