Garage Band'09 first hand. What is GarageBand and what is it for?

The whole world is your stage. And this is your tool.

Play Make music. With or without tools.

Once you open the GarageBand app, you're ready to get creative. Just a couple of touches - and you can play virtual, but incredibly realistic Touch Instruments, select catchy rhythms and make DJ mixes. And in the new “Sound Library” section you can find and download sound sets that contain everything you need to create music in the chosen genre.

Live Loops feature. With her you are a DJ.

Live Loops makes creating electronic music easier and more fun. Touch the cells on the display to trigger different loops, then record your arrangements from them. You can also use the Remix FX feature to use Multi-Touch gestures and rotate your iOS device to create spectacular transitions from one fragment to another, as if they were mixed by a DJ.

One touch game.

GarageBand features amazing Touch Instruments that sound and respond to your touch just like the real thing. Choose keyboards, guitars, basses and, for example, synthesizers created specifically for EDM and hip-hop styles. With Smart Instruments you will feel like a real pro, even if you have never played a single note in your life. Now you can even choose from traditional Chinese and Japanese musical instruments, including guzheng, koto and taiko drums.

Set the right rhythm.

If you need to create a rhythmic foundation, you have several excellent options. You can improvise on a virtual drum kit or quickly put together a drum part by dragging and dropping instruments in Smart Drums. The new beat sequencer makes it easy to select a rhythmic pattern from sounds and their combinations on classic drum machines. And in Drummer mode, a whole group of virtual session drummers is at your service. Everyone has their own electronic or acoustic drum kit and their own playing style.

Extensive collection of electronic drum sounds in different genres. Combine them however you like and create unique parties. With one touch, play any combination of steps in each track. Experiment in real time: add and remove sounds while the sequencer plays.

Virtual drummers who accompany you in their own style. Each drummer's sound can be customized using convenient controls, and they can also match the perfect rhythmic accompaniment to your piece of music. GarageBand also has three percussionists, each with their own set of nine instruments.

Play virtual drum machine keys with a vintage interface and create electronic-sounding drum parts.

Get behind this acoustic drum kit and feel like a real drummer.

Simply drag individual drum sounds across the grid and listen to how the rhythm changes. And when you are satisfied with the result, you can immediately make a track out of it.

Turn on and rock.

Plug in your guitar, then choose from a variety of virtual amps and effects processors to achieve anything from spacey ambient to hard-hitting rock. 1 And if you're a bass player, there's a selection of great bass amps for you, based on legendary vintage and modern models.

Professional level synthesizer. With you everywhere.

GarageBand comes with the Alchemy synthesizer, one of the most powerful synthesizers in the world. 2 Hundreds of Apple patches are at your disposal, ideal for genres such as EDM, hip-hop, indie, rock and pop. The Transform Pad makes it easy to change your sound on the fly. And with the convenient Chord Strips feature, you'll instantly be able to play chords like a true virtuoso.

Music library. Sounds on any topic.

GarageBand now features Music Library, an amazing collection of free loops and instruments created by Apple. It is replenished regularly. Browse and download sound sets for Touch Instruments, Apple Loops, and Live Loops, as well as presets to help you record a wide range of genres and styles of music. Managing your sound collection is very easy. GarageBand will even let you know when new sets are released, so you can download them right away.

Record A recording studio that is always at hand.

The convenient and intuitive interface of GarageBand allows you to easily record a musical performance, change its sound and mix it into a full composition. You can create a real masterpiece using a combination of Touch Instruments, loops and audio recordings.

Up to 32 tracks for rich sound.

GarageBand for iOS lets you work with up to 32 audio tracks at once. 3 And if your studio has a suitable audio interface, you can connect an entire musical group and record all the musicians' parts at once. With Multi-Take Recording mode, you can record your performance multiple times in a row to get the perfect sound. Simply select the Touch Instrument, tap the Record button, and play the piece multiple times without stopping. GarageBand will record all takes. All you have to do is determine the best one.

Let's do it together.

Recently, every new user receives the GarageBand application with the purchase of any Mac or iOS device. Let's figure out what kind of program this is.

