Garageband Ipad Guitar Amp

GarageBand User Guide for iPad

Garageband Ios Guitar
Garageband Ipad Guitar Amp Chart
Guitar Input For Ipad Garageband
Guitar Pedal Simulators Computer App
Guitar Amplifier Reviews

Guitarists - iPad into a clean guitar amp or into a PA? Buy a PA system and play the guitar through ToneStack on my iPad. Buy a guitar amp and play the guitar through the iPad to the amp via the headphone jack into the phono or RCA inputs. For two weeks I've been messing around with garageband and using its amps. Using an Apogee One.

GarageBand for Mac Incredible music. In the key of easy. GarageBand is a fully equipped music creation studio right inside your Mac — with a complete sound library that includes instruments, presets for guitar and voice, and an incredible selection of session drummers and percussionists. To do that launch GarageBand and, because we’ll shortly be looking at what it can with a guitar, choose Amp Collection from the project chooser. If you don’t see the Details area at the bottom. Jan 30, 2016 How to record guitar with an iPhone or iPad. GarageBand offers decent options and features at a more-than-decent price. It’s where most of my recordings take place and I make. Launch GarageBand for iPad and plug your guitar into the iRig. On the left of the screen is a ' 1/4' jack' button which lets you add a noise gate. Handy for those distorted tones. Next to it is the guitarist's best friend: the Tuner. No excuses for a flat g-string!

You can connect an electric guitar or electric bass and play it using a variety of highly realistic amp sounds that combine a guitar or bass amp with one or more stompbox effects. You can adjust the amp controls, add stompbox effects to customize your sound, and visually tune your instrument.

Choose a guitar or bass sound

Tap the name at the top of the screen, then tap the sound you want to use. You can also swipe left or right to change to the previous or next sound.
To switch between guitar and bass sounds, tap Guitar or Bass. To view sounds in a different category, tap one of the category names.

Change the amp

Adjust the input level

When you play your guitar or bass, a circle next to the Input Settings button lights green to show that GarageBand is receiving input from your instrument. If the circle turns red, lower the volume on your instrument to prevent distortion.

Tap the Input Settings button, then drag the Level slider left or right to set the input level.
The Level slider is available if your input source supports software level control.
To set the level automatically, tap the Automatic switch next to the Level slider.
If the input device supports left and right channels, tap Left or Right to select the input channel.

Adjust the amp controls

Touch and turn the knobs to adjust the amp controls.

Reduce unwanted noise

You can use a noise gate to reduce low-level input noise when you record. A noise gate cuts off the sound when it falls below a certain minimum level.

Tap the Input Settings button , then turn Noise Gate on.
Drag the Noise Gate slider until the noise stops or decreases to an acceptable level.

Turn on monitoring for an external device

When an electric instrument or audio interface is connected to your iPad, a Monitor switch appears below the Noise Gate controls.

Tap the Input Settings button .
Tap the Monitor switch to turn monitoring on. Tap the switch again to turn monitoring off.

Add, replace, or remove a stompbox effect

You can add up to four stompboxes, and change the order of stompboxes by dragging them left or right.

Tap the Stompbox button in the upper-right corner to show the stompboxes.
To add a stompbox, tap an empty stompbox slot, then select a stompbox.
To replace a stompbox, tap the stompbox you want to replace, then select a new stompbox.
To remove a stompbox, drag it down toward the bottom of the screen.
Tap the Amp button in the upper-right corner to return to the amp controls.

Turn a stompbox on or off

Tap the Stompbox button in the upper-right corner.
Tap the round On/Off button on the stompbox. If the small round LED (usually red) on the stompbox is lit, the stompbox is turned on.
Tap the Amp button in the upper-right corner to return to the amp controls.

Adjust the stompbox controls

Tap the Stompbox button , then double-tap the stompbox you want to adjust.
Turn the knobs to adjust the stompbox controls.
Swipe left or right if you want to work on a different stompbox.

