Accessibility Issues in New Garage Band

By Alan, 23 October, 2013

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Hi there, This is Alan, from Barcelona, Spain, so please excuse my english. I am using Garage Band for one year or so to compose and record my musicsoul, neosoul, funk and similar), yesterday I updated to the new garage band version, and although it feels full of new functions and capabilities, I noticed accessibility is lower than before. Have anyone found a workaround for any of this topics? -I can't navigate between tracks with up and down arrows. -The same for moving backward and fordward with left or right arrows. -Voiceover no longer anounces current position. -I can not figure how to use a drummer track to automatically play. I create a new drumer track but nothing sounds. -I can not add effects to any track, like in previous versions (echo, distorsion, flanger, etc). If someone have information about it, or have more questions to discus, we can try to save the day in this topic. Thanks in advance.

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Comments

By Piotr Machacz on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 12:36

SOurce: http://mac.appstorm.net/reviews/music-reviews/garageband-x-a-free-step-backwards/ Apparently Apple is trying to bring all of their mac apps more inline to iOS, which happened to iWork as well. And apparently garage band got the treatment as well. Turns out that Apple completely removed the feature to add audio units to the track, so you can't use any effects or even synthesisers with the new garage band, regardless of if you''re blind or not. So, you're just stuck with the built in GB patches. My only suggestion is, hold on to that old garage band app, which thankfully is kept even you install the new one.

By Piotr Machacz on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 12:36

Hi, I found the setting (which was checked by default for me for some reason), created a track, etc, but I don't see any button to add effects. I interacted with smart controls but all I can see there is, either, input level, monitor, noise gate, if I'm working with a real instrument, or a velocity slider if it's a software instrument. there's also a empty scroll area, and that's it.

By Santiago on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 12:36

Hello, I think I also found another accessibility issue with the latest version of garageBand for iPad. Every time I try to use the software touch instruments, it just says, "Button," when using it with VoiceOver. Has anyone else experienced this bug?

By flori72 on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 12:36

resize the smart control window upwards, the AU box will appear. it took me a while to figure it out :)

By Walei on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 12:36

Hey, Do you guys think I should update to the new Garageband? I'm very comfortable with the previous version and wouldn't want to loose any functionality.

By Alan on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 12:36

Thanks guys for the tips. Does someone know how to raise up an octave, or some semitones a region (transposing i think it's the word)? What are you doing to navigate the song? I am interacting with the lcd group, but it's a slow solution... And finally, could someone explain how to split, join and move regions? Thanks again.

By Mara on Sunday, March 30, 2014 - 12:36

Hey- can somebody tell me how to go about Resizing the smart controls window with VO? Thanks heaps-

By Piotr Machacz on Sunday, March 30, 2014 - 12:36

Apple just released an update to garageband today which improves accessibility. The issue with terrible button labelling with the drummer tracks and invisible audio unit settings has now been fixed. Something still don't work as well as they did though, EG changing the active track or moving the playback head don't speak anything. I still prefer the old garageband, mostly because it gives you much better control over the instruments. You still don't have access to the built-in effects, so you can't EG add bit crusher to a synth or change the reverb type, not unless that particular patch allows for it, so it's very much like the iOS GB in that way. The built-in patches are also not as customisable as they could be.

Use the rotor to select direct touch. Then flick upp or down to enable touch instruments. The setting can get turned off by accident.

It's been a while since this post so I hope you got it working before now.
I have also found a bug in direct touch. Sometimes it is missing from the rotor after changing instrument settings. My workaround is to go to settings and then press done to go back to the main window. Then touch sometimes comes back to the rotor

By Roland on Sunday, November 30, 2014 - 12:36

Hi, sorry for digging out this rather old thread. Has anyone ever tried to simply resize a region using the very latest GB version 10? When interacting with the track background it is easily possible to move a region as such and if I split regions using CMD+T it will let me move them individually. However, interacting with a specific region I would expect to somehow be able to move the left and right handle of that region to stretch or shrink the region. VO reports that the contents of the region is empty and attempting to scale the whole region pops up a menu with the option to move it to left, center or top (of the windows).
Any ideas?
TIA, Roland

By pianino on Saturday, January 30, 2016 - 12:36

i dowanload and purchace garaje band in my IPhone 5s, most of the taks that i made is accesible but i incounter some issues.
1: drummer tracks.
when i créate a dru m touch instrument track, th e transport and menú buttons dont respond me, so my solution for the momen is sabe my Project, close gb and re open again.
2: apples loops.
how cccan i use the Apple loops and sinc with my song Project?.
3: interap instruments.
i think that the interar window instruments is inaccesible to me, just find a button that says instruments, and another that says effects, but cant find the instrument selector, some times i press doublé tap with to fingers and selledct a instrument, but is not that i want, and i cant uno the changes!.
and another issure in accesivility that i found is unable to record my samples in the sampler instruments, i connect my mic in to i rig pro and i cant recor, nothing.
help wil be apreciated.
Milton Paredes.
mpj Factory studios. quito, ecuador

By Ekaj on Saturday, April 30, 2016 - 12:36

Hi everyone. As I was talking with a neighbor friend yesterday my Mac prompted that it needed to install software updates, so I just went ahead and let it do its thing. Earlier this afternoon when I checked the App Store I saw that a new version of GarageBand had been installed, so I went and checked it out. I didn't really know what to expect given that I've never used GB before, but a lot of accessibility improvements appear to have been made. This is what was included in the release summary, and it seems to be correct. I was able to listen to some of the Piano Lessons. I was prompted to connect to a power source in order for something to be installed though, which I didn't do only because my computer's still a bit low on memory. But this latest version of GB looks pretty cool.