We'll deal with the guys who know All about Apple. Many thanks to them for the educational program.

Launch

When you first launch the program, it will download the main package of the most necessary musical instruments. It won't take long. An additional advanced package can be downloaded later for free. It will weigh about seven gigabytes.

When you open GarageBand, you will see a window with project presets. In the advanced project settings, you can set the tempo and key of the future composition.

It is also possible to start guitar and keyboard lessons. In the same section you can buy additional video lessons from famous musicians who will teach you how to play their songs on the guitar or keyboard.

Program device

And now you've launched GarageBand. By default, an empty project will have one instrument open - a classical electric piano. On the left you will see the “Library” section, where you can select the desired tool. By clicking on the button with the “+” sign above the tracks, you will see a window with a choice of the type of new instrument. This will be a virtual instrument, audio recording and “Drummer”.

When you select a track not with a virtual instrument, but with the ability to record audio, presets with audio effects appear in the library window. These will be the settings for recording voices and guitars.

Drummer is a smart tool for quickly creating a drum track. It contains very flexible settings that do not concentrate on the technical component, but allow you to communicate with him as with a live musician. For example, using a special panel, just ask him to play a little quieter and use a slightly more complex pattern - and he will do it right away!

Recording from line-in or microphone

If you want to record a voice, a guitar, or any other real musical instrument, you can do it using the built-in microphone, connect an external microphone or instrument to the computer's audio input, or use an external audio interface, which I'll talk about a little later.

Virtual instruments and effects

Virtual instruments are software music plugins. It can be a completely digital synthesizer or an audio sample-based instrument.

GarageBand already has a huge selection of these instruments, covering a wide range of genres. But if you want to try something different, you can install third-party music plugins in the Audio Unit format. Starting with iOS 9, audio plugins are systematically supported on the mobile platform. There are not very many of them yet, but it is only a matter of time.

To launch such a plugin, create any virtual instrument, click on the “B” button or the Smart controls icon at the top left, and in the bottom panel that opens, click on “i”. You will see a drop-down menu of Plug-ins. There you can also configure the audio effect of the track or add a third-party effect plugin if you have one installed.

In the iOS version, when selecting a new instrument, simply scroll to the Audio Units section.

Working with midi

All notes played on virtual instruments are recorded in the format midi. You can distinguish Midi regions from audio files even externally. What you see is not a sound wave, but rectangular notes, each of which can be edited after recording - shifted according to the time scale, pitch and pressure.

Using the Quantize function, you can align the entire midi region to the rhythmic grid at once. A very convenient feature for both beginning musicians and experienced keyboard players, needed at least simply to speed up the recording process.

Apple Loops

This is a special format of short audio files that can automatically adjust to your project - in time and tone. You don't need to know the original tempo of this recording - just drag the loop onto a new track and it will adjust to your song.

GarageBand comes with a fairly large library of various genres and types of Apple Loops. This includes percussion, string instruments, drums, and much more. Ideal for quickly creating both musical sketches and full-fledged compositions.

Our choice: acoustics for listening to masterpieces created in GarageBand:

  • the most portable - fits in your pocket
  • incredibly stylish - girls will definitely appreciate it
  • for those who are not afraid
  • no longer just a stereo system, rather a black square in the world of acoustics

Using additional recording devices

If you become interested in music a little more seriously, you will probably think about buying an external sound card. It will be useful to you for channel-by-channel recording. Let's say you want to record a song with a guitar or even several guitars, but you want to play it all live. Connect an external multi-channel audio interface via USB, Firewire or Thunderbolt, configure it so that each individual track in GarageBand “sees” a separate channel - and off you go!

Many modern audio interfaces also support working with iOS via a USB Camera adapter. So there is an opportunity to organize.

Version differences on iOS and Mac

The Mac and iOS versions have quite a few differences, mostly due to differences in input type. On iOS, you launch a virtual piano and play directly on the screen, and you can set a scale that will match your song and you won’t miss a single note. On a Mac, in order to play keyboards, you still need to connect a Midi keyboard (or any other midi controller).

