I’m going to walk you through how to integrate GarageBand, Audiobus and Audiobus-supported apps. Since I’m a guitar player, I’ll be focusing on how I use it for guitars, but any instrument you can hook into your iOS device will do.

Hooking it all together

The first thing you’ll need to do is launch AudioBus. You’ll see a screen with three boxes labeled Input, Effects and Output. Tap on Input to select the apps you want to feed into Audiobus. I’ve chosen Amplitube and Pocket Beats (you can have up to three inputs). Pocket Beats is a drum machine with a heavy techno feel, and combined with my blues/classic rock playing style certainly yielded an interesting jam track. Then tap on Outputs and choose GarageBand.

You can probably do the next steps in any order, but I like to go from start to finish. I open up Pocket Beats and start the drum machine. I then launch AmptiTube and find a preset I like. Then I tap on GarageBand from the Audiobus app to launch it.

GarageBand is going to ask you what input source to use for your instrument. Note: this isn’t the Audiobus feed, but how the instrument is getting jacked in. Since I’m not using GarageBand’s craptastic amps, I choose Audio Recorder. If you don’t find the built-in amps as displeasing as I do, you can choose Guitar Amp as your input.

Now, GarageBand takes an extra step, which I found out the hard way. By default, GarageBand records in eight-measure increments. So, I was jamming along to my unholy union of blues rock and house dance beat when I noticed the whole shebang had stopped recording. So be sure to tap on the Plus icon in the upper right of the measure ruler and extend the measure as far as you need.

Next I went to AmpliTube to start the actual recording. On the righthand side of the screen you’ll see a floating palette. From here you can either change the apps Audibus is passing or start the recording. It’s important to note that you will want to start the recording here; not in GarageBand. Play along to your heart’s content.

Once you’re done, open up GarageBand, and you’ll see the Audiobus track.

How I plan on using Audiobus

The Fender Squire USB Guitar is the guitar I take when I’m traveling or practicing outside. The USB 30-pin connector combined with an amp app is all I need to practice or write with when I’m not in my studio. I usually have some backing tracks I play along with and I’m getting in the habit of recording most of my practice sessions to help me get better. Now, I can use some MP3 I’ve uploaded into iOS GarageBand, get an amp sound that I’m happy with in an app like AmpliTube and record, and write when I’m sitting by the lake this summer.

Apple including Audiobus support in its own apps is an interesting sea change. It’s not often Apple includes support for a third-party service in an iOS app. I hope this is a sign of things to come. Now that Apple has increased awareness of Audiobus, I’m hoping we’ll start to see some great apps become available that will really fuel my creativity.

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The devices

Apogee Jam ($99): At 99 bucks, the Apogee Jam isn’t cheap, but it earns high marks for me. The great thing about the Jam is it comes with connectors for the Mac, and a 30-pin iOS cable. I’ve never had a problem with it and the audio quality is very, very good. The chief concern is with the two small, cables it’s easy to misplace them. To avoid that, I keep them both rubber-banded to the body of the Apogee. You can also buy replacement cables if you lose them.

Line 6 Pod Studio UX2 ($199): The Line 6 UX2 is a very versatile device. It will let you record two instruments at the same time (handy if you’re recording with a pal). It also has two XLR inputs if you want to mike your amps instead of directly inputting your guitar. But wait, there’s more: the UX2 also has more than 20 models of guitar and bass amps, and more than 20 models of guitar and bass cabinets. The amp models are based on Fender and Marshall amps. The UX2 is a good piece of gear to start building your budget studio around and is great if you’re recording multiple instruments at the same time.

Ubisoft Rocksmith Real Tone Cable ($29.99): While the Ubisoft Rocksmith Real Tone Cable is primarily designed for the Rocksmith game (not available for the Mac, which is either a good or bad thing, depending on your view of learning devices such as these). I’ve found it to be a pretty decent USB guitar interface given the cost, and while it has no iOS connectivity, that’s not a deal breaker, especially since this article primarily deals with OS X. In the short time I’ve had it, it feels like a decent cable and I haven’t experienced any issues with it.

