Question

Studio Live 24.4.2 (non-AI)

MacBook Pro, 2.5GHz i5, 4GB memory, OS X El Capitan version 10.11, GarageBand '11 version 6.0.5

My band would like to record each instrument individually.  We are going to mic and record the drums first while guitars and bass run direct into the board to play along.  We will all be listening using headphones out of the aux sends.  But, after we have the drum tracks recorded into Garage Band, is there a way to play back the drum tracks while now recording the bass?  Then, play back drum tracks and bass track while recording guitar 1?  Then, play back drum tracks, bass track, and guitar 1 track while recording guitar 2? And then same to add lead vocals, then backup vocals?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Garage Band was not designed to do what you are trying to accomplish. You need to graduate to better tool for this. Garage Band is designed for simple audio input (your Mic input on your Mac) or a USB Audio microphone for example.

Your StudioLive 2442 comes with a free copy of Studio One Artist which will allow you to record all the inputs at the same time. There you can record all your tracks. Then go back and re-record more while muting others and sending audio to different aux's as needed.

Looking at your account I do not see the StudioLive 2442 registered. Take a moment to register it by logging into your account at http://my.presonus.com. Upon registering the mixer, Studio One will appear in your account. You can then download it, install it and start using it for what you are trying to accomplish.

You can also use Capture software available in your my.presonus.com account or on our download page here: http://www.presonus.com/support/downloads/Capture

Using Capture, it will record all the inputs (like a big tape machine) to a single folder, there you can find the stems that you can then import into Garage Band.

Answer 2

You can do this, actually.  You have to set up GarageBand to use the audio interface for both the input and the output.  By default, the output of GarageBand will go to the input of Channels 1 & 2 (Left & Right) of the StudioLive mixer.  Make sure you turn on the FireWire returns for channels 1 & 2 on the SL mixer.  You can change in GarageBand what you want to hear, too.  Say you want to only hear the drum tracks out of GarageBand, you can simply solo on those drum tracks.  Then when you set up other channels from the SL mixer to interface with GarageBand as certain inputs (say channel 10 is your lead guitar and you set up an input on GarageBand for lead guitar), you can listen via headphones to Channels 1, 2, and 10 on the SL mixer to get the drums previously recorded in GarageBand and the Lead Guitar that is being recorded in that take.

The only issue I've noticed is that I get a lot of static noise when I route the output of GarageBand into the SL mixer...haven't figured out that issue.  But as you record it's not as noticeable.