There are also many more smart tools in GarageBand for iOS. This is not only “Drummer”, but also a simplified version of it - Smart drums. Also Smart Keyboard, Smart Guitar and Smart Bass.

There is also a Sampler tool. With it, you can record absolutely any sound and play it on the keyboard as if it were a simple piano.

On your iPad or iPhone, GarageBand offers you the ability to record audio from other music apps using the Inter-app Audio feature.

The iOS version also has a completely new mode for working with music - Live Loops. In it you are invited to work with all instruments, both virtual and stored in audio files, in loop format. A grid with squares will appear in front of you, each of which is a loop. The loops of one instrument are located horizontally.

You can run one loop at a time, or the entire vertical row at once.

Each loop can be customized and edited. He can play in a circle, once or even backwards.

And of course you can create your own loops using any instrument in GarageBand.

This mode is best suited for creating dance music, but even if you don't have any desire to become David Guetta, you'll spend hours playing with the looped tracks. And don't forget to press the Rec button =)

Despite the differences between GarageBand on desktop and iOS, projects created in either version open on both Mac and iPhone. What's more, GarageBand projects can be opened in its big brother, Logic Pro X, for more serious work on your composition.

How to make and record your own track

Now let's try to make our first song in GarageBand ourselves.
So let's get started.

Launch the GarageBand app on your iPad. press the plus sign in the top left corner to create a new project.

Drums

Scroll through the instruments to Drummer and select him. Press play, try different settings and you will hear your drummer's playing style change on the fly. Choose the one you like.

To change the tempo, click on the project settings button at the top right. There you can change both the speed and key of the song.

Switch to track mode using the button on the top left. We increase the duration of the song by tapping on the plus sign on the timeline on the right.

We shorten the drum track. Create a new drum region by clicking on an empty space on the track and selecting the “create” option. Then click on the region and “edit”. We repeat what we did earlier with a new region, so that the drummer's playing style is slightly different.

Guitar

Add a smart guitar track by clicking on the plus sign in the bottom left in the tracks mode.
Choose the guitar you like and turn on autoplay. First, press play and play the chords to find and remember the combination you like. When you're ready to record, click on Rec.

If you want to change the recorded part, you can do this by “tapping” on it. Select “edit” and go to midi editing mode. To add or remove a note, long-press the pen icon in the top left. Each note can be changed in length, moved or deleted.

You can also cut the region into two parts. To do this, set the slider on the timeline to the place where you want to cut the region and select the “split” option. Pull the scissors down and you're done - now we have two ringtones.

Create a smart bass and a smart key track in the same way. When you play these instruments, remember what chords you played on the smart guitar earlier. Record and edit parts on them.

Apple Loop

Let's add an Apple Loop with percussion to our song. To do this, click on the button with the loop on the top right. In the drop-down menu, select the instrument - percussion. Select a loop you like and drag it to a new track.

Sound settings

To fine tune the sound of your song, select each track in turn and then click on the mixer button at the top right. Here you can adjust volume, pan, effects, frequencies and compression.

Don't forget to monitor the volume of your individual tracks and the entire mix. If the volume indicator of one of the tracks turns red during playback, turn it down. If the sound of this instrument “disappears” behind the others or the overall volume indicator turns red, slightly reduce the volume of all tracks.

We export

– GarageBand is one of the extraordinary applications that have revolutionized the music industry. If you are searching to download one of the most remarkable sound mixing applications, then GarageBand will be the right app to count on it.

In recent times, GarageBand is one of the most popular apps in Apple house which changed the way that music enthusiasts demand editing the music contents. Many of you might be willing to get it right away for using it in PCs operated by Windows versions. Right! Here, you'll find how to do that.

GarageBand for PC Download Windows 10

In this modern era, it is widely known that with evolving time and technological advancement, almost everything can be achieved via a single personal computer. Starting from chatting to do stuff and creation of music contents, everything is now possible with a single virtual friend, a personal computer.

GarageBand is today’s trendy sound mixing application which is commonly well-spelled as the brainchild of Apple. GarageBand is nowadays exclusively used by artists and DJs including music fanatics.

