The problem with beginner instruments is many players outgrow them quite quickly. The ROLI LUMI Keys Studio is perfect for this problem as its modular design means you can upgrade it at any time. The colorful lights also manage to offer an appealing way to learn songs and these features mostly perform admirably. You will feel the sting of that price tag, but it sets a great foundation to work off. 

ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition Review: Price and availability

Coming in at $249 from the official ROLI store, the LUMI Keys Studio is quite an expensive bit of kit, likely down to its unique set of features and demand, driven by a successful Kickstarter run, pulling in over $1.5 million. As of right now, the only way to get the ROLI LUMI Keys Studio online is by going to the site, but B&H Photo is an official ROLI reseller, and you can find ROLI instruments in Guitar Centre, so they may arrive in the future.

In my time monitoring the stock, it has never ran out and ships in 3 days around the USA. If you want to get 2 ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Editions, you can get a 15% discount on both directly from ROLI. 

ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition Review: Ease of use

The ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition is remarkably easy to use, with low-latency Bluetooth capabilities and the ability to plug it in with a USB-C cable in the back of the keyboard. For iPad and iPhone, you have to download a third-party MIDI connection app to use it wirelessly, but it connects in seconds through the MIDI setup on Mac. Annoyingly, I did have to reconnect every time I turned the keyboard on, but this is no more than a momentary annoyance. 

With five to six hours of battery out of a charge and each charge taking a few hours, the battery life isn’t phenomenal, but there are few occasions where the average person would need to play for six hours without a break or the ability to plug it in. Due to some very important key functions that we’ll touch on later, there is a small learning curve at the start, which is the only thing that may hinder some from picking it up immediately. 

ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition Review: Build

Though the base feels plasticky, the keyboard itself feels firm yet light enough to pop in a bag easily. The top two keys of my set of ROLI LUMI Keys Studio initially produced a light squeak when pressed, but this sorted itself out after a few days of play. The top key has an even lighter sound when I put my ear against it now but given the other one stopped making that noise with time, I could imagine this doing the same. With 24 keys total, you get just shy of two octaves to play around with. 

Aside from the big, bright keys that look pretty as you play, the rest of the keyboard is fairly understated. There isn’t a modulator wheel like those you would find in a bigger keyboard, with it instead opting to use the keys themselves to modulate notes. It has a button to turn it on and activate Bluetooth on the top right, a USB-C port on the back, and two keys to swap between octaves. Unfortunately, there is no way of plugging in a sustain pedal, which limits use somewhat, and this feels like a bit of an oversight for what is genuinely a very emotive set of keys. 

ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition Review: Features

As the “LUMI” name implies, this keyboard has a huge focus on its lights. Not only do they look great, but they have the capacity to flit between lighting modes. These include a pure white emulating a piano, key lighting that allows you to follow scales and keys, and a rainbow effect that lights up as you play. It’s all very pretty and engaging in a way that makes practicing playing keys fun to look at. It also comes with the LUMI music app to teach you how to play piano, which works really well with the lighting. This lines up with ROLI’s excellent Studio Player software — allowing you to set the scale you want to play, and it even comes with expressive sound packs for dynamic play. 

The keys themself have polyphonic aftertouch, which means you get a different sound based on the intensity you hit the key, how long you hold it for, and how you move the keys around as you play. This is a cheaper way to get something approximating the expressive keys found in the ROLI Seaboard RISE 2. There isn’t too much room for modulation with MPE sounds on ROLI Studio Player, not letting you customize how high or low the pitch bend goes as you play, but everything else works in genuinely impressive ways. There are sounds you can produce with the expressiveness on offer here that you just couldn’t produce from keys without it. Instead of having a pitch bender to move the entire chord you play up or down, you can dynamically shift individual notes to organically imitate a live feel. 

As the keyboard itself is modular, the ability to purchase a second one and snap it onto the side seamlessly means you can get 48 or more keys on the go, and the ability to split them up means you can pop the whole thing in a bag and take them with you as you go. Essentially, it has a small metal strip on either side of the keyboard, where you can clip another ROLI LUMI to it and your DAW will automatically pick it up and extend the scale. It's a very smart bit of kit that makes it quite easy to get a full-sized keyboard, if you're willing to spend the extra cash. 

ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition Review: Competition

There are a significant amount of MIDI keyboards that can get some basic synth sounds out at a much lower price point, like the Akai Professional LPK5 at just $59 or the Novation Launchkey Mini MK3, which retails for $99.99 (though it is currently 10% off). However, the ROLI LUMI Studio Edition feels almost entirely unique in the market thanks to those polyphonic keys and its modular design. For the pretty hefty sum of $249 that the ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition goes for, you could instead pick up the Arturia Essential MK3 for just $20 more, which our friends over at MusicRadar gave 4.5 stars out of 5. It is a more fully-fledged keyboard with 61 keys with pressure sensitivity, touch pads, backlit contextual buttons, and more.

Alternatively, for the same price of $249, you could grab an M-Audio Keytation, which comes with 88 keys, a volume fader, and a pitch modulator, as well as intuitive compatibility with most DAWs. 

Should you buy it?

ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition Review: Verdict

The ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition is an excellently expressive MIDI keyboard that is perfect for players at any skill level but probably doesn’t serve the purpose of a traditional keyboard for most. The lack of support for a pedal on the keys itself and no physical pitch bend or modulator means that other keyboards may outshine it in some ways. However, if you can get used to it, the ROLI LUMI Keys Studio Edition feels so utterly unique in the market thanks to its smart implementation of Polyphonic Aftertouch, and this is only made better with the great ROLI Studio Software. 

Not only are the keys clever, but the ROLI LUMI Keys Studio’s modular design makes upgrade paths super simple, and the lighting not only looks very pretty but has real practical applications at any skill level. Like the much more expensive ROLI SeaBoard RISE 2 before it, the ROLI LUMI is one of those keyboards that is at its best as a complimentary item to your music production setup but, with practice, it can do almost everything you want out of a standard set of keys and looks pretty to boot. 

Apple, Katy Perry, and Korean pop sensation SEVENTEEN have teamed up to make GarageBand more useful.

In a press release, Apple announced that GarageBand users can now access new Remix Sessions of Katy Perry's song Harleys in Hawaii and SEVENTEEN's track Darl+ing on iPad and iPhone. The Remix Sessions are made to help you create music with the hit songs by providing "inspiration from the artists themselves and step-by-step video instruction from an Apple Creative Pro."

On top of the session themselves, the Katy Perry and SEVENTEEN Remix Sessions are available to download into your GarageBand Sound Library. With various loops, sounds, and instruments from the songs, you can mix, mash, and muddle up the tracks as much as you want to make your own unique remix. Plus, if you use GarageBand's Live Loops, you can "quickly rearrange and add new elements to the songs while keeping everything in sync with tempo and key."

You can download the Katy Perry and SEVENTEEN Remix Sessions for free on iOS and iPadOS, and they also include REMIX FX, so you can really modulate the songs to make epic drops or new satisfying beats.

Check your local Apple Store for Today at Apple sessions

Apple's educational Today at Apple sessions are carried out worldwide in Apple Stores and offer hands-on learning experiences for various skills. Along with the in-app Remix Sessions announced today, a new Today at Apple session was also unveiled.

