If you have one of Apple's phones or tablets and any musical leaning, you'll have no doubt acquired several music-making apps - synths, drum machines, and so on. If so, news of Audiobus, an app that routes audio between music apps within your device won't have passed you by.
The really big news is that the latest release of GarageBand for iOS now supports this protocol. This means that any third-party music app with Audiobus support can be recorded directly into GarageBand's sequencer. Because Audiobus has already gained traction with music app developers, it's already possible to record audio from apps such as Moog Animoog, Propellerhead Figure and all of Korg's apps, to name just a few. You'll just need the Audiobus app, which is well worth its £7$10 pricetag.
Although there are already other multitrack recording apps with Audiobus support, GarageBand's integration into the Apple music production ecosystem is very attractive when it comes to scaling up the production in a fully-fledged DAW.
GarageBand for iOS song files can still be exported as usual to GarageBand or Logic Pro on a Mac, making the iPad (and iPhone/iPod) a serious music-making platform, rather than a musical sketchpad.
If your favourite music apps don't yet have Audiobus support, it may only be a matter of time. Yesterday, the developers of Audiobus released a development kit to allow more music app makers to support the protocol, and now that Apple have rubber-stamped Audiobus, it shouldn't be long before virtually every music app is compliant (we hope!).
Apple's GarageBand 1.4 costs £2.99$4.99 from the App Store and is a free update for current users.