GarageBand for iOS Updated With Audiobus Support and Other Enhancements

Wednesday March 20, 2013 2:31 PM PDT by Eric Slivka
audiobus_iconApple today updated its GarageBand app for iOS to version 1.4, bringing handful of improvements including support for playing and recording audio routed through Audiobus.
What's New in Version 1.4

- Play and record music apps supported by Audiobus directly into GarageBand*
- Turn off grid snapping to get finer control over region and note editing
- Fixes an issue that resulted in feedback while connecting 3rd-party audio accessories into the headphone/microphone jack

* Requires iPhone 4S, iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 or later. Audiobus requires a separate purchase.
Audiobus support for GarageBand comes just as Audiobus has announced a public SDK to allow developers to incorporate support into their apps. Over 100 apps have already been designed to support Audiobus through the previous closed beta.


GarageBand [Direct Link] is a $4.99 download on the App Store, while Audiobus [Direct Link] is priced at $9.99.
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commander.data
74 months ago
Apps siloing data has been a criticism of iOS. Hopefully this is a sign of more mechanisms for inter-app communication to come in iOS 7. It's kind of interesting that Apple is making the effort to make their first-party app compatible with a third-party app.
Rating: 5 Votes
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darkslide29
74 months ago
For those interested, Audiobus just got knocked down to $4.99 (50% off) due to GarageBand compatibility celebration.
Rating: 4 Votes
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gatearray
74 months ago

This is extremely surprising. The Apple of old would not be supporting an unofficial hack, cool though it is. I guess it's a sign that they are opening up more in the post-Jobs era.


Audiobus is not an "unofficial hack", though. The developers worked tirelessly with Apple during the development process to make sure it met all requirements and would be fit for approval.

If anything, Apple supported a so-called "unofficial hack" when they implemented "AudioCopy/Paste" into iOS Garageband but wouldn't you know it, that was implemented when Steve was still alive, so I guess your entire theory is sort of out the window. :)
Rating: 3 Votes
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mac jones
74 months ago
Party time for those guys :)
Rating: 1 Votes
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nagromme
74 months ago
Me four. It's neat to see Apple not only recognize the value of this somewhat niche service, but jump on board with an update!

But siloing data has never been about first- vs. third-party tech, it has always been about security, privacy, and ease of use: sandboxing, and "post-filesystem" interaction where the filesystem is a detail users neither see nor think about. All of which is great, but it needs to evolve and become more powerful: iOS is no good for project-based workflows where assets from many programs are managed together. Now, maybe there's little need for that at present: Macs do that kind of heavy work. But the need is only growing.

(And thank goodness that's not the new GarageBand icon! It's the Audiobus icon.)
Rating: 1 Votes
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darkslide29
74 months ago

Apps siloing data has been a criticism of iOS. Hopefully this is a sign of more mechanisms for inter-app communication to come in iOS 7. It's kind of interesting that Apple is making the effort to make their first-party app compatible with a third-party app.


Yep, I think Apple making a third party app compatible with their first party app is the biggest thing . I had heard about Audiobus and had seen videos. It intrigued me but I never did grab it.
This is pretty awesome, since GarageBand is a decent recording app for iOS capable of transferring to GarageBand or Logic on a Mac. I don't know too much about Audiobus yet, but I know I have plenty of third party apps that say they're compatible with it. It will be fun to play with this weekend.
Rating: 1 Votes
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yadmonkey
74 months ago
It would be nice if they'd remove that stupid song-length limitation. For one think, it would make GarageBand useful for recording podcasts.
Rating: 1 Votes
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petsounds
74 months ago

Audiobus is not an "unofficial hack", though. The developers worked tirelessly with Apple during the development process to make sure it met all requirements and would be fit for approval.

If anything, Apple supported a so-called "unofficial hack" when they implemented "AudioCopy/Paste" into iOS Garageband but wouldn't you know it, that was implemented when Steve was still alive, so I guess your entire theory is sort of out the window. :)


It's definitely a hack. There is no official ability in the iOS SDK to send audio from one app to another. Apple hasn't exactly been encouraging of inter-app functionality. Don't get me wrong -- "hack" is not a bad word; what they did is a very clever workaround. But I'd rather see system-level APIs for sharing any kind of data between one app and another. I think GarageBand's support of Audiobus and copy/pasta (10 internet points for you on that) just highlights a lack of big innovations within iOS itself. Hopefully iOS 7 will push us far forward, instead of just following what 3rd-party developers are doing.
Rating: 1 Votes
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petsounds
74 months ago
This is extremely surprising. The Apple of old would not be supporting an unofficial hack, cool though it is. I guess it's a sign that they are opening up more in the post-Jobs era.
Rating: 1 Votes
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