Music Skills: Remix Katy Perry will offer you a chance to attend an in-store session led by "Retail Creative Pros" to teach you how to remix Katy Perry's song Harleys in Hawaii right on your iPhone or best iPad using GarageBand.

This isn't the first time Apple has teamed up with a popular artist to offer Today at Apple Remix Sessions, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and other artists have all been featured in the past. 

What you need to know

• Apple has released updates to Logic Pro, MainStage, and Garageband.
• Logic Pro now supports spatial audio monitoring with AirPods models and is optimized for the new Mac Studio.
• MainStage received a redesign as well as support for the new Mac Studio.

If you're into music creation on your Mac, today was a good day.

Today, Apple released updates to Logic Pro, MainStage, and Garageband for the Mac. While some of the updates were your standard "performance improvement," some brought some notable new features to Apple's music creation software.

One example is Logic Pro, Apple's professional music production app for the Mac. Today's update, version 10.7.3, brings spatial audio features to Apple's headphones and optimizes the software for the upcoming Mac Studio. You can check out all of the new updates to Logic Pro below:

• Enables spatial audio monitoring with dynamic head tracking on AirPods Max, AirPods Pro, AirPods (3rd Generation) and Beats Fit Pro*
• Monitor through the Apple binaural renderer, which provides a more accurate preview of spatial audio playback on Apple Music*
• Optimized performance for M1 Max and M1 Ultra on the new Mac Studio
• Includes stability improvements and bug fixes
• Requires macOS Monterey version 12.3 or later

Even MainStage, Apple's live performance software, got a big update today. Version 3.6 brings a new design, expanded sound library, and optimization for the new Mac Studio.

• Refined new design
• Expands the Sound Library with 120 Patches, 50 kits and 2800 loops from today's biggest hitmakers including Boys Noize, Mark Lettieri, Mark Ronson, Oak Felder, Soulection, Take A Daytrip, Tom Misch, and TRAKGIRL
• Adds Korean language support
• Optimized performance for M1 Max and M1 Ultra on the new Mac Studio
• Includes stability improvements and bug fixes

Unfortunately, not every update can be that exciting. Garageband, while updated to version 10.4.6, only contains the usual "stability improvements and bug fixes."

All of the updates are available to download for free right now. If you have any of these pieces of software, you can open up the App Store on your Mac and get downloading.

What you need to know

• Apple is adding new Sound Packs to GarageBand.
• It includes sounds from famous artists and producers.
• Big names include Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa.

Apple has today announced that it is adding new Sound Packs to GarageBand from famous artists and producers.

The company stated:

Apple's Bob Borchers said, "GarageBand continues to be a catalyst for music creation — making it easy for novices to get started and for seasoned pros to develop their ideas on the go."

The new update includes new in-app remix sessions from Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga, which include videos from both artists telling the stories behind their hit songs 'Break My Heart' and 'Free woman'. It also features step-by-step instructions on how to remix a song using GarageBand Live Loops. There are also new Producer packs from Boys Noize, Mark Lettieri, Oak Felder, Soulection, Take A Daytrip, Tom Misch, and TRAKGIRL featuring royalty-free loops, beats, instruments, and more. You can check out a sample in the video below:

There is even a new producer pack as a companion to Apple TV+ documentary Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson.

The new packs and remix sessions are available free from the Sound Library in GarageBand 2.3.11 right now!

What you need to know

• Apple is retiring the Music Memos app.
• It is encouraging users to transfer their recordings to the Voice Memos app.

Apple has announced that it will be shutting down the Music Memos app and is encouraging those who have used the app to transfer their recordings to the Voice Memos app.

In a new Apple Support document, Apple points to the Voice Memos app as the new place to capture music ideas with your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch. The company also notes that those recordings will be able to be imported into Garageband, the company's free music creation software.

Because of this, Apple has announced that the Music Memos app will not be updated after version 1.0.7 and that it will no longer be available to download after March 1, 2021.

Apple has also provided instructions on how to export Music Memos to Voice Memos, how to record with Voice Memos, and how to import your Voice Memos into Garageband. You can find all of these instructions on the Apple Support website.

What you need to know

• Apple has released a new update for GarageBand on iOS and iPadOS.
• The update features support for Dark Mode and external drives.
• There's also a new downloadable "Skyline Heat" sound pack.

Following the release of iOS 13, Apple on Thursday rolled out an update for GarageBand, and you can download it now for iPhone and iPad.

The biggest change in the latest update is support for Dark Mode, which gives GarageBand a sleek new look. It will make putting together tracks late into the night a little easier on the eyes.

The update also introduces the ability to access files from external drives and search for Apple Loops by Sound Library, and more. There's also a new "Skyline Heat" sound pack.

Here are the release notes (via 9to5Mac):

• Support for Dark Mode and new Share sheet in iOS 13
• Access files from external hard drives, SD card readers, and USB drives
• Improves audio fidelity of Apple Loops when making tempo and key changes
• New downloadable "Skyline Heat" sound pack with a collection of over 350 new Hip Hop loops and 6 drum kits
• Search for Apple Loops by Sound Library pack name
• Provides performance and stability improvements

The GarageBand update is available now for iOS and iPadOS.

Today, Apple launched the latest version of GarageBand for Mac, the company's popular music creation program. However, it's more than just a few bug fixes: GarageBand 10.3 is chock full of awesome new stuff, including free Artist Lessons, new loops, and more.

Sound-wise, GarageBand now features 1,000 (yes, 1,000) new electronic and urban loops overing Reggaeton, Future Bass, and Chill Rap, allowing you to more easily achieve the vibe you're looking for. If you're in the market for more weird sound effects (because, let's face it, there are only so many times you can incorporate the loon), Apple has added 400 new animal, machine, and voice samples. There are also two new Drummers that play in Roots and Jazz-influenced brush styles, and if you prefer to take the drumming into your own hands, you can now play and record using more traditional instruments from China and Japan like the incredibly cool Taiko drum. And, for those of you out there who wanna get real King Crimson with it, there are even five vintage Mellotron patches you can work in.

Arguably, though, the best thing about today's release is that users can get access to GarageBand's entire library of downloadable Artist Lessons for everyone's favorite price: free. If you've never checked them out before, Artist Lessons are tutorials in which the actual artists behind hit songs show you how to play them on piano and guitar, and they used to cost a whopping $4.99 a pop. Now though, you can learn all the intricacies of "Roxanne" from Sting himself without needing to shell out a single dime. Ah, the future.

Apple also noted that 10.3 updates compatibility with the iOS version of GarageBand, as well as providing a few stability improvements.

So, are you ready to be the next vaporwave phenomenon? If so, you can download GarageBand for free (if you don't have it already) by clicking on the link below. If you do already have GarageBand on your Mac, the update is free as well, and should happen automatically unless you have automatic updates disabled.

• GarageBand - Free - Download now

Thoughts?

What do you think of the additions to GarageBand? Share your favorite new features with us in the comments below. And, if you want, send a tweet our way sharing a song you've created using the app!

