Customize the Loop Browser

When thousands of loops are installed on your hard disks, finding a particular Apple Loop can be a daunting prospect. Fortunately, you can use a number of key criteria—location, scale, time signature—to restrict your search or browsing results. You can also sort the search results.

Restrict loops by location

  • Click Loops at the top of the Loop Browser then, from the pop-up menu that appears, choose the Jam Pack or folder with the loops you want to view.

If you have one or more Jam Packs installed on your computer, you can display only the loops from a particular Jam Pack, or only the loops included with GarageBand. If you have Apple Loops from third-party manufacturers installed on your computer, you can choose to display third-party loops only. If you have created your own Apple Loops, you can display the loops for your user account, or display loops shared by all users on your computer.

Restrict loops by scale

  • Choose Any, Minor, Major, Neither, or Good for Both from the Scale pop-up menu.

    Figure. Scale pop-up menu in the Loop Browser.

Restrict loops by time signature

  • Choose a time signature from the Signature pop-up menu.

    Figure. Signature pop-up menu in the Loop Browser.

Sort Loop Browser results

  • Click any of the column headers to sort the results by that column type, in ascending or descending order.

    Figure. Column headers in the Loop Browser.
    • Name column: Sorts Apple Loops by name.

    • Beats column: Sorts Apple Loops by beats.

    • Fav column: Sorts Apple Loops by Fav checkbox selection.

    • Tempo column: Sorts Apple Loops by tempo.

    • Key column: Sorts Apple Loops by key.

You can swap column positions by dragging the column header left or right, and resize column widths by dragging the vertical line that separates the column headers.