Use the wah pedal with Face Control

If your iPad supports facial recognition, you can move the pedal on the Modern Wah stompbox by moving your mouth while you play. When you record, any pedal movements you make with Face Control are also recorded.

Tap an empty stompbox slot, then select Modern Wah from the list.
Hold your iPad 10–20 inches (25–50 cm) away from your face, then tap the Face Control button .
The first time you use Face Control, GarageBand asks for permission to access the camera on your iPad.
As you play, open and close your mouth to move the wah pedal up and down.
You can tap the Amp button and adjust the amp controls while continuing to use Face Control.
To turn Face Control off, tap the Face Control button again.

Note: GarageBand uses ARKit face tracking features to translate your facial expressions into instrument effect controls. Your face information is processed on device, and only music is captured during your performance.

Tune your guitar or bass

Tap the Tuner button in the upper-left corner.
Play an open string you want to tune, watching the tuner.
The red horizontal lines show whether the string is too low (flat) or too high (sharp). When the string is in tune, the note name in the center turns blue.
Tap the Tuner button again to close the tuner.

Save your own custom sounds

Modify an existing amp sound by changing the amp, adjusting the amp controls, adding or removing stompboxes, or adjusting the stompbox controls.
Tap the name at the top of the screen, then tap Save.
Type a name for your custom sound, then tap Done.
The first time you save a custom sound, a new Custom category appears, with an icon for your sound. You can rename or delete the sound by tapping Edit, then tapping the icon (to rename the sound) or the red circle (to delete the sound).

Garageband Ios Guitar

Turn crosstalk protection on or off

Garageband Ipad Guitar Amp Chart

When your guitar or bass is connected to the headphone port and monitoring is turned on, you may experience unwanted feedback due to crosstalk. GarageBand includes crosstalk protection to help protect against feedback caused by crosstalk. Crosstalk protection is especially useful when using high gain settings on a guitar or bass amp, or when using an overdrive or boost stompbox together with a high-gain amp such as the Modern Stack. In such cases, feedback caused by crosstalk can result in sudden, unpleasantly high output levels.

Crosstalk protection can change the sound of the instrument while monitoring is on, but the sound returns to normal when monitoring is turned off or another track is selected. You can turn off crosstalk protection to hear how it changes the sound; however, it is recommended that you decrease the volume of your iPad to a low level before doing so.

Close GarageBand.
Open the Settings app, choose GarageBand, then turn Crosstalk Protection on or off.

What is Audiobus? — Audiobus isan award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you useyour other music apps together. Chain effects on your favouritesynth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app likeGarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface outputfor each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive asynth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDIkeyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear.And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.

Download on the App Store

Guitar Input For Ipad Garageband

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

edited February 2017 in General App Discussion

I have $200 burning a hole in my pocket on Amazon, so not too much money but enough I could combine with other sources to buy something passable. I have a rather small practice amp and a full size stereo to play my guitar through at home. I can plug my iPad into both and get OK sound. I am going to be traveling to practice sessions and will need to play with others, the practice amp can get loud enough but the sound isn't great for a 6' speaker. I am thinking I have a few choices:

Buy a straight modeling amp like a Line6, and play the guitar through it. No iPad.
Buy a PA system and play the guitar through ToneStack on my iPad.
Buy a guitar amp and play the guitar through the iPad to the amp via the headphone jack into the phono or RCA inputs.

Guitar Pedal Simulators Computer App

Thoughts on which would give a decent sound and decent flexibility? I usually just play for myself so thinking about playing with others is all new to me.

