Posted on 4/4/11 by Bryan Keithley · Comments
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Guitar, Meet iPad: Jamming Out with GarageBand and Apogee
Apple's iPad has been a “game changer” in a lot of ways, and music production has not been immune to the effects, especially with the recent introduction of GarageBand for iPad and iPad 2. The little tablet computer won't exactly replace a room full of high-end studio gear, but it gets close enough to make you say “Wow.” In any case, it's definitely an intriguing time to be a musician or audio engineer.
From stompbox effects to nine virtual amps, and from eight-track mixing to drum kits and an impressive array of multitouch instruments, GarageBand has a lot to salivate over. But sometimes—and particularly for professional musicians—you need to rock out with an actual instrument in a studio-quality way. Well, you're in luck. Apogee Electronics has released JAM for the GarageBand 2011. Deceptively simple, JAM lets you plug your electric guitar or bass directly into the iPad or iPhone via the dock connector. There's also an adapter for Mac.
Courtesy of Apogee's PureDIGITAL technology, this guitar sound ain't for just messing around or keeping the kids busy. JAM will deliver a kind of tone and richness you have to hear to believe. For those of you who've tried using apps like AmpKit or iRig, JAM delivers way less line noise. And in addition to a clean sound, the digital conversion is 44.1 kHz and 24-bit—better than CD quality. Record your guitar via GarageBand, and then you can slide it into a track and alter/mix it as you would any other track.
JAM is plug-and-play, so with GarageBand you can be up and recording in literally minutes. Plus, JAM uses an impressively low amount of juice, giving you longer sessions than you'd expect on a single iPad charge. The device features a studio-quality preamp with 40db of gain, which is a nice feature, and the LED indicator turns red if, to quote Apogee's product description, “you're rocking too hard.” If your rock is indeed too hard, there's a simple thumb control to alter gain on the fly.
Apogee also has a device coming out, appropriately called MIC, that will do the same for voice that JAM does for electric guitars and bass. In short, it's great to see that the deep functionality of GarageBand '11 is being complemented by studio-quality devices that give you the option to play real instruments.
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