I’m a dad with kids in middle school. GarageBand seems to be the big reason my kids have been asking me to buy an Apple computer. GarageBand for Windows is my hope to avoid shelling out for another computer.
Maybe some disclaimers here are appropriate: GarageBand is owned by Apple and Windows are on houses and buildings everywhere.
December 5, 2007 at 10:36 pm |
Thanks for the information. I’m in a very similar situation, kids in middle school, using a PC, and they love Dad’s Mac with GB. I’d love to get them a Mac, but not just now. Acid seems a good substitute, though I wish it were less complex. Mixcraft is very easy to use, but without Midi support, it’s just a toy.
Did you look into the other competitors, such as Ableton, or Cakewalk, etc? Ableton seems to come with some Midi keyboards, so that’s yet another option.
December 27, 2007 at 4:11 am |
Nice little blog, found it useful. Anyways, hoping to find the music of Garageband, and edit them in MixCraft.
January 31, 2008 at 9:44 pm |
Hi there
I found your blog/site as I have a similar quest to find a Garageband alternative for Windows. And I have, so I thuoght I’d share it with you
Its called TrakAx, and is great! Have a look here: http://www.trakax.com/software
Its totally free! I love it.
Hope you enjoy it.. and thanks for the starter!
February 3, 2008 at 3:36 am |
Mixcraft 4 supports MIDI, virtual instruments, external MIDI devices.. I think its exactly what you were looking for. Definitely more powerful than Garage Band, and the virtual instrument stuff is really easy to use.
February 3, 2008 at 3:39 am |
I’ve been a Mac fan (but not user) for quite some time now, and I’m going crazy over all of the cool stuff Apple throws in the box. GarageBand is just one more reason for me to love buying a Mac, because it would be so much of a help with my podcast.
As for Windows software, right now I’m using a combination of Audacity and Kristal Audio Engine, a free but pretty basic DAW. It features VST effect support and 16 tracks of audio, but it can’t import MP3 files (though it does take WAV files).
April 21, 2008 at 12:38 am |
FLstudio should do anything garageband can do and more
mainly vst plugins which garageband cannot do..
There are free to use samples and loops included in the FLstudio 7 – 8 demo’s
and i know it does midi!
May 15, 2008 at 7:45 pm |
Did you check Sonar Home Studio by Cakewalk?
Here is the link:
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/HomeStudio/overview.asp
It ‘looks’ pretty much like garageband and I haven’t tried it yet as I don’t have much time to run around the shops and don’t need it yet, however when i do get the time if anyone tries it i’d love to know how it compares to Acoustica and Sony acid music.
If i’m correct, cakewalk DOES support midi (it’s their ‘field of expertise’ I believe)
June 25, 2008 at 11:14 pm |
Please check out http://www.jamstudio.com
Its an online music factory – with 100,000 music loops ready to use and build songs. This is the leading “create music online” web site with over 60,000 registered users. I worked with a team of musicians to record all the sounds and write the software – its free for my kids and yours! Let me know what you think.
Like Garage Band, its goal is to help you make music quickly. You may agree that it offers even greater simplicity and capability than Garage Band (chords like C G D C make it possible for a complete virtual band to play together!). You can make the song and play it for free at the site. For only $10 you can buy royalty free rights to all the sounds you use in your songs and have a digitally mixed mp3 of your songs emailed to you ($10 for all the songs you can make in a month!) and add vocals and other tracks offline. I would be interested in hearing your opinion about it. And thanks in advance for helping get the word out about JamStudio.com – a lot of effort went into building it – a lot of effort goes into helping people find it! -Dave
September 4, 2008 at 8:48 pm |
Hi
I’m on Mac and GarageBand 3 and a friend just bought FruityLoops Studio. I’ve tried it and the only thing I miss is a notation view (not critical if you’re not into reading sheet music). Most of its included plugins are demos but you can download an incredible variety of free plugins for Windows (no such luck with the Mac). I think FL Studio might just be what you’ve been loking for. I’ll stay with GarageBand because . . . it’s on my Mac and I want so see the notes.
April 30, 2009 at 12:58 am |
Thanks for a wonderful and very useful blog. I gave the link to my students to refer to when making their final project extra credit podcasts. Thanks again!