GarageBand 1.1 and custom instruments

May 21, '04 09:46:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

Apple updated GarageBand to 1.1 this week and in doing so, fixed the long-broken DLS Music Device. This means that you can now use SoundFont and DLS sound banks as Software Instruments. There are many nice free sound banks available on the web. You can also create your own sound banks using my favorite Mac sound bank editor, PolyPhontics. Cool!

To use a SF2 or DLS sound bank with GarageBand, follow these steps:

  1. Place the sound bank file (SF2 or DLS) in one of these two places: ~/Library -> Audio -> Sounds -> Banks (for current user only) or /Library -> Audio -> Sounds -> Banks (for all users)
  2. Launch GarageBand and either add a software instrument track, or double-click an existing one. At the bottom of the track settings window that appears, select DLSMusicDevice from the Generator popup menu.
  3. Click the rightmost button that is in the same row as the Generator popup. A dialog appears where you can select your DLS or SF2 sound bank file.
  4. By default, it loads the first instrument in the bank. If you want to change to other instruments, you must do so via MIDI. Simply send a program change event to select other instruments in the sound bank. (e.g. changing sounds on your MIDI keyboard controller is often sufficient)
That's it, now go make and play some music!

[robg adds: A very nearly identical story appears on MacJams, also submitted there by an anonymous reader. Based on the closeness of the datestamps (within five hours of one another) of the stories in both systems (they also run Geeklog), I'd wager they were submitted by the same person. So I don't think this is a case of site plagiarism, just a case of one person submitting the same story to a couple places. Thanks to Chris H. for pointing out the MacJams article!]

Comments (6)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20040520030513851