I'm not a musician. I can't keep a tune or play a note. But I love to play with sound. That's what's always made GarageBand for iOS so great for me. I can do me, with almost any instrument, in almost any way. And GarageBand for iOS 2.3 — grab it from the App Store — makes it even easier and better.

There's iPhone X support, of course. So, when you get your next iPhone, GarageBand will fills that screen — and those horns — with aplomb. And, of course, the 120 Hz touch rate on iPhone X makes the instruments more immediately responsive and accurate than ever.

There's also a new Sound Library. Apple is always looking for ways to reduce download size and maximize storage. That why we have everything from app thinning to on-demand resources to auto offloading. With GarageBand 2.3, only the initial set of sounds and instruments are downloaded at first. Then, if and when you want to, you can go to the Sound Library and get more. Many more.

It will also let Apple add additional content over time without forcing you to update the entire app every time. And if and when you're looking for something new, you can go in Sound Library to find it.

The new Beat Sequencer is every wanna-be hip hopper's dream. I'm using it like a 4 year old right now, but I'm having a blast. If you actually know how to drop beats, you should have even more fun with it. And, you know, be able to produce actual music.

Asian instruments are something near-and-dear to my heart. I used to take part in the Wushu demonstrations during Autumn Moon and New Year celebrations, and amid the lion and dragon dances were always the drums and the music.

Apple is adding Koto and Guzhen strings and Taiko Drums with this release, and doing it through the Sound Library. So, you can get them when and if you want them. The sound is unique and powerful and moving, and Apple did a great job capturing it. At least if my memories are any indicator.

Since I'm music challenged, I asked the pros for some Beat Sequencer tips to share:

1. Tap any kit piece in Beat Sequencer to get more advanced controls.
2. Also in Beat Sequence, you can toggle the playback of a row from forward to backward to ping-pong to random.
3. Save a Beat Sequencer pattern by tapping on the pattern browser and hitting Save.
4. If you're playing a pattern in Beat Sequencer, you can use the kit browser to audition or switch to other kits.
5. Change Velocity, Note Repeat, Chance, and Loop Start/End parameters to give your grooves some extra depth and dimension.
6. Patterns default to 16 steps but you can use the Pattern Setting button to 64.

If you find any others, let me know!

See on App Store

Many GarageBand users have noticed that after installing iOS 11, they've been unable to launch the app without it crashing immediately. According to a support page on Apple's website, the company is "aware of the issue and is investigating solutions." This is just the latest in a line of many bugs Apple has been attempting to contend with following iOS 11's release, including haptic issues with the iPhone 7 and crackling noises coming from the earpieces during calls on iPhone 8.

Like all the other problems users are experiencing post-update, this isn't affecting everyone. However, if you're one of the individuals struggling to open GarageBand on your device Apple suggests turning off iCloud for GarageBand as a temporary solution:

1. Launch the Settings app for iOS.
2. Tap your Apple ID banner.
3. Tap iCloud.
4. Under Apps Using iCloud, toggle off the on/off switch next to GarageBand.

Unfortunately, this does mean that you won't be able to access any GarageBand songs you've saved to iCloud Drive. They won't be deleted or anything — they'll still be there once you switch iCloud back on — but you won't be able to work on them until the issue is fixed. Any new songs you create will be saved to your device's native memory.

GarageBand is free on the App Store. It comes pre-installed when you purchase an Apple device, but if you've deleted it and want it back, you can get it here:

• GarageBand - Free - Download now

Thoughts? Questions?

Have you been experiencing any issues with GarageBand since updating to iOS 11? Give us a shout in the comments and let us know if switching off iCloud fixes the issue for you.

If you're still using an older device, and haven't purchased Pages, Keynote, or Numbers because it would cost you $9.99, you're in luck. Apple has just dropped the price of it's iWork suite to the low price of free. Plus, GarageBand and iMovie got the same treatment.

As first reported by MacRumors, Apple's most popular software line is now listed as free in the App Store, even for older devices.

This is fantastic news for people still running older Macs, iPhones, and iPads. I have a mid-2012 MacBook Pro and had to drop $30 for iWork because it wasn't free for me. Now that Apple has dropped the price to zero dollars, it is likely more users will join the bandwagon. Even if you were able to download such programs as Pages on iOS, it wouldn't be very useful if you couldn't continue working on it on your Mac without paying a premium price. Now you can!

If you've been holding off on getting iWork, GarageBand, or iMovie for any reason, now is the time to download them. The price is right.

• Pages on iOS - Download now
• Keynote on iOS - Download now
• Numbers on iOS - Download now
• GarageBand on iOS - Download now
• iMovie on iOS - Download now
• Pages on Mac - Download now
• Keynote on Mac - Download now
• Numbers on Mac - Download now
• GarageBand on Mac - Download now
• iMovie on Mac - Download now

What do you think about Apple's decision to drop the price of iWork, GarageBand, and iMovie?

Steve Lacy is an 18-year-old record producer who's worked with the likes of Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, and even netted himself a Grammy nod for producing the 2015 album Ego Death, by The Internet. A track he wrote and recorded on his iPhone even made it onto Kendrick Lamar's DAMN.

Lacy doesn't come up with his demos in a completely conventional way, reports Wired. At least, it's not conventional yet. He uses his iPhone and GarageBand to lay down tracks and come up with beats. The song he played for Kendrick Lamar ("Wasn't There") was completely recorded on his iPhone, including the vocals, because the equipment he was using at the time "kept screwing up".

Lacy uses an iRig, which he can connect directly to microphones and instruments in order to lay tracks down into GarageBand. Funnily enough, he's run into an issue with the iPhone 7's lack of a headphone jack, according to Wired, and has had to use an older, cracked iPhone.

Lacy's burgeoning fame in the hip-hop community and his recording method of choice brings about an interesting debate: Does a recording sound great because of the heart and soul that went into it or because of the tools that were used to produce it?

To me, there isn't much of a debate. This is just a kid who's been using what's at his disposal for a while now, and he's found that it's worked for him, so why not keep on with it?

What do you think?

When Steve Jobs revealed GarageBand for iPad, it was one of those moments that redefined mobile software for me. iPhone showed us you could touch your music. GarageBand showed us you could touch your music. Since then there's been an incredible string of pro apps for iPad and iPhone, but GarageBand, for me, remains real magic. It's one of the few things that makes me regret not having an ounce of musical talent.

There are bands, bands even I've heard of, that produce vast swaths of their songs and albums on iPad now, and while that shouldn't surprise me, it absolutely delights me.

GarageBand for iOS 2.2 doesn't just offer new features but it brings over features from Logic Pro X, Apple's pro audio editing software for the Mac. That includes Alchemy, which as the name implies, is transformative. There's also a new way to round-trip projects from Mac to iOS and back that's clever enough it feels like sorcery.

But enough with the wizardly hyperbole, here are the highlights:

1. There's a new sound browser so you can get at and explore the Touch Instruments more quickly and easily than before. (Where' my snare at?)
2. Apple's ported over Alchemy, their cool new synthesizer from Logic Pro X. It's got over 150 Apple-designed patches from across multiple genres like Pop, Rock, Indie, Hip Hop, and yes, EDM for the unce, unce, unce.