USB Fender Squier Guitar ($199): Now, admittedly the USB Fender Squier guitar won’t let you plug in any instrument to GarageBand, it being a guitar and all. However. for $199, I’ve found it to be a great guitar. Since the Squier is Fender’s low-cost line, when I got mine I expected it to be extra low-budget, given the additional electronics for the on-board USB interface. Instead, I was quite happy with it and still continue to play it almost four months after I got it. The iOS interface is especially nice if you’re traveling and want to practice. It comes with the cables to connect the guitar to your Mac and iOS device.

Connecting the devices to GarageBand

Obviously step one is connecting the USB cable to your Mac. (Note: for best results plug them directly into your Mac; not into a USB hub.) After that, open GarageBand and go to Preferences and click on the Audio/Midi tab. Select your input device from the pull-down list.

After that go into your project and add a new track. Select Real Instrument from the selection screen if you are miking your amp, or using a keyboard. Select Electric Guitar if you want to use GarageBand’s built-in amps and effects.

Last, go the Track menu and select Show Monitoring for Real Instrument Tracks. This will ensure you can hear your instrument through the speakers while you play.

Using Amps and Effects

Unless you are miking your amp, you’re probably going to want to play around with GarageBand’s amps and effects. To do that, select the guitar track in the track listing on the left. On the far right, you can choose the amp you want. You can also choose from a number of preset sounds from a pull-down menu in the same area. You can also adjust the bass, treble, etc. from this screen.

How I use them

For input devices, I float between the Rocksmith cable and the Apogee Jam. For the most part, choosing one comes down to which interface I can easily find at the moment. The Jam and the iOS cables may take up permanent residence in my gig bag so I can practice outside the house regardless of what guitar I happen to have with me (I tend to favor Les Pauls over Fender guitars).

I don’t usually use the amps built-in to GarageBand. Instead I use the GarageBand plug-in for Guitar Rig and Amplitube. However, if you can’t afford either of these programs the included amps will do the trick. The presets are really helpful in quickly dialing in a sound.

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What are Apple Loops?

GarageBand ships with a pretty hefty selection of loops. A loop is basically a few seconds worth of a track that you can repeat as you want. For example, you could have drum loops that range from basic “kick, snare, kick, snare” to a multi-tom tom fill. They aren’t limited to drums either: you can find piano, bass, orchestral strings and many more.

To access the Apple loops, press the little loops button on the lower right-hand corner of the application window.

How to use loops

Using loops is pretty much a drag and drop operation. Select the loop you want to use and drag into your project window.

If you want the beat to repeat for several bars, mouse over to the upper-right hand corner of the loop until you see a circular pop-up. Grab that and drag it out as many bars as you want.

One other note: some loops work best with a specific beat count (the ones in the screenshot are for a 115 bpm count.) If you play them on a slower beat count, the loop will sound drastically different. I learned this the hard way when a lively beat I sampled sounded like the drummer took too much Valium.

Using loops for songwriting

I play the guitar and the bass equally poorly. Most of the time I use my guitar to write songs, but for some grooves I like to write on the bass. Therefore, since I don’t play the drums, I start with a drum track. Rather than use the supplied Apple drum tracks, I use the Beta Monkey drum tracks. The reason I love the Beta Monkey ones so much is they are recorded loops of real drummers in real recording studios and sound so much better than the Apple ones.

Sometimes I have lyrics in my head I’m writing music to, but most often I start with writing some riffs. To start the riff-writing process, I’ll set the key and bpm in my project info and drag out a very basic drum loop, usually a kick, snare, kick, snare level of basic. At this point I’m not too worried about fills and the like. I’ll then drag the loop out for a few minutes worth of bars, and also set the entire project to loop so I have uninterrupted boom-chicka-boom.