Comments

Guitar Amplifier Reviews

There's a couple of threads about the amplifii amp recently; might be an option?
I think it's really a question of whether you want that square box monitor near you while you play. I go iPad straight into a PA because I'm done hauling amps around. But it took me a while to get used to the lack of that amp sitting next to me. And then there's tubes (which make a huge difference even if just in the power amp section). I love the sound of 'em but I've made the choice of convenience and am quite happy. YMMV.
I play my ipad through PA. I hook it up to my Pioneer reciever, two KLH speaker's and one of my guitar innerfaces (iriffport, focusrite 2i4, Griffin studio connect, or irig HD)..and I'm set. I think it sounds great. Plenty loud.
Dude I have this baby
I use It at our Mens worship services and this baby is soooo loud seriously I literally have to bring it down cause the Soundman gets on my case. I have it where in clean settings so no onboard effects are on and with the single tube it warms up my tone sooooo sweetly!
Small enough to carry to the gig and looks so good I get so many compliments!
edited February 2017
I wouldnt bother with modeling amps. Better if you can get some tube amp and hook it on your ipad. Either use just the preamp from the amp(by running out from amps fx loop to ipa and not back to amp), then run it into bias or tonestack and turn off the preamp emulation from them. This will get you that sweet tube overdrive sound and the flexibility of modeling amp sims.
Other way would be to put the ipad on fx loop and use some effects and modeling stuff on ipad and route the sound back to guitar amp(fx loop out to ipad and ipad to fx loop return).
You can also just use the ipad with some speaker and power amp, BUT you wont get that sweet tube distortion, that you can only get from real tubes(software isnt able to emulate it properly, unless you get axe-fx 2). It does sound pretty good if you play it through decent speaker and power amp. But i would rather go with real tubes than real speaker for best tones.
Forget the guitar amp IMO. At home I play through my monitors and when I play out it's through the PA. If you want some kind of amplifier get something that won't color your tone, maybe a keyboard amp. Guitar speakers do a lot to shape the tone, and you don't want that in this scenario.
@Matthew said:
Forget the guitar amp IMO. At home I play through my monitors and when I play out it's through the PA. If you want some kind of amplifier get something that won't color your tone, maybe a keyboard amp. Guitar speakers do a lot to shape the tone, and you don't want that in this scenario.
If I play through an amp, I run my iPad into the effects in so that it bypasses the pre-amp and just hits the power amp (with glowing 6L6's!). Use neutral sounding speakers..
Different strokes for different folks. I've tried it a million times and it never sounds right to my ear. I can get great sounds using ToneStack or Amplitube on my iPad through monitors, but the second I pipe it through an effects return it sounds fake, even with the cabinet simulation turned off. I'm not sure why exactly. Now, taking the effects send out of a preamp or even just a nice pedal and processing it through the iPad is another story.
@lukesleepwalker said:
@Matthew said:
Forget the guitar amp IMO. At home I play through my monitors and when I play out it's through the PA. If you want some kind of amplifier get something that won't color your tone, maybe a keyboard amp. Guitar speakers do a lot to shape the tone, and you don't want that in this scenario.
If I play through an amp, I run my iPad into the effects in so that it bypasses the pre-amp and just hits the power amp (with glowing 6L6's!). Use neutral sounding speakers..
@Matthew said:
Different strokes for different folks. I've tried it a million times and it never sounds right to my ear. I can get great sounds using ToneStack or Amplitube on my iPad through monitors, but the second I pipe it through an effects return it sounds fake, even with the cabinet simulation turned off. I'm not sure why exactly. Now, taking the effects send out of a preamp or even just a nice pedal and processing it through the iPad is another story.
Different strokes indeed! I don't bother running my iPad through an amp anymore (as noted above). I just don't think it matters all that much and it's so easy to show up with an iPad, a guitar, an iRig, and a cord.
edited February 2017
Guitar amp. If you are buying something for guitar. The added latency on the ipad (even at 128) as a guitar processor makes it less than ideal, regardless if you like the sounds of the simulators. The disconnect in timing makes it hard to play tight.