1. Multi-take recording gives you the ability to do try several takes, audition them all, and then choose the best one for the final mix. (The LINE must be drawn... here. No. The line MUST be... No. The line must be drawn HERE! Yes!)
2. The audio recorder has been redesigned and now includes vocal effects you can add with a single tap. They can just be for fun, but they also include pro-level pitch correction, distortion, and delay.
3. There's a new collection of advanced audio processing tools, including an interactive, graphical EQ so you can more easily see and adjust what you're equalizing.

1. Third-party plug-in effects are in full effect, with support for Audio Unit Extensions for expandable, creative sound design. So, you're not bound by just GarageBand. Now the App Store is your only limit.
2. You can share flattened versions of your Logic Pro X 10.3 projects via iCloud, record extra tracks, and have those additions shared back to the multi-track version in Logic Pro X. The round trip is real!

GarageBand 2.2 for iPhone and iPad remains a free update for all existing customers and for anyone who has bought an iPhone or iPad in the last few years. If that's not you, you can still buy it in the App Store for $4.99 and that makes it one of the best deals on any platform.

• Download now

GarageBand is one of those products that makes Apple, well, Apple. It's simple and approachable, powerful but also empowering. It lets people who've never played a note discover how to make their first composition, and it lets pros turn out songs even while on the road. And now Apple has updated Garageband to support China and Chinese music.

New Chinese instruments include the pipa, erhu, and Chinese-style percussion. They can be played on iPhone or iPad using multitouch, and on the Mac using "Musical Typing" a USB music keyboard. Supported by 300 Apple-created Chinese loops, you can quickly and easily bring any composition to life.

There are also two new Chinese templates in Live Loops for iOS, one traditional and one modern, and all available through the Live Loops grid.

The update coincides with Apple CEO Tim Cook's latest trip to China. You can download GarageBand for both iOS and OS X now.

• GarageBand for iOS - $4.99
• GarageBand for Mac - $4.99

BEIJING — May 17, 2016 — Apple® today announced an update to GarageBand® that celebrates the rich history of Chinese music with new instruments and extensive Chinese language localization throughout the app. Building on GarageBand's extensive collection of sounds, this update adds traditional Chinese instruments — the pipa, erhu and Chinese percussion — along with 300 Apple-created Chinese musical loops, giving users the power to tap into their creativity and make beautiful Chinese-inspired music right on their iOS device or Mac®. GarageBand for iOS users also get two new Chinese templates for Live Loops, and new sharing options to popular Chinese social networks, so they can easily share their music creations with friends and followers across QQ and Youku.

"GarageBand is the most popular music creation app in the world and we're excited to introduce these new features that incorporate the rich history of traditional Chinese music," said Susan Prescott, Apple's vice president of Product Marketing. "By adding classic Chinese instruments and new Live Loop templates, the new GarageBand app makes it fun and easy to make Chinese-inspired music right on your iPhone, iPad or Mac."

"As a musician I'm always looking for ways to take my music in new directions and GarageBand has been such a great tool for me to experiment and add new elements to my songs on-the-go," said award-winning music artist JJ Lin. "I love how the latest update to GarageBand adds traditional Chinese instruments along with brand new loops so I can play around with mixing traditional and modern sounds to create completely new styles."

The pipa, erhu and Chinese percussion instruments in GarageBand can be played on iPhone® or iPad® using Multi-Touch™, and on Mac through the built-in Musical Typing feature or by connecting a third-party USB music keyboard. Each instrument includes different playing articulations, including rapid picking and note bend for pipa, and trill, grace note and glissando for erhu, making it incredibly easy for a novice to create a realistic and expressive performance. iPhone users can also use 3D Touch™ with the erhu and pipa to dynamically control vibrato and intensity, and both the pipa and erhu include Autoplay, letting users tap on any chord and get a complete, rich performance. Users can also play a collection of Chinese percussion instruments including drums, wood blocks, cymbals and gongs.

This update adds 300 Apple-created loops from a variety of instruments and styles, including guzheng, dizi, yangqin and Peking Opera, to the library of Chinese musical content in the app. These loops can be mixed and matched with Chinese instruments in GarageBand to create traditional music or entirely new styles. GarageBand for iOS also supports Live Loops, a new and intuitive way to create music by simply tapping cells and columns in a highly visual grid to trigger different looped instruments and samples. And, Live Loops in this update adds two new Chinese Live Loops grid templates, one traditional and one modern, showcasing a variety of Chinese instruments and percussion that are all playable via the Live Loops grid.

Chinese localization is also significantly enhanced across the entire app, with all sounds, loops and instruments now translated to Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.

Pricing & Availability

Today's GarageBand 2.1.1 for iOS and GarageBand 10.1.2 for Mac updates are free for all existing users, and GarageBand is available for free with all new iOS and Mac devices. Customers with older, non-qualifying devices can purchase the app for $4.99 via the App Store® and Mac App Store. Users in Greater China will see these new features by default on iOS and OS X® after updating. Outside of Greater China, these new features are visible by default on OS X and can be enabled on iOS devices in the advanced settings menu. For more information about GarageBand for iOS, visit www.apple.com/ios/garageband and for more information about GarageBand for Mac, visit www.apple.com/mac/garageband.

Apple has updated GarageBand for Mac, bringing better compatibility with Live Loops projects created in the iPhone and iPad version of the app. Additionally, GarageBand for Mac can now also open projects from Apple's Music Memos iOS recording app.

Here are the big changes in GarageBand 10.1.1:

• Updates compatibility with GarageBand for iOS and Live Loops projects
• Opens Music Memos projects
• Supports Logic Remote for iPhone and iPad Pro
• Adds over 2,600 new Apple Loops and sounds
• Improved reliability when downloading additional content
• Contains multiple enhancements to Accessibility

You can get GarageBand 10.1.1 from the Mac App Store now.

• $4.99 - Download Now

To my parents' dismay, I am not what you would call a professional musician. They are both 30-year classical veterans, having held the title of classical concert pianist, conductor, voice coach, and a million other little jobs in-between. I... dabble in string instruments and belt musicals in my car.

But when you grow up in a house full of music, you respect it. And though I've never sought to make singing or piano-playing my career, I still love the art of learning a new song, or building a tune from an assortment of random chords.

It's probably why I squealed over Apple's Music Memos, released Wednesday. The iOS app lets you record song snippets, pair them with a simple backing drumkit or bass, and tweak tempos before sharing it to your friends and fans, or sending it to a more pro-level editing suite.

After only an hour with it, I'm pretty confident that it's going to delight true musicians. But for music dabblers like myself, it might actually spur more regular tune creation than you previously thought possible.

Out of a single chord progression doodle in Music Memos, I recorded, produced, and created a song in 30 minutes.

Sing for me

Music Memos isn't quite like any app Apple has made so far: It compares most closely to Voice Memos, of course, but with several music-specific elements that make me wonder if I'll ever use Voice Memos again.

Off the bat, Music Memos's best feature is automatic recording. Tap the Auto button in the upper left corner, and the app will automatically start and stop recording whenever you play or sing a segment. This is something I've longed for in Voice Memos for ages: I've recorded many a 40-minute chord-and-random-lyrics dabble in Apple's older recording app, only to never listen to it because the thought of going through almost an hour of material for 3-4 solid minutes made my head hurt.