At this point, I’m not recording anything. I just want a consistent back beat to jam along with and see what clicks. Depending on what I think the song needs, I’ll also drag out some piano riffs, or any loop I think will spark the creative process. One of the nice things about even the supplied loops is there are so many varieties, sometimes sampling a random loop will send me down a fun creative path.

Once I’ve got a riff I’m happy with for the main verses, it’s time to start thinking bridges and choruses.

While I’m coming up with riffs, I’ll start laying the guitar foundations for the bridge and chorus. But now, I’ll start breaking down the infinite loop I’ve been working on. Rather than a straight drum loop, I’ll start looking for loops that compliment the riff a little better. If I decide to use my basic drum loop, I’ll shorten to the number of bars my verse has. Now, I’ll start adding some fills and different drum tracks for the bridge and chorus. Again, at this point I’m not hitting the record button yet (or, if I am, it’s just to remember a riff I might want to come back to, but nothing formal).

Creating a finished song

Once I’ve got the basic song structure down, it’s time to create a finished draft in GarageBand. Once I have the loops laid out in a way I’m happy with, I’ll break out my bass and lay down the bottom beat. Then, I’ll lay down the guitar tracks and the guitar solo. When I’m done with that, I’m probably not going to mix it too much. I’m not looking to publish this, mostly to have some basic tracks to use with a songwriting partner.

Final thoughts

Back in the day, I used a four-track recorder and a drum machine to write songs. Now, GarageBand and loops fuel the creative fire.  Since I don’t need the full power of an app like Logic Pro ($199) yet, GarageBand’s ease of use really makes writing and drafting songs a breeze.

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Magic Garageband is a way within Apple’s OS X app GarageBand to specify the style of music you want to play (rock, blues, country, etc.), the key, tempo and which supporting instruments you want to jam along with.  While you can use programs like Jammit, where you can buy individual songs by selected artists to play along with, because Macs come with GarageBand already installed,  I’m highlighting this feature since you may not know about it.

Load In: Getting started with Magic GarageBand

From the start screen, select Magic GarageBand and then the style of music you want to play along to. I choose blues.

The next screen lets you customize the instruments you’ll play along with. I’m the only geetar player in this hootenanny, so I fired the other guitarists. By clicking on the bass, I can choose from a variety of bass styles. I’m a big fan of the boom-boom bass, so I chose an upright.

You’ll hear how the different instruments affect the sound of the song as you change them. Once you’re happy, click “Open in Garageband.” One of the chief problems I have with Magic GarageBand is you can’t change the key from the creation screen; you can only do it from within GarageBand proper.

To do that, go down to the LCD-looking screen at the bottom of the window. Click on the left-most icon — most likely it’ll look like a music note. You’ll get a pull down from which you’ll want to choose Project. From there, you can choose the key for your jam session. I chose D minor, because as Nigel Tufnel said, “It’s the saddest of keys.” This jam session will be part of a ballad trilogy I’m working on, as was Nigel.

Now, you can use your jam session as either a basis for a recording, or just something to loop and play along to.

Load Out: Magic GarageBand downsides

As you’ll no doubt quickly find out, Magic GarageBand haS pretty much one riff in each of the genres. While you can vary the feel of the drums, bass, and other instruments, the song will still have the same basic progression. You can’t tell it to do a I-IV-V progression in E, but with a blues vibe. It would also be nice if you could set the key from the creation screen, too, so you can hear how the song sounds in that key.

It will also be obvious when you open the Magic GarageBand project in GarageBand proper that it’s just a set of Apple loops. There’s nothing stopping you from just creating your own jam tracks with loops (I’m a huge fan of BetaMonkey’s drum loops for creating my own backing tracks), but I’m a huge fan of how easy it is to get a rhythm section up and running with Magic GarageBand. Often, when creating my own tracks with loops, I spend way too much time playing with the loops than playing my guitar.

