Use Drummer in GarageBand for iPhone
You can add a virtual drummer to your song that plays realistic drum grooves. You can choose drummers from different genres, each with its own acoustic, electronic or percussion drum kit. A GarageBand song can have up to two Drummer tracks.
You can change the drummer’s playing style by choosing different presets, and adjust drum patterns using the Drummer controls — which include an XY pad for adjusting the drummer’s performance and controls for choosing different performance variations and fill settings. You can also have the Drummer follow the rhythm of another track.
If your song contains multiple Drummer regions, the changes you make using the Drummer controls affect only the currently selected Drummer region.
Choose a drummer
Tap the Navigation button
in the control bar, tap the Sounds button, tap the style of drum kit you want to use (Acoustic, Electronic or Percussion), then tap the drummer you want to play. You can also swipe left or right on the Sounds button to change to the previous or next drummer.
All Drummer regions in a track use the same drummer.
Choose a drummer preset
Tap the current drummer preset above the XY pad, scroll vertically through the preset list, tap a preset, then tap Done.
To hear the preset, tap the Play button
in the control bar.
Adjust the loudness and complexity of the selected region
In the XY pad, do any of the following:
Make the region louder or softer: Drag the yellow puck up or down.
Make the region simpler or more complex: Drag the yellow puck left or right.
Mute or unmute a drum kit piece
Mute a drum kit piece: Tap a yellow (unmuted) kit piece.
Unmute a drum kit piece: Tap a grey (muted) kit piece.
Choose a different pattern for a drum kit piece
Each style of drum kit — acoustic, electronic or percussion — has different groups of drum kit pieces. The slider to the right of each group controls the pattern for that particular group.
Tap a drum kit piece, then drag the slider for that piece left or right.
On iPhone SE or iPhone 8, touch and hold the button next to the name of the kit piece, then drag the slider left or right.
Change the swing value of the selected region
Tap the Swing button, then choose a swing value from the pop-up menu.
Adjust the amount of fills
Drag the Fills slider right to increase the number of fills, or drag it left to decrease the number of fills.
Have a Drummer region follow the rhythm of another track
You can have the kick and snare portions of an acoustic or electronic Drummer region follow the rhythmic groove of another track. Each Drummer region can follow a different track.
Select a Drummer region.
Swipe the Follow switch right to turn it on.
Tap the Follow Track pop-up menu that appears under Kick & Snare (Kick, Snare & Claps on electronic drum kits), then choose a track from the list.
Edit the selected Drummer region
Tap the selected region, then tap one of the editing commands.
For information about the region editing commands, see Edit regions in GarageBand for iPhone.
Replace the selected Drummer region
Delete the selected Drummer region: Tap the Bin icon on the right side of the region.
Create a new Drummer region: Tap an empty part of a Drummer track, then tap Create.