GarageBand app gets plug-in happy

There’s been a big development in Apple’s GarageBand app, that’s opened up a whole load of exciting new musical horizons. You can now join your favourite apps up and record them into GarageBand for the first time. We checked it out with Yellofier and made some tunes.

GarageBand now supports Audiobus, which is something that’s been on music-makers’ wish lists for quite a while.

Audiobus enables music creation apps to work together, and this means that many of the most popular music apps like Animoog, ThumbJam, Samplr, DM1 - The Drum Machine, all apps by Korg, plus Yamaha and IK Multimedia apps, can record directly into GarageBand.

GarageBand may already be the most popular music creation app on the App Store, but this takes things to a new level.

We tried the new GarageBand and Audiobus system out with Yello’s Yellofier app, which turns any kind of sound, from voice to noises, or an instrument, into “groovy music”. The app, by electronic music guru Boris Blank, worked brilliantly in the Audiobus/GarageBand chain and we definitely felt “groovified”.

We recorded the Yellofied sounds into the project that we had created in GarageBand itself. We had used the inbuilt GarageBand Helix keyboard, Hip Hop drums, strings, sampler, and Hard Rock guitar with Vintage Drive and Robo Flanger. We recorded vocals and added “Dreamy” effects.

Sharing the end result was easy - options include sending your track by email, posting on SoundCloud or Facebook, or exporting the project to a desktop version of GarageBand for more work.

Audiobus supports a wide range of big name and independent apps including the very addictive instrument Orphion that you play with your fingers to make sounds that are between a string instrument and percussion.

General feedback so far on this GarageBand update is that it takes app-based music in a great new direction, and means you can do much more detailed work.

Let us know what you think! [email protected]