With Music Memos, you can dabble away. I played six or seven sets of ukulele chord progressions, and the app intelligently recognized my big pauses as "places to split," and did so seamlessly.

You can mess around a little bit with Music Memos's tagging and backing system on the last clip recorded, but the app's real power comes when you tap the Files icon in the top center. This displays all your clips; tap one, and you get options for time signature, auto-chord recognition, trimming, notes, tagging, automatic instruments, and sharing.

Edit away

To put Music Memos through its paces, I took one of my test ukulele chord progressions—Dm, A, Bb—and called it "Down in the Dismal Deep" (alliteration!). I added both bass and drums to the track by tapping the tiny bass and drumkit icons in the bottom toolbar, and tapped and held on one of the icons to bring up some (limited) customization controls. The drums are limited to two kits—Modern and Vintage—and three styles, with a music square that offers Loud, Complex, Simple, and Quiet beats. The bass is even simpler than that: It lets you choose either Electric or Upright, with the same music square options as the drumkit.

The lilting little uke ditty I put together practically demanded an upright bass, so on it went; I also added a Quiet/Simple Vintage drumkit with a little bit of cymbal action.

After doing this, my little three-chord progression already sounded like something of a song, but there were many more options to play with from here. You can adjust the tempo of the song (and AI instruments) from Half, Regular, to Double; the original "Regular" tempo is however you initially played your snippet. You can also change the time signature from 4/4 to a more artsy 3/4 or even 6/8, and alter the downbeat.

While the AI drumset relies on tempo, the AI bass uses automatic chord generation based on your initial song drabble. Overall, the bass's chord recognition was pretty spot on, though I did have to use the chord alterer in the toolbar to change one Gm to a Dm.

The detailed Music Memos view for individual songs also lets you trim your snippet; add notes about the capo, tuning, or lyrics; and tag it with various pre-made tags or your own custom variations. For my clip, I trimmed a little bit off the start and end of the clip; added a notation in the notes field about "Down in the Dismal Deep" being a blues song of some sort; and tagged it with "Chorus," "Chords," and my own custom "Ukulele" tag.

From here, you can share your song clip to a number of different sources, including AirDrop, Workflow, Slack, Apple Music Connect, iCloud Drive, YouTube, SoundCloud, and more. I did share an early memo directly to SoundCloud, which worked seamlessly after an initial log-in, but for this clip, I wanted to do a bit more editing before having it make a SoundCloud debut.

Unfortunately, one thing you can't do with Music Memos: record additional tracks alongside it, or let a current recording play in the background while you sing or record an additional memo. I would love to see a feature like that in the future; it'd be almost like Final Cut Pro's "Audition" option, and give you the chance to experiment with different vocals.

That said, Apple does offer an app for multitrack recording right on iOS: GarageBand.

Out of the frying pan...

You can edit Music Memos with GarageBand for iPhone, but because I like the bigger screen, I sent my clip via AirDrop to my iPad Pro, where it arrived as a .band GarageBand file. Opening it was as easy as selecting GarageBand as an import option; from there, I had full access to all GarageBand's features.

In GarageBand, I adjusted the volume and start times of the various tracks; added some more ambience to the ukulele track, and recorded two quick vocal tests with nonsense lyrics I dreamed up on the spot. The result: I had a publishable chorus in 30 minutes. It's not a perfectly mixed tune, nor is it particularly high art. But it's listenable, and moreover: It makes me want to do more with this song when I have a little extra time on my hands.

It's exciting. GarageBand was supposed to be the fiddling musician's answer to iMovie, but as easy as it's gotten over the years, you still have to know some basic music theory and mixing to truly enjoy working in the program. Music Memos, in contrast, offers tools for both the professional musician and the hobbyist tinkerer. Want to record and share a little ditty in 30 minutes? No problem. Want to use it to write a song over six months? You can do that, too.

And that makes this hobbyist musician so happy she could burst into song.

The latest version of GarageBand — 2.1 for those of you keeping track at home — brings a bevy of new features to iPhone and iPad, including Live Loops, Drummer, and more.

Live Loops was inspired by DJ setups and lets you create music by tapping cells and columns in a grid, each of which triggers a loop or instrument sample. Each loop or sample can be played, arranged, and remixed live, and GarageBand will automagically keep everything in sync, from beat to time to pitch. There are several templates and a library of 1200 Apple-provided loops to get you started, including EDM, Hip Hop, Dubstep, and Rock, and you can also create your own.

Grammy Award-winner T-Pain tried out the new version of GarageBand and had this to say:

The Drummer feature that first launched on GarageBand for OS X in June 2015 is now present in the iOS version of GarageBand. It brings an automatic drum machine to your music, featuring nine EDM and acoustic drummers, each with its own unique sound, along with additional choices of amps and bass players. There are new automation features, new controls, and a new, simplified EQ.

On the iPad Pro, GarageBand takes advantage of the extra space by surfacing more controls and giving you even more room to play. On the iPhones 6s, GarageBand has picked up 3D Touch support to bring even more life to your finger strikes.

GarageBand is available now on the App Store. It's a free upgrade for anyone who already owns it and anyone who recently bought and iOS device. It's $4.99 for everyone else. iOS 9 required.

Jason Snell produces roughly 300 podcasts a week, feels like, and they all sound great, even with really larges panels. So, whether you're just starting out or want to take your own podcast project to a newer, more compressed, more equalized, and more gated level, check out his editing tips. From Six Colors:

Both Jason and Dave Wiskus inspired—and shamed—me into moving from GarageBand to Logic Pro X for podcast editing but several times since I've found myself on a new or loaner Mac and needed to get some editing done. It's always been fine, but thanks to Jason, hopefully they'll be even better.

More: Six Colors

With the new version of GarageBand comes all the Electronic Dance Music (EDM), Hop Hip, Indie, Disco, Funk, and Blues you can handle. That includes 10 new EDM and Hip Hop drummers, and electronic drum kits; 100 new EDM and Hip Hop synthesizer patches; new Transform Pad Smart Control; and 1,000 new loops to support all those new genres.

GarageBand is built on the same technology that powers Apple's professional-level Logic Pro X. As such, it lets those who are new to music creation start simply, with Apple doing as much or as little of the "heavy lifting" for them as they need. Instead of hitting a wall early on, quitting, and never looking back, they can play and experiment and get rewarded with small, early successes that get them on the right track and encourage them to continue.

With these new popular genres, everyone can start making the music they like listening to, further engaging them and creating a music experience that becomes increasingly less passive.

Drummer, which is GarageBand's virtual session player, now includes 20 new electronic drum kits. It's the same easy-to-use interface, but almost makes you feel like a producer or DJ laying down beats.

The Transform Pad Smart Control, rather than abstracts, creates something very close to a relationship where, even if you're not a pro, you can expriement with volume and complexity, almost as if you're collaborating with another producer or musician.

You can also fuse acoustic and electronic sounds to create a unique mix. House, Techno, and Dub Step creations are now just a step away, as is the opportunity to create something fresh and new.

As someone with absolutely no musical talent whatsoever, Apple's sound designers have done a lot to provide an amazing foundation and tools to help everyone not only do the best with what they have, but to learn and improve at the same time.

