What Alternatives to Garage Band Exist on Windows?
Earlier today, Dan Iggers from Toronto asked the following question:
I hope you are the right person to ask, or can point me in the right direction.
My son would like to have, for his birthday, recording software akin to "Garage Band" and a microphone. We have a Pentium II or III (?) PC with XP, and we can't go out and buy a Mac. Is there PC software that might fill the bill?
Thanks for asking, Dan. I'm answering this question on the site for the benefit of our readers. Try to keep your son away from Operation Gadget until his birthday.
With all the press that Garage Band received recently, you'd think that it was the first program of its kind for any computer. But, there have been digital music creation tools for the PC and Macintosh since before Windows.
I'm going to get in trouble with real musicians here, because there are programs out there that define themselves as "accompanyment generators," while others call themselves "digital recording studios." I'm not sure which of them is more appropriate for your son, so I'll pick a few examples that I consider affordable, then I'll talk a bit about the professional level tools that will help you do things like produce sound for independent films or professional audio applications.
The first product I'm going to recommend looking at is Band-in-a-Box Pro 2008. This is the latest version of a product that has been around a long time and has had features added to it again and again. It's not as slick looking as Garage Band, but it allows you to combine keyboard, guitar, and vocal inputs with accompanyment created on the PC. You can use it for notation as well.
One of the reasons I'm recommending Band-in-a-Box is because it has an active user group. These people may be too musically geeky for you or your son. But, anytime a product has a user group that is this organized, it means that it's a high quality product to which customers have made a big commitment.
Another product that may fit the bill while taking a slightly different approach is Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 6XL. Descriptions of Sonar Home Studio 6 talk more about incorporating ACID-format audio loops which is one of the main features of Garage Band. There's also Screenblast Sound Forge, a product from Sony Pictures Entertainment that is even more oriented to loop-based music creation. This may not be powerful enough for your son, because it doesn't look like you can integrate your own performances as much.
Professional-Level Tools
The first product I want to highlight in the professional category is Adobe Audition 3. This product was originally called CoolEdit before Adobe purchased and integrated it into its digital effects arsenal. Audition is a powerful product with strong audio mixing, editing, and effects processing. The system is designed for someone who needs to focus on productivity-- a lot of the discussion of this product revolves around workflow. People use Audition for many different types of sound production, including professional-level podcasting, video and movie sound production, and voice-over work.
Two more things I like about Audition are the number of accessory products that work with it and books and DVDs that talk about it. Accessory products include Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional and Adobe Encore DVD 2.0. After Effects is much more expensive than Audition and has a lot of video features, but works well with it. Encore is a DVD production tool, similar to Apple's iDVD for the Macintosh platform.
The books and DVDs that people buy to work with Adobe Audition include:
- Adobe Audition 2.0 Classroom in a Book
- Audition 2.0 Essential Training (CD-ROM-based training)
Sony Sound Forge 9 is another option at the professional level. It's big feature is a plugin called Noise Reduction 2 that helps clean up sound clips that are being integrated into your projects. Sound Forge 9 also includes a copy of CD Architect, which is a very good CD burning tool. Books and media that talk about Sound Forge include:
- Sound Forge 8 Power!: The Official Guide
- Professional Training for Sound Forge 9 Software (a CD-ROM)
- Sony Sound Forge 9: Know It All!
Steinberg Wavelab 6 is even more of a niche product in pro audio production. My sense is that Wavelab includes more tools in the box than Audition or Sound Forge do, but third party tools and documentation are a lot harder to find.
Music-software-reviews.com produced a good feature comparison chart for Sound Forge, Wavelab, and Audition. Check it out if you have feature-level questions.
I could go on, but, it becomes hard to make judgements about all of the products without doing more detailed evaluations. I hope that these suggestions help you find a program your son will enjoy. Make sure you check the program requirements to ensure that your PC is powerful enough to use all of the features of the software. Good luck, and let us know what you finally choose for your son.
Update: This article has been updated to reflect the latest versions of the programs originally mentioned, and a discussion of professional-level audio production tools has been added.
Comments
Thanks!
Posted by: Dan Iggers | March 5, 2004 2:58 PM
Today i was searching for things like Garage Band for windows and i came across the letter wrote about the same thing. The other day me and some friends were having a blast on our band instructors computer adding beats and guitar along with words we put to it. However i didn't know of any for windows. So what is the closest thing to Garage band for windows? If you could help thanks.
Posted by: Tyler K. | May 7, 2004 6:34 PM
Hi,
After reaading the post u talked about PC alternatives to Garage Band, do you think u could list a few more alternatives if u could.
Posted by: Oliver | June 11, 2004 12:09 PM
I enjoy being here on this great site. It’s really a pleasure reading through.
Posted by: jessy | July 14, 2004 4:28 AM
hey,
1 program i have been using for years is cool edit pro. It is a great program with many many features. It has recently been bought out by adobe and has a new name but all the same features apply. Check it out.
