Alternatives to Garageband for Mac | Eight musical options compared to Garageband
Price: Free
Features: While Garageband has one of the richest companies in the world backing it, another free option is Audacity, which is an open source project built and maintained by volunteers. At first this might seem like a basic, no frills product, but in fact Audacity is a very capable system that can achieve impressive results. Alongside the general recording and editing functions that you would expect, there are also the options to record multiple channels at once, add cross fades, and even overdub an existing track say for clever vocal harmonies or Iron Maiden style multi-octave solos.
Advanced tools such a noise elimination feature also allows you to sample any background hums and rattles then apply filters to a track. It might not eradicate everything, but its still a great improvement. Another interesting tool is the ability to change the pitch of a track without altering the tempo (and vice-versa), plus a decent amount of built-in effects that can be applied to recordings.
Ease of Use: Audacity is powerful, but it certainly isnt pretty. The user interface is probably the biggest problem with the software. Whereas Garageband is neat, tidy, and sports a modern design, Audacity feels very much like a program built by engineers. Menus and buttons are somewhat colourless, with an initial impression that can be a bit intimidating. Once you get used to the perfunctory nature of it though, things make sense and you can produce complex projects in relative comfort.
Supported Formats: WAV, AIFF, AU, FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. MP3, AC3, AAC, and MP4 are also available via free downloadable add-ons.
Supported Third Party Plug-Ins: LADSPA, Nyquist, VST, and Audio Unit.
Supported Third Party Hardware: No official list, but many USB devices and microphones are known to work, with a user created list kept here.
Notation: No.
Mac App Store: No. Download directly from here
Price: 69 (Intro) 299 (Standard) 519 (Suite)
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Alternatives to Garageband for Mac | Eight musical options compared to Garageband