Apple Garageband for iPad
Published October 11, 2011 | 
Garageband for the iPad is a fun, mobile, musical tool. It doesn’t have the in-depth capabilities of a major desktop DAW, but is still very effective and cool within its own realm.
It is perhaps the most fun and easiest to use. A person with little if any musical talent could still have fun creating music with Apple’s Garageband for iPad and make some decent tunes too.
New Features Worth Mentioning:
Smart Instruments are included in this version of Garageband allowing you to play complex chord progressions with ease – removing a lot of the guesswork for those less knowledgeable in terms of musical theory. By using the assistance of these Smart Instruments you will naturally start to learn what combinations of chords and progressions work well together, which is a great learning tool for any aspiring producer.
One of the other things I like about this app is the drum view.
As you can see from the image above – Garageband lays out its acoustic drums as if you were a drummer sitting directly behind a kit. What makes this view cool in conjunction with the iPad is the ability to tap on the drums to create your rhythms and sequences. In addition to that, the sound the drum makes when struck corresponds to the velocity and location at which you strike the drum – very cool and fun to play with.
There are some things that I am not crazy about with this app. Most notably is the fact you only get 8 tracks to work with, making it much less proficient in big musical compositions requiring lots of tracks.
Summary
I wouldn’t look at Garageband for the iPad as a major, professional audio workstation, but more so as a fun, mobile way to lay out good starting points for your future productions.
At a mere $5 for this app – it’s a great buy for any iPad owner pursuing musical endeavors.
I have to admit that looks like fun. Some of the sounds and plugins they have are incredible these days!