Garageband - voice records slow and deep ?!

[bcola]

I am new to Garageband and am trying to record voice, but every recording comes out slow and three octaves lower than my regular voice. I know my way around just about any Mac app, but can't seem to find a way to just record my voice without sounding like a drunk Barry White. I am recording with the vocals set at no effects and i still can't get it right. Frustrating. Any ideas?

 

[Aptmunich]

I am new to Garageband and am trying to record voice, but every recording comes out slow and three octaves lower than my regular voice. I know my way around just about any Mac app, but can't seem to find a way to just record my voice without sounding like a drunk Barry White. I am recording with the vocals set at no effects and i still can't get it right. Frustrating. Any ideas?

What did you choose as the preset for your vocals track? Post a screenshot of your current settings for that track...

 

[bcola]

Found out the cause. Problem only occurs when I use my CAD u37 condensed mic. Tried another mic and it was normal, buy crappy quality. The u37 works fine in Audacity. Here's a screenshot of settings.

 

[Aptmunich]

It looks as though that mic has some switches that could cause that type of problem:

The U37 has two switches on the front. The first switch allows you to decrease the sensitivity of the microphone so the sound quality is clear for extremely loud sounds. For example, the switch should be in the "-10" position for loud voices, percussion and other high sound pressure level devices. The "0" position should be used for normal voices and string instruments.

The second switch on the U37 is designed to reduce pickup of deep-bass sounds. The switch should be in the "Normal Bass" mode in most cases. However, if you want to remove wind noise, ventilation noise, or decrease the low frequencies in a recording, the switch should be in the "Bass Reduction" position.

Try playing with those!

 

[bcola]

Thanks, that did it!

 

[C-train]

deep and slow...still a problem for me

So...Did you ever work out why it recorded so deep and slow in the first instance? I'm dealing with that problem now.
Recently, while doing some writing/ discussion with a musician, we decided to record our sessions roughly, just so that we wouldn't have to take any notes. We did it the simple way: recording through the built in mic on his macbook pro, into GarageBand. We could see it was receiving signal, so all seemed well.
Seven hours of material later...I tried playing it back...it is super super slow, and very low pitched. Unlistenable. If I use the GB time and pitch change tools (ie doubling the tempo to 240 bpm AND adjusting the pitch +12), it becomes comprehensible, but very degraded quality.
All this to say...Is there anything I can do to restore the natural tempo and pitch? Any idea why this happened?
Thanks.
C

 

[C-train]

Update: I was able to restore the pitch and tempo reasonably well using the Pitch transposition tool in Logic express...but the real problem is that a load of the material is missing...because it recorded super slowly, 5 minutes of recording time actually only captured about 2 mins 30 secs once it is sped up to proper tempo. So the real question is...does that other 2:30 exist anywhere? We did record the full five minutes...where did it go? Weird issue, I know.