Garageband iPad Review. The Blogging Musician @ adamharkus.com. My first port of call, and after years of wrestling with keyboards, stand-alone drum machines, the BOSS BR series, and many a drum plug-in including Toontrack EZ-drummer, XLN Audio Addictive Drums, and Steinberg Groove-Agent, my conclusion is that Garageband Drummer is the best by some margin. Nov 09, 2011 When reviewing the 1.0 release of GarageBand for iPad, I wrote: “This amazing tool—complete with eight-track recording, easy-does-it interface, customizable and easily played virtual.
Wallens wrote: In order to save the rest of the world (well, my wife) from the sound of guitar 'playing,' I checked out some alternatives. Turns out that you can get an adaptor to plug a guitar into a Mac-I'm using the Apogee Jam, and it works with both the iPad/iPhone as well as my MacBook Pro. Lighted fretboard and free All-Star Guitar app for instant rock stardom. Works with GarageBand and many other popular iPad and iPhone apps Secure, padded compartment for iPad with dock connector Built-in speaker with volume control - rock out anywhere! Access to iPad headphone output for silent practice Full-Scale Guitar Body With Strap Pegs.
Apple’s Garageband can be used on a number of different devices, the iMac, the MacBook Pro, the iPad, and the iPhone.
iMac, MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhone, and Apple, are all registered trademarks of Apple.
Each type of device has its own drawbacks and limitations. For instance, some people prefer to use an iPhone due to its portability and convenience.
But others may prefer using an iMac, because of the additional power and large screen, which makes it a lot easier to navigate and use for energy-intensive plug-ins and software.
In terms of overall value, the iPad Pro is the best option for producing music with Garageband, for a few reasons, including convenience, its versatility, the touch screen, and updated power and processing speed.
You can check out the price of the iPad Pro® on Amazon here.
We’re going to explore some of those reasons in detail.
Why The iPad Is Best for Garageband
1) Convenience
The iPad Pro 11″ is the best for music production with Garageband due to it being almost as easy to use on a computer, while at the same time, having more power than what’s available on an iPhone.
Let’s face it, this is where music production is headed at the moment. As mobile devices become increasingly powerful, the iPad seems like a better option all of the time.
For instance, the latest iPad Pro 11″ has a lot more RAM, memory, and processing speed than they used too, meaning, they’re no longer just for watching Netflix as they were in the past (although, they were always capable of more).
The convenience of using an iPad can’t be understated. Because they’re so sleek and portable, it’s easy to stick it in your backpack, satchel, briefcase, or your suitcase.
They’re incredibly lightweight, and it doesn’t hurt at all to carry one of them around with you, even more than the MacBook Pro, which is not a burden either, frankly.
Admittedly, it’s always going to be best to produce music on a more powerful and much larger computer, but it looks like smaller devices are becoming more capable than they were before.
2) The Interface is Versatile
The new iPads allow you to use Garageband in a number of ways, including turning it into a Drumpad or a MIDI keyboard by just selecting a new interface.
This is something that can’t be done with a MacBook Pro, at least to my knowledge.
Furthermore, iPad users know that you can turn the standard interface into a guitar, where you actually strum it like a guitar, can bend notes, and do all kinds of cool techniques that a guitar can also do.
3) Touch Screen
As I mentioned in passing above, the touch screen interface is great for making adjustments in your workspace, making the workflow extremely smooth.
Because I’ve grown accustomed to doing everything through clicking with the trackpad or through a mouse, I find that this is the best way to go about it, but people who have gotten used to a touch screen interface often find it challenging to go back.
I can totally understand why this is the case after using Garageband on an iPad. It appears to be a lot smoother and faster when using one.
Some users of iPad claim that the touch-screen interface, in some ways, actually mimics analog equipment, in the sense that you’re touching and adjusting knobs manually with your hands, in comparison to using a computer or a laptop, where all changes have to be made with a mouse, trackpad, or keyboard.
This may be a selling point for someone who prefers more of a tactile interface that mimics the hands-on action of using actual gear and equipment, in comparison to just clicking all of the time with a mouse or trackpad.
4) Updated Power, RAM, Storage, and Processing Speed
The new iPad Pro 11″ has a lot more power than the old iPads, which commonly had processing speed in the 1.5GHz range.
The new iPad Pro has 2.4 GHz processing speed, which means that it’s quite fast and powerful.
While it’s much better to have a processor speed above 3.0 GHz, the iPad’s processor speed is going to be enough to meet pretty much all of your needs.
If you’ve made the smart decision and gotten the iPad with the most amount of storage as well, around 1012 GB of storage, you’ll almost never run into an issue with storage.
Ironically, the iPad Pro 11″ has more storage capacity than my MacBook Pro, making me wonder why I just didn’t get an iPad Pro instead of the MacBook Pro.
However, I needed a computer for other functions, so the MacBook Pro was the best option for me at the time.
