PRESS RELEASE
17 May 2016
Apple Celebrates Chinese Music with GarageBand Update
BEIJING — May 17, 2016 — Apple® today announced an update to GarageBand® that celebrates the rich history of Chinese music with new instruments and extensive Chinese language localization throughout the app. Building on GarageBand’s extensive collection of sounds, this update adds traditional Chinese instruments — the pipa, erhu and Chinese percussion — along with 300 Apple-created Chinese musical loops, giving users the power to tap into their creativity and make beautiful Chinese-inspired music right on their iOS device or Mac®. GarageBand for iOS users also get two new Chinese templates for Live Loops, and new sharing options to popular Chinese social networks, so users can easily share their music creations with friends and followers across QQ and Youku.
“GarageBand is the most popular music creation app in the world and we’re excited to introduce these new features that incorporate the rich history of traditional Chinese music,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Product Marketing. “By adding classic Chinese instruments and new Live Loop templates, the new GarageBand app makes it fun and easy for anyone to make Chinese-inspired music right on their iOS device or Mac.”
“As a musician I'm always looking for ways to take my music in new directions and GarageBand has been such a great tool for me to experiment and add new elements to my songs on-the-go,” said award-winning music artist JJ Lin. “I love how the latest update to GarageBand adds traditional Chinese instruments along with brand new loops so I can play around with mixing traditional and modern sounds to create completely new styles.”
The pipa, erhu and Chinese percussion instruments in GarageBand can be played on iPhone® or iPad® using Multi-Touch™, and on Mac through the built-in Musical Typing feature or by connecting a third-party USB music keyboard. Each instrument includes different playing articulations, including rapid picking and note bend for pipa, and trill, grace note and glissando for ehru, making it incredibly easy for a novice to create a realistic and expressive performance. iPhone users can also use 3D Touch with the ehru and pipa to dynamically control vibrato and intensity, and both the pipa and erhu include Autoplay, letting users tap on any chord and get a complete, rich performance. Users can also play a collection of Chinese percussion instruments including drums, wood blocks, cymbals and gongs.
300 Apple-created loops from a variety of instruments and styles, including guzheng, dizi, yangqin and Peking Opera, add to the library of Chinese musical content in the app. These loops can be mixed and matched with Chinese instruments in GarageBand to create traditional music or entirely new styles. GarageBand for iOS also supports Live Loops, a new and intuitive way to create music by simply tapping cells and columns in a highly visual grid to trigger different looped instruments and samples. And, Live Loops in this update adds two new Chinese Live Loops grid templates, one traditional and one modern, showcasing a variety of Chinese instruments and percussion that are all playable via the Live Loops grid.
Chinese localization is also significantly enhanced across the entire app, with all sounds, loops and instruments now translated to Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.
Pricing & Availability
Today’s GarageBand 2.1.1 for iOS and GarageBand 10.1.2 for Mac updates are free for all existing users, and GarageBand is available for free with all new iOS and Mac devices. Customers with older, non-qualifying devices can purchase the app for HK$38 via the App Store® and Mac App Store. Users in Greater China will see these new features on iOS and OS X® by default after updating. Outside of Greater China, these new features are visible after updating by default on OS X and can be enabled on iOS devices in the advanced settings menu. For more information about GarageBand for iOS, visit https://www.apple.com/hk/en/ios/garageband and for more information about GarageBand for Mac, visit https://www.apple.com/hk/en/mac/garageband.
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple’s four software platforms — iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.
Press Contacts:
Starlayne Meza
Apple
starlayne@apple.com
(408) 974-3391
Connie Xie
Apple
connie_xie@apple.com
+86-10-8525-5652
“GarageBand is the most popular music creation app in the world and we’re excited to introduce these new features that incorporate the rich history of traditional Chinese music,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Product Marketing. “By adding classic Chinese instruments and new Live Loop templates, the new GarageBand app makes it fun and easy for anyone to make Chinese-inspired music right on their iOS device or Mac.”
“As a musician I'm always looking for ways to take my music in new directions and GarageBand has been such a great tool for me to experiment and add new elements to my songs on-the-go,” said award-winning music artist JJ Lin. “I love how the latest update to GarageBand adds traditional Chinese instruments along with brand new loops so I can play around with mixing traditional and modern sounds to create completely new styles.”
The pipa, erhu and Chinese percussion instruments in GarageBand can be played on iPhone® or iPad® using Multi-Touch™, and on Mac through the built-in Musical Typing feature or by connecting a third-party USB music keyboard. Each instrument includes different playing articulations, including rapid picking and note bend for pipa, and trill, grace note and glissando for ehru, making it incredibly easy for a novice to create a realistic and expressive performance. iPhone users can also use 3D Touch with the ehru and pipa to dynamically control vibrato and intensity, and both the pipa and erhu include Autoplay, letting users tap on any chord and get a complete, rich performance. Users can also play a collection of Chinese percussion instruments including drums, wood blocks, cymbals and gongs.
300 Apple-created loops from a variety of instruments and styles, including guzheng, dizi, yangqin and Peking Opera, add to the library of Chinese musical content in the app. These loops can be mixed and matched with Chinese instruments in GarageBand to create traditional music or entirely new styles. GarageBand for iOS also supports Live Loops, a new and intuitive way to create music by simply tapping cells and columns in a highly visual grid to trigger different looped instruments and samples. And, Live Loops in this update adds two new Chinese Live Loops grid templates, one traditional and one modern, showcasing a variety of Chinese instruments and percussion that are all playable via the Live Loops grid.
Chinese localization is also significantly enhanced across the entire app, with all sounds, loops and instruments now translated to Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.
Pricing & Availability
Today’s GarageBand 2.1.1 for iOS and GarageBand 10.1.2 for Mac updates are free for all existing users, and GarageBand is available for free with all new iOS and Mac devices. Customers with older, non-qualifying devices can purchase the app for HK$38 via the App Store® and Mac App Store. Users in Greater China will see these new features on iOS and OS X® by default after updating. Outside of Greater China, these new features are visible after updating by default on OS X and can be enabled on iOS devices in the advanced settings menu. For more information about GarageBand for iOS, visit https://www.apple.com/hk/en/ios/garageband and for more information about GarageBand for Mac, visit https://www.apple.com/hk/en/mac/garageband.
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple’s four software platforms — iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.
Press Contacts:
Starlayne Meza
Apple
starlayne@apple.com
(408) 974-3391
Connie Xie
Apple
connie_xie@apple.com
+86-10-8525-5652
- © 2016 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, GarageBand, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Multi-Touch, App Store and OS X are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.