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Garage Band on Mac?

#24
XO-Bionic said:
What would the nearest equivalent to GarageBand be on PC? I love GarageBand, but have had to "downgrade" back to PC and have been somewhat discouraged from doing any PC recording because of this!
Click to expand...

if you dont need MIDI. Cakewalks Guitar Tracks Pro is a great program. it functions very similarly to the SONAR series of product in case you ever feel compelled to move up from there.

i am a big fan of Cakewalks software though. :)

Adobe Audition is a great piece of software also.

other options would include Traktion and Audacity. i could never get the hang of Traktion though and i have never tried Audacity.
 
#25
XO-Bionic said:
What would the nearest equivalent to GarageBand be on PC? I love GarageBand, but have had to "downgrade" back to PC and have been somewhat discouraged from doing any PC recording because of this!
Click to expand...

As far as the interface and the loop tools are concerned the closest thing on PC is/was ACID. The older econo versions that Sonic Foundry was releasing before the sale to Sony were cheap and effective. Also, the interface was a dead ringer for GB, but GB didn't exist then... hmmmm.

The Sony version of ACID looks a lot more capable and probably performs a lot better. That would be a good thing. The bad thing is that they only seem to offer one version, the full boat package at something like $500 = stupid and short sighted = SONY.
 
#26
I played with Garage Band 2 at Fry's this evening, and for a guy that's never used a Mac or a sound recording program, it was pretty simple to figure out. I recorded four seperate tracks using the sampled sounds through a midi keyboard. There was a seperate M-Audio interface console which allowed you to bypass the mouse; and this was on a Imac2. My wife was impressed. I think we'll buy one.
 
#30
See I was wondering if I could do this for recording my drum kit. Could I get a mixer with preamps with 12 or 16 inputs that would allow me to track each mic seperately? So I can re-mix the levels after I record them? Or would I have to dial in the levels prior and be stuck with just one track.

I don't want to drop a ton of dough. The mics will be expensive enough. But I do want to be able to record my kit accurately so I can hear everything I do, even the 7 inch splashes. Maybe I'll just do 2 overheads and the kick and just get an 8 input mixer.

I would also like to be able to record my bass just into the preamp and do effects post recording. Because my bass rig is just a cheap combo right now and I know it's not worth micing it. Recording my bass would just be for reference to see how my playing's coming along so I can analyze it.

Suggestions?
 
#32
Ekim said:
See I was wondering if I could do this for recording my drum kit. Could I get a mixer with preamps with 12 or 16 inputs that would allow me to track each mic seperately? So I can re-mix the levels after I record them? Or would I have to dial in the levels prior and be stuck with just one track.

I don't want to drop a ton of dough. The mics will be expensive enough. But I do want to be able to record my kit accurately so I can hear everything I do, even the 7 inch splashes. Maybe I'll just do 2 overheads and the kick and just get an 8 input mixer.

I would also like to be able to record my bass just into the preamp and do effects post recording. Because my bass rig is just a cheap combo right now and I know it's not worth micing it. Recording my bass would just be for reference to see how my playing's coming along so I can analyze it.

Suggestions?
Click to expand...

If I understand correctly, you can't go from a mixer to the interface and then to the computer and have all channels (on the mixer) be seperate in the program. You need to have a dedicated channel on the program for each mic if you are going to mix on the computer. Someone with more experience than me may be able to tell you differently but, theoretically, I don't think it's possible.

My drummer uses a Firebox with 6 inputs. He has it set up as one channel for kick, 2 overheads, snare, and 2 toms.
 
#33
Well I have 7 toms! But if I got the 8 input I guess I cuold go:
1 - kick
2 - overhead 1
3 - overhead 2
4 - snare
5 - 6 & 8 inch toms
6 - 12 & 13 inch toms
7 - 14 tom
8 - 16 & 18 floor toms

Hmmm... $299 for the 8 channel gizmo... Plus a decent set of 8 mics... this could get spendy right quick!

Thanks for your input, guys.
 
#34
My band uses GB with a firepod into a Mac laptop for demo stuff, and it works great. At home, I use Tracktion on my PC, and LOVE it! To me its easier and more powerful than GB. I like that fact that everything you need to see is right there, and without the clutter. The new Tracktion2 is suposedly even better, tho I haven't tried it yet.
You can download a demo version of Tracktion2 for free on Mackies website.
 
#39
Ok for you GB 2 users:

Is the only way to do punching in with sound on sound (hearing previously recorded material on same track) by adding another track. Whenever I punch in it erases the previous material.

And,
When pulling a drum loop out so there are enough for a whole scratch track I can only drag them out to the end of the ruler, is there any place I can preset the length of the song so the loops stretch out for more than like 4 minutes?

I'm a Cakewalk HR user and I find GB a little frustrating in it's simplicity.
 

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