The question is “Are you a music lover or enthusiast who wants to compose and create your own music gallery?” If that so, then using the incredible GarageBand software could be one of your smartest bets. With , you can do several things such as audio recording, editing songs, adding effects to the audio track, rhythms and much more tasks to develop your own gallery of music.

GarageBand was first made available for Apple and iOS users; however, the software has received much hype from the audience in a few days that users of Windows are also lured towards it. Today, anyone who is in the music field can easily depend upon GarageBand as it’ll prove useful for them. GarageBand is a user-friendly and cost-free app which ensures that once you get familiar with it very well, you can have privilege to do what you want to with it.

You May Also Like:

Features of GarageBand:

  • Customizing your own music and songs collection is easier than ever
  • You can install any external keyboard for easy-to-use operation; however, it comes with a pre-installed virtual keyboard
  • You will get the effective guiding on how to edit or create music tracks
  • The best of audio recording feature to offers users a seamless platform to record their own voice and use them in music composition
  • Less time requires creating music files with GarageBand
  • The user interface is simpler; therefore, anyone can use GarageBand to comfortably and easily create music
  • Included with audio filters to offer noise-free music contents
  • Installed with pre-defined sounds of voice, guitar, violin, orchestra and many more

GarageBand for PC

GarageBand has the ability to turn your personal computers into a collection of virtual musical instruments and a fully featured recording studio. It’s because you can obtain the right track to get appropriate music contents from your PC.

GarageBand offers more than 40 basic lessons of piano and guitar covering pop, classical, rock and blues. You can also get the platform wherein arranging and mixing your favorite song with up to 32 music tracks is easy in GarageBand.

Use of note editor in GarageBand gives you the opportunity to adjust or making the tune fine through virtual instrument recording feature of it. You can also be able to trim and place the entire musical regions exactly where you wish them to play.

Similar:

Garage Band Uses

GarageBand is best to use in platforms where demands of creating own music contents gallery appears. It creates a virtual music composing studio where anyone can be the music composer. You can find the wide use of GarageBand among artists, DJ players, and professional music composers who want to have error-free music files and contents in different formats.

Though there are no official links available for downloadGarageBand forWindows 10 versions, but still Windows users can enjoy it. You might be thinking of How, follow the below steps and enjoy the features of .

  • At first, you have to download the third-party software called Bluestacks
  • Select the download option and install it
  • After completing the whole process, start enjoying the GarageBand features right in your personal computer operated by Windows 10

From the site administration: We decided to thoroughly rework the old instructions and reviews on the site. Time passes, information becomes outdated, new functions and new questions appear. Now it's time for GarageBand. The review has been completely rewritten and updated. Don't be surprised by old comments.

Review of Garage Band on iPad by Ivan Malyushin

Perhaps the most popular of all the music apps for iOS is the virtual music studio GarageBand. It’s not without reason that Apple’s brainchild has become widely known. The guys from Cupertino are famous, among other things, for creating convenient and very friendly software, the use of which is a lot of fun. GarageBand is no exception.

The virtual studio provides users with a set of ten tools:

  • Keyboard - keyboard instruments
  • Drums - virtual drum kit
  • Guitar Amp - effects processor for connecting an electric guitar to an iPad
  • Audio Record - recording to a built-in or external microphone
  • Sampler - the tool allows you to play recorded sound on a virtual keyboard note by note
  • Smart Drums is a convenient tool for creating drum parts
  • Smart Strings - virtual string orchestra
  • Smart Bass - creating bass parts
  • Smart Keyboard - a tool for conveniently creating keyboard parts based on chords
  • Smart Guitar - virtual guitar

In addition, GarageBand has a simple mixer (track view mode) for editing and mixing already recorded audio tracks.

Let's take a closer look at the main features of GarageBand:

Keyboard

Virtual keys boast a rich set of tools. Here you can choose not only classic piano sounds, but also all kinds of synthesizers, effects and even organs. The sound is high quality and “adult”.

The settings are also good news. In addition to customizing the display (the size of the keys and their position), it is possible to adjust parameters such as pressing force, enable or disable increased sustain (duration of attenuation of sound waves), walk through octaves and have fun in every possible way.