With that said though, if you need a device for the sole purpose of music production and you don’t have to do much typing, then the iPad Pro is going to be a good move.
It’s worth mentioning that the most recent and most powerful iPad Pro 11″, is actually more powerful than any MacBook Pro that’s currently on the market, which is really saying something about the future of music production on computers.
5) Don’t Need To Purchase Additional Gear (Although, You Should)
If you use a laptop or a computer for Garageband music production, at some point, you’re going to need all kinds of additional gear, including a MIDI controller/keyboard.
With the iPad, due to its multi-functional interface, you can just turn it into a MIDI keyboard, guitar, or a piano if needed.
With that said, however, I’d argue that having an actual MIDI keyboard is a lot better than using the iPad interface, especially if you want to play more sophisticated melodies, or you’re an actual instrumentalist.
While I would like to sit here and market an iPad to you and tell you how great it is, I always think that having the real thing is going to be far superior to anything Apple can simulate or mimic.
This brings me to my next point.
Garageband Ipad Guitar 12th Fret
6) Ability to Use External Gear
In addition to having an easy-to-use interface, you can purchase any other gear that you want and also use that, for instance, a full MIDI keyboard with 49 keys.
You can plug in your actual guitar with an audio interface such as the iRig HD 2, which I’ve recommended on my site before.
You can hook up a condenser, dynamic, or a ribbon mic as well, or you can plug in a drum pad if you need it.
Cons of Using iPad Pro
With all of the features mentioned above, it’s clear that the iPad Pro is a great device for creating music either through Garageband, Logic Pro, or some other DAW, but it would be silly to suggest there aren’t obvious cons.
For one, I would say that it’s adaptors.
1) Adaptors
The necessity for a variety of different adaptors, while it’s something that’s seen across the board now with computers and other devices, is kind of annoying.
However, this looks like the way that the market is currently heading. Technology companies such as Apple want sleek, compact, and mobile devices for the future that are also lightweight and powerful.
But the trade-off is that you have to go out and buy the adaptors or additional storage if you actually need it.
In other words, devices are designed nowadays in such a way where it’s great for a casual music producer who doesn’t use a lot of sophisticated plug-ins and software as well as for artists who want to use it for music creation and recording while on the go.
Conclusion
All-in-all, I think that the future will see a lot more music producers and creators using iPads and other extremely mobile devices for their art.
With that said, however, there will always be people that want to use the full range and functionality of a more powerful computer.
GarageBand User Guide for iPhone
Using the Guitar, you can play notes, chords, and strumming patterns. You can choose from acoustic or electric guitar sounds, and turn on stompbox effects to customize the sound.
Choose the sound of the Guitar
Tap the Navigation button in the control bar, tap the Sounds button, then tap the sound you want to play. You can also swipe left or right on the Sounds button to change to the previous or next sound.
Play chords
Tap the Chord Strips button to switch to Chords view.
Do any of the following:
Strum a chord: Swipe across the strings in one of the chord strips. You can also tap strings to play individual notes of a chord.
Play the full chord: Tap the top of a chord strip.
Mute the strings: Touch and hold the fretboard to the left or right of the chord strips as you play.
You can add your own custom chords to play.
Play a strumming pattern
Tap the Controls button , then turn the Autoplay knob to one of the numbered positions.
Tap a chord strip. Tapping a different chord strip plays the same pattern with the notes of that chord, while tapping with two or three fingers plays variations of the pattern.
To access the full chord strip, tap the Controls button again.
Tap the chord strip again to stop the pattern playing.
Play individual notes
Tap the Chord Strips button to switch to Notes view.
Tap the strings on the fretboard to play notes. You can also bend strings vertically to bend the pitch of a note up.
To play notes of a particular scale, tap the Scale button, then tap the scale you want to play.
The fretboard changes to show note bars. Tap the bars to play the notes of the scale.
Turn stompbox effects on or off
When you choose an electric guitar sound, stompbox effects appear above the Guitar fretboard. You can turn on the effects to change the sound.
Ipad Guitar Amp
Tap the Controls button , then tap the round On/Off button in the lower part of a stompbox. A red light indicates that the stompbox is on.
Play the Retro Wah guitar with Face Control
If your iPhone supports facial recognition, you can move the wah pedal on the Retro Wah guitar by moving your mouth while you play. When you record, any pedal movements you make with Face Control are also recorded.
Tap the Navigation button in the control bar, tap the Sounds button, then tap Retro Wah.
Hold your iPhone 10–20 inches (25–50 cm) away from your face, then tap the Face Control button .
The first time you use Face Control, GarageBand asks for permission to access the camera on your iPhone.
As you play, open and close your mouth to move the wah pedal up and down.
To turn Face Control off, tap the Face Control button again.
Ion Ipad Guitar
Note: GarageBand uses ARKit face tracking features to translate your facial expressions into instrument effect controls. Your face information is processed on device, and only music is captured during your performance.