Hands-On With Apple's New Music Memos iOS App and GarageBand 2.1 Update
Since the launch of Apple Music and its included Apple Music Connect social platform, Apple has been focusing efforts on its music creation tools, as evidenced by today's surprise release of a brand new iOS app called Music Memos and a significant update to the iOS version of GarageBand.
Available for free, Music Memos is designed to allow musicians and songwriters to record, analyze, and manipulate high-quality uncompressed audio directly on an iPhone or iPad. Music Memos is accompanied by an update to GarageBand that introduces some fun new tools for musicians and average iPhone owners alike. We went hands-on with Music Memos and the revamped GarageBand to give MacRumors a closer look at what the apps are capable of.
Music Memos adopts
its simple interface from the stock Voice Memos app, offering a single quick record button when the app is opened. Recordings can be overlaid with drums and a bass line, plus there are tools for analyzing recordings and editing aspects like tempo and time signature. There's also a built-in tuner for chromatic pitch notation.
Today's GarageBand 2.1 update introduces Live Loops, a fun visual music-making feature designed to allow users to create loops and add DJ-style effects through multi-touch gestures. Live Loops are displayed in an easy-to-use grid, with each instrument or sample in a different cell. Sound can be manipulated tapping and mixing the different instruments and the Apple-designed loop templates that are available in genres like EDM, Hip Hop, and Rock. The Drummer feature from Logic Pro X and GarageBand for Mac has also been added to the new iOS version.
Music Memos is compatible with the iPhone 4s and later and the iPad 2 and later. It can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
GarageBand for iOS is provided for free with the purchase of any new iOS device with 32GB to 128GB storage space, so many iOS users may be able to download the latest 2.1 update at no cost. For those who do not already own GarageBand, it is available from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]
Popular Stories
Following over three months of beta testing, iOS 18 was finally widely released to the public on Monday, September 16. The update is available in the Settings app under General → Software Update on the iPhone XS and newer. Below, we have highlighted eight key new features included in iOS 18, and Apple shared a complete list of new features and changes last week. Note that Apple...
It's that time of year again. Apple is about to release iOS 18, which promises to bring a range of new features and improvements to iPhones worldwide. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and the company is expected to release it sometime today – Monday, September 16. Based on past releases, the update is likely to drop at around 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/1:00 p.m. Eastern...
Apple will likely hold another event in October this year to announce new Macs and iPads. If so, it would be the fourth time in the last five years that Apple has held an event in October. Last year, Apple held a virtual event on Monday, October 30 to announce new MacBook Pro and iMac models with the M3 series of chips. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated...
Apple has seemingly leaked the rumored next-generation Mac mini with five USB-C ports, according to a code change within Apple software that was discovered today by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The code refers to an unreleased Mac mini model with an Apple silicon chip and five ports, which lines up with a previous report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman that said the next Mac mini will be ...
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today said demand for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max has been "lower than expected" since the devices became available to pre-order in the U.S. and dozens of other countries on Friday. Kuo said his data is based on a "supply chain survey" and shipping estimates listed on Apple's online store. Kuo estimated that sales of all four iPhone 16 models reached...
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different – already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip...