There are also individual settings for different types of keyboards (for example, for Electric Piano you can adjust the parameters: roll-off, bell, tremolo and chorus).

Separately, I would like to note such a “tasty” feature as the ability to select a specific fret. Here, perhaps, some clarification should be given. According to one definition, a mode is a system of relationships between the steps of a scale, determined by the primacy of the main reference tone (tonic) and the dependence of the remaining steps on it. In simple human language, these are certain sequences of notes that go well with each other.

I'll try to give a specific example for a better understanding of the modes. For example, you recorded a guitar playing a C major chord as background music, and against this background you want to record some kind of blues solo on the keys so that it sounds good and does not go into disharmony with our guitar. There are two ways: either you learn (know) the theory of constructing a major blues scale, or, having previously specified the C major chord in the settings, select a major blues scale and then just walk around the keys, giving free rein to your fantasy and imagination. Because disharmony will no longer arise. This example is, of course, crude, but should provide some clarity.

Speaking of keys, we cannot fail to mention the arpeggiator (wiki: arpeggio is a way of playing chords on the piano and string instruments, in which the sounds of the chord follow one after the other), which allows you to diversify the created sound tracks.

Drums

It is a virtual drum kit that allows you to playfully drum on the screen with your fingers.

I doubt that really complex drum parts can be created using this method of sound production. Although GarageBand allows you to record tracks in layers, layering sounds on top of one another. Having recorded, for example, a bass drum with the first layer, you can “tap” the snare drum with the second, and with the next layers add cymbals, etc. And the metronome built into the program will help you keep the rhythm. Drums includes several options for drum kits, including electronic ones.

Guitar Amp

Guitar amplifier and effects processor for connecting your guitar to your iPad. To work, you need to purchase (or, at your own risk, solder) an adapter. The cheapest ones I’ve seen on Russian-language sites cost under two thousand rubles. You can order it abroad for $40 (iRig adapter).

Despite the presence of an electric guitar, and a wide variety of amplifiers and “gadgets” offered by Guitar Amp, the author of this review never acquired an adapter, therefore the quality of implementation of this function can only be judged by reviews and videos on YouTube. And, judging by these data, the sound quality is decent.

Audio Record

By and large, this is an ordinary voice recorder. You can record using either the built-in microphone of the tablet or an external one that can be connected. When recording, additional options are available: noise reduction and monitoring.

You can apply distortion effects to the recorded tracks (robot voice, phone effect, etc.). Some effects also have their own additional distortion level settings.

Sampler

Quite an interesting and unique instrument. We record any sound and then play it back using the keyboard, just as is done with the Keyboard tool. In this case, almost all the same settings are available as for the synthesizer (frets, arpeggiator, velocity, etc.)

Recorded samples can be edited (trimmed, changed the volume of sections, played in reverse order, etc.). There is also a set of standard samples as samples.

Smart Drums

Used to record drum parts. But unlike the Drums tool discussed above, in this case you do not need to “beat” the required rhythm with your fingers on the screen. In front of us is a field (grid) onto which we need to drag the tools we need. At the same time, the higher the instrument is located on the grid, the louder it will sound, and the further to the right, the more complex the sounding rhythm will be. Thus, having eight cells horizontally, we have eight rhythms of varying complexity for each instrument. Multiply by the number of instruments and three time signature options (4/4, 3/4, 6/8) and it becomes clear that Smart Drums cannot be blamed for monotony.

An interesting feature of Smart Drums is the ability to automatically “scatter” instruments across a grid (a button with a dice image located in the lower left corner of the screen), which allows you to create drum parts randomly.

Smart Strings

The innovation, which appeared in GarageBand relatively recently, adds originality and variety. So, we have at our disposal a small string-bowed orchestra with five instruments, which can be turned off and on at will. There are also several types of orchestras (so to speak) and their difference is in their sound.

There are two ways to conduct our orchestra: playing by chords or by notes. In the first case, there are eight panels, with the ability to assign the necessary chord to each of them. With this method of playing, Autoplay is very helpful, having four standard rhythms for each type of orchestra and playing these rhythms automatically.

