Garageband equivalent for Windows?

January 23, 2009 8:49 AM

I've seen this asked before, but not lately ... is there yet a great Windows equivalent to Garageband, in terms of simplicity relative to features?
posted by jbickers (8 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

Hmmm. For straight up recording Cool Edit Pro is fairly solid, but it doesn't have the simple midi instrument component that GarageBand has. For that I recommend Fruity Loops. Both Cool Edit Pro and Fruity Loops are stronger than GarageBand for their respective functions.
posted by ageispolis at 3:33 PM on January 26, 2009


What about for multitrack editing? I've been looking at the various Sony products for that. Tried Fruity Loops long ago, and hated the interface.
posted by jbickers at 6:38 AM on January 27, 2009


You might want to check out Acoustica's Mixcraft. I've never used Garageband, but played with the Mixcraft demo and found it to be pretty intuitive and user-friendly.

There's also Sony's Acid, which was doing the Garageband easy looping thing before there was a Garageband. It may not fit the bill for simplicity, but compared to some Windows audio software, it's pretty straightforward.
posted by anthom at 1:06 PM on January 27, 2009


My Windows software is Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro 2 until Adobe bought the product) and it's kept me reasonably happy for the last few years. It's relatively lightweight, rock solid for basic multitrack recording. Has VST support, though I don't use it much.

It's interface is a bit more fiddly than the super-streamlined Garageband, but at that it's still pretty damned straightforward.
posted by cortex at 5:57 PM on January 27, 2009


I always think of Garageband as being Apples version of 'Acid' so I think Acid would be the place to start.
posted by mary8nne at 7:22 AM on January 28, 2009


Sony's Acid and PG Music's Band in a Box are my two favorites.
posted by billdyszel at 2:42 PM on February 1, 2009


I use Cakewalk Sonar with Propellerheads Reason for my stuff (or did, before I started having time issues and started recording internal mic/Garageband crap), but the learning curve is steeeeeeeeep.
posted by davejay at 6:40 PM on February 6, 2009


Acid is an excellent looping-style program for Windows - get to know it well and you can really do some nice things with it.
posted by awfurby at 12:23 AM on February 17, 2009


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