Among things like the iMovie for iPad and a little thing called the iPad 2, Apple today announced the upcoming availability of GarageBand for iPad, and the little musical powerhouse has never looked sweeter. If you’ve ever used one of the piano iPad apps, you’ll understand immediately why this is something to get excited about. And it won’t just let you play piano, either; you can strum a guitar, play the bass, or bang on the drums. Since it won’t hit the app store until March 11, we don’t yet have a hands-on review of it, but what we do have an idea of what it is, and why it will be awesome.
If you’ve ever used GarageBand before, the interface of the new iPad version will be familiar to you; it’s got the same multi-track layout, but now you can drag the elements around on screen with your finger. This makes a lot of sense as a way to interface with the app, and makes me look forward to a bright, rosy future with a touch-enabled Final Cut Pro. With GarageBand for iPad, the focus is on the instruments: namely Touch Instruments and Smart Instruments.
If you want to create realistic music using virtual replicas of actual instruments, you’ve come to the right place. GarageBand for iPad supports three different acoustic drum kits, and as an extra bit of future-tech, the snare, toms, kick, hi-hat and cymbals all produce different sounds depending on where you hit them, and the iPad’s accelerometer is actually used to detect how hard you’re hitting them, and GarageBand varies the volume accordingly. In addition to drums, you can play with a variety of electronic drum kits and three different types of keyboards — a grand piano, an organ, and a synthesizer. The synthesizer lets you play more than 70 modern and vintage synthesizer sounds, including synth strings, leads, basses and more. It also features an Arpeggiator!
If you’re like me -- and most people -- you have a desire to play instruments, but what you don’t have is that tiny little thing called skill. With GarageBand for iPad, Apple seems to be aiming to let you make some excellent music, without you needing to know how to make excellent music. I approve. You’ll be able to play Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, and Drums with basically no musical skill; all you need to know how to do is use your iPad, and that’s about the most intuitive thing in the world. How does this feature work? Apple says you “strum chords on acoustic and electric guitars, trigger fingerpicking and strumming patterns, or tap out your own riffs and melodies.” The drums look even simpler, with you dropping drum elements on a grid that defines how they sound. If nothing else, this feature is sure to keep people entertained for hours as they pluck away, even if they don’t have any larger musical aspirations.
GarageBand for iPad has all of the features you’d expect: A sophisticated multitrack composition and editing; Plug in a guitar and play with one of nine virtual guitar amps; A selection of ten stompbox effects, which you can arrange on your own stompboard; Record audio your iPad’s microphone, and apply one of eight effects to it, such as Chipmunk and Robot!
Because Apple has yet to integrate any iOS-wide cloud storage/backup solution, you’re left with some arcane-seeming ways to get your magnum opus off of your iPad: you can e-mail it to yourself, or you can add your song to your iTunes library, so that when you sync, it shows up. This is a little hum-drum, but on the plus side you’re able to share not just your finished song, but the source itself, so you can tweak the piece on your Mac. That could come in pretty handy.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of GarageBand for iPad isn’t even a feature: it’s the price. On March 11 you’ll be able to pick up your very own copy for $4.99. It’s still remarkable to think of how much high-quality software is available these days for such a low price; it is, truly, a fantastic thing.
Not specifically revealed during today’s event was information about backwards compatibility; obviously, this won’t work on the iPhone, but will it work with your trusty iPad 1? Apple went to lengths to point out that both this and the upcoming iMovie for iPad take advantage of the dual-core A5 chip, but whether that means this wonderful looking piece of software is exclusive domain remains to be seen.
If this app looks like it'd be right up your alley, you can look at Apple's own page about it, and on March 11, head to the iTunes App Store and pick it up for less than the cost of a crazy-cheap lunch.