A completely different picture arises when switching to the note-by-note mode. Now we have in front of us the neck of a bowed instrument, which we will have to manipulate, demonstrating the dexterity of our fingers. Moreover, in this case we are no longer controlling the orchestra, but some individual instrument from it. But we can again call upon the modes already known to us to help us and ease our fate as a composer.

Smart Bass

Bass control is practically no different in principle from the Smart Strings instrument described above. We also have two playing modes (by notes and by chords), there are also four Autoplay modes when playing by chords, and it is also possible to use some kind of Dorian mode or pentatonic scale when playing by notes.

Separately, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in addition to the bass guitar, Smart Bass also boasts synthesizers, which, although controlled just as accurately, have additional adjustments.

Smart Keyboard

Playing keyboard instruments by chords. This tool does not have the same huge arsenal of tools that Keyboard has, but it certainly has benefits. In addition to four Autoplay modes, the Smart Keyboard has a sustain switch and an arpeggiator.

Smart Guitar

Almost identical to the controls of Smart Bass, only here we have at our disposal not a bass, but four different guitars with all the attendant nuances of the game, such as the ability to mute the strings.

The mode of playing by notes has also not gone away and is fully present. By the way, what I didn’t like about this mode is that we only have nine semitones on each string. Or, more simply put, only the top of the bar with no ability to move down. What it does have are additional effects that mimic floor-mounted effects pedals in both sound and appearance.

From any virtual instrument you can instantly go to mode for viewing and editing tracks. We can work with no more than eight tracks - this is the limit for each composition. We can move the tracks themselves, split them into parts, copy, stretch and delete.

It is also possible to mute individual tracks. Adjust volume, panning, echo level and reverb. Individual tracks can be transposed, both by semitones and immediately by whole octaves. There are also settings for tempo, key and time signature.

Undoubtedly, a useful function is the ability to edit notes in already recorded parts. You can not only change existing notes, but also add new ones, if necessary.

Here are the possibilities: customizable sound attenuation and recovery are missing. There is only a “Fade out” function without any adjustable parameters. In general, almost all settings are applied entirely to the track, and they cannot be applied to a separate fragment of it. There is also no full-fledged equalizer, with which you could, for example, raise the bass or cut off the heights. And those settings that exist (the same echo or panning) are very primitive and do not have additional internal parameters.

As you can see, the track viewing mode in GarageBand is no different in terms of its variety of capabilities and professionalism. This mode can hardly be used professionally. However, no one bothers, if desired, parts created on an iPad can be mixed and further processed in more adult programs.

Loops

You can’t ignore the possibility of adding ready-made loops (Loops) – pre-recorded audio files. GarageBand comes with preset loops (Apple Loops), or you can create/import your own. There are currently 270 standard loops, and for ease of orientation, they provide various filters, such as genre or type of instrument. As for your own loops, everything is quite simple here too. You can record the required composition directly in GarageBand and in order for it to be included in the list of loops (Audio Files tab), you need to export it to iTunes (more on exporting later). After these manipulations, our composition becomes an audio recording in AIF format and is available in the loops menu. It is also possible to import loops from your computer via iTunes. To do this, simply drag the required file in AIFF, WAV, CAF, Apple Loops, AAC or MP3 format into the program window and it will automatically become available among the loops.

Jam Session

An interesting feature of GarageBand is the ability to conduct jam sessions (Jam Session), in which you can play together with other GarageBand users using a wi-fi or bluetooth network. Up to four devices can participate in the jam at the same time, playback and recording on which are synchronized.

All created songs are stored in a separate “My Songs” folder. For convenience, you can create your own folders inside it.

From here you can export the created compositions to Facebook, YouTube, SOUNDCLOUD cloud storage, you can also simply send by mail or export to iTunes. And if the iMovie application is installed on your iPad, then you can export to it.

When exporting to iTunes, you are given the opportunity to select the desired format (iTunes or GarageBand). When sent by email, the composition will be automatically converted to m4a format.