Pauly
Posted by: Paul Goldston | July 19, 2004 10:17 PM
Thanks For The help. I was looking for a Program like Garageband but on PC. I had tried Cakewalk, Band In A Box, but i never got to blend with the program like Garageband, But then i came home looked back at this page and saw ACID i went back to the store, by now i had the owner of the store thinking i was mad taking software and bringing it back. But Luckily this Software made me blend in str8 away.
Thanx Again
Posted by: Faiyaz | August 15, 2004 10:44 AM
Check out Fruity Loops. It might do the trick for some.
http://www.flstudio.com
Another program like Acid is Adobe Audition.
Posted by: bubba | September 10, 2004 12:40 PM
Yo, is there a free version of Garage Band, or anything close to it??
Posted by: Johan | September 24, 2004 1:00 PM
Yo, is there a free version of Garage Band, or anything close to it??
Posted by: Johan | September 24, 2004 1:00 PM
Do the other programs like Fruity Loops, Acid, or Band-In-A-Box have prerecorded drum loops? And can you change the tempo of the loops like in Garage Band?
Posted by: Ryan | October 6, 2004 4:39 PM
Try Audacity!
Posted by: Fake | October 14, 2004 6:48 AM
One really good program, if it helps would be steinbergs "Cubase" really really good sound editing program has too many features to list. It is way better than garage band but also very exspensive. You can find it on the net though to download it!
Peace
Knowledge
Posted by: Andy | October 21, 2004 8:22 PM
Reason is simply the shiz. My fav program but its not like notation or anything.
Posted by: Drew | October 22, 2004 6:08 PM
is Garage Band going to come out as MAC and PC compatible?
Posted by: Dude | October 25, 2004 11:06 PM
musicmatch 9 is okay just for recording mp3's but also playing music mp3pro and also supertagging.
Try bittorrent.
Posted by: bob | October 28, 2004 3:48 PM
I am tryin to make some heavy beets will either of these programs give me the down low bass that i am lookin for in a win os?
Posted by: Eddie | November 3, 2004 9:45 AM
Ok i have seen what everyone here has put in, but what I want to know if there is an all around music maker that covers any type of music genre out there.
Posted by: John | December 13, 2004 7:06 PM
There is a stripped down version of Cubase called Cubasis - it is reasonably priced and offers better capabilites than most other packages in the same price range, plus comes with 12 instruments built in. Includes a simple drum plugin as well. You can also get loads of plugins in VST format for it.
Posted by: mario | December 20, 2004 11:40 AM
John: The best in my opinion that covers all genres is Fl Studio (AKA Fruity Loops) You can make your own beats there are many provided, and you can buy sample CDs or dowlnload them off the web. Its super easy to use. and a comment for Eddie; with FL Studio you can add filters such as Bass Boost to add some down lows.hope this helps.
-PEACE-
-Levi
Posted by: Levi | December 28, 2004 9:05 PM
People here are forgetting that Garageband is not just about midi. It's also a very capable amp modeler and multi track live audio recording tool.(one track at a time for now)
The closest thing to it, that is available on both windows and mac os X is Traktion. Traktion gives midi and live audio, unlimited tracks(just like garageband) and a whole mess of other features.
Best part is it's fairly cheap, like $60 I think, maybe a little more. Granted, Garageband is free, $60 still isn't bad, considering what you get.
now, it's not as easy to use as garageband, and the midi is nowhere near as good(garageband has some of the best sounding MIDI instruments I've ever heard) but it's still a powerful program with many features.
Posted by: Set | December 28, 2004 9:46 PM
Hi, how much space does band-in-a-box 12 take up anyway? I've got my eye on it and I'm only 10 but my mom isn't sure cause i just bought a game 4 my laptop and i didn't have enough space.
Posted by: Snapshot Blize | December 28, 2004 11:12 PM
I use Fruity loops five primarily. I receiver ACID 4.0 from a freind but haven't really gotten into it. I downloaded the Sonar 4 demo by Cakewalk but I dont have the money to buy it so I dont know what the full capabilities of it are.
Posted by: Kyle Gray | February 22, 2005 6:51 PM
This site has been great help,,thxx yall
Posted by: mohul | March 11, 2005 10:24 AM
I like fruity loops studio myself. I've a friend that uses garage band, and he's in to the techno/trancish stuff. I use mine for drum beats basicly, and it works wonderfully. It has many many synths, and every once and awhile i'll add a flute synth or harp synth (etc.) to my pre-recorded guitar/bass lines. It's an all around good program for whatever genre you're looking to fulfill.
peace,love,empathy
Jeff S.
