I use GarageBand for sketches

GarageBand has a big limitation when it comes to drum tracks. And I want to talk about why this matters.

See, I hate playing to a click. I can do it, but it’s not rewarding. I want to make music that breathes, and to do that, the way it means something to me, I cannot live on the grid. I can’t do it. It kills me creatively and robs me of inspiration. It’s not just that I myself need to be able to play around the beat, it’s that I need the drums to do the same. When I sit down to track the guitar I deeply, deeply desire an organic space. Same as live.

That’s off-topic, though. The topic is this: GarageBand doesn’t really support changes in time signature. If you’re like me when you’re sketching out a song, you probably don’t have the circumstances to mic a drum set before you start laying down guitar and vocals, and you probably don’t program drum beats as step one of your process. And if you’re like me, the rhythm section is still important to you. It’s what takes me from a maybe idea to a validated idea, and lets my abstract idea of some phrasing coalesce into something I can get jazzed about.

So the auto drummer in GarageBand is a big part of my process. I wish it wasn’t, but it is. I’m looking for alternatives.

But the auto drummer lives off the GarageBand time setting deal, and boy is that a master. Time signature is set for the whole project. Period. End of story. Well, I like changing time signatures. But when you do that, the auto drummer does too. Some beat I tweaked to get it just right in 6/8 dies dead when I move it to 4/4. It saddens me.

The workaround exists: copy-paste your drum track to a midi track before you change the time signature. It works, and then of course you can easily program the drums from the midi track if that’s your thing. Then the auto drummer track becomes something of a drum track generator and you copy-paste into various midi tracks or the same one — whatever works for you. It’s possible, but it’s not good. It takes time and puts you in a computer flow rather than a creative flow.

I’m experimenting with my drum machine. Maybe that’ll be a more organic route for my sketches. Or maybe I need to pick up a little electric kit or get happy with an imperfect miking of my acoustic kit. I’m not set yet, but I sure could use a good solution. I love the drums.