A nice and useful addition is the one implemented in GarageBand reference. In addition to visual cues that can be instantly enabled in each tool, Garage also boasts a full-fledged help system in Russian.

The help is done thoroughly and seriously, it covers all the elements of GarageBand down to the smallest detail. For clarity, the help contains screenshots. So there shouldn't be any questions left.

Conclusion

Before drawing any conclusions, I scoured the app store for worthy alternatives for creating music. Well, they were found. This is the FL Studio Mobile HD application that costs $20 and has a good ten more in-app purchases. And Music Studio, costing $15, with in-app purchases worth as much as $35. These applications, of course, have a number of advantages when compared with GarageBand and claim to be more serious programs, but the high price and extremely unfriendly interface do not contribute to their wide distribution (due to which FruityLoops will remain a program for a narrow circle of users).

GarageBand, on the contrary, is an intuitive, logical and friendly program that will not intimidate a beginner. And the price of 5 dollars makes Garage also a very affordable software. Of course, this application cannot yet be compared with serious programs on a PC, and professional musicians will most likely find it “close” with the functionality that GarageBand offers, but even they will find something interesting and worthwhile for themselves here. Moreover, GarageBand continues to evolve and improve. So, until recently it was not possible to edit notes in already recorded tracks, but now there are no problems. This means that you can count on a further increase in functionality, while maintaining convenience and ease of use.

GarageBand can be recommended not only to musicians, but also to all fans of playing virtual instruments. After all, if you have this program, you most likely won’t need different virtual guitars and drums. And hardly any other music app on the iPad can provide so much pleasure and positivity.

Malyushin Ivan (IvashKO), especially for the site

We have already reviewed all the updated office applications from Apple as part of the reviews on website, well, today I suggest taking a look at their updated music application for iPad called GarageBand.

After a major update to the iOS operating system in 2013, Apple had to redesign all of its own applications with a new design. GarageBand was no exception, which, in addition to changes in the interface, began to be distributed free of charge. True, in this case, Apple resorted to the so-called Freemium model, when the application does not cost a penny, but purchases await you inside to open up additional features of the program. However, let's move on to the application itself.

When you first launch you are greeted with a tool selection window. Smart Guitar, Keyboard, Drums and Audio Recorder are available initially. For 169 rubles you can open access to tools such as Sampler, Smart Drums, Smart Strings, Smart Bass, Smart Keyboard and Guitar Amp. By the way, you can deceive the application and slip a suitable file into the program, so you can get all the paid tools without extra costs. Of course, this can only be done if you have a jailbreak.

Keyboard

To be honest, I’m not much of a musician, and I don’t understand half the words in the program at all, but I’ll still try to tell you something. Each instrument in the program has a number of its own settings, with the exception of steel and keyboards. To begin with, you can choose the sound of the keyboard, or, simply, the instrument itself, of which there are very, very many. There is an electric piano, a synthesizer, and even an organ. Each keyboard has its own parameters; there are controls for changing pitch, modulation, and the force of pressing notes. Each keyboard has buttons to move between octaves, and you can change the keyboard type from single row to double row and the keyboard size from small to large. In short, I have listed only some parameters. I think that people who know a lot about musical art will find even more interesting settings for each of the instruments. If the interface seems very incomprehensible to you, then Apple has taken care of help. It is called by pressing the button in the upper right corner.

Drums

At your disposal are 3 acoustic drum kits and 3 electronic ones. To play the drums, you need to touch them with two fingers, and the distance between your fingers slows down or speeds up the frequency of the beats. Clicking on help displays brief information about the tools. Some drums sound different if you touch different parts of them. Just like keyboards, there are a number of settings to create a unique sound for the instruments.

Guitar Amp

Guitar Amp is a guitar amplifier with the ability to layer some effects on top of the guitar sound. You can choose the sound of a guitar from a variety of 32 options, there are 9 guitar amplifiers available, and 10 floor effects. In general, you can adjust the sound of the instrument down to the smallest detail, but the guitar itself can only be connected through a special iRig adapter.

