Click Track in GarageBand: Metronome, Count-In, a Click You Can Export and the Split File
· 6 min read
GarageBand is the first DAW most musicians on a Mac ever open, and its metronome does one job well: it counts you in and keeps you in time while you record. What it does not do is end up in the file you export. For a stage file with a click in it, you build the click as a track of its own. If the term is new, what a click track is is the short version. This page walks the route from the GarageBand for Mac User Guide (version 10.4.14).
If the song is on your computer, hear CountIn put a click on every beat of it. Listening is free and needs no account.
The metronome and the count-in
| Control | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Metronome button | Control bar | Turns the click on and off |
| Count-in button | Control bar | Plays a one- or two-bar count-in before recording starts |
| Record > Count-in | Menu bar | Sets the count-in to 1 or 2 bars |
| Tone | GarageBand > Settings (Command-Comma) > Metronome | Changes the sound of the click |
| Volume | Same pane | Sets the volume of the click |
The guide states that "the metronome always plays at the project tempo". The project tempo is set when you create the project, 120 BPM by default, and changed in the display in the control bar.
The same guide warns that the click is heard by a microphone if you record through speakers, so it tells you to listen through headphones or turn the click off. That warning is the clue to the rest of this page: the metronome is something you hear, not something the project contains. Share > Export Song to Disk renders the tracks of the project, and the metronome is not a track.
A click you can export: a track of its own
- Choose Track > New Track and create a software instrument track. Pick a short, dry percussion sound from the library: a rimshot, a side stick, a closed hi-hat or a woodblock if your library has one.
- Draw a MIDI region on the track and put a note on every beat of one bar, with a higher velocity on beat one so the bar line is audible.
- Loop the region to the end of the song. MIDI regions follow the project tempo, so the loop stays on the grid.
- For a count-in inside the file, start the click region one or two bars before the song and move the song's region so that its first beat lands exactly on a click. At 120 BPM in 4/4 one bar is two seconds, so a two-bar count puts the song at four seconds. If you do not know the song's tempo, the free BPM finder reads it from the file.
The guide notes that an imported audio file only follows the project tempo when its Follow Tempo & Pitch checkbox is selected. For a backing track you want the opposite: leave it off, so the song plays exactly as it was recorded and only the click follows the project tempo.
Click left, music right
A click through the whole song only works where the audience cannot hear it, so the file bands use has the click on the left channel and the song on the right. In GarageBand:
- In the track header of the click track, drag the Pan knob fully counterclockwise. You may need to widen the track header to see it.
- On the song's track, drag the Pan knob fully clockwise.
- Choose Share > Export Song to Disk, pick WAVE or MP3, a quality, and click Export.
Two details from the guide matter here. "Any silence at the beginning or end of the project is trimmed", so the file starts with the first sound, which is your count-in. And the guide describes only a Pan knob, with no way to sum a stereo song to mono before panning it, so a part that lives only on the left side of the backing track can get quieter in the right channel. Listen to the right channel on its own before the gig. How the split file works and how to wire it has the diagram.
A song that was not recorded to a click
GarageBand has a Tempo track (Track > Show Tempo Track), and it is the only way in GarageBand to make the project tempo, and with it your click, follow a song that moves. Tempo changes are tempo points: double-click a time position to add one, drag it up or down to change its value, or Control-Option-Command-click and type a BPM. Two points can be joined by a curve for a gradual push.
That is a tempo map built entirely by ear. The guide describes no tempo detection for an imported song, so you play the song, listen where the click starts to lead or lag, add a point, and repeat. For a song that drifts a few beats per minute over a chorus that is a point every few bars; for a four-minute live recording it is an evening. We measured how far famous records move: Stairway to Heaven goes from 71 to about 102 BPM, Honky Tonk Women from 113 to 126.
The click track maker does that measuring for you: it reads every beat from the recording, puts a click on each one with beat one tuned higher, adds the count-in and exports click left, music right, in about a minute. Step by step: how to add a click track to any backing track. GarageBand stays the right place for everything you record to its metronome in the first place.
Other DAWs
The same job in Logic Pro, which adds Smart Tempo for songs that move, REAPER, Ableton Live, Pro Tools and Audacity.
Frequently asked questions
Does GarageBand export the metronome?
No. The metronome plays at the project tempo while you record or play back, but Share > Export Song to Disk renders the tracks of the project, and the metronome is not one. Put the click on a software instrument track with a note on every beat and it exports like any other track.
How long can the count-in be in GarageBand?
One or two bars, set in Record > Count-in. For a longer count, or a count-in inside the exported file, start your click track's region that many bars before the song.
Can GarageBand make a click follow a song that was not recorded to one?
Only by hand: add tempo points in the Tempo track until the project tempo follows the song, bar by bar. Leave Follow Tempo & Pitch off on the backing track so the song itself is not stretched.
How do I put the click on one channel in GarageBand?
Pan the click track fully left and the song track fully right with the Pan knobs in the track headers, then export with Share > Export Song to Disk.
If the song is on your computer, hear CountIn put a click on every beat of it. Listening is free and needs no account.
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