GarageBand for iPad Review - Reviews

The GarageBand experience has made it to the iPad – is it a match made in heaven? Hollin Jones finds out.

Price: £2.99
Manufacturer: Apple
Website: http://www.apple.com

Apple GarageBand for iPad

Apple has created a version of GarageBand specially for the iPad to coincide with the release of the iPad 2, but early adopters will be relieved to hear that it also runs just as well on the iPad 1. At a fraction under £3 it’s also ludicrously cheap, something that Apple can get away with because it’s tied to the iPad and so will surely help the company to sell more hardware.

Pad vibrations

Let’s get this out of the way: it doesn’t work in the same way as a computer- based DAW, at least not really. The touch interface and comparatively restricted screen space just don’t allow the juggling of multiple windows. You have to spend a few minutes figuring out how the different sections of the app tie together and how, when you do something in one section, it will be recorded in another. It’s slightly fiddly at first but you soon get used to it and it quickly becomes second nature. On firing up the app you’re presented with a selection of instruments and ways to input data. The keyboard lets you choose from a range of instruments and you can double up onscreen to show more of the keyboard, turn velocity on and off, change the scale and activate sustain, legato and glissando. You can also make the keys narrower or wider to suit the size of your fingers. The velocity action isn’t bad, which is surprising given that there are no moving parts here, and playing chords is possible, if a little tricky. The app does accept MIDI input via the camera connection kit, and for any complex or expressive keyboard playing you’d probably want to do this. There even are some excellent synths onboard with real-time controls for you to play with.

Drums are next, and there are some good kits that you play by tapping on a familiar virtual kit, though controlling velocity is a little hit and miss. The Guitar Amp option provides amps and stompboxes as well as a tuner; the audio recorder does exactly what you might imagine and a sampler accepts audio input then allows you to mangle the results with a decent amount of flexibility. Also of interest are the ‘Smart’ keyboard, bass, drums and guitar modules, which let you play chords with the touch of a button, generate random but intelligent drum parts, and even bend notes convincingly on the guitar and bass.

Making tracks

When you record any of these instruments – along to a click, naturally – the part is placed into a sequencer track and you can have up to eight in total, mixing audio and MIDI. Songs are built in sections and these can be added and lengthened as far as 32 bars, a lot like a traditional step sequencer. It’s quite intuitive, though there is a glaring omission and that’s the inability to edit MIDI notes once recorded. You can overdub drum parts, delete, loop and split all MIDI parts but not alter the notes, which seems like it wouldn’t be that hard to implement technically. Attempting to overdub other parts will result in replacing existing notes. There’s per-track quantization for MIDI, mute and solo for all tracks plus echo and reverb effects.

Band of joy?

Sequencing is actually quite fun in the sense that it limits you far more than a desktop DAW, which can be quite liberating. Having fewer tools to work with does make you think less about fiddling and more about the groove. Some of the synths and bundled instruments actually sound great, especially on headphones, and it’s a powerful sketchpad for all kinds of musicians, even if you’re not likely to write and finish a hit record on it. MTM

8/10 Verdict - A slick app with some limitations but great fun to use and surely the portent of things to come.

WHY BUY

+ Tremendous fun
+ Very cheap
+ Instruments sound great

WALK ON BY

- Can’t edit MIDI notes or velocity once recorded
- Limited range of mixing effects
- No onboard EQ
- Can’t bounce tracks natively

Score: 8

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This review first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 99
Filed under Audio Interfaces, Control Surfaces, Reviews

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Apple GarageBand for iPad Review