6 Reasons Why Your Vocals Sound Distorted in GarageBand (and How to Fix It)

GarageBand is one of the most user-friendly music production software to date. With just a few minutes of testing the water, you already know the basics. While it’s easy to use, you can still run into complications here and there, and one of the most common issues is voice distortion. So how to fix it?

Read on as we tell you the most common reasons why your vocals are distorted and how to fix them.

1. The audio interface gain is too high

To record to GarageBand with external devices, you need to connect an interface. Sometimes the UI settings aren’t right for what you’re trying to achieve, and the most common mistake people make is setting the gain too high.

How to fix the win

Correcting gain is easy. Most interfaces have a rotating knob to increase or decrease gain, with a ring light around the knob that lights up when sound is passing through. With your mic plugged in, try singing or speaking into the mic (whatever you intend to record) and watch the ring light: is it glowing green or turning red?

If the light turns red, it means the gain is set too high and too much volume is going through the microphone, distorting the sound. All you have to do is adjust the gain by turning it down slightly, but remember to do this while singing or speaking into the mic so you can make sure you’re getting the right volume. Once it turns green, you’re good to go.

2. You are too close to the microphone

Sometimes the cause of the distortion is simply your position in relation to the microphone. If you’re new to studio recording, you might not know how close or far you should be to the mic.

How to correct your position

Correcting your position depends on whether you are speaking or recording vocals for singing. When you’re narrating, it’s pretty easy to fix the distortion because once you find the sweet spot, you can hold your position static and shoot from that distance consistently. However, when you sing, adjusting your position is an ongoing task.

Because you can’t adjust the gain control alone while recording (unless you’re willing to spend a lot of time recording each section individually), you’ll need to move closer to the mic when singing softer or lower frequencies ; As your vocals get higher pitched and louder, especially when belting, you need to move away from the mic. This may take some practice.

These adjustments shouldn’t be significant, and if you find you need to take a big step forward or backward, there are likely other settings that need tweaking as well.

If you’re recording vocals, check out our beginner’s guide to comping vocals in GarageBand.

3. You are using the wrong effect

GarageBand comes with a variety of vocal sounds that make it easy to customize the effect to your specific needs. Sometimes we might choose an effect that doesn’t go well with what we’re trying to achieve and our vocals end up distorting.

How to choose the right effect

We recommend recording your vocals with the default sound before switching to an effect. However, if you’d rather use the right effect from the start to adjust your vocals accordingly, try the following:

• Make sure you use vocal effects and no instrument effects

GarageBand offers effects not just for vocals, but for instruments as well, and these are carefully curated to emulate real-world circumstances, so using an effect on your vocals meant to help a guitar can affect the sound in awkward ways.

• Make sure you choose an effect that suits the style of the vocals

There are different vocal effects that suit different styles. For example, if you’re recording a song, you should use effects meant for music, and you can also specify the genre. However, if you’re doing this for a podcast, you’ll need a different set of effects, e.g tellerso make sure your purpose is clear.

Don’t have the basics yet? Check out our guide to creating a song on GarageBand.

4. Your GarageBand settings are incorrect

GarageBand settings can greatly affect the sound you hear.

How to repair GarageBand preferences

First, take a look at the controls: is the compression too high? is echo turned on, and how much is added? Too much or too little of any given element can completely change the sound because it will collide with other components.

Check out the EQ. A general rule when recording vocals is to rotate them triple up and the bass down, but it all depends on your unique voice, what gear you have and what genre you’re recording. If you want your singing style to match the song, you may need to do some research and figure out what’s best for you specifically.

Check if the output settings are correct. You can try enabling some switches and disabling others while adjusting those as well low, centerand high frequencies.

5. The software is outdated

A surprisingly common problem that people encounter is not updating their software, neither their device software nor the GarageBand software. If one is obsolete, it is possible that it is no longer compatible with the other. The solution is simple: update your software.

If you want to switch to another software entirely, read the reasons why you should upgrade from GarageBand to Logic Pro X.

6. Your equipment is faulty

Unfortunately, sometimes the problem isn’t easy to fix; Sometimes the problem lies in the equipment you are using and figuring out which part is problematic takes some work. If you’ve tried to fix the distortion using the steps above but haven’t been successful, the most likely problem is a faulty device.

How to check your equipment

First check your cables. The likely cause is a faulty wire in the cable connecting your microphone to the interface or the interface to your device. If you have other cables that you could use, test them and see if your problem is resolved or not.

If the cables are fine, make sure there is no problem with your microphone. You can do this by unplugging your microphone and speaking directly into your device, or you can swap it out for a different microphone if you have one. Also, make sure to use a noise popper to keep out unwanted noise that might interfere with your singing.

If the cables are fine and the microphone is fine, the interface is most likely the problem. Sometimes the interface is too old and not powerful enough to support your other devices, or there is a defective component. You can check online that all the devices you are using are compatible and if they are, you should have the interface checked by a professional.

Take control of your vocals in GarageBand

Even with user-friendly software like GarageBand, the technology can still be confusing. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes like riding a bike, and you’ll be recording vocals like a pro in no time.