Garageband experts - file playing too fast.

[upsidedown]

Sent a mix of a song to a singer so he could import it into GarageBand and sing his part. He's not a Mac guy - he's using his wife's Macbook - but was able to create a GB project, make 2 tracks and import my mix to one of them. So far so good. Then...not so much.

Looking for advice on how to solve a problem I've never encountered, having sent and received files many times over the years; the mix I sent him is playing too fast. Like a 33 1/3 rpm record playing at 45. Or 78 even.

Read some stuff online and the closest thing I could find to my issue was "GarageBand plays everything at a sample rate of 44.1K. If you import something recorded at a sample rate of 48K it will play slower and at a lower pitch in GB. If you import something sampled at a rate of 22K, it will play faster and at a higher pitch in GarageBand."

But, if it's possible to change sample rates on GB, I haven't figured out how.

Anyone have ideas?

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by upsidedown

…Looking for advice on how to solve a problem I've never encountered, having sent and received files many times over the years; the mix I sent him is playing too fast. Like a 33 1/3 rpm record playing at 45. Or 78 even.
…Anyone have ideas?

Hi ud

Not sure there is a firm, nor quick answer without a bunch of fiddling if you attempt to solve it for Garage Band alone.

I'd just redo the track in a different DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) on your end, and export the track as an mp3. Send it to him to listen via an ear bud on a phone, while he records his track at the same time on a computer, in the format you need for your software. Email it back.

An example of a great free DAW is Audacity. It's open source, updated frequently, and free for Windows, Mac & I think Linux.

A lot of YouTube recordings of choirs comprised of singers from around the world are done this way. Accompaniment downloadable as mp3, imported and played back on phone while new recording is done on a computer.

Out of curiosity, if he's not experienced, how is he going to record it on his end? Does he have a decent mic/preamp/interface?

Hope this contributes to the answer…

[j3ffr0]

If they key signature (top center) of the project is changed it plays back everything fast and squeaky. I moved it once to try to accurately reflect the key the song was in, and found that out. I now leave everything set to Cmaj. Seems like a terribly designed feature.

[keith.rogers]

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, at least not with an audio file import. If you sent MIDI, then, well, the tempo settings could change stuff.

EDIT: If the track is selected and the "Follow Tempo & Pitch" checkbox is checked in the region window, it *will* screw things up! See attached, and tell the GB user to make sure this box is unchecked.

But, without that change, an audio file will not be altered.

The version of GB I have will do an automatic sample rate conversion to 44.1kHz (the only one it supports in its projects). And, even if it didn't, anything you sent would have to be higher, which would mean it would be slower, right?

I just imported an audio track that was 48kHz and it even had embedded tempo information, and it auto-converted correctly, and changing the project tempo or key had no effect on what I was hearing. (The default for a new track in my version of GB is to not have the "Follow Tempo & Pitch" option checked.)

[upsidedown]

Thanks all, for the suggestion.

Not sure why, but the problem seems to have resolved itself? Sent the same file again, so whatever the receiver did on his end, which I may never know, apparently did the trick.

As I mentioned, this issue was a first for me - otherwise it's been smooth sailing - so I'm frankly not that interested HOW it worked. Just glad it did.

Thanks again.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by upsidedown

…so I'm frankly not that interested HOW it worked. Just glad it did.

Hi ud

Me too!!