Working with plugins in Garage Band.

I open GB. I go into smart controls and expand the plugins. I see an e-piano group. I interact with that group, which has a bypass checkbox that doesn't seem to do anything, a setting button, and a button that just says "list, popup". If I click list, that's where I load another instrument. So I've loaded Surge XT. Now instead of e-piano group, I have a SUrge XT group.

If I click on setting, I get a table of some 700 plus items that seem to be filter controls and the like for Surge, but I don't see presets in there. To be fair, I haven't gone through all the items. Getting VO to the group and routing the mouse with cmd-VO-f5 and clicking with shift-VO-space just brings up the same thing as interacting with the group and hitting the setting button.

Can you give the exact steps you're using with Voiceover to get the plugin window to open? I assume after that you can either cmd-tab or Vo arrow to it, depending on whether or not the window shows up outside or inside of GB's interface. As an example, in Reaper Surge's interface shows up as a group in the FX section, not a separate open window.

But I don't think it has a way to change presets. I'm pretty sure previous and next don't work. Also, Surge XT has its own menus where you can set options, e.g. to make the keyboard move through patches and the like. So I'd need to get to that, not just whatever table GB is presenting.

I honestly wonder if GB has issues. To remove plugins, I added some standard effects, you're supposed to be able to get into the menu and uncheck plugin or whatever the first option is that comes up. I do see that, but there seems to be no way to uncheck it. So I'm just stuck with whatever plugins I've added.

I have a friend who uses Logic, and she deals with plugins through the mixer. GB doesn't even have a mixer, or if it does, it doesn't toggle with 'x' like it does in Logic. I mean, I'm planning on getting Logic anyway, I just figured GB is free so it might be useful to mess around with until I get the money together for Logic. Not to mention the drive space, the content I need isn't gonna fit on the 256 GB boot drive. GB is supposed to be just like a simpler Logic, so I've heard, which is why I call it baby Logic. But apparently, there are differences.

In case anybody feels like messing with Surge XT, in either program, here it is. It's pretty great and accessible, as soon as I figure out how it works on the Mac.

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

Which will prompt a couple of questions. But first, in order to get Surge XT's interface, you need to uncheck "open plugins in controls view by default". Then you can get into the menus and enable all accessibility features, at which point, you'll get nice things like cmd-left and right for previous and next patch, and shift-left right for previous and next category.

OK, now for the questions.

1. Is there a way to toggle that setting on and off? Because I'll bet there are places where it absolutely makes sense to open in controls view. Just not for Surge XT, apparently. I mean, obviously, other than going into preferences and checking and unchecking it whenever you want to change it. Maybe this won't be necessary, at least Apple's default plugins open in the little table version.

2. Open a new project with defaults, so you start with classic electric piano. Go into smart controls and expand the plugin. Get past the E-Piano group, to the first popup button. It's unlabelled, but it's how you add effects. Add an effect, I picked overdrive, but it doesn't matter what you pick.

How do you remove it? Apple says you use the menu, which is now labelled insert, and check "no plugin". The thing is, Voiceover already reads that as checked, it's clearly not because I have an effect on the track. I can bypass it if I interact with the group and hit the setting button.

But what if I want to remove it entirely? I thought if I bypassed the effect, it might let me removeit, but no, the overdrive group is still there, and if I go in and uncheck bypass, I get distorted electric piano again.

Thanks for all the help so far, I feel like I'm finally gettingsomewhere!

It's a checkbox in the menu that comes up when you click insert, which is the button just before whatever you've added. it doesn't seem to do anything.

Oh is the Logic trial 90 days? I thought it was 30 for some reason. Can you tell it not to download all of the instruments and such, or can you move them later? I was waiting to mess with Logic until I got an. external drive because I only have 250 GB on the boot drive, and I'm not sure how much space Logic takes up. That's the same reason I haven't downloaded Ableton Live Lite yet.

Thanks though, that solved it! I thought you'd just click on the same button you used to add a plugin, but going into it and hitting no plugin after clicking list totally works.

So the button I was on is this one. There are buttons that just say "popup", and that's how you insert a plugin. If you insert one, that label changes from "popup" to "insert",and VO-right gets you to the group for your new plugin. I was trying to click on that insert button and picking no plugin from there, it does have that checkbox in the menu that comes up, so no idea what that does.

The trick is to actually go into the plugin you've added and do it from that list button, like you explained. That was the part I was missing.

I knew about them for Logic, but not GB. I'll go look, I have them bookmarked already.