Apple has also brought a form of automation to GarageBand 10.1, so now you can record the movement of Software Instrument Smart Controls. You move the knobs on a Synth Smart Control, move a drawbar on the B3 Organ Smart Control, or move the puck on the Transform Pad Smart Control, and all of that gets captured, in real-time. That can make those incredibly rare moments of accidental genius—at least for me—something you can go back to whenever you want or need to.

And yes—Force Touch is now supported for owners of 2015 MacBooks and MacBook Pros. With it, you can set shortcuts that are triggered by Force Clicks, and receive tactile haptic feedback for the controls.

Apple is also updating GarageBand for iOS today to include new Apple Music Connect features for artists with accounts and access, so they can share mixes and working content right for their iPhones and iPads. That's something that'll almost certainly come to OS X as well in a future update.

GarageBand 10.1 may be a point release, but for anyone into EDM, Hop Hip, Indie, Disco, Funk, and Blues, it'll be a major improvement.

Best of all, it's available from the Mac App Store now. As usual, it's free for existing owners and anyone with a recent Mac, and just $4.99 for everyone else.

• Free or $4.99 - Download Now

If you picked up a shiny new iPad Air today, be sure to drop by the App Store and download the free iLife and iWork applications from Apple! Recently made free with the purchase of a new iOS device, the collection of Apple applications is a great way to add productivity and creativity to your new iPad. And of course, with iCloud integration you get to share your content with respective applications on your Mac and iPhone.

So, grab them for yourselves using the handy links below, and if you're a first time downloader of any of them, let me know what you think!

• Free - Download Now - Pages for iPad
• Free - Download Now - Numbers for iPad
• Free - Download Now - Keynote for iPad
• Free - Download Now - iMovie for iPad
• Free - Download Now - iPhoto for iPad
• Free - Download Now - Garageband for iPad

As shown at the Apple Event earlier in the day, Apple late on Tuesday released updated iWorks and iLife apps for iOS. Those include Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand - all updated to version 2.0.

The new apps have been reworked to support the user interface changes in iOS 7 and a new unified file format that works across Mac, iOS and the web. All are free updates for existing users, and free with the purchase of a new iOS device.

Pages gets more than 60 Apple-designed templates; keyboard support for text formatting options, the ability to share documents through iCloud, AirDrop, ePub export, improved non-Roman foreign language support and much more.

• $9.99 - Download now

Numbers sports new interactive charts, faster calculation, export to CSV, file sharing with Mail, Messages, Twitter and Facebook, and more.

• $9.99 - Download now

Keynote gains new themes, new animation and effects, interactive charts and more.

• $9.99 - Download now

iPhoto gets redesigned, and supports the ability to order professionally printed hardbound books. You can create custom slideshows that can be controlled using gestures, new photo effects have been added, new widgets support national flags and currency, white balance will compensate for underwater shots, and more.

• $4.99 - Download now

iMovie sports a new iMovie Theater feature that makes it easier to watch your movies anywhere. Full-screen video browsing is new, along with an adjustments bar to make audio and video adjustments easier. Sixteen new title styles have been added, along iwth three new transitions, new trailers, slow motion support, new imaging effects and much more.

• $4.99 - Download now

GarageBand has gone free, but to use the full array of instruments and sounds, you'll need to unlock a $4.99 In-App Purchase. You can create songs with up to 32 tracks (on 64-bit equipped systems like the iPhone 5s, the new iPad Air and the new iPad mini with Retina Display). Inter-App Audio lets you record compatible third-party music apps, and you can drag and drop audio recordings to create your own custom Sampler Instruments.

• Free - Download now

Apple has updated their Built-in-Apps page on Apple.com to show off the new icons, and new descriptions for their iLife - iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand - and iWork - Numbers, Pages, Keynote - suites of creativity and productivity apps ahead of the October 22 iPad and Mac event. It includes this line, suggesting GarageBand might join its 5 companions in going free, although in this case free-as-in-freemium:

Looks like some new features and new templates are also coming along for the ride. It's not clear exactly what it all means, but here's the copy:

iPhoto for iOS:

iMovie for iOS:

Keynote:

Numbers:

The icons are, as you'd expect, gradients with solid white glyphs, completely unlike their previous, richly rendered versions and now matching Apple's current slate of iOS 7 apps. The screenshots, however, look the same as before so either those haven't been updated on the web yet, or Apple's engineers and designers simply haven't had time to work on them, given how busy they've been with the core OS.

New icons aren't shown for iBooks, iTunes U, Podcasts, Trailers, Remote, or other Apple App Store Apps, though presumably those, especially iBooks, are in the works. There's also no indication of new OS X versions of the iWork or iLife apps for the Mac and Mavericks yet, but given they were last updated in 2009, they're long past due as well.

Whether or not the new icons and new descriptions were meant to be pushed into production today, or whether it was simply a glitch in advance of Tuesday's update is uncertain. The pages linked to from the new descriptions come back as not found, so the latter might be more likely than the former.

Via: MacRumors

Apple is gearing up for another Apple Camp this summer at its retail stores in the United States. The program teaches kids ages 8-12 how to use Apple software. It's free.

This year's Apple Camp sessions aim to turn youngsters into filmmakers. Over the three day course (one and a half hours each day), campers learn how to shoot their own footage, create an original song using GarageBand on the iPad, then put it all together on the Mac using iMovie.

At the end, the campers show off their footage at the "Apple Camp Film Festival," where they can invite friends and family to watch their movies at the store (it's optional - shy kids can just go home with their finished movies at the end of day two, if they prefer).

Apple Camp provides all the tools necessary to participate, but Apple encourages kids to bring in their own Mac, digital camera and earphones if possible. Apple wants to help campers get familiar with their own hardware.

Because it's free, workshops tend to fill up quickly, and space is limited, so make sure to sign up if you're interested.

Apple gave GarageBand a substantial update after the release of iOS 5.1 – in preparation for the new iPad. The graphics have been bumped up in quality and the options for creating music have been enhanced by the inclusion of iCloud integration, multiple users over Bluetooth and new instruments.

The premise of GarageBand is just as the name implies – amateur musicians and musician wannabees can play, record and share music they create using instruments on the iPad.

Getting Started with GarageBand

From the startup page of GarageBand, touch the “+” icon in the top left corner. You are immediately presented with the option to start a New Song or copy a song from iTunes. For our purposes, we will select a New Song.

Choosing an Instrument

Selecting a New Song brings you to the instrument selection screen. Swipe through the various instrument choices to choose your first instrument to play.  The instruments are in two formats – Smart instruments and regular instruments. Smart instruments let you jump right in an hit one button to play an entire chord (as opposed to holding down all the notes individually. While Smart instruments seem to be the clear choice for people with little or no musical background, they are still very useful even to seasoned musicians.

The instruments included in GarageBand are both Smart   versions of:

1. Guitar
2. Keyboard
3. Bass
4. Strings – Brand new in GarageBand
5. Drums

There are then regular versions of:

1. Keyboard
2. Drums

Lastly, GarageBand also includes a Guitar Amp which allows you to plug in your guitar using a third party accessory to classic amps and stompboxes.

