Apple Music isn't the only new music software coming straight out of Cupertino Tuesday. Apple just released an updated version of its music creation software GarageBand.
The update adds a suite of new sound effects to the desktop app. The update is focused on adding more sounds and effects to accommodate wider variety of music styles, particularly electronic dance music and hip hop.
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The app's Drummer feature, for example, has 10 new EDM and hip hop-themed characters, each of which specializes in a different style of music (you can listen to some of them here). Previously, the Drummer feature, which is meant to simulate a studio drummer, focused on rock sounds with acoustic drum kits. Artists who wanted to create electronic or hip hop beats had to use third-party plugins or spend a lot of time crafting their own beats from scratch.
Musicians are also better able to fine tune the sounds of the drums, with new controls for tweaking the sound and style of the drum effects.
The update also adds 100 new EDM and hip hop-style synthesizer patches, which customize how the keyboard instruments sound. The synthesizer also has a new Transform Pad, which allows you to switch between different types of sound effects during playback. The changes are captured in the recording.
GarageBand also supports the new ForceTouch trackpad on the new Macbooks, which will enables gesture-based shortcuts and allow users to get feedback when they adjust certain controls within Garageband.
Apple added 1,000 additional sound loops to GarageBand to reflect a wider variety of music styles, including funk, indie, disco, blues, EDM and hip hop. The the new features are desktop only for now, GarageBand's iOS app is also being updated with an Apple Music tie-in.
Artists that have Connect accounts -- that's the social network feature that allows artists to share content with Apple Music subscribers-- will be able to offer tracks and audio clips directly via GarageBand.
For example, an artist who records an acoustic take of a recent single within the GarageBand app will now be able to port the recording straight to Apple Music.
As with other Connect features -- and really, all of Apple Music -- it's too soon to know how well this will work or how many artists will actually take advantage of this feature. But if only a fraction of those who have signed up for Connect share exclusive recordings through the GarageBand app, it could go a long way toward making Connect more engaging.
The latest version of GarageBand is available now in the Mac App Store. Users with a previous version of the app can update for free, while the Mac and iOS apps are $4.99 for new users.
Updated on July 1, at 2:40 p.m PT to clarify details around the Drummer feature and customization features.