GarageBand, Apple’s music creation app, is now available on the smaller screens of the iPhone and iPod Touch, after its introduction on the iPad earlier this year. Like the iPad version, the new app has Touch instruments like keyboards, pianos, organs, drums, guitars and basses. It also allows you to plug in your electric guitar to record music or a mic to record vocals.
GarageBand’s “Smart Instruments” let you choose from a new library of custom chords, which is an update from the older iPad-only version. It also includes sound effects, a Sampler that creates an instrument from the sounds you record and over 250 professional loops you can use as backing for your songs.
You can use the built-in Mixer to fine tune tracks’ volume (solo/mute, adjust pan, reverb, echo), arrange and mix your song with up to eight tracks, trim and place musical regions and more.
Songs can be shared from the app and exported to your Mac or PC for additional editing on the desktop.
As for what’s new with this release (version 1.1), Apple lists the following features:
• Create custom chords for Smart Instruments
• Support for 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures
• Reset song key without transposing original recordings
• Transpose songs in semitones or full octaves
• Additional quantization options for recordings including, straight, triplet and swing
• New audio export quality settings for AAC and AIFF (Uncompressed)
• Arpeggiator available in Smart Keyboard
• Adjustable velocity settings for Touch Instruments
• Numerous enhancements, including automatic fade out and improved audio import options
The new GarageBand, now a universal app, is $4.99 here in iTunes.
