The Transport Guy: Apple's GarageBand app just got a huge update (AAPL)

Steve Kovach January 20, 2016 at 08:00AM

GarageBand, Apple's free music creation app, is getting a major update this week.

The app now includes a new feature called Live Loops that lets you create electronic music loops. It's sort of like a virtual DJ board, record-scratch effects included. Live Loops lets you take looping music samples from various instruments and tie them together in real time to make your own beats.

It's kind of fun to play around with, even if you're a non-musician like me. But keep in mind GarageBand is designed for musicians, not your Average Joe. (A lot of you probably have GarageBand on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad now and never use it.)

But Apple told me T-Pain tried Live Loops and really liked it. So I guess that's a solid endorsement.

Apple is also releasing a new app for iPhone this week called Music Memos. Think of it as a souped-up version of the regular Voice Memos app that already comes on your iPhone.

Music Memos lets musicians quickly record off-the-cuff song ideas and can automatically detect and label the time signature and chords they use. After that, you can import the audio file to GarageBand and tweak it more.

Apple said it made Music Memos because it learned that musicians would often use the standard Voice Memos app to record song ideas, and wanted to give them an app that's optimized just for music. (Voice Memos was never really intended to do anything other than record people talking.)

The new GarageBand update is free for all iOS users. It already comes preinstalled on iPhones and iPads that have at least 32 GB of storage. Music Memos will be free too. You'll see both apps in the App Store on Wednesday.

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Apple's GarageBand app just got a huge update (AAPL) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach