Garageband 2011

One of Apple’s selling points for the iPad 2 was the introduction of a five-dollar app version of their music-creation-and-editing software GarageBand. The short version: It’s not the Perfect Instrument; it’s not as powerful as the full-featured desktop version of GarageBand. It’s a toy, and it’s not worth buying an iPad solely to have access to it. But if you happen to have an iPad already, it’s one hell of an amazing toy, an excellent use of the touchscreen interface, and a terrific deal for five bucks.

The default assumption behind the iPad incarnation of GarageBand is that you’re going to want to use it to make individual songs–multi-tracked recordings, most likely involving some combination of guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals, and most likely in 4/4 time with sections that are multiples of eight bars long. Fair enough: that’s a rather rock-centered idea of what music’s about, but then again the program is called GarageBand.

(More on TIME.com: Spec Spat: Apple iPad Vs. iPad 2)

It is a very easy process that does. May 14, 2011 Mahalo's audio expert Joey Biagas walks through GarageBand's chord trainer lessons. Chord Trainer Lessons In addition to basic guitar lessons, GarageBand has a. Download GarageBand for iOS to turn your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch into a full-featured recording studio. GarageBand has had 1 update within the past 6 months.

The program’s equipped with a bunch of “smart” incarnations of basses, drums, guitars and keyboards; each one has a handful of variations of the basic instrument, options for tones, and so on. You can set the instruments to play particular notes or chords–it offers a limited number of preset chords, related to whatever key you’ve chosen to play in. Some of the options are fairly impressive, though: you can choose to limit your smart guitar to the notes in particular scales, for instance. (Playing in a minor pentatonic scale is a lot of fun if you want to pretend you’re in a ’70s-era Ethiopian jazz-funk group.) And the smart drums are awfully clever: you generate a beat by positioning each instrument in each of the kits it offers (including hip-hop and house electronic drums) on a grid whose axes are “volume” and “complexity.” (You can also hit a little die in the corner of the screen to randomize the beat.)

There are also a couple of more free-form instruments. You can set the smart guitars and basses to let you play them a bit more like you’d play a real one–touching strings on the screen to play notes (you can even bend notes by sliding your fingers). This is mindbendingly frustrating if you’ve ever played an actual guitar, but if you just want to add a few flourishes to your song, it works fine. The non-smart keyboards and drums are both played by touching the screen; what they lack in tactility (and dynamic variation!), they make up for–partly–in the range of tones you can get at the press of a button.

GarageBand also features a whole suite of guitar amp simulators, which require you to run an electric guitar into the iPad. Each one can be monkeyed with endlessly; each one comes with a couple of compatible “pedals” that can alter the tone some more. Again, this stuff is great for tinkering to see what kind of tone you like–it’s easy enough to lose a few hours to it–but you’re really not going to want to use it in any kind of performance situation, especially since if you’re using the iPad’s headphone jack to connect your guitar, the only immediate output you can get for that massive “Orange amp” is the iPad’s rather dinky speaker.

There’s also a sampler keyboard, with a little bank of samples to which you can add anything you like, and an audio recorder, which is set up to process voices and put various effects on them. Finally, there’s the “mixing board”: a screen in which you can layer, edit and loop the recordings you’ve made, and/or add various preset loops of other instruments. (There’s not quite the variety of loops here that there are on the desktop version of iPad, but there’s still plenty to play with.) You can mix down your songs to AAC files, or transfer your GarageBand files to a desktop–although you apparently can’t yet open the iPad version’s files in the desktop version.

(More on TIME.com: Apple’s iPad 2 Review: It’s Still the One)

This version of GarageBand is startlingly intuitive for such a complicated program. At first, I was a little irritated that there didn’t seem to be an instruction manual, and that the help screens were as terse as they are; gradually, I realized that “I wonder what happens if I press this button” was a totally fine way to explore the program. After a couple of hours of tinkering, I’d managed to record something passably songlike. That’s an impressive learning curve.

The great advantage of making music on computers is that the range of possibilities of sound, and the ease of assembling recordings, is unimaginably far beyond what was possible even a decade or two ago. The great disadvantage is that computers take music away from the body–a lot of the fun, and a lot of the expressive possibilities, of playing a conventional acoustic or electric instrument come from getting to make sounds by touching the instrument itself, and exploring your own innate sense of tone and timing. The iPad version of GarageBand is a step in the right direction, and enormously fun to play around with.

Incredible music.
In the key of easy.

GarageBand is a fully equipped music creation studio right inside your Mac — with a complete sound library that includes instruments, presets for guitar and voice, and an incredible selection of session drummers and percussionists. With Touch Bar features for MacBook Pro and an intuitive, modern design, it’s easy to learn, play, record, create, and share your hits worldwide. Now you’re ready to make music like a pro.