I run tonestack into a PA. Tonestack has 64 latency option and you can turn the simulation from ultra high to just high or medium and it runs like a dream on my iPhone 6plus. Yes the warmth of tubes is hard to emulate exactly but I think it comes close enough for my taste most of the time.
Being able to run thru loopy is great too. Can make backing tracks in seconds using a whammy -12half steps and bass amp in tonestack, then switch to a guitar sound to play over it.
Just my 2 cents
@Panthemusicalgoat said:
I run tonestack into a PA. Tonestack has 64 latency option and you can turn the simulation from ultra high to just high or medium and it runs like a dream on my iPhone 6plus. Yes the warmth of tubes is hard to emulate exactly but I think it comes close enough for my taste most of the time.
Virtual dj 10 free download full version for windows 7. Being able to run thru loopy is great too. Can make backing tracks in seconds using a whammy -12half steps and bass amp in tonestack, then switch to a guitar sound to play over it.
Just my 2 cents
I do the same as this. How is your battery life on the 6+ running Tonestack and Loopy? And which interface do you use?
Yeah, the technical way to do this is to use either the FX Return (or 'Power Amp IN') jack, if your amp has one. I have about 5 to 7 things you could call 'guitar amps' in my house, and NONE of them have an FX loop, so no luck there. Or, you could plug into a mixer and use some PA speakers, reference monitors, or headphones.
But, as alluded to above, I never actually do this because even the slightest hint of latency really bothers me, and that seems almost unavoidable on the iPad. I also just don't like to have to worry about additional things like USB or headphone jack output level when I'm using the iPad as an FX suite. Too many affordable analog pedal options on the market now, and I just prefer that experience.
All that being said, if I were recording a track using an iPad DAW, I may just use the software on the iPad for modeling, just because of convenience. I've experimented, however, with using something like a UCA202 and the proper cables to connect that to a Tech21 or other preamp pedal for a low-latency audio capture (similar to how you might capture an external synth).
I have an iLoud. 40 watts, very convenient, very loud. I have not tried it live, as I don't play live, but it's a great little unit. Flat freq response, so no additional coloration, and I use it as a studio monitor as well.
Thank you all for your thoughts, I appreciate it. It turns out the answer isn't so easy at all, quite predictably influenced by my needs and desires! I have some things to think about here still and some great options to research.
lots of valid points, but the 'use a real tube amp' hint is close to nonsense.
In particular because current amps (up to nearly $1k) are rather weak compared to vintage specimen.
You can safely emulate those with BIAS or Tonestack and even outperform them.
The difference (if any) is in the cabinet, NOT the tube(s).
Tubes themselves have a rather low share on what's considered 'tube sound' - mostly it's about circuit design and transformers - and the speaker.
My comment is about classic crunch/distortion, not about metal - that's a different story and imho not even related to tubes at all.
For two weeks I've been messing around with garageband and using its amps. Using an Apogee One straight out to monitors I'm not noticing any latency, and I'm a fairly quick jazz player, but I prefer clean tones so maybe that has something to do with it.
I believe I remember that there is some stereo mixer latency out of the ipad/iphone headphone jack, so any interface using that for audio is likely going to cause perceptible latency.
@lukesleepwalker said:
@Panthemusicalgoat said:
I run tonestack into a PA. Tonestack has 64 latency option and you can turn the simulation from ultra high to just high or medium and it runs like a dream on my iPhone 6plus. Yes the warmth of tubes is hard to emulate exactly but I think it comes close enough for my taste most of the time.
Being able to run thru loopy is great too. Can make backing tracks in seconds using a whammy -12half steps and bass amp in tonestack, then switch to a guitar sound to play over it.
Just my 2 cents
I do the same as this. How is your battery life on the 6+ running Tonestack and Loopy? And which interface do you use?
Honestly in airplane mode (so calls don't interrupt and wifi off saves battery) pretty darn good actually. I play hour sets and I haven't had any issues yet. Start at 100% and end up with 40-50% usually. I also put brightness at about half
