Garage Band for iPad always seemed like a no-brainer to me, and it’s clear that Apple thought so too—they were just taking their time to get it right. It looks like it’s gonna be an impressively capable solution for sketching out music on your tablet. And it looks like it’s gonna be a blast to use.
The iPad studio offers 8 track recording, over 250 loops, and is fully compatible with the Mac version of GB. It’s got touch instruments—piano, synths, guitars and the rest—so you don’t have to lug anything with you, but you can plug in a guitar and shred for real with virtual guitar amps and effects if you so choose. A feature called Smart Instruments allows for the less musically-inclined to get involved—it’ll let you pick chords for a guitar, say, and do the strumming for you.