This is the start up screen to the almighty GarageBand. Seeing as I already had the existing file from producing my jingle, I simply built upon this small piece and so, selected 'Open as existing project' from this menu. The next step was to then make an index of all the sound clips I wanted to incorporate into the piece in iTunes.
I first created a new playlist, imaginatively named 'joel' to house my new directory of clips that would be my source file from now on. Using iTunes directly rather than working from a standard file on my flash drive or on the computer's desktop enabled me to preview clips before insertion and convert awkward clips to AAC format which usually worked when the occasional '.mov' or '.wav' file played up. This was an invaluable tool during the process of production and saved me a
huge amount of time.
No sooner had I finally started to slot sound clips into place, than I was back searching through 'loops'. This time, the purpose was to find a repetitive yet modern and minimalistic sounding background melody to lay over the top of the initial presenter introduction to give it a fuller and more professional sound. The clip turned out like this:
This was very easy to make as it was simply a case of selecting three seperate loops that I felt fit well together, and then laying them over the top of each other and bringing them in with slight fades.
After a few more sound clip inserts, the next challenge was to create a realistic sounding riot to lay over the top of 'Tom Stenton's OB Report. I did this by utilising a 5 second clip found on iMovie of a 'booing crowd'. To make this very short clip last the full length of the two speaking clips needed, I first tried repeating the clip in a uniform way but it sounded too regular and unlike a real crowd. I therefore split the clip up into segments and alternated these segments to make an irregular pattern to include occasional whistles, along with louder and quieter patches. Once I had created a clip length that I was satisfied with, I could now simply repeat this clip over and again without it sounding fake.
The next stage of the production was one of fine tuning rather than of structural development. When moving onto the volume leveling of my product, there were two tools that were in use most; the master volume indicator located in the bottom right of the GarageBand window and the individual track volume sliders displayed as an arrow on each track's menu on the left of the window. Clicking this arrow will reverse it and reveal a drop-down menu that contains a thick blue shuded area below the track in question. The width of this blue section indicates the volume of the track. In the picture below, it is clearly visible where I have used fades and which tracks are naturally louder that required me to lower the overall volume to keep a constant volume throughout.
Once finished leveling out all of the un-even volume spots to create a professional sound relieved of blemishes, The final task was to take an overview of the whole product and play it right the way through several times to spot any slight mistakes that I could then zoom in on and sort out.
So, I now had a finalised product with all sound clips inserted, all sound effects blended in and all volume levels at a satisfactory constant level. What to do next?...export!
Using the GarageBand toolbar at the top of the screen, clicking on the 'Share' icon will release a drop down menu containing the option to 'Export song to disk'. Selecting this feature will present the oportunity to save the project as a finalised .mp3 file in a range of qualities, along with their estimated file sizes. The project is now COMPLETE!
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