Posted by: Jeff | April 28, 2005 6:07 PM
hi thanks for the post ill check out band in a box but yeah i was looking for a mac alternative
Posted by: Nathan | April 29, 2005 10:04 AM
i have been using fruity loops for about 3-4 years and i would have to say that the program is amazing. The only problem with fruity loops is that it is one of the most expensive music making programs. If you have the money, and you want the quality, fruity loops is your best bet. However, if you lack the money to get something as expensive as fruity loops, i suggest maybe reason which is easy to use and not expensive at all. The next one is for those who do not really know notes etc. and you just want to put together loops and tunes. A really good program for this is Ejay. There are many editions for Ejay so you can try many of them. Ejay was meant mainly for hip-hop but it has techno/rock stuff too. Hope these 2 suggestions help!
Posted by: akbar | November 12, 2005 11:32 AM
Wow. I'm a student in a band with my college buddies and we love using Garageband on the school Macs. For ages I've been searching for an alternative program on my home PC. Once I had read your article, I went out and tried Adobe Audition 1.5 and IT IS PERFECT! Thanks for the advice.
Posted by: Anon | December 29, 2005 7:01 AM
Hi,
Just wondering if there has been an update to this list at all seeing that it was posted almost 2 years ago.
Chris
Posted by: Chris | February 18, 2006 9:43 PM
Chris:
In a word, "yes". This is one of the most popular articles on Operation Gadget, so it's been updated regularly since first publication in March 2004.
The differentiation between Affordable Products and Professional Products was added in December 2005, because of relentless expansion of the number of choices in this software market niche.
We'll revisit the list again soon.
Dave Aiello
Editor
Operation Gadget
Posted by: Dave Aiello | February 18, 2006 10:22 PM
Hiya Dave,
Never been here before but bounced in on the surf. I am a pro level performer/composer of many types of music these past 42 years. I startrd 'digital composing' on an Amiga1000 WayBackThere and when I moved to a pc along with the 3d software I use as well it took some doing to come upwith a program ad good as the DeluxeMusicConstructionSet from AE was on the Miggy but I eventually founf d program called MelodyAssistant fro www.myriad-online.com, that downloads as a totally useable composition/learning tool,[it's only limitataion is a limit of 20 seconds export to any format but allows saving for future work in it's owm .mus midi format] free and updateable which they do fairly often, and for a small fee , around $20.00 Amer. it is a fully exportable program with all the major output formats and most of the same imports.They have a very good soundbase installed with credible instruments and have 2 versions available, the Gold and the Gols Plus I believe with very good,nay excellent, sampled instruments.
Just thought you might like to know about this lil sucker, oh yeah, it has a TAB staff[for a lot of instruments, and you can design your own TABs as well] as well as a regular staff that updates and makes learning written music much easier for "ear" players like i am.
That's 'bout it man
pax et lux
bobbystahr
ps...i think there are some samples of music I've composed with this on the musicanada site...but they may be gone by now...to busy to attend to business...LOL
bye
Posted by: bobbystahr | March 26, 2006 8:32 PM
Hey Guys!
I use Sound Forge 8 and to tell the truth it's the best Audio prodution tool you'll ever find.
It's got everything a Professional musician need and incase you need some more additions to your music, just do like me i.e use Fruity Loops as well to add extra effects.
Posted by: Jim Elliot | March 29, 2006 11:38 AM
I find the best thing is fruity loops, you can then get sound packs with pre recored sounds and loops on for it. Or what about ejay??..
Posted by: Roofus | June 6, 2006 7:34 AM
bobbystahr
sorry to say but MelodyAssistant was very bad compared to GarageBand...
The best option to GarageBand is Cubase and Fruity Loops
Posted by: Jack | October 23, 2006 2:46 PM
I came across this just in time. I had just heard about Garage Band and do not have a mac, I am getting ready to start a one man show and looking for all the help.. I just baught a Roland RC-50 loop station and wanting to expand from this. Appriciate all of the help.
Greg
Posted by: Greg | December 30, 2006 9:52 PM
Wow! i never realised there were so many alternatives to Garage band...
I see that Fruityloops comes up alot :)
thankyou all!
Sopxxxx
Posted by: Pinkipeach | January 6, 2007 12:55 PM
OpenSebJ is a windows audio composition tool which has some similar features to other audio sample track editing software. It's Open Source (& Free) and available at http://www.evolvingsoftware.com
Cheers,
Sebastian
Posted by: Sebastian Gray | January 6, 2007 7:19 PM
A great Garage Band alternative is Acoustica's Mixcraft: http://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/
- snyderj
Posted by: snyderj | July 1, 2007 4:11 PM
Quote: A great Garage Band alternative is Acoustica's Mixcraft: http://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/
- snyderj
I tried Mixcraft and it wasn't even close to what garageband is. All you got to do in Mix Craft was take premade music and put them in a order. I want a program where you can make your own sounds (like how GarageBand lets you create and record your own sounds without a real instrument).
Posted by: Max W. | September 15, 2007 10:10 AM