There’s a lot happening this week, so I thought it would be worth talking about what’s coming up so that you don’t miss anything. Here’s what I’ve got on my list for this week.
Tomorrow, the 6th: Fluxpad launches – I posted about Fluxpad the other day and you can expect it tomorrow, which is great as I think we’ve been waiting for this a long time.
Wednesday, the 7th: Apple launches the iPhone 7, and maybe we’ll see them say goodbye to the venerable headphone jack. Who knows. I’m sure all will be revealed on Wednesday.
Friday, the 9th: Roland have a lot in store apparently. According to them they’ve got 30 new products and services to tell us about on 909 day!
Friday, the 9th: Of course what’s more is that on Friday the 9th we’ll have the Beautiful Octopus Club and SoundLab at the Royal Festival Hall. If you can come along then I’d love to see you there, and do say hello.
So it’s a busy week, will it be good news or sadness on Wednesday? Who knows! Either way you can celebrate or commiserate with us on Friday at the Beautiful Octopus Club at the Festival Hall.
Just to round off today (for me anyway), here’s what Apple have brought to GarageBand in version 2.1:
Use Live Loops to create music by triggering instrument loops and DJ-style effects in real time using Multi-Touch gestures*
Add a virtual Drummer to your song who takes direction and performs realistic acoustic & electronic drum grooves
Record adjustments of any Touch Instrument control knob in real time
Create and edit automation curves to control the volume of any track
Shape the sound of a Touch Instrument or audio recording using Simple EQ and Compressor
Plug in a bass guitar and play through vintage and modern bass amp rigs
Adds over 1,200 new Apple Loops and sounds
Record up to 32 tracks simultaneously**
Use third-party instrument apps in your song with Audio Unit Extensions*** (which is the bit we’ve all been waiting for right!)
Directly import or export GarageBand projects using iCloud Drive
Use 3D Touch to play keyboard sounds with polyphonic aftertouch****
* Live Loops is available on iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad (4th generation), or later devices. ** 32 tracks is available on iPhone 5s, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, or later devices. Multi-track recording requires compatible third party audio interface. *** Requires compatible third-party Audio Unit Extension instruments apps from the App Store. **** Polyphonic aftertouch is available on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
What a day it has turned out to be. Apple have brought us this app, and it’s free …
Music Memos is the easiest way for songwriters to capture and organise new musical ideas. Use your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to record acoustic guitar, piano, voice or any musical instrument as high-quality, uncompressed audio. Then name, tag and rate your ideas to start building a library of all your favourite new song parts and riffs. Music Memos automatically detects your tempo, rhythmic feel and chords and lets you instantly hear your musical idea accompanied by a rhythm section with realistic drums and bass. View the chords you’ve played, add comments and lyrics, or share your recordings with friends or directly to Apple Music Connect.* And it’s easy to take your favourite ideas into GarageBand to add more instruments and continue building your song.
Quickly capture musical ideas
Easily record any musical idea using a simple interface
Instantly listen to your recorded song ideas with a virtual drummer and bass player, who follow along like a live band in the room
Adjust the groove and sound of the drum or bass using simple and intuitive controls to hear your song idea in different ways
Tune your guitar with a built-in instrument tuner
Build a library of song ideas
Name any song idea, or delete unwanted recordings
Tag your song ideas to help you find them later using keywords like verse, chorus, mellow, energetic, or add your own custom tags
Rate your song idea 1–5 stars to help you identify your favourites
Supports iCloud Drive so your library of song ideas is always safe and available across all your iOS devices
View, edit and document your song ideas
Automatically analyses the music you played and displays musical measures and suggested chord names
Rename or provide further detail for any chord names throughout your song
The drum and bass performances adapt immediately to match any chord and rhythm edits
Trim away any unwanted parts from the beginning and end of your recording
Keep track of comments, lyric ideas, alternative guitar tunings or capo position
Share your new song
Use iCloud Drive to make your song ideas available across all your iOS devices
Email any song idea to a friend to share your music, or to collaborate with other musicians
Quickly open your idea in GarageBand for iOS to add more instruments and keep building your song
Export a song idea to the Mac so you can work in GarageBand or Logic Pro X as a full multi-track production
Share to SoundCloud, YouTube and Apple Music Connect*
I know that there has been a lot of debate since Monday and the WWDC keynote about whether or not Apple’s ‘inter-app audio’ will actually do what AudioBus set out to do. Of course, if it does then the assumption that Apple has effectively killed off AudioBus even before it get’s released would seem reasonable.
But is that really the whole story? Well, not entirely. For a start, as ‘inter-app audio’ will only come in with iOS6 then ‘inter-app audio’ will only apply to the iPad 2 and 3, and 3GS / 4 / 4S. Having said that, there’s no actual evidence that this ‘inter-app audio’ will apply to all those devices.
What’s important to note though is that the iPad 1 is not in scope for iOS6 and neither are the iPod Touch ranges prior to the 4th gen devices. So there will be lots of users who will need a different solution to audio routing, and there’s where AudioBus could step in and fill a potentially large gap.
Of course, over and above that there’s also the possibility that the functionality that AudioBus plans to deploy will be complimentary to Apple’s routing solution and so there won’t be a conflict anyway. Who can tell!
What’s for sure is that it’s early days for whatever Apple’s solution is and also for AudioBus too. The next few weeks and months will uncover what’s really going to be possible, so, we wait and see.