I use Magic GarageBand as a jam tool, mainly to work on improvising and working with scales. I’ll set a key and work on the minor and pentatonic scales associated with that key. While it’s not as robust as I might like, I still use it quite a bit.

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Back in the day, our best options for learning were either slowing down a song, having a friend teach us, or hoping it was featured in a guitar magazine. Apple has a surprising amount of available technology for picking the guitar back up — my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro are at the heart of my learning process. Here’s a look at how I’ve used them, and some tips for those who’d like to do the same.

The iPhone

Every Monday night, I take a lesson from an excellent blues guitarist. Rather than take notes and write down the various chord progressions he shows me, I instead shoot video of the homework parts of the lesson on my iPhone 4S. I then quickly edit the clip in iMovie to add a title and then re-save it to my camera roll.

I also have a few apps on my iPhone to help me out. I have an iRig, which I pair with their Amplitube app (free). While I don’t use the app as my main practice amp anymore after I bought a modeling amp, I do use the app as my tuner and for the Song feature to play along with a song I’m learning.

GarageBand for iOS ($4.99) is also a handy practice tool. I really hate using a metronome, but having something keep the beat is crucial. So my solution is to use a sample drum loop from GarageBand on my phone that sounds close to to the beat I want.

The iPad

My iPad is the device I keep on my music stand while practicing. I use Apple’s Camera Connection Kit to import the video from my iPhone onto my iPad. I’m also toying with shooting the video on my iPad and skipping this step, but I find the small size of the iPhone is easier for recording when I’m also holding a guitar. Then I watch my lesson video and follow along, pausing and fast-forwarding as needed.

I also use Songsterr to look up the tabs for songs I’m interested in, and then use its iOS app ($9.99) to “favorite” the song. Then the app becomes my music sheet when I’m playing. While Songsterr isn’t perfect — some songs are transcribed perfectly, some are good enough and some aren’t even close — I find it does an adequate job.

We’ve covered reading apps on the iPad already, so I won’t go into it too much here, but there are two apps I use for reference: Zinio and the Kindle app. I subscribe to several guitar magazines on Zinio, so I reference those while practicing. I also have some music theory books I’ve purchased for Kindle that I’ll look up chord fingerings on.

The Mac

While the iPad sees the majority of the music action, I still use my Mac. When I find (an accurate) song on Songsterr’s site I want to practice, I’ll mute the instruments on the web view of the song and then use Audio Hijack Pro to record the backing tracks. While my Amplitube setup lets me play along to the song, I find this is good if I want to do any recording, or if I don’t want to listen to the additional guitar parts.

After that I import those into GarageBand for Mac ($14.99)  and lay down guitar tracks on top of them. I have an amp (a Peavy Vypyr 75 watt) with a USB port, so I can hook my Mac up to it without having to mess around with mikes and the like. I’ll also use the drum loops in GarageBand to outline a basic song structure to jam over. If I want to try and mimic jamming with friends, I’ll use the Magic GarageBand feature to add some drums, bass, keys and harmonica to a track. One thing I don’t like about Magic GarageBand — the jam session feature in Apple’s software — is that I have to click “Open in GarageBand” to change the key; it would be nice to be able to do that from the main screen.

Coda

It’s been a lot of fun getting back into the guitar, and a lot of that fun has been how much iOS devices and OS X have aided me in the process. While I’m still in the early stages of getting going again, the skills and techniques I’m gaining with the software, in addition to the instrument, will form a great foundation for future work. It won’t be too long before I’m recording full demo tracks in GarageBand.

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Bloomberg reports that Apple will announce tools that make publishing interactive textbooks on the iPad much easier, and also allow for the creation of other “digital education content,” according to two sources familiar with the announcement’s details. The new tools, which will be introduced by Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, are intended to help broaden the appeal of the iPad for educational institutions, with a special focus on grades K-12, Bloomberg claims. The idea of making it easier to create educational content aimed at kids is basically what Erica described in her article on Monday.

