Importing audio from Garageband

stratology · Post by **stratology** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:22 pm

Hi, I am trying to import tracks from GarageBand into DP 4.61. I lock (freeze) a track in GarageBand, then go to the song file, show package contents, and copy the .aif file of the track to the desktop. Importing into DP (via drag and drop, or the Import menu), does not work. Don't quite understand why, it's a regular .aif file, and I have read and write permissions. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Frank

billf · Post by **billf** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:44 pm

Are you using the Soundbites window?

stratology · Post by **stratology** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:09 pm

Yes, tried both the Tracks and the Soundbites window, and the Import menu in the main menu and the Soundbites mini menu (which seem to be the same).

The .aif file is not greyed out when I use the Import menu, but when I select it, it does not show up in the small preview window, so the 'Add' button is not active.

Frank

rumorcontrol · Post by **rumorcontrol** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:56 pm

One easy way is to just go to your HD>LIBRARY>AUDIO>APPLE LOOPS>APPLE>LOOPS FOR GARAGEBAND and just drag them onto your desktop or into the Soundbites window.....( be sure to make a duplicate if it removes it from the original location).Once in the Soundbites window DP should see them.......RC

stratology · Post by **stratology** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:16 pm

Dragging AppleLoops into the soundbite window works, but this is not what I'm trying to do - I'm trying to import an .aif file that was extracted from the package of a GarageBand song file - not a loop, but something I recorded, put effects on and froze (locked).
The AppleLoops look exactly the same as the file I'm trying to import - same icon, .aif file. Don't know why it works for the loop, but not for the file I took from the package.
The DP project is set to 16bit/44.1k, so that's not the problem...

??

Frank

zedboy · Post by **zedboy** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:27 pm

Don't know if this will help, but I've always had to Export from Garageband to iTunes, then drag that file into the DP project. If there's a better way, I'd love to know, because I've always found this way so stupid.

glsimonsen · Post by **glsimonsen** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 6:14 am

Let me bump this thread since I'm going thru the same roundabout.

stratology · Post by **stratology** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:05 am

For the record, I compared the loop and the extracted .aif files with XRay and FileXaminer, to see if there are any differences in obscure permissions etc, to no avail.

I went the 'export each single track to iTunes, then import to DP' route that I wanted to avoid - clumsy...

I guess even as a sketch book for quickly taking down a few tracks GarageBand is not such a good idea

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:16 am

The issue is Garageband and Logic Frozen audio files are in a 32 bit Floating Point format and you need to convert the format to something DP will read. Like 24/48 SDII Format.

I Use Barbabatch to convert all my Logic/Garageband Frozen Audio Track Files to SDII (DP's native) format....

Also as the previous poster stated, using itunes is a cheaper route. Convert the files to AIFF with itunes works wonderfully....

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 11:55 pm

This is a free plug in that allows you to stream GB into DP and record it live. I got it to work once, but it's really easy to get confused. At least for a guy like me.

http://www.jackosx.com

Tonio · Post by **Tonio** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 3:58 pm

DSP-Quattro imports just about everything float 32bit etc etc. Its on sale @50% off through today!!. I got mines!!

http://www.i3net.it/Products/dspQuattro ... anguage=EN

How do you extract the file GB? Does it have to be the whole tune or can you extract just one tracK?

T

stratology · Post by **stratology** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 11:22 am

Single tracks. What I was trying to do was to go to the GarageBand song file, which is a package, show the package contents, copy .aif files to the desktop, and then import them into GarageBand. Didn't work, see giles117's explanation.
Soloing each track and then exporting it into iTunes as a song worked.

Thanks to everybody for the helpful comments!!

Frank

Tonio · Post by **Tonio** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 1:41 pm

I tried JACK OS, got GB running to DP!! Levels are kinda low so, some tweeking there is something to consider.

beubbo · Post by **beubbo** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:20 pm

giles117 wrote:The issue is Garageband and Logic Frozen audio files are in a 32 bit Floating Point format and you need to convert the format to something DP will read. Like 24/48 SDII Format.

I Use Barbabatch to convert all my Logic/Garageband Frozen Audio Track Files to SDII (DP's native) format....

Also as the previous poster stated, using itunes is a cheaper route. Convert the files to AIFF with itunes works wonderfully....

Hi giles117,

Thanks for sharing knowledge... though I was aware of that issue as I've tried to convert some IRs in WAV format to deinterleaved SDII via DP drag&drop facility and wasn't able because of the 32-bit sample format, so I ended up doing it first in LIVE (32-bit > 24-bit) cause I didn't own DSP Q at that time (bought it just yesterday...) and finally being able to import the files in DP.

Here's my question : as I haven't seen this option available both in LIVE & DSP Q manual, I wondered if there is any *invisible* dithering applied by default to resulting files when converting sample format from 32-bit (float or integer, what the difference..?) to 24-bit ?

Or is it just unnecessary & only requested for final pre-masters from 24 to 16-bit !?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Tonio · Post by **Tonio** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:01 pm

DSPQ has a prefference for the dithering algo. I think it was the gen 1 tab. It should be defaulted to off(non dither). I'm not at the comp now, so you may need to get a actual look at it.

Can't answer for Live.