Guides

Mastering inside GarageBand on iPad with an AUv3 plugin

Updated 2026-09-06

GarageBand on iPad can host third-party audio units. That means a mastering chain can sit on your project and run live while you arrange, instead of being a separate export step at the end.

Setting it up

• Install Burnish from the App Store. The plugin installs with the app.
• In GarageBand, open the track controls for the track you want to treat. For a whole song, use the master track in Logic Pro for iPad, or bounce a stereo mix into one GarageBand track.
• Under plug-ins, choose Audio Unit Extensions, then Burnish.
• Pick a genre. Set intensity. Play the project.

What the two controls do

Genre loads the profile: the tonal target, the multiband compression, the width and the loudness goal that fit that style. Intensity scales the whole chain from a light touch to full. Everything else is decided by what the plugin measures in the signal, the same way the app decides it.

Live versus offline

The plugin runs in real time, so it uses a lookahead limiter with a short window and it does not do the repair stage that needs to see the whole file. For the final release, bounce your mix and run it through the app once. The app measures the whole song, repairs the AI artifacts, masters to the exact target, and gives you the report. The plugin is for hearing the direction while you work.

Other hosts

AUM, Cubasis, Loopy Pro and any other AUv3 host on iPad or iPhone can load it the same way.