That the announcement will have a strong educational component is backed up by a report from the Wall Street Journal  earlier this week, which said Apple had been working with textbook publisher McGraw-Hill on material to be revealed at the event since June.

Bloomberg’s sources also claim Apple will introduce new software that will allow a wide range of authors to publish digital e-book content, along the lines of what Amazon offers with its self-publishing tools. That’s in line with what a report from Ars Technica published Tuesday claims: Its sources suggested Apple would be unveiling “GarageBand for e-books.” Such a self-publishing suite is also something I suggested might be in the offing before the actual announcement was confirmed.

Apple’s event takes place Thursday beginning at 10 a.m. EST (7 a.m. PST), and we’ll have a liveblog following all the action as it unfolds.

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The iPhone version is pretty much the same as its iPad cousin, with the same multitouch and smart instruments, eight tracks of editing layers and audio export capabilities. But Apple has taken the opportunity to refine the product with some new tools and features, too.

Smart instruments gain custom chord support, so that you can make your own to strum. This allows seasoned musical pros to get off the beaten path and produce some pleasant and more unique sounds, and amateurs like me to do terrible things that no one should be forced to listen to. You can also change time signatures to 3/4 and 6/8, change the key of your currently active song and export to iTunes as AAC or AIFF format. There’s also an Arpeggiator (tones in a chord played in rapid succession, not all at once) option for the Smart Keyboard.

All the new tools seem designed to provide more fun for the experienced set, while maintaining the low barrier for entry that makes GarageBand such a generally appealing app to begin with.

My initial unskilled hands-on reveals a product that doesn’t lose much appeal compared to the iPad version, though the smaller screen might feel a little more cramped to some. Apple does a good job of simplifying control interfaces, however, to avoid making the on-screen space feel claustrophobic.

If you’ve been left out of the iOS GarageBand party before now because you didn’t own an iPad, now’s the time to add your voice to the chorus, even if you can’t carry a tune or even keep time to save your life. Note that you’ll need a device at least capable of running iOS 5 to use the app, even though the software requirements actually only need iOS 4.3 or higher.

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Plugging In

Apple recommends the Apogee JAM ($99) for plugging your guitar into the iPad, but I use the iRig ($39, and also conveniently for sale at most Best Buys). In addition to being cheaper, I like that the iRig leaves my dock connector free so I can charge my iPad while playing. I then either use headphones or a set of nice PC speakers as my “amp.” I also use the Griffin A-frame stand on my desk to prop it up at a nice viewing angle. I then jack in my ’62 Reissue Strat in and let loose.

Once you’re plugged in, launch GarageBand on the iPad and choose Guitar Amp from the Instruments window.

Cranking It Up

By default, you’ll be using the Clean Combo amp on app launch. To change amps, just click on the button labeled Clean Combo to bring up the available preset amps. There are four tabs: Clean, Crunchy, Distorted, and Processed. Since I’m a rock/metal player I spent a lot of time in the Distorted tab and my favorite option under that tab was Woodstock Fuzz.

You can also customize the sound by either adjusting the controls on the amp head, or add effects by clicking on the Stompbox icon in the upper right hand corner. This brings up a small pedalboard, and if you click on the empty pedal spot you can add more pedals. I found a nice variety of pedals: a couple different distortion effects, a chorus, flanger, compression, echo, and a phase tripper.

Overall, I found the amps to sound pretty good on their own. The metal ones did have some feedback, but adjusting the Noise Gate fixed that problem. Click on the Guitar Cable icon to adjust noise gate and whether you can hear the amp while you play. One area I think GarageBand really shines is the variety and quality of the built-in sounds; unlike other amp apps, I didn’t really have to futz around with it too much to get a good sound. The clean sounds were crystal clear, and the distortion amps had a decent amount of sustain.

