Gadgetory


All Cool Mind-blowing Gadgets You Love in One Place

CNET Tap That App: Garage Band for iPad

2011-03-17
welcome to tap that app I'm Jason Parker and this is the show where we covered the hottest apps in the mobile space along with the release of the iPad 2 on March 11th Apple released an iPad version for popular mac app GarageBand GarageBand already has a long history on the Mac letting people use intuitive controls and a huge library of instruments and pre-recorded loops to create songs but with the iPad version Apple needed to come up with creative ways to record music using only a touchscreen interface and we think they did an amazing job just as a general overview GarageBand offers several touch instruments guitar amps and effects 8-track recording and mixing more than 250 loops to play with and you can export AAC files of your projects through email or add them to iTunes you start by creating a new song then choose your first instrument GarageBand offers instruments you can play in real time like their real-world counterparts but you also have the option to play smart instruments that do most of the heavy lifting for you one neat feature is that every instrument has its own specific theme giving all of them their own feel as you play using the smart keyboard for example lays out all of your chords in the chosen key this means that just about whatever you press will probably go together in a song you also can change the key by touching the wrench in the upper right corner using the combination of bass notes on the bottom and chords at the top is easy to create a nice sounding song even if you have very little musical experience similarly the smart guitar offers a different layout that lets you play chords with a swipe of your finger you have the ability to play individual notes and actually bend guitar strings for your big rock solos all the smart instruments also come with a few pre-recorded segments so you can just tap the key and let the app play for you drums can be played manually and you can choose from both standard drum kits and drum machine type layouts or like the other instruments you can choose smart drums to make things easier simply place drumset items on the grid to experiment or hit the dice icon for a random layout once you've been inspired by some of the instruments you can record a couple of tracks then look at the track layout section to add or remove tracks manage track volume and play with effects like reverb track panning and echo as you become more advanced you can also use quantization tools to match complex tracks to cover up your less than perfect human rhythm but maybe I'm just speaking for myself the track screen is also where you'll find garage bands pre-recorded loops once you find something you like by instrument genre and other descriptors just drag and drop the loop onto your track screen to add it to your song I created this song on the way to work this morning in carpool frankly with tons of uniquely designed instruments a smart touch interface and tools that make song creation easy it's a miracle to me that this app is only $4.99 and there's plenty more we haven't shown in this video so far I can't get enough of GarageBand so I definitely recommend you tap this app and tap it and tap it again but try to tap and rhythm guys how are we ever going to make it as a band if you sorry I got a little caught up in the moment like I said Garage Band is only $4.99 in the iTunes App Store and definitely worth your money even if you only have a passing interest in creating music that's it for today's show but if you have any suggestions send them to tap that app at cnet.com I'm Jason Parker thanks for watching
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.