Audio Recorder

A recorder is an instrument for recording sound, popularly known as a voice recorder. True, it has a couple of features that distinguish it from the standard iOS 7 voice recorder. Firstly, there is a round control with the ability to monitor the volume of the incoming signal. Secondly, there is the ability to adjust noise reduction, which should have a beneficial effect on the recording quality. Thirdly, after you have recorded the desired fragment, you can apply some effects to the recording. Finally, with this tool you can record audio from external sources by connecting a microphone to your iPad.

Sampler

The sampler is a very unusual instrument. Its essence is this - you record sound using a microphone, and then play it back on the keyboard. To start recording, you need to click on the big red “start” button. Once audio is recorded, the recording can be trimmed, looped, or adjusted by changing the volume or pitch. To be honest, the result is very unusual and interesting, but how to apply the received notes in practice remains a mystery to me.

Smart Drums

Probably the easiest to learn instrument of all that is in GarageBand, not counting the voice recorder. All you need to do is arrange drums in virtual space according to the degree of complexity of their sounds and sound volume. In this case, you don’t need to do anything else, the sound rhythm is set automatically. At your disposal are 6 installations with different drum kits. Well, if the process of dragging tools seems tedious, you can click on the cube and then the program will automatically place the tools on the field randomly.

Smart Strings

In this section you have the opportunity to play string instruments. As always, there are different sound options for instruments. When playing chords, you can use the Autoplay function. Then, when you touch a chord on the tape, the notes of that chord are played according to the specified pattern. If you touch the tape with two or three fingers, the sound will be different. When Autoplay is turned off, you can hold the chord ribbon and smoothly move up and down along it, as if playing with a bow. There is also the option to play by notes, in which case you will have to touch and hold the strings on one of the instruments.

Smart Bass

An instrument that is very similar to the previous one, although here you have bass guitars, synthesizers and double bass at your disposal. The whole thing is controlled in the same way as Smart Strings, there is also Autoplay and the ability to play notes. For synthesizers, there are additional settings such as “cutoff” and “resonance”. It is also possible to change the fret to play notes of a certain scale.

Smart Keyboard

Once again, you are given the chance to play the chords on a keyboard. As with all Smart tools, there is an Autoplay lever. The working field is occupied by segments that reproduce chords and bass notes. The selection of keyboard sounds here is represented by 8 instruments, including piano, organ and others.

Smart Guitar

The last instrument available in the program, which does not offer anything new when playing the virtual guitar. Everything is similar to previous Smart instruments, the user has 4 different guitars at his disposal, Autoplay and the ability to play by chords and notes.

While playing the instruments, of course, it is possible to record your creativity. To do this, the interface of each tool has controls that will not be difficult to understand. After switching to the track viewing mode, an editing table will open on the iPad screen, on which all the recorded audio tracks are located.

You can perform various manipulations with tracks, for example, mute the sound of individual ones or completely turn off the sound signal. Tracks can be moved, cut, shortened, copied and cut. The maximum number of tracks that can be used is 16 pieces. In addition, you can add so-called “loops” to your project, that is, short audio recordings of certain instruments. In the “Apple Loops” section there are many audio files available, distributed by specific groups of instruments, and you can search for the desired sounds by genre.

No less interesting is the possibility of creating Jam sessions, when several iOS devices can form a kind of music network among themselves, in which each participant can record music. All audio recordings, in turn, are collected into a single project, in which the tonality and tempo are synchronized. The session leader has access to all tracks and can transfer these same tracks between devices.

That's all, it's time to sum it up. "GarageBand" in its initial plan was planned as an instrument for people who understand and know the art of music like the back of their hand. On the other hand, GarageBand is unlikely to be able to compete with real instruments and more complex and functional programs. Therefore, we can say that Apple has come up with something in between - not very complex, but overall a functional program for sound recording. In addition, it will be good entertainment for people without musical education, for example, for people like me. You can figure out the interface in a few tens of minutes, and the process of rotating various levers and switches is very exciting. And given that the application is now free, absolutely everyone can try themselves at playing musical instruments.

Developer: Apple Distribution International
Price: For free
Size: 1800 MB
Requirements: Requires iOS 11.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Download the application GarageBand for iPad

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