Are there programs like garageband

For this reason, it is one of the more popular options that college students are often using and talking about in musician forums. Reaper is a great alternative that allows you to have unlimited audio tracks and it also comes with 18 effects. The biggest knock on Reaper is its clunky and unintuitive interface. With this being said, Reaper is inexpensive and quite powerful, providing producers with features similar to something like Pro Tools or Ableton Live.

The one thing I would say is that I rarely use the built-in sounds from Ableton Live, even though there are some great options. Stagelight is great for Windows This is a standalone DAW that works with Windows as well as your tablets or android phones. As far as features, Stagelight gives you a great look at what a professional DAW would offer.

While there is a free version, there is also a paid version as well that gives you some additional features and abilities. This is only going to make it get better in my opinion, as the demand will continue to grow. Most Stagelight users that I have talked to typically use it with their cellphones as a way to jot down ideas quickly. This is similar to GarageBand as a lot of GarageBand users can mess around with it on their phones as well since it comes with every iPhone.

Stagelight decided to go the route in which it has its own interface. This could be a good thing, however, in this case, it actually has added more complexities. You will need to watch a bunch of different tutorials on Youtube in order to figure out how to do most things. Even a piano roll is full screen. Download Ableton Lite. It can be used on Windows and it gives you a great look at what this DAW can do.

This being said, Ableton Live Lite is pretty limited. Ableton gives you just enough to show you what the software can do in order to get you to purchase the full version. While the full version is expensive, it also the most popular option for musicians who are touring.

Should you try out Ableton Lite as an alternative, you may find yourself wanting to upgrade to the full version. Ableton is built to help producers perform live. While it also is used at the highest levels to record records, it is second to none when it comes to having to perform music live.

Ableton Live Lite is a great choice for those who are looking really pursue writing and recording their own music. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products.

List of Partners vendors. Jennifer Allen. Jennifer Allen has been writing about technology since Her work has appeared in Mashable, TechRadar, and many more publications. Twitter LinkedIn. Updated on September 25, Tweet Share Email. What We Like. What We Don't Like. Download Reaper. Download Audiotool. Download Cubase. Download Ableton Live. Download Mixcraft. Download Music Maker Jam.

Download LMMS. Download FL Studio Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. Finally, you get extensive customization via Tweaker script, as well as a variety of fixes and improvements, including Dynamic Split improvements, per-track positive or negative playback offset, and faster and higher quality sample rate conversion. The software offers a massive collection of high-quality beats, tunes, and vocals to help you get started.

It also supports live recordings, unlike some other free options on this list. While the free version comes with a multi-core audio engine and other advanced features, the paid-for versions offer VST2 and VST3 support, tiny instruments, and more. It also offers a full MIDI editing suite and piano roll capabilities.

MusicMaker also includes full integration of audio interfaces, MIDI keyboards, external instruments, microphones, and other sound sources. In addition to that, you also get a whole host of effects and processing plugins, including free audio effects such as delays and flangers, as well as the Vandal SE amplifier.

For advanced users, it offers several stereo-imaging plugins, limiters, EQs, and compressors. The software offers various genre templates, like Trap, Dance, Pop, and more. It offers 2GB worth of free content, including samples, loops, and built-in virtual instrument plugins to help craft your sound.

They will help you wrap, manipulate and transform audio with ease. You can even record instruments or vocals with two stereo audio tracks to add live elements to your music. This software offers 16 pads for triggering drum samples and loops, a piano roll to record MIDI notes, a sample editor to chop and edit, and a browser to search and select sounds.

A great tool to have during the pandemic , Ohm Studio enables each member of a team or band to record their raw tracks separately and have them available on the cloud for every member of the project. While the software offers cutting-edge features, it also makes things easy for beginners with a simple interface and built-in tutorials. Every change in the project is uploaded to the server and synchronized across every member in real-time.

At the same time, project data is also stored on your computer in a cache folder. You can get admin status for each project you create. You can choose to make your projects private or public, hidden or visible, clonable or not. With its vast feature set and cross-platform compatibility, Ohm Studio is an amazing GarageBand alternative on Windows and other platforms, especially for cloud-based real-time collaborations. Audiotool Yet another online collaborative music production software, Audiotool, offers a decent set of music creation tools, including 50, device presets and , samples via its community library.

Like Ohm Studio, it is not a true alternative to traditional entry-level DAWs like GarageBand but offers enough grunt for music creation on the go. The software stores all track assets on Audiotool servers, enabling collaborators to access them from anywhere in the world. Audiotool offers all the traditional mixing and routing options, including splitter, merger, crossfader, sub-mixer, and much more.

Instruments include the Heisenberg, a modular polyphonic synthesizer called the Pulverisateur, beatbox functionality, and a drum sampler called the Machiniste. LMMS sports a good variety of software instruments.

Samples and effects are pre-loaded, which allows you to get up and running straight away. The interface could be clearer. Even then, it's easy to use the instruments and make beats by experimenting.

Synthesizers are played via musical typing, mapping the computer keyboard to notes on the instrument. Drum sequencing is made easy with a visual mapping tool. While live recording isn't possible, LMMS comes loaded with an impressive array of samples. External samples are also supported.

So if you are using your phone to make recordings , you can import them into LMMS and use them. Loop-based software that's a great first step for budding music producers. One of GarageBand's most popular features is its large and diverse library of loops. Users can quickly and easily build a song that sounds good, simply by layering loops of different instruments over one another in a way that sounds pleasing to them.

It might be something of a shortcut, but it's a great way for the uninitiated to dip their toe in the waters of digital music production. Mixcraft offers a comparable broad selection of loops in an intuitive environment that makes it easy to get up to speed quickly. On top of this, live recording is also possible making this a real direct competitor to GarageBand. The caveat is that the home edition is limited to just 16 tracks and a reduced set of instruments and samples.

Mixcraft 8 Home is perfect for musicians just starting out, though the reduced feature set might be something you outgrow in time. While there are certainly plenty of musicians who use GarageBand as a tool, many users enjoy the software as a fun way to play around with music.