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Everything You Need To Know About Apple’s New Music App
Music Memos is Apple’s newest stand-alone iOS app in years
Michael Grothaus
12:15, 22 Jan 2016
Apple unexpectedly dropped a huge number of music related updates this week. First came an update to the company’s Garage Band iOS app. The new updated adds a host of features including Live Loops that allow musicians to create music by triggering instrument loops and DJ-style effects in real time using Multi-Touch gestures; a virtual drummer that can play along with you; 1,200 new Apple Loops and sounds; the ability to record up to 32 tracks simultaneously, and more. Apple also released significant updates to its Logic Pro X and MainStage 3 audio apps for OS X as well as its Logic Remote app for iOS.
But the major surprise was a brand new app called Music Memos that Apple created just for musicians. Music Memos is Apple’s first new stand-alone iOS app in years and it shows the company hasn’t turned a blind eye to its longtime professional consumers. But just what is Music Memos and what does it do? Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Music Memos?
Simply put, Music Memos is an app that Apple created to allow musicians to capture and analyze high-quality, uncompressed audio. Here’s what Apple says about the app in its App Store description:
“Music Memos is the easiest way for songwriters to capture and organize new musical ideas. Use your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to record acoustic guitar, piano, voice, or any musical instrument as high-quality, uncompressed audio. Then name, tag and rate your ideas to start building a library of all your favorite new song parts and riffs. Music Memos automatically detects your tempo, rhythmic feel and chords and lets you instantly hear your musical idea accompanied by a rhythm section with realistic drums and bass. View the chords you’ve played, add comments and lyrics, or share your recordings with friends or directly to Apple Music Connect. And it’s easy to take your favorite ideas into GarageBand to add more instruments and continue building your song.”
Why did Apple create it?
It’s creation actually has a cool story and goes to show how far Apple goes to note how people are using its software and devices. The company noticed that many musicians regularly used iOS’s built in Voice Memos app to record new riffs or snippets of music. The company thought that given how popular Voice Memos is in music creation, a dedicated app with more features would be something musicians would appreciate. From a press release announcing the new app:
“Musicians and songwriters around the world have used the Voice Memos app on their iPhone to quickly record ideas, and many hit songs first started as Voice Memos. The new Music Memos app is inspired by Voice Memos and takes the functionality even further by adding musician-friendly features designed specifically for songwriting and developing musical ideas.”
What are some of the major features of Music Memos?
Recording: Music Memos features a simple interface that lets you begin recording right away. Simply open the app and you’ll see a screen with a blue circle on it. Tap that circle and the screen goes red. This means Music Memos is recording. Alternately you can tell Music Memos to begin recording when it hears your voice so you don’t need to remove your fingers from that guitar or keyboard. During recording the red circle on Music Memo’s screen will pulse.
Editing: When you are recording your music is saved as a waveform. Tapping on the drum or guitar icons over the waveform will add a layer of a virtual backing band to your recording. Tap on the waveform itself to bring up editing options including for tempo, downbeat, time signature, tuning and length. What’s really cool is Music Memos analyzes your recording and displays suggested chord names and musical measures.
Tuning: The Music Memos app also allows you to take notes on your recording as well as offering a built-in tuner for chromatic pitch notation. Access this feature by tapping the tuning fork button.
Sharing: Music Memo files are saved as 24-bit 44.1kHz audio files that can be saved to iCloud Drive or uploaded to Apple Music Connect, SoundCloud, and YouTube. The files can also be exported to Logic Pro X and GarageBand for iOS or OS X.
What devices does Music Memo work on?
The new Music Memos app will work on most iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches that can run iOS 9.1 or later.
Can I use Music Memos with an external microphone?
Yep. Music Memos works with any third-party mic you already use with your iPhone.
How much does it cost and where can I download it?
Perhaps the best news of all is that Music Memos is a free download. You can grab it from the App Store here.