One area I think GarageBand fails at is is managing your presets; apps like AmpliTube let you have one-tap access to all your presets. Switching tabs to juggle between a clean, dirty, and metal tone can be cumbersome. However, I found a neat trick to organize your favorite and custom-created sounds. Once you have a sound you like (even if it’s just a built-in one), hit Save in the amp selection window. This will put the sound in a tab labeled Custom, making it very easy to choose between your favorites.

Encore

So, is GarageBand a worthwhile tool for the practicing guitar or bass player? Definitely. I wouldn’t want to gig with it, but it’s perfect for practicing without annoying the neighbors. What I love is just how much you get for $4.99. While apps like Amplitube and iShred have free or low cost versions to get you going, to really customize your sound you’re going to need to make in-app purchases for amps and effects. With GarageBand, every amp or pedal I would want is already included.

I think GarageBand is a good tool for serious musicians who want to hone their craft. Little things like using drum loops to play along with and an easy-to-use multitrack recording interface add a ton of value to the app. While I wouldn’t want to record an entire album on it, I think it’d be great for doing some light recording when inspiration strikes in a rehearsal studio, or wherever you happen to find yourself with your gear.

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During the iPad 2 announcement event, I was possibly most impressed by the preview of GarageBand for iPad. With its so-called “Smart Instruments,” it seemed like it might be able to bring out the latent musical talent in even the most unmusical of users. GarageBand is live in the App Store now, so I decided to see if it could make good on its claims.

I am bad at music. I can’t sing, and friends consistently regret it when they manage to convince me to get up at karaoke and take a turn at the mic. I’ve tried playing guitar at many stages throughout my life, but I can barely manage finger exercises. Because of my experience with the real world guitar, I decided to try GarageBand’s Smart Guitar first.

To my intense surprise, I made a decent sounding snippet of a “song” in about 30 seconds. It isn’t fancy, and in fact, it’s probably incredibly derivative, but it sounds pleasant, and you might actually catch yourself humming along to it. I was able to make this so quickly because GarageBand for iPad does a pretty great job of offering a range of tools that cover the user spectrum from absolute novice to serious professional.

I created my brief track (see below) by not changing any of the default settings, including the type of guitar (acoustic), the length of the track, the song tempo or equalizer settings, or the key of the overall tuning. I just dialed up the Autoplay to 4 (each number represents a different strumming pattern) and tapped the chord I wanted to play whenever the included metronome hit four beats.

It may not be anything fancy, but now that I have this, I could loop it and sing over it, for instance, if I happened to be any good at that but not particularly good at playing an instrument. And for casual users just messing around for their own benefit and the benefit of their friends, this is much better than what I’d be able to come up with on even the desktop version of GarageBand. The touch interface just makes an absolute perfect match for what GarageBand is designed for, and it’s truly amazing to note the difference in the sound you produce depending on how hard you tap the virtual instruments. It really seems quite sensitive, and is an amazing use of the iPad’s built-in sensors.

I’ve only just begun to explore the various options available, and I’ve managed to create impressive-sounding riffs using drums, piano, guitar and bass. People might disagree with me on the definition of what constitutes “impressive,” but it certainly sounds better than anything I’ve been able to put together using GarageBand for OS X, Fruity Loops or any other digital audio program. And it beats the pants out of what I can do with real-world instruments.

Am I on my way to becoming a rock star? Well, I’ll probably never sell out Madison Square Garden, but I can definitely see jamming with a small group of iPad-wielding friends in my near future. And if I can accomplish as much as I did with GarageBand, I can’t even imagine what professional musicians might come up with. Kudos, Apple, for providing some of the most fun available on the App Store for under 5 bucks.

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Apple’s new Smart Cover for the iPad 2 also features pretty prominently in the new video spots, and you can see just how versatile this one aims to be when compared to its predecessor (my own official iPad cover was only used once before being banished to the closet). They may be only a serious of tantalizingly well-shot marketing videos, but speaking as someone who can’t wait for the new tablet’s arrival, they’re plenty entertaining to watch. Check out the entire series of 14 videos at Apple’s site.

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