Adding your own loops

[ginopiazza49]

A few questions about adding loops:

1) When you add loops where do they get saved?

2) When you add a loop is it saved permentally, or is the loop used in just the current song?

3) If the loop is permentally saved, how can you find it?

 

[Ratboy]

I assume that you are referring to a loop of a real instrument you recorded in GarageBand and not a loop which you've run through Soundtrack's Loop Utility and are adding to the Loop Browser.

1) All recorded loops are saved in one master file, not individually. By default they will be in ~/Music/GarageBand.

2) The loop is only available in the current song. It is possible, though, using Soundtrack Loop Utility to add the necessary meta information to a track and add it permanently to the Loop Browser. (I'll explain how if you want to do this.)

3) The only way to permanently save an individual loop (again, assuming that you are referring to a loop of a real instrument you recorded) would be to isolate the track using the little headphones button, and export the song to iTunes. This will create an AIFF file which will be in ~/music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Artist Name.

 

[jcroft]

I disagree with Ratboy.

1. If you drag Apple Lopps (AIFF files) to the loops browser, they'll be permanently saved to /Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Loops

2. it's available for any future use, if you drag it to the loop browser and let it index it.

3. Once you drag it in, it will be indexed and let you search for it.

 

[Ratboy]

I think we're answering different questions, and we're both right.

I read the question as meaning "if I add a loop to my song by dragging it into a track…?"

After reading your response and re-reading the question, I think your interpretation, "if I add a loop by dragging a file into the Loop Browser…?", was the intent of ginopiazza49, though.

 

[jcroft]

Yeah, I think you're right. If you drag a sound file into a track, you're adding that sound to the song, not to the library.