I go via a mixer, so I can fiddle with the EQ a bit. Haven't had any noticeable latency issues.
edited February 2017
I'm thinking about getting an iRig HD 2 since it has a Hi-Z quarter inch out with a FX/Thru switch. I'm also going to use my small pedalboard (tuner, distortion, cabinet simulator) for my base guitar tone and use iOS purely for reverb, delay and other non-essential things. That way if iOS gives me issue I can just flip a switch and I'm not dead in the water.
Going straight into a PA, my experience was that input/routing can have a huge effect on latency. I use a Sonic Port VX for my line in to the iPad via lightning connection. I tried sending the processed audio back out via the Sonic Port's stereo outs into a mixer, and the latency was beyond usable. Easily 250ms or more.
Same set-up, but running the processed audio out of the headphone jack as a mono signal = zero latency. My guess is the A/D converters in the Sonic Port were holding up the signal, sadly.
I can also say running into an amp head and speaker is bad news, no matter how well you try to 'neutralize' the amp's coloration. Volume was virtually halved compared to playing straight in, and running a cabinet emulation into a cabinet kind of kills any benefit of either. Strangely, in that scenario, fraught with issues as it might have been, I was running out of the Sonic Port's A/D line out and .. no latency. Only thing I can think is the mixer I plugged into had mic preamps already, so perhaps the 'double' conversion of the signal led to the massive latency.
Anyway, short answer: iPad straight into PA (using headphone out) was zero latency and preserved my guitar tone from JamUp Pro as desired. 1/8 to XLR adaptors are cheap and easy to come by. Beats the hell out of the old days of hauling a 4x12 cab + head + rack mount .. never again, LOL!
@Telefunky said:
lots of valid points, but the 'use a real tube amp' hint is close to nonsense.
In particular because current amps (up to nearly $1k) are rather weak compared to vintage specimen.
You can safely emulate those with BIAS or Tonestack and even outperform them.
The difference (if any) is in the cabinet, NOT the tube(s).
Tubes themselves have a rather low share on what's considered 'tube sound' - mostly it's about circuit design and transformers - and the speaker.
My comment is about classic crunch/distortion, not about metal - that's a different story and imho not even related to tubes at all.
Well i have tested with my old engl tube head and the current marshall valvestate i have(tubes in preamp, transistor power amp) and using the preamp tubes makes a huge difference. Sounds A LOT better than any of the software sims distortion sounds i have tried(and i have tried several on ios and on desktop), even adding a tubescreamer instead of using software distortion(which sucks in the amp sims) sounds a lot better.
It would be most helpful if people commenting on what is right / wrong / the best regarding guitar sounds, posted some examples here of what they are talking about, then we could make our own minds up !
I'm curious for those of you running straight into a PA what you are using to monitor yourselves. Back when I was gigging so many places had such limited options on foldback..
In terms of the OPs question, it seems a lot depends on what's really needed; I.e. Size of the band, size of the venues you're playing, what the rehearsal space is like..
@fprintf, what I'm taking away from all this discussion is the iPad outputs full range sound - and most guitar combos are not really designed for that. Hence the good results mentioned from going straight to a PA. If you are looking for an amp to use with your iPad, I might recommend looking at a keyboard amp combo. These are are geared toward full range input and output more so than most guitar amps. Or perhaps a small powered PA cabinet..
edited February 2017
@ToMess I don't question your personal preferences, but my comment explicitely excluded 'metal' and that's what Engl is about (afaik)
Regarding references: I once checked the current Fender/Vox tube models in a YT comparison (proper Studio recordings) and compared them to some recordings of vintage Watkins tube amps.
The latter may not be very well known, but produced exactly what I'd consider a perfect tube amp sound, in a quality which is indeed hard to emulate. As an example:

he's discussing technical detail very deeply, sound in his videos is rather at the end
the tremolo thing is also cool, reminded me a lot on Holderness Johnny
his other videos are also worth checking