Drummer is ane of GarageBand's virtually impressive features. It offers an easy mode to add together professional drum tracks to your project, with almost unlimited customization options.

If you've never used Drummer in GarageBand earlier, we'll explain everything you need to know to brand the about of information technology in your next projection.

What Is the Drummer Feature?

Drummer feature in GarageBand

GarageBand's Drummer is a software instrument that plays automatic drum patterns to use in your musical projects.

You can choose between 28 virtual drummers and three virtual percussionists, each with their own personal style. You can also edit the rhythm, sounds, and patterns of what Drummer plays to perfectly match your track.

If you lot oasis't already, get to GarageBand > Sound Library > Download All Available Sounds to download every Drummer pick to your Mac.

In case yous like to utilise loops with GarageBand, this too downloads the entire collection of free loops from Apple.

How to Add Drummer to GarageBand

To add Drummer to your GarageBand project, all yous need to do is create a new rails. Go to Track > New Runway from the carte du jour bar and select Drummer from the popup window that appears.

Track Type popup window in GarageBand

Alternatively, press Selection + Cmd + U to instantly add a new Drummer track.

After you add a Drummer track, GarageBand creates an 8-bar region at the showtime of your project. It also opens the Library and the Editor windows to let you cull your virtual drummer, kit, and Beat Preset.

Choose a Drummer

The Library window on the left shows all the unlike GarageBand virtual drummers, separated into seven musical genres:

  • Rock
  • Alternative
  • Songwriter
  • R&B
  • Electronic
  • Hip Hop
  • Percussion

Choose a genre, then select an available drummer to read a short paragraph about their playing fashion.

Drummer selection in Garageband

Each drummer offers a unlike playing style. Information technology might have a while to become to know each of them, then for now, focus on the sub-genre next to their name. You lot can always experiment with different drummers further down the line.

Cull a Kit

Irresolute the drum kit doesn't alter what Drummer plays; only how the actual drums sound. Every pulsate kit is available for every virtual drummer, although each one has a preferred kit they default to.

Later choosing a virtual drummer, hit Infinite to listen to them play. And so select unlike kits in the Sounds section of the Library.

Drum Kit selection for Drummer in GarageBand

Don't worry about the drum blueprint they're playing. Instead, listen to the tone of the kit or the audio of individual drums. You tin tweak the controls in the Smart Controls window to further edit the audio, only we'll get into that later.

Cull a Vanquish Preset

The Beat out Preset refers to the actual pulsate pattern that Drummer plays. If y'all inverse the drum kit, press E to open the Drummer Editor once again and observe a list of Crush Presets at the left edge of the window.

Beat Presets in the Drummer Editor Window

Each virtual drummer offers a different selection of Beat Presets to fit their genre. Click through each of them to observe a drum blueprint you like for your projection.

Don't worry if the Beat Preset isn't perfect; we'll edit it in a moment.

Construction Your Drummer Rails

If y'all don't desire Drummer to play the same drum pattern for your entire project, you demand to create separate Drummer regions in the Workspace window. You can edit the settings for each region so Drummer plays different patterns for the intro, verse, and chorus of your song.

Hover your mouse over the right edge of a Drummer region to reveal an Add (+) button. Click that to create a duplicate region immediately subsequently the original. Then elevate and driblet it somewhere else, conform the length, or loop it to fit your vocal construction.

Add button after Drummer region

A indistinguishable region starts with the same settings as the original. Just you can cull a new Shell Preset and edit other settings to change it up. Unfortunately, yous tin't change the drummer or drum kit without affecting all the other regions in the same track.

We also suggest adding brusque regions wherever you lot want to include drum fills. The easiest way to do this is to movement the playhead where you want the fill, select the Drummer region, and so printing Cmd + T to split it into two regions.

Drum Fill splitting a Drummer region

How to Edit the Drummer Settings in GarageBand

Using a Beat Preset is a quick style to go started with Drummer. All the same, you lot can take far more control over what Drummer plays past adjusting the X/Y Pad, design variations, and style knobs in the Editor window.

Double-click a particular Drummer region to open the Editor. And so arrange the settings below to edit that region, making it different from what Drummer plays elsewhere.

