Become a rock star
GarageBand is very easy-to-use software for creating beats, music, voice overs, sound effects, and even ringtones. GarageBand has an extensive resource of libraries and presets to get you up and running in no time. It lets you have complete control over audio adjustments so you can get the right sound you're looking for. GarageBand for PC is available in Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 and is a must-have for any music lover. IOS has a wide variety of fun and beneficial apps to offer, as you can see in our guide to the best free iPhone apps. A red bar at the top of the display indicates that GarageBand is still playing and recording in the background. If a Touch Instrument is open when you close GarageBand, you can continue playing it. If an Audio Recorder, Amp, or Sampler Touch Instrument is open when you close GarageBand, you can continue recording or playing it. 16.5k members in the GarageBand community. New chill jam featuring the 7th player synth. Let me know what you think! GarageBand App Download Windows 10/8.1/7 PC, Android & iPhone GarageBand is a complete solution for composing, recording, and playing your own songs with easy access and learned audio quality. GarageBand for Windows has a perfect and fully functional sound library of voices, presets, and instruments.
Make the next catchy tune and rise to the top of the charts with GarageBand, a free music creating tool available for Apple users.
Fame and fortune awaits
Be creative with powerful synths. You’ve got over a hundred EDM, and Hip Hop sounds at your disposal.
Launch your fully equipped, free, music studio right from your Mac. With GarageBand, you get full control to make music the way you’re comfortable with. Having a guitar lets you plug in and use any amp of your choosing, or choose an instrument from the extensive library available.
You choose your style and jam with the perfect drummer. Drummers are virtual session players that use the industry’s top session drummers and recording engineers to bring you the beat your song needs. Every drummer has their own signature kit that will let you produce music with a variety of groovy combinations.
You can switch up your sound with the intuitive controls, letting you enable or disable individual pieces to create your beat, your way. You can also customize loops and add them for some extra inspiration on your tracks.
Each synth uses the Transform Pad Smart Control, letting you tweak and morph sounds till they fit your music perfectly.
With built-in lessons for instruments such as the piano and guitar, you have all the reason to start learning a new skill and make music that can sway hearts. With instant feedback you improve fast, letting you know what you need to do better, and when to do it.
Where can you run this program?
GarageBand is only available for Apple users, with applications for Mac and iOS devices. Any customer of Apple can make fantastic music for free.
Is there a better alternative?
There are a variety of music creators, such as Magix Music Maker, but not all creation studios allow you to plug in an instrument and play. An alternative for Windows users is Ableton.
Our take
GarageBand is a great and powerful music creator that won’t cost money to start using. It may lack a few features, but you have a powerful tool at no cost.
Should you download it?
Yes, if you have an Apple device and want to play around with music, you should definitely get this program. It’s useful as both a tutor and a music creator.
Highs
- Free to use
- Create music on your Mac or mobile device
- Export common filetypes
Lows
- Limited features
- Only available for Apple users
- Included soundpacks can be cheesy
GarageBandfor Mac
10.4.3
GarageBand ‘09 comes with more than 100 software instruments, and each of those has dozens of presets that can sound like distinct instruments in their own right. That is a truly astounding number of sounds. In addition, Apple sells $99 Jam Packs, which offer even more instruments that seamlessly integrate with your existing ones.
But beyond GarageBand’s instruments, the universe of software instruments is vast, with prices that range from $500 or more for a single instrument to completely free for entire collections. This universe can be divided into roughly two galaxies: Sample-based instruments and synth-based instruments. To work in GarageBand, they simply need to support the Mac’s Audio Unit (AU) plug-in format.
I’ll introduce you to both varieties and walk you through the process of setting up and playing a collection of free sample-based instruments—Native Instruments’ Kontakt Factory Selection, and the free version of LinPlug’s synth-based instrument, Alpha 3.
Sample-based instruments
Software samplers are applications that store many small recordings of an instrument (or sound effect), and play them back in response to keyboard input. To enhance realism, creators of sample-based instruments painstakingly record each note of a real instrument at many different volumes, played in many different styles, and often with a variety of microphones.
To play a sample-based instrument, you need two components: The software instrument itself and a sampler or sample player. Samplers are sophisticated sample editors that are often pricey, while sample players are pared down versions of samplers that are often free.
Playing from Kontakt Factory Selection
First, quit GarageBand and download and install both the Kontakt 4 Player and the Kontakt Factory Selection instrument collection, both of which are available on Kontakt’s Website for free. Note that you can use the Kontakt 4 Player to play and record Factory Selection instruments (or your own recorded samples) for 15 minutes. However, you can use the Kontakt 4 Player indefinitely with other sample-based instruments that use the Kontakt format.
- Start a new GarageBand project and create a new software instrument track (Select New Track from the Track menu or hit Option-Command-N).
- Double-click the new track (the default is a Piano track, which will work for our purposes) or click on the track to highlight it and click the View Track Info button in the lower-right corner of the GarageBand interface.
- Hit the Edit Tab in the Track Info panel.
- Under Sound Generator, using the top menu (“Piano”), scroll down under Audio Unit Modules to select Kontakt 4. You’ll see the Piano image change to an Audio Unit icon (an orange sphere radiating to the right and left).
- Click on the icon to launch Kontakt.
- In Kontakt, navigate through the folders (in the Files tab on the left) to choose Factory Content.
- Navigate to a sound that interests you. Note: When Kontakt’s folders have plus signs, you can click on the plus sign or double-click the folder to open it. However, when there is no plus sign, you must double-click the folder name (not the folder) to see the individual instruments. The individual instruments will appear in the lower-left window, and will be identified by piano icons.
- Double-click an instrument to display its control panel in the right-hand window of the Kontakt interface (Be sure to drag the window left so you can see the whole thing).
- Play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard to hear the sound.
Tip: If you don’t have a MIDI keyboard installed, call up GarageBand’s onscreen keyboard by selecting Musical Typing from the Window menu (or hitting Shift-Command-K) and then play.
Synth(esizer)-based instruments
In contrast with sample-based instruments, synth-based instruments don’t play recordings; they produce (synthesize) their own sounds, after you tell them how to do so using dozens of parameters. In general, they tend to sound more otherworldly than sampler-based instruments. However, some synths use physical modeling techniques to emulate real instruments, and sound just as earthy and real as recordings.
To make things even more confusing, some sample-based instruments are called “synths,” not because they actually synthesize sound, but because they play back samples of synthesized sound.
Playing LinPlug’s Alpha 3
- Begin by quitting GarageBand and installing the free version of Alpha 3.
- Follow steps 2 through 5 above, substituting Alpha 3 for Kontakt.
- Just play (If you don’t have a MIDI keyboard installed, see tip above).
Garageband 7th Player Voting
In my humble opinion, the free Alpha 3 default (as of this writing) has an interesting, spacious, and detailed sound.
Garageband 7th Player Winners
Now you know what it takes to expand your instrument horizons; the universe is the limit!
[David Weiss is a San Francisco Bay Area based freelance writer.]