The options are actually pretty staggering. In this example, I chose Keyboard and then when I touched the Grand Piano icon I could choose from eight different Keyboards.

Options from Within each Instrument

The instruments in GarageBand are very true to life. For example, when I chose Electric Piano from the options in the Keyboard, I now had nobs for Decay, Bell, Tremolo and Chorus. With each adjustment, the tone and character of each note changes.

When I chose the Smart Guitar, I could then choose to play an Acoustic, Classic Clean, Hard Rock or Roots Rock guitar. Just like with the keyboards, each guitar comes with its own controls. I can play an entire chord by touching the name of the chord – for example, if I touch Em, I play an E minor chord. Or, I can play individual notes within a chord for “fingerpicking” just like a real guitar.

The options are so comprehensive that you can spend hours just tinkering with musical possibilities before you are even ready to record a song.

Recording a Song

GarabeBand allows you to not only play around with all these instruments, but to actually record a song and layer it with different instruments.  Once you pick your first instrument, touch the red Record button along the top bar of icons.

As soon as you touch record, the recording bar – divided into measures – appears at the top. Just keep playing your song and when you are ready, touch the Stop icon. You can then touch the Play icon to play back what you recorded. Your recording gets saved and is now available to “layer over” other instruments or edit.

Editing a Song

Next to the instrument icon along the top bar of icons is the Edit icon. When you switch to Edit mode, you see the timeline of the song at the top. To edit your song:

1. Double tap the song in the timeline.
2. Choose to Cut, Copy, Delete, Loop, Split or Edit the song.
3. In Edit mode, touch a note to Cut, Copy, Delete or change the Velocity
4. Touch in an empty part of the song to add a note.

I found the editing process a bit cumbersome and complicated and it in involved some trial and error to actual pin down a specific note and change its character or delete it entirely.

To add a pre-recorded instrumental accompaniment to your musical creation, just touch the Apple Loop icon along the top right hand bar of icons and choose an instrument to add to the time line. You can select the number of bars, the genre along with the instrument. Just hold and drag to the timeline. In this example, I dragged the 70s Electric Piano 08 right the position in the timeline where it was needed. Now, when I hit play, both instruments are playing simultaneously.

To Add a New Instrument to the Project

Touch the “+”icon in the lower left hand corner to get to the main instrument selection screen.  Choose your instrument as you did above and practice, practice and practice some more! When you are ready, touch the record button like you did earlier and start recording your new part to the song.

What is incredibly cool here is that everything you have recorded to this point is played along with the metronome to help you keep your beat. Just come into the song at the right time with the new instrument and it will be “layered” with the other instruments you record to make your song.

Touch the Edit icon again and you will now see the new layer of the song. You can edit out parts or add in notes just as you did above.

Adjusting the Settings from the Edit Screen

There are a few additional icons along the right hand side of the top bar. The icon next to the Apple Loops icon adjust individual settings in the instruments. Just highlight a section of one of the instrumental recordings and adjust  settings like Reverb and Echo, for example.  Next to that icon is a general Settings icon which allows you to adjust:

1. Metronome – turn it on or off.
2. Count-In – this gives you time to jump into the song.
3. Sound – of the Metronome
4. Tempo
5. Key
6. Time Signature
7. Fade Out
8. AirPlay.

To Save your project, tough the My Songs icon and you will return to the main screen after saving the new song.

Using the Guitar Amp

One of the very cool features of GarageBand is the ability to use built in guitar amps and then record yourself actually playing your guitar.  There are third party accessories like the Griffin Guitar Connect Cable and the Apogee JAM Guitar input which work well for electric guitars. You can also use the built in microphone of the iPad and an acoustic guitar.

I used my Martin acoustic and the iPad mike to record a few tracks. The first thing to do is to pick an amplifier.  The default is the Clean Combo amp, but just touch the Clean Combo name to see all the amps available. You can also just swipe left or right to choose an amp.

Each amp has true to life controls, so if you own an old American Tremolo, the controls will be just like those on your own amp. I recommend playing with the controls to get the right sound, practicing your song over and over and then get ready to record.

Prior to recording, you can add beat boxes by touching the icon just under the timeline. You can also add sections to your song – giving you additional bars of recording by touching the “+” icon at the end of the timeline. If you know that the section you want to record repeats over and over – just select the Duplicate function.

Tuning your Guitar

Touch the icon of the tuning fork to find a built in tuner for your guitar – which is very handy. Strum one note at a time and the tuner will show you how far off you are from the actual note. What you want is to get the note to show up Green – meaning that your string is in tune.

Recording From a Real Guitar

Once you are ready to record, touch the red Record button as you did above and just start playing.  When you are done, touch the Stop Recording button. You can then Undo the recording if you made some mistakes or touch the Edit button as you did above to get to the editing sections. From there, you can add Apple Loops of add some percussion or maybe a piano riff or two to your guitar recording to make a complete song. Touch the My Songs icon to save your composition and get to the main screen.

Starting a Jam Session

A good GarageBand has lots of folks jamming, and now you can do this with GarageBand as well. To start a Jam session:

1. Touch the Jam session icon next to the volume control in the top bar.
2. Turn on Bluetooth if it is not already turned on (the iPad will prompt you to do this)
3. Then, you can either Create a session or Join a session if someone with an iPad near you already started one.
4. Once the iPads are connected, the “host” controls the tempo and the recording.
5. Both parties (or, up to four) play their tracks and then all tracks will show up on the iPad that started the Jam Session for editing.

Deleting Songs

After you start playing with GarageBand, you might collect a few songs in your start up page that you want to delete. Deleting a song in GarageBand is very intuitive:

1. Touch the Edit button in the top right corner
2. The songs in your start up page begin to shake.
3. Touch and hold the song you want to delete and the top bar indicator will now read “1 Song Selected.”
4. Touch the Trash Can icon and delete the song.

Using iCloud

New in GarageBand is the ability to use iCloud to share songs or store them for future retrieval.  To share a song that you create on GarageBand with your iCloud account just:

1. Touch the edit button in the top right hand corner
2. Touch and hold the song to select it.
3. Touch the iCloud icon (the icon furthest to the right along the title bar)
4. Touch on the Upload Song to iCloud prompt
5. You will then notice a small iCloud icon on top of the song.

All is not a bed of roses here. What I wanted to do was upload to iCloud and then just have it magically appear on my Mac. If I upload to iCloud, that works between iOS devices.  So if I use iCloud on my iPhone and my iPad, any project done in one appears on the other.

However, to get a song onto Garage band on my Mac, I have to:

1. Touch the Edit button.
2. Touch the Share as button.
3. Choose iTunes from the menu.
4. Then Choose either iTunes or GarageBand.
5. Choose GarageBand, and sync your iPad with the computer.
6. Click on the Apps tab in iTunes and then if your click on GarageBand – you will see your song.

You can also use the Share Song to icon to send your song to Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud, iMovie or via email.

The good

• Same great iPad interface, now in Retina
• New jamming features makes for an incredibly fun, social experience
• Additional instruments broaden GarageBand's range

The bad

• Editing process is still a bit cumbersome and not always intuitive
• iCloud still doesn't work as it should with the Mac (and might not until OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion launches later this year.

