
Ducking backing tracks
You may sometimes want to lower the volume of backing tracks to hear spoken narration or dialogue more easily, especially when creating podcasts. Lowering the volume of some tracks to make others easier to hear is called "ducking."
In GarageBand, you apply ducking by setting which tracks are lead tracks and which are backing tracks. Whenever there is sound on a lead track, the volume of the backing tracks is lowered while the volume of all other tracks stays the same. You can apply ducking to any Real or Software Instrument track in your podcast.
To apply ducking:
- Choose Control > Ducking.
- Click the arrow pointing up on each track you want to make a lead track.
- Click the arrow pointing down on each track you want to make a backing track.
- Choose Track > Show Track Info. When the Track Info pane appears, click the Details triangle.
- Drag the Ducking Amount slider to adjust the amount of ducking.
A ducking control (with arrows pointing up and down) appears in each track's header.
To disable ducking, deselect the Ducking Amount checkbox.
When you play the project, send it to iWeb, or export it, the backing tracks are ducked whenever there is sound on any lead track.
Applying ducking causes a short delay (called "latency") between when you play a Real or Software Instrument and when you hear it. For information about dealing with latency, see Related Topics below.
Related Topics
There's a delay between when I play and when I hear it