DownloadGarageband

Start making professional‑sounding music right away. Plug in your guitar or mic and choose from a jaw‑dropping array of realistic amps and effects. You can even create astonishingly human‑sounding drum tracks and become inspired by thousands of loops from popular genres like EDM, Hip Hop, Indie, and more.

More sounds, more inspiration.
Plug in your USB keyboard and dive into the completely inspiring and expanded Sound Library, featuring electronic‑based music styles like EDM and Hip Hop. The built‑in set of instruments and loops gives you plenty of creative freedom.

The Touch Bar takes center stage.
The Touch Bar on MacBook Pro puts a range of instruments at your fingertips. Use Performance view to turn the Touch Bar into drum pads or a one-octave keyboard for playing and recording.

Plug it in. Tear it up.
Plug in your guitar and choose from a van-load of amps, cabinets, and stompboxes.

Design your dream bass rig.
Customize your bass tone just the way you want it. Mix and match vintage or modern amps and speaker cabinets. You can even choose and position different microphones to create your signature sound.

Garageband 2011

Drumroll please.
GarageBand features Drummer, a virtual session drummer that takes your direction and plays along with your song. Choose from 28 drummers and three percussionists in six genres.

Shape your sound. Quickly and easily.
Whenever you’re using a software instrument, amp, or effect, Smart Controls appear with the perfect set of knobs, buttons, and sliders. So you can shape your sound quickly with onscreen controls or by using the Touch Bar on MacBook Pro.

Look, Mom — no wires.
You can wirelessly control GarageBand right from your iPad with the Logic Remote app. Play any software instrument, shape your sound with Smart Controls, and even hit Stop, Start, and Record from across the room.

Jam with drummers of every style.

Drummer, the virtual session player created using the industry’s top session drummers and recording engineers, features 28 beat‑making drummers and three percussionists. From EDM, Dubstep, and Hip Hop to Latin, Metal, and Blues, whatever beat your song needs, there’s an incredible selection of musicians to play it.

Each drummer has a signature kit that lets you produce a variety of groove and fill combinations. Use the intuitive controls to enable and disable individual sounds while you create a beat with kick, snare, cymbals, and all the cowbell you want. If you need a little inspiration, Drummer Loops gives you a diverse collection of prerecorded acoustic and electronic loops that can be easily customized and added to your song.

Powerful synths with shape‑shifting controls.

Get creative with 100 EDM- and Hip Hop–inspired synth sounds. Every synth features the Transform Pad Smart Control, so you can morph and tweak sounds to your liking.

Learn to play

Welcome to the school of rock. And blues. And classical.

Get started with a great collection of built‑in lessons for piano and guitar. Or learn some Multi‑Platinum hits from the actual artists who recorded them. You can even get instant feedback on your playing to help hone your skills.

Take your skills to the next level. From any level.
Choose from 40 different genre‑based lessons, including classical, blues, rock, and pop. Video demos and animated instruments keep things fun and easy to follow.

Teachers with advanced degrees in hit‑making.
Learn your favorite songs on guitar or piano with a little help from the original recording artists themselves. Who better to show you how it’s done?

2011

Instant feedback.
Play along with any lesson, and GarageBand will listen in real time and tell you how you’re doing, note for note. Track your progress, beat your best scores, and improve your skills.

Tons of helpful recording and editing features make GarageBand as powerful as it is easy to use. Edit your performances right down to the note and decibel. Fix rhythm issues with a click. Finesse your sound with audio effect plug‑ins. And finish your track like a pro, with effects such as compression and visual EQ.

Garageband Mac Mini 2011

Go from start to finish. And then some.
Create and mix up to 255 audio tracks. Easily name and reorder your song sections to find the best structure. Then polish it off with all the essentials, including reverb, visual EQ, volume levels, and stereo panning.

Take your best take.
Record as many takes as you like. You can even loop a section and play several passes in a row. GarageBand saves them all in a multi‑take region, so it’s easy to pick the winners.

Your timing is perfect. Even when it isn’t.
Played a few notes out of time? Simply use Flex Time to drag them into place. You can also select one track as your Groove Track and make the others fall in line for a super‑tight rhythm.

Garageband 2011

Polish your performance.
Capture your changes in real time by adjusting any of your software instruments’ Smart Controls while recording a performance. You can also fine‑tune your music later in the Piano Roll Editor.

Garageband 2011 Download

Touch Bar. A whole track at your fingertips.
The Touch Bar on MacBook Pro lets you quickly move around a project by dragging your finger across a visual overview of the track.

Wherever you are, iCloud makes it easy to work on a GarageBand song. You can add tracks to your GarageBand for Mac song using your iPhone or iPad when you’re on the road. Or when inspiration strikes, you can start sketching a new song idea on your iOS device, then import it to your Mac to take it even further.

GarageBand for iOS

Garageband Mac 2011

Play, record, arrange, and mix — wherever you go.

GarageBand for Mac

Your personal music creation studio.

Logic Remote

Mac

Garageband Imac 2011

A companion app for Logic Pro.