The bottom line

GarageBand for the iPad is an incredibly deep and powerful app to play around with. It was very easy to get lost in this app for hours and not really produce anything except a few hours of fun.

Once you master the feel of the app and learn how to record and edit, it really is possible to turn out some quality songs. Throw in the built in amplifiers and the ability to connect an electric guitar or just play an acoustic and use the built in mike and you have a great tool.

If you are a musician  - for real or just in your own mind – this app will provide hours of fun.

Are you a GarageBand user? Check out this forum thread and share your thoughts!

GarageBand got an honorable mention at today's iPad 3 new iPad event, along with a few new features. There are now orchestral string instruments (along with existing drums, keyboards, and guitars), a note editor to tweak your performance in post-production, iCloud integration to access your creations elsewhere, and new sharing options to get them out to your friends. The biggest addition is jam sessions, which allow up to 4 iOS devices to collaborate on the same piece over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

GarageBand launched alongside the iPad 2 last year, so it's only fitting to be getting a big update with the new iPad announcement. While I don't expect that I'll be throwing any GarageBand parties with all of my hip young iPad-toting friends, it's a neat addition for a generation that's spent a healthy amount of time playing Rock Band with their buddies. Do you guys think you'd end up doing any GarageBand jam sessions? Is GarageBand even an app that you spend a considerable amount of time with?

If you don't have it already, but are interested in giving it a shot, you can download it from the iTunes App Store here for $4.99, or can learn more (along with Jam Session video demo) over at Apple's GarageBand minisite.

On a Mac and wondering how to get free ringtones for your iPhone? We all know you can purchase or create ringtones in iTunes but... they can be limited in functionality or selection. Luckily GarageBand, which is part of the the iLife suite, has the ability to create ringtones built right in.

The process isn't too difficult and you can fine tune them however you like; including fade ins, fade outs, splicing sections together, and more.

After you choose the song you want to use, you'll need to drag it into GarageBand. For iLife 11 users, you'll need to do these steps first. If you're using an older version of iLife, you can simply skip to the next section.

If you want to use a song that was purchased from iTunes (a .m4r file), GarageBand is picky about you dragging those in as of iLife 11, so you'll need to change the format from .m4r to .mp3 before dragging it in.

2. Drag the file from iTunes you'd like to use for your ringtone to your desktop.
3. Change the extension from .m4r to .mp3
4. Finder will prompt you asking if you're sure you want to change it. Click use .mp3
5. Now move on to the next section.

2. Drag your song into GarageBand, you should see something similar to above (if GarageBand opened a virtual keyboard, just x it out). I also go to the counter and change it to time instead of measures (located on the bottom). That's up to you. It's just personal preference.

3. Now expand the view by clicking the tiny scissor icon in the bottom left hand corner of GarageBand (it's the third icon from the left in most versions of GarageBand.

4. The expanded view should look like the screen above. This view allows you to highlight and cut sections out as well as finer tune your selection.

5. Now comes the Apple loop part, next to your play/pause/forward controls to the right, you should see the button above. Click it and you will now see a yellow bar that you can adjust appear above your song in the top section of GarageBand.

6. Simply slide this bar back and forth to select the portion of the song you'd like to make a ringtone out of. You can increase and decrease the length by dragging it at the beginning or end as well. Just make sure it's under 30 seconds total.

Those are all the steps to create your ringtone, the video also explains a few more options as far as fading in and out as well as cutting and splicing so be sure to check that out as well.

Now all that's left to do is to send the ringtone to iTunes.

2. At the top of GarageBand click Share.
3. Next select Send ringtone to iTunes
4. iTunes should pop open and import your ringtone automatically.
5. Now just sync your iPhone and the new ringtone and you're done!

That's all there is to it! You can create as many ringtones as you want this way without paying any additional money. If you run into issues, check out our TiPb forums for more help and suggestions!

[Daily Tips](ht will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Just get a new iPad 2 and curious which are the best, most must-have apps and games you need to install first? Want to really show off those new cameras or put that new super fast Apple A4 processor to the test? Well read on for TiPb’s top 5 most recommended, most must-have iPad 2 apps to get your started.

If you're brand new to iPad, be sure to check out our Top 10 iPad Apps to get you started with all the basics, from social to casual to creative. If you really want to stun your friends and family, however -- if you want to blow them away with your new iPad 2, then grab/update these next!

iMovie

When Apple debuted the iPad 2 they wanted to raise the bar when it came to iPad 2 software as well, and iMovie was their first salvo. Pull in video and photos via the decidedly tepid built-in cameras, from the Camera Roll, or from your iPhone, point-and-shoot, vidcam, or DSLR via SD or USB and the Camera Connection Kit and you're on your way. If you're familiar with iMovie '11 on Mac it's the same basic concept but completely touch-centric. You can mould your video as if you're working with digital clay. Clip and transition and modify the audio and title -- all in multitouch. *Universal app – buy once, use on iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, and iPad 2.** [$4.99 - iTunes link]

GarageBand

Apple's second iPad 2 salvo is also arguably one of the best mobile apps ever made. While it also works on the original iPad it's even better on iPad 2. If you're familiar with GarageBand '11 on Mac... well this is a different animal almost entirely. You've got touch sensitive instruments that, thanks to the accelerometer, can even tell how hard you're hitting them. Strings, keyboards, and percussion from classic to electric are available both for you to play and in "smart" varieties to play along. You can also plug in your own instruments and record your own vocals and you've got 8 full tracks to mix it all down with. Even if you're not musically inclined, GarageBand will wow you. [$4.99 - iTunes link]

Real Racing 2 HD

Always on the cutting edge of Apple's latest hardware, the ADA award-winning team at Firemint wasted no time in releasing an iPad 2 optimized version of their flagship driving game. Gyroscope makes it steer better and the new PowerVR SGX 543 graphics chip in iPad 2 lets them turn the textures to overdrive. While the game may look and control better than ever before, it's still Real Racing 2 and that means great cars, exciting tracks, and more fun than you can throw a hyper car at. If only I could drive like the Stig! [$9.99 - iTunes link]

Infinity Blade

Not only did Epic provide great new content in the recent Deathless Kings update for their Unreal 3 Engine-powered fighter, they powered it up for iPad 2 as well. While the original Infinity Blade for iPad blew people away with its gorgeous, real-time 3D environments and kinetic gameplay, the iPad 2 version takes it not only to the next level, but the next generations. The textures look better than ever, the frame-rate is near flawless, and if it looked gorgeous before it looks darn well glorious now. (You can even plug in the HDMI adapter and let your friends watch the mayhem video mirrored on your big screen HDTV!). [$5.99 - iTunes link]

Dead Space HD

Dead Space HD was one of the best looking, most atmospheric, most intense first-person shooters (FPS) games we've experienced on iPad -- and now they've gone and enhanced the already impressive visuals for iPad 2. So yes, good things can get better... or scary things can get even scarier... either way! It's hardcore horror and that might not be for everyone but for those who've been aching for console quality FPS on iPad, we've taken then next big leap in that direction. [$6.99 - iTunes link]

Your top apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best apps to show off your new iPad 2. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPad App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!