iPad 2 much music! Leon Belvitt 620024587

iPad 2's Great Music Leap Forward: GarageBand- What does this Mean for music crazy young Jamaicans

The Garage Band

Young Jamaicans has always been crazy over music. They used it as a means of relaxation and entertainment. Many of them also have even take it a little further by doing it as a business, whether by producing, singing, or as a musician. Because of their love for music, young people in general listens music all day, and therefore would need some form of portable players to listen to. They use CD player, Mp3, Mp4 and ipod which would have been the latest developments in portable music players until March 11 of this year when Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2. The musical possibilities of what can be accomplished with the iPad just took a huge leap forward

An amazing new app was introduced, the. GarageBand- is the popular music production tool for the Mac that has very impressive looking set of features too. Young would be teased venture into the world of music making with such a piece of technology before them. For those who are crazy about Beyonce, Jay-z, Beenie-man,Kkartel or even Reggea’s great, Bob Marley can now atleast believe that they can be like their idols. The GarageBand app for the new iPad 2 offers nine different amp options.

Another feature which has been received with a fair degree of excitement from both users and developers is that the iPad detect how hard the screen is tapped or touched, apparently using the device’s accelerometer. This means that the iPad can become what is widely known as “velocity sensitive” – essentially that it can reproduce the varying tones and timbres that musical instruments have, as determined by how soft or hard you play.

combining this new touch feature with the existing control offered by multi-touch and the device’s accelerometer, Apple has made the iPad an even more appealing and flexible musical controller than anyone ever really expected it would be. The garage band app comes with a built-in 8-track recorder allowing users to record themselves and build songs. Apple helped put that into perspective:
"When the Beatles recorded "Sgt. Pepper's," the most advanced technology of the day was a 4-track and it weighed 300 pounds and it was the size of a washing machine," said Xander Soren, Director of music applications marketing at Apple, during his presentation at the event. Now music crazy young Jamaicans   can imagine all of the fun things you can do today with 8 tracks on their iPads.

 GarageBand's (colorful) 8 tracks

There are not a lot of rock'n'roll fans in Jamaica, but the few would of course be young people, after all its music. What Apple is aiming for with GarageBand for iPad is to give aspiring rock'n'roll heroes the ability to easily create a song with multiple instruments, record it, and share with others. A noble idea if they can pull it off; but one entirely possible with the app's impressive functionality.

The new version of GarageBand comes loaded with more than 250 music loops as well as a full range of guitars and effects, including nine amps and 10 stompboxes. You can also choose between three drum kits, which gives users a drummer's view from behind the kit.
There are some rather sophisticated technologies behind GarageBand. For example, the app can gauge dynamics and velocity, so it knows how hard or soft you are hitting a drum or keyboard (there's an accelerometer inside the iPad). The app can also determine if you are hitting a rimshot, bell or ride cymbal.

To make it easier to play, the product is introducing Smart Instrument technology. Using the Smart Guitar, for example, you can choose notes, chords, strumming or fingerpicking. There are also Smart Keyboards, Bass and Drums to tap out individual parts yourself or which GarageBand can help make easier. It will be interesting in the months ahead to see exactly how musicians use GarageBand for iPad; but it will be even more interesting to hear the results.

With all these interesting features and a very low cost been offered by Apple for this amazing piece of technological mucical icon, the music crazy people of Jamaica, the young people of course are surely going on a music adventure.