Continuing with its ongoing ‘Please the dragon’ campaign, Apple has today announced an update for its music creation application, GarageBand in honor of the rich and diverse Chinese history. The update adds new instruments and extensive Chinese language localization through-out the application on your Mac or iOS device.
The extensive library of instruments on the GarageBand have now been updated to add traditional Chinese instruments like the erhu, pipa and other Chinese percussions including drums, wood blocks, cymbals and gongs as well. Along with the addition of these instruments, GarageBand now also comes pre-loaded with over 300 Chinese-inspired music loops, giving users the freedom to use their creativity and without having to start over from scratch.
As reported earlier, Apple has seen a steep decline in revenue in one of their strongest markets – China – once more powerful than the US market. Due to the 26 per cent decline in revenue, Apple is currently focused on tapping the hidden potential the growing Asian markets have to offer.
With regard to the same, Apple CEO Tim Cook is currently touring China and has met with the CEO of Didi Chuxing, in the second leg of his Asian Tour. It has also been confirmed that he will be visiting India this week to meet with PM Narendra Modi. Cook is expected to discuss the sale of refurbished iPhones as well as a partnership under the ‘Make in India’ program.
In lieu of the GarageBand update, Susan Prescott, the VP of Product Marketing adds that,
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. By adding classic Chinese instruments and new Live Loop templates, the new GarageBand app makes it fun and easy to make Chinese-inspired music right on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
Adding to the power of the GarageBand are two new Chinese templates for Live Music Loops that can be used to create music by attaching instruments to your Mac and recording the beats. It also makes it more social by including the option to share your musical creation across popular Chinese social networks, QQ and Youku.
You can record music using the new Chinese instruments, the pipa, erhu and others in GarageBand on your iPhone, iPad, using Multi-Touch or even your Mac PC by using the in-built musical typing feature or as-told above-by connecting your instruments to the PC. Each of the newly added Chinese instruments includes different articulations, rapid picking, note-bending, trill, glissando, etc.
iPhone users can also use 3D touch technology to dynamically control the vibrations and intensity of the instrument. It will make the music-creation process easier for novice users by providing a dynamic and realistic environment. The 300 pre-loaded loops have been created using a variety of instruments and styles, including guzheng, dizi, yangqin and Peking Opera adding to the rich Chinese music library.
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. 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.
says award-winning Chinese-music artist JJ Lin
The new features are now live for users in Greater China by default, on iOS and OS X. As for users outside of Greater China, the new features can now be enabled from the Advanced setting menu.
Watch JJ Lin play the erhu alongside Tim Cook, on the latest update of GarageBand.
