BandLab has taken a leap forward in its ongoing mission to create a well-equipped studio that anyone can use on any device, anywhere in the world. Its latest update (BandLab 10.0) adds a full-blown sampler to its Mix Editor; serious upgrades to its Mastering function that puts the finishing touch on files at lightning speed; and includes streamlined uploads to key platforms like TikTok, dark mode, and new social features.
“This is a major milestone release. We envision BandLab evolving beyond helping creators make music, to helping them earn a living and grow their audience,” says BandLab CEO Meng Ru Kuok. “We are the best cross-platform, accessible place to make music, and we want to keep pushing the boundaries of music creation to the next level. The new sampler and other functions, the new look and social features, are designed to take their creativity to another place. It’s part of what we see as a continuing investment in the broader music creation ecosystem.”
BandLab’s new Sampler allows creators to make their own samples from sounds around them, import up to a minute of audio or video from their files, or pick from over 15,000 sounds in BandLab Sounds’ royalty-free sample library that’s curated by genre and style. Making beats from your own samples requires just a few taps, and customizing parameters like attack and release takes mere seconds on the go.
Guided by GRAMMY- and other award-winning mastering engineers, BandLab’s free automated Mastering has been updated to render tracks 10x as fast as the closest competitor, allowing anyone who’s excited about a track’s final version to add instant polish. It takes a large step toward democratizing professional-grade audio, even for users making music on smartphones and tablets. “With millions of tracks being mastered per year, Mastering is a serious product feature for us, not an afterthought,” says Kuok. “We wanted to push it to the same standard of excellence as the rest of our tools.”
In addition to expanding its tools, BandLab’s upgrades will also unlock new social and visual features for users, including direct upload of sounds to TikTok, a long-awaited update for BandLab’s 37 million+ users worldwide. Some of the tweaks are small, but requested by the BandLab community, like dark mode and a redesign of profile pages. “Our aim reaches beyond making cool tools. We’re more ambitious than that. We want to empower a community by giving artists everything they need to present their creative process to their fans and fellow creators,” Kuok notes. “Without social features, emerging creators from overlooked markets won’t flourish. Our ultimate goal is to help them thrive.”
