Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Guitar Amps
  • Plugin Week 25
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Artist news
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • Drums
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • Plugin Week A-Z
  • You Oughta Know
  • Fake AI band
  • 95k+ free music samples
  • Wrecking Crew
Recommended reading
Fender Studio
Software & Apps Fender Studio is the company’s long-awaited entry-level recording app, and it’s free for all
Universal Audio's Woodrow '55 plugin on a computer screen
Guitar Plugins Universal Audio releases its UAFX Woodrow '55 pedal as a plugin, putting an "American classic" in your DAW
A screenshot of the Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus plugin running in Pro Tools
Plugins “Will definitely please those who are a fan of the sound already, but standalone price is expensive”: Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus plugin review
Supro Airwave: the new 1x12 tube combo combines old-school looks and tones with onboard cab sim tech from Two notes Audio Engineering.
Guitars Supro teams up with Two Notes for the Airwave, a vintage-voiced 25W tube combo with onboard cab sims
synth one j6
Tech "In a blind test of 100 musicians, it beat the $200 plugin 3-to-1. Not bad for a free app": AudioKit releases Synth One J6, a free Juno-inspired synth for iOS
Ableton Note
Software & Apps With its latest free update, Ableton has finally turned Note into the app I always wanted it to be
Mooer Prime M2 multi-effects unit in grey
Guitar Pedals "An unholy amount of features in a standard-sized compact pedal": Mooer Prime Minimax M2 Intelligent Pedal review
  1. Tech
  2. Software & Apps

GarageBand for iPad: guitar amps hands-on

News
By Chris Vinnicombe published 21 March 2011

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

GarageBand for iPad hands-on

GarageBand for iPad hands-on

With the UK release of the iPad 2 just hours away, it's time to take another look at the app that's already causing a huge buzz amongst music-making iPad 1 owners. We've already presented a hands-on review of GarageBand for iPad, now it's time to zoom in and take a guitarist's eye view of the onboard guitar amps.

For demo purposes, we threw together a simple little ditty using nothing more than a Gibson Les Paul Studio '60s Tribute guitar and sounds from within GarageBand itself. As you can see from the session file, it's not exactly Bohemian Rhapsody, but in addition to some lead and rhythm guitar, we used a drum loop, a shaker, some Smart Bass and the Soul Organ keyboard preset.

For each of the following examples, all that changes is the virtual guitar amp selected for the lead and rhythm sounds, with a little additional tweaking of gain and EQ levels to taste. The only exception is the Modern Stack amp model, which we felt deserved its own, more aggressive composition in order to do it justice.

Click through and let us know what you think of the sounds...

Page 1 of 10
Page 1 of 10
Small Tweed Combo

Small Tweed Combo

Page 2 of 10
Page 2 of 10
Blackface Combo

Blackface Combo

Page 3 of 10
Page 3 of 10
English Combo

English Combo

Page 4 of 10
Page 4 of 10
Vintage Stack

Vintage Stack

Page 5 of 10
Page 5 of 10
Stadium Stack

Stadium Stack

Page 6 of 10
Page 6 of 10
British Blues Combo

British Blues Combo

Page 7 of 10
Page 7 of 10
Sunshine Stack

Sunshine Stack

Page 8 of 10
Page 8 of 10
Small Brownface

Small Brownface

Page 9 of 10
Page 9 of 10
Modern Stack

Modern Stack

For this final example, we felt that the Modern Stack sound deserved a demo tune with a harder edge. Check it out:

Liked this? Now read:

GarageBand for iPad: 7 things musicians need to know

GarageBand for iPad: first hands-on review

Connect with MusicRadar: via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

Get MusicRadar straight to your inbox: Sign up for the free weekly newsletter

Page 10 of 10
Page 10 of 10
Chris Vinnicombe

Chris Vinnicombe worked with us here on the MusicRadar team from the site's initial launch way back in 2007, and also contributed to Guitarist magazine as Features Editor until 2014, as well as Total Guitar magazine, amongst others. These days he can be found at Gibson Guitars, where he is editor-in-chief.

Read more
Fender Studio
Fender Studio is the company’s long-awaited entry-level recording app, and it’s free for all
Universal Audio's Woodrow '55 plugin on a computer screen
Universal Audio releases its UAFX Woodrow '55 pedal as a plugin, putting an "American classic" in your DAW
A screenshot of the Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus plugin running in Pro Tools
“Will definitely please those who are a fan of the sound already, but standalone price is expensive”: Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus plugin review
Supro Airwave: the new 1x12 tube combo combines old-school looks and tones with onboard cab sim tech from Two notes Audio Engineering.
Supro teams up with Two Notes for the Airwave, a vintage-voiced 25W tube combo with onboard cab sims
synth one j6
"In a blind test of 100 musicians, it beat the $200 plugin 3-to-1. Not bad for a free app": AudioKit releases Synth One J6, a free Juno-inspired synth for iOS
Ableton Note
With its latest free update, Ableton has finally turned Note into the app I always wanted it to be
Latest in Software & Apps
Waves 4th of July
Waves just made building a pro-level plugin chain a lot cheaper - grab 2 for $59.99 or 4 for $99.99
Fors Pivot
Pivot is a ‘no-nonsense’ FM synth plugin from the designer of one of our favourite hardware instruments
Atlas DSP - Your Final Steps
Atlas DSP, Your Last Steps Review
Plugins
How to get famous sounds and effects using only Logic’s stock plugins
caelum audio
"If your singing sounds like a dying cat, this finally kills the cat": This hilariously bad mic modelling plugin is free for International Joke Day
Plugin Chains
How to emulate a classic analogue recording system entirely with plugins
Latest in News
Joe Armon-Jones
Ezra Collective’s Joe Armon-Jones on the imagined musical apocalypse that inspired All The Quiet
Melbourne Instruments Roto-Control
Melbourne Instruments' Roto-Control gets Bitwig Studio integration following 2.0 firmware update
Waves 4th of July
Waves just made building a pro-level plugin chain a lot cheaper - grab 2 for $59.99 or 4 for $99.99
Deals of the week
MusicRadar deals of the week: Celebrate the 4th of July in style with hundreds slashed off gear from Gibson, Fender, Alesis, Roland, Yamaha, Boss and more
Paul McCartney at the piano at Live Aid
Bob Geldof on how Paul McCartney’s Live Aid performance was almost a disaster
ai band
Who is behind The Velvet Sundown, the AI-generated band that blew up the internet?

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...