To merge tracks in GarageBand on your Mac, you can use the Join Regions option in the edit menu or hit the shortcut Command J. To do this on your iPhone, you can simply tap on the track header and then hit Merge to bring the tracks together into one.
I’m Donovan, and I’ve been writing, producing, and recording music for years. I have a lot of experience working with GarageBand and know most of the tools and features this awesome app offers.
This post will show you how to merge tracks in GarageBand. I’ll walk you through the steps to make this happen on your Mac and iPhone and provide you with some other information to help you get better at recording with the app.
Let’s get after it.
Contents
Key Takeaways
- Merging tracks or regions in GarageBand is a great way to clean up your projects to make them easier to share or mix.
- The process for merging is slightly different on the macOS and iOS versions of GarageBand.
- It’s always a good idea to save an unmerged version of your track in case you want to go back to edit with the tracks better separated.
Initial Thoughts
Merging tracks is a great skill to know how to do as part of the editing process. It will help you trim and organize your projects so you don’t have a ridiculous amount of tracks open in a current project.
Merging also makes it much easier to share your tracks with other people if you want to collaborate. When other musicians don’t need to sift through as many tracks in a project, they can add new parts much easier.
Other apps and audio recording software use a similar method for merging tracks, so learning to do this in GarageBand is a good skill to develop before you move on to more professional-level recording platforms.
How to Merge Tracks in GarageBand Mac
Merging tracks in GarageBand on your Mac is pretty easy, and learning how to do this will clean up your projects for editing or sharing with others.
Follow these steps to merge tracks in GarageBand on your Mac:
1. Open the GarageBand app.
2. Open the project with the tracks you want to merge.
3. Select all the tracks or regions you want to merge into a single track. You can do this by clicking and dragging the mouse or cursor over all of the regions or by holding Shift and then clicking on all the tracks you want to merge.
4. Select the Edit tab from the top main menu.
5. Select Join Regions from the drop-down menu.
6. You might see an alert window appear asking you if you are sure you want to join the tracks or regions. Select Join or Yes if you do.
7. The selected tracks will be merged into a single track.
Quick Tip: You can also hit the shortcut of Command J to join the tracks or region. You still need to select the proper tracks you want to merge, but this shortcut can speed up your workflow, especially if you are merging lots of tracks.
How to Merge Tracks in GarageBand iPhone
The process for merging tracks in GarageBand on an iPhone is a bit different than on a Mac. But it’s still very easy and serves the same purpose of helping you better organize your tracks for editing or sharing.
To merge tracks in GarageBand on your iPhone, follow these steps:
1. Open the GarageBand app on your iPhone.
2. Open the project with the tracks you want to merge by going to your My Songs folder.
3. Tap on the track header of your tracks to select it.
4. Tap on the track again, and then tap Merge from the available options.
5. The project window will change slightly, and you’ll see dots to the left of each track in your project. Tap this dot to select all of the tracks you want to merge. You can choose two or more tracks and don’t need to select them all.
6. Tap Merge in the upper-right corner of the screen.
7. Your tracks will all be merged into one stereo track.
Quick Tip: Make sure you tap on the track header and not the track itself to find the merge option. If you tap on the track, you won’t see it appear. The track header is to the left of the track and will show an icon for whatever instrument is displayed.
How to Unmerge Tracks in GarageBand
If you recently merged tracks in GarageBand and want to undo the action, the process is easy. All you need to do is press Command Z to undo the last actions. If you just made a merge, then pressing this shortcut will unmerge the actions.
The undo feature isn’t quite as easy to access on the iOS version of GarageBand. If you connect a magic keyboard to your iPhone, you can use the Command Z feature to undo any recent actions that you’ve made.
If you don’t have a keyboard attached, there really isn’t a way to quickly unmerge tracks. I always like to save a version of a song right before I make any significant changes, like merges, so I can revert to the original if needed.
The undo command is helpful at all steps of the recording process, and I use it all the time. You don’t have to feel frustrated with trying to get things back to the way they were if you make a mistake. You can just hit the undo shortcut and start making more edits.
FAQs
Here are a few quick answers to some of the most commonly asked questions related to how to merge tracks in GarageBand.
How do I combine multiple tracks into one?
Combining multiple tracks into one track is known as merging or joining. You can do this in GarageBand by selecting the tracks you want to bring together and then choosing Join Regions from the edit window in the Mac version of the app.
How do I merge two projects in GarageBand?
Merging two projects is different than merging multiple tracks in an open project. To do this, you need to open the project you want everything merged into, locate the file in your finder or the other GarageBand project, and drag and drop it into the open project.
How do I merge sections in GarageBand?
Merging sections in GarageBand is the same process as merging tracks. You will need to cut or trim the sections into whatever size you want before merging. But once the tracks are edited correctly, you just follow the directions for merging a track.
Final Thoughts
Merging tracks in GarageBand is simple and can really help you clean up your projects during the editing process. It can also help you organize your projects better when you want to share them with friends or other musicians who might collaborate.
Remember that the process for merging tracks is somewhat different on Macs and iPhones in GarageBand, so read through the steps mentioned here to take advantage of the feature on all your iOS devices.
What do you use the merge feature in GarageBand for? Let me know in the comments below.
John
Hi, after i select the regions from two tracks I click edit > join regions, and nothing happens. I was expecting they would bounce to a new track or one region would dissappear and layer into the other… How do I take a region of a track, and a region of the track directly below and combine them so that they are one region. For example, I have a drum track and a guitar track — i want each of those regions to merge into one piece of audio that I can hear both.
Donovan
Hey John,
In Garageband, you can only join/merge regions that are on the same track or in adjacent tracks. Once you select your regions and then click Edit>Join Regions, the regions will merge onto the same track where you selected them. There isn’t a way to merge in GB that creates a new audio track below the current ones. You’ll need to use another DAW for that sort of feature.
Bob
What you are talking about is merging regions on a single track. The question was how to merge two separate tracks into one. Is there a way to do that?
Donovan
Hi Bob,
This post does indeed address your question. You can merge separate tracks or separate regions of the same track into a single track through the steps listed here. Are you using your Mac or iPhone with GarageBand? That will impact which steps you take to make it happen. Hope that helps.
Bob
So to merge multiple tracks (not regions) you have to use command J