If you hover over the Quick Help button itself when enabled, a set of tips for the app’s main working areas are displayed. The Quick Help button, represented by a question mark in the top left corner of the transport bar, enables GarageBand’s ‘self-help’ mode, offering yellow text boxes that explain the function of the object currently under the mouse pointer. GarageBand’s Arrangement Track is useful for trying out new layouts of existing projects (reveal it by selecting Show Arrangement Track from the Track menu), but if you set up an array of arrangement markers at the start of a project, then add a Drummer Track, the Drummer Track will automatically populate your arrangement with different regions for each section. This affects Software Instrument tracks, pitched Apple Loops and audio tracks with the Follow Tempo and Pitch box checked. If you find yourself restricted to a particular key because you only have one version of a particular Apple loop, select Show Transposition Track from the Track menu and you can transpose whole sections of your project by plotting points on a curve. The automation lanes for all tracks can be revealed by pressing the A key. Select the Show Master Track option in the Track menu, and access the plugin slots by clicking the Output tab in the Smart Controls pane.

When mixing, you can display the Master track in the main window to add effects and automation to the master stereo bus. The Download Logic Remote option in the GarageBand menu will take you to the app’s iTunes Store page. You can navigate and mix projects, record new tracks and even play software instruments from an iPhone or iPad connected to the same network as your computer. If you have an iOS device, you can use Apple’s free Logic Remote iOS app to control GarageBand remotely.

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