How To Fade In GarageBand

Have you wondered why your audio files are popping or there's an odd sound when you try and merge two different regions in GarageBan?

Or maybe you'd like to fade your entire track out in GarageBand?

Both of these questions have to do with crossfading tracks in GarageBand and also fading out the master track in GarageBand.

We'll go over both of these questions in this post.

By the way, if you prefer to watch a video on how to crossfade in GarageBand then you can do so here:

This happens when two tracks, for instance, a result of multiple vocal takes, have been merged together without being cross faded. This pop would be very subtle but creating a fade will make your audio blend in seamlessly. A cross fade in its essence is making one audio fade down in volume and the other track to fade up in volume

 Although this process is a lot easier using Logic Pro, as creating the cross fade is automatic once you overlap two audio tracks. Many other more professional DAWs also offer ease in doing cross fades. This might take time to practise but it gets easier once you do it more often.

The first step in achieving a cross fade is to do the process inside automation, in order for us to do that click on “view here” and press A.

Afterwards, duplicate the track by pressing command+D then bring one of the regions down. 

Make sure that it says Volume in each drop down and click on each track to generate two yellow lines. These yellow lines represent the volume of the tracks, make sure that both are on the same level of volume.

The second step is to drag the first track forward and the second track a bit backward so that it looks like they are overlapping. Select certain points in the volume, one going up and one going down. You can opt to create a similar shape as the one in the photo however you can always adjust it to be longer or shorter.

As a bonus you can also do an overall fade in or fade out of the whole track. All you have to do is click on:

Track > Show Master Track.

If you scroll to the very bottom, this is where all the tracks go. If you are familiar with the mastering process, this is where you add plug-ins and effects to finish your song and make it louder and compressed. It is essentially the same steps, open up the automation on the master track by clicking on A and make sure it is also on volume. Scroll to the very end of the song, and make a good note where you want the song to end.

In this example, we will be creating fade and the song finishes by bar 75. Make sure your cursor is on bar 75, make the selection and then create another selection on bar 73, this is where our fade starts you can make it as long or as short as you like.

Drag the selection on bar 75 down and that is how you create your fade out in the master track. Using the same steps you can also make a fade in but instead of it going down it will be the opposite.

Those are the steps to creating fades and crossfades in GarageBand. This will significantly help your song in order to make it sound cleaner and more professional.

Stay tuned for more GarageBand how-to's.