GarageBand 2.0 for iOS review: More tracks, a few tweaks
If you’ve read our review of GarageBand 10.0 for the Mac OS (and really, you should) you know that Apple brought a lot of changes to the Mac version of this venerable music-making application. The same cannot be said for the latest iOS version of GarageBand, which operates almost exactly as the original iteration did. Although it has been improved, it hasn’t changed nearly as radically as its computer-bound sibling has. And that’s hardly a terrible thing: GarageBand 1.0 was great and version 2.0 piles a few additional features atop that greatness.
Like GarageBand 10.0 for the Mac, GarageBand 2.0 for iOS devices (iOS 7 required) is free, with the option to add more features via a $5 in-app purchase. Specifically, with the free version you get three instruments—Keyboard, Drums, and Smart Guitar with eight preset sounds—as well as the Audio Recorder instrument. For that additional $5 you gain the Guitar Amp, Smart Keyboard, Smart Bass, Smart Strings, Smart Drums, Sampler, and 157 preset sounds. If you’ve already purchased GarageBand for iOS, you get this content free of charge.
The new features are almost entirely technological rather than musical. To begin with, this version doubles the number of tracks you can record on compatible iOS devices not using an A7 processor (the iPhone 4s or later, the iPad 2 or later, and the fifth-generation iPod touch), for a total of up to 16 tracks. (You can use this version of GarageBand with an iPhone 4, but it supports the original 8 tracks.) On a device with the 64-bit A7 processor, namely the iPhone 5s, the iPad Air, or the iPad mini with Retina display, you can record up to 32 tracks. (For reference, The Beatles recorded Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on four tracks.) Ah, progress.
GarageBand 2.0 also offers inter-app communication, which means you can include the output of compatible third-party instrument and effects apps in your GarageBand recordings.
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