Tweak the X/Y Pad

The X/Y Pad offers a quick and easy way to change the drum pattern to lucifer your projection. Drag and drib the yellow puck to unlike areas of the pad to completely modify the pattern that Drummer plays.

X:Y Pad in Drummer Editor

Moving along the X-axis changes the pulsate pattern from Simple to Complex, while the Y-axis changes from Soft to Loud.

You don't demand to elevate the puck to the far corners of the pad. Small movements still change the drum patterns a surprising amount.

Cull Your Percussion Sounds and Pattern Variations

To the correct of the X/Y pad, you lot should see a drum kit or a grid of percussion instruments, depending on your chosen drummer. You might see cymbals, toms, shakers, bongos, or other instruments.

Click to highlight a percussion sound if you want to include it in your pattern. Alternatively, remove the highlight if you lot don't want to hear that sound.

Percussion instrument pattern variations in Drummer Editor

The sliders next to each percussion sound let y'all change the pattern variation for it. Generally speaking, moving the slider to the right tells Drummer to use that sound more than often in the pulsate blueprint.

Nevertheless, the last two positions for the Boot & Snare sounds permit you choose betwixt half-time and double-fourth dimension drum patterns.

If your drummer uses brushes, yous can also apply a checkbox below these sliders to change the castor fashion.

Kick & Snare pattern variation showing half-time and Brush Sweep options

Add Fills and Swing

The right side of the Drummer Editor shows two knobs. These both allow you lot change the style of playing for your selected region.

Increase the Fills level to make Drummer play longer and more than complex fills throughout the drum pattern. A fill is an elaborate flourish, or a drum roll, that adds multifariousness to the song. Information technology usually comes at the finish of a region.

Increment the Swing level to add a jazz-like swing to the rhythm of the pulsate blueprint. This works best if other instruments in your project as well play in swing time. Use the 8th and 16th buttons to choose how fast y'all want the swing to exist.

Fills and Swing knobs in Drummer Editor

Shut the padlock next to either of these knobs to lock those levels. That way, yous can alter the Beat Preset, the design settings, or fifty-fifty the virtual drummer without losing your Fills or Swing level.

How to Mix the Drummer in GarageBand

After creating a series of pulsate patterns to apply in your projection, you still need to mix the Drummer track to get the best sounds out of information technology. The easiest style to do this is using the Smart Controls window.

Select your drummer runway and press B to open up the Smart Controls. Apply the knobs that announced to adjust the volume for each of the drums in your drum kit.

Smart Controls for Drummer in GarageBand

You can fifty-fifty employ the lights abreast each knob to plow certain drums off entirely.

The Compression knob allows yous to "squash" the audio of your drums, making them experience louder. And you can apply the Tone and Room levels to change the overall timbre of your kit.

Dissimilar pulsate kits offering dissimilar Smart Controls. Simply you lot can get even more command over your sound by converting Drummer regions to MIDI tracks.

Convert Drummer Regions to MIDI Tracks

If you recorded a real drum kit, you lot would commonly create a carve up audio rail for each drum. This offers more than control over the sound, every bit y'all can mix each pulsate independently.

To accomplish the aforementioned consequence with Drummer in GarageBand, you need to convert your Drummer regions to MIDI. Create a software instrument track by going to Track > New Track in the menu bar. Then change the instrument to match the drum kit you chose earlier.

At present click and drag to select all your Drummer regions at in one case. Press Cmd + C to copy them, then highlight your new software instrument track and printing Cmd + Five to paste your Drummer regions equally MIDI.

Drummer track copied into MIDI track

Open the MIDI Editor to edit the timing, velocity, quantization, and other parameters for your drum patterns.

Alternatively, select every beat out from a particular drum, which you tin exercise by clicking the relevant note on the MIDI sidebar keyboard. And so paste them into a separate software instrument runway to separate your Drummer region again. Repeat this process to create individual tracks for each drum in your Drummer regions.

Drummer region turned into separate MIDI drums

At present you can add together plugins, change the EQ, or adapt the level and pan for each drum to create the perfect mix.

Larn All There Is to Know About GarageBand

Learning how to use the Drummer characteristic is crucial if you want to make the most of GarageBand. Merely Drummer isn't the only worthwhile feature in this music product software.

Check out our guide on how to utilise GarageBand to larn all in that location is to know about loops, software instruments, score editors, and more.

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