FCP and garageband workflow

[Josh Chan]

Hi all,

as title says, is there a particular workflow that works best when using garageband to score a video being edited on FCP? i tried searching for other post, but couldn't find any, is it because there is a better program or way to make your own music for videos?

also, im quite new to FCP and MACs in general, so i'll have to apologize in advance if i need things explained in baby steps.

[Jonathan Jones]

Hi Josh,

Sorry your post has been sitting in limbo for a few days, but you'll probably find that few threads in this forum address the consumer level apps such as those in the iLife Suite. Not for general lack of interest. It just seems that Mac users in these threads tend to use higher end or pro level apps such as the loops based scoring app "Soundtrack Pro" that is part of the Final Cut Suite, or professional audio recording apps like Logic Pro or ProTools.

Admittedly, Garageband is a pretty amazing app, but it does take some effort to become familiar with it. It is a more scaled down - consumer level combination of the loops based functions of Soundtrack Pro, and the MIDI/live recording functionality of Logic Pro.

A lot of users here also lean towards buy-out libraries of stock music, or programs like Sonicfire Pro from Smartsound, which generates custom length film scores using specially designed segmented music clips.

If you will be using Garageband, you'll may find that it doesn't necessarily provide for simple and seamless integration with FCP.

What I would recommend in this case would be to export a compression or reference of your completed video edit. You can place it anywhere on your drive, but it is probably best to put it in your "Movies" folder. I seem to remember that earlier versions of Garageband 'looked' for the clips there first.

When launching a new Garageband project, you will see a splash screen prompting you to select what type of project you will create (piano , Electric Guitar, Voice, Loops, etc). The last option is "Movie", but that option is hidden below the default window view for the splash screen. You can scroll the window down to see that option and click it.

Each such option doesn't limit what can be done in each option - they all work the same - but these options just help to conform the default GB interface to accommodate what the app thinks will be best for your needs.

When in GB, you can then use the media browser to navigate to your target video, and then just start creating your tracks as needed in the audio timeline section of the interface.

Sorry, I can't really offer much more. I've only used Garageband a couple of times, mostly to see how easy it would be to learn for a group learning exercise.

Just for kicks, here is a recent short promo I made for an iPhone game developer's app. We tend to use a combination of Pro Tools and Sonicfire Pro for our audio work, but since I did this project the same weekend I our learning group was exploring Garageband, I decided to use it for this project. About 95% of the audio was created using Garageband's built-in loops, sound effects and jingle beds. It's a bit rough and silly, but only took maybe a little over an hour to complete the audio using Garageband.

YouTube - Custom Hangman for the iPhone and iPod Touch

-Jon