I was in the process of writing out a long boring question to the list on how I could rename a track in GarageBand, when I got an idea, did a little experimenting and found my answer. I'm writing out the steps below for anyone who wants to know.
First of all, Software instrument tracks are automatically named for the instrument they perform so identifying them in the track headers group isn't a problem. It's the "real instrument" tracks that are the problem. When you add a real track, either by dropping a loop in the timeline or through the menus, they get the name "New Track". Later , when you try to adjust track pan or volume, or lock a track in the track headers group, all you hear for the name of real tracks is "New Track". If you've got several real tracks in the project, this makes it near impossible to know which track is which unless you memorize the order of tracks. Here's how you can give a meaningful name to a real track: 1) select the track in the instrument tracks scroll area. 2) go into the track info group and with the browse button selected, interact with the browser. This will put you in a treeview of effect presets. 3) Arrow down to "basic track", select "no effects", stop interacting and click the "save track" button at the far right. 4) Enter the descriptive name you want for the track and press enter. The track is now referenced by that name in the arrange layout area (both track header group and instrument tracks scroll area). Also, you will find the track name saved as a preset in the browser, under the section "basic track". Note that you don't have to select "no effects" in the "basic track" section and save it with a new name. You can select any preset from the browser, some of which will have a name that suits your purposes, and your track will have that preset name. But remember, these names are all effect presets that will alter the sound of your track. Selecting basic track/no effects is just a good way of creating a track name that doesn't change the sound, and which you can easily find in the "Basic track section" later. You can safely delete these custom"no effect" presets by selecting them in the browser and clicking the "delete instrument" button at the far right. If you make these dummy preset names generic enough, you can use them over and over in different projects for your most commonly used track types. For example, "guitar strum", "Banjo", "Fiddle solo", "Fiddle rhythm" etc. I find its a good practice to rename these real tracks as soon as you create them so you don't forget where they are in the track order and have to fuss around finding them later. I hope that helps. I know it was really bugging me until I found out how to do it myself. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
