PC alternative to GarageBand

davidclayton

i played around with GarageBand once and very very impressed with how easy it was to learn without reading any manuals. i'm looking for very easy-to-use software for recording in a similar fashion to GarageBand. as i don't have a mac, it needs to be on a PC.

i saw mention of audacity in the sticky, but it looks very basic. i wouldn't mind paying if the software was good enough. i won't be using fancy soundcards, just a laptop, so i'm not expecting a professional sound quality. i also like the loops in GarageBand, so that would be useful aswell.

can anyone help me out?
all advice appreciated

red_ice

im in the same boat, thats a class program. I was playing around with it about 2 years ago and i couldnt get enough of it.

the sad thing is, there isnt really anything that i've come across that is as easy to use or gives the same response to that of garage band.

The next best thing imo for basic recordings is Cool edit pro. Thats basic, but has alot of nice little plugins and so on for effects and noise reduction and so on.

davidclayton

googled it and found that Cool Edit Pro is now Adobe Audition:
http://www.adobe.com/special/products/audition/syntrillium.html

i'll look into it now

cornbb

I don't know of anything as easy as Garageband for PC but there are plenty of more powerful/flexible programs out there if you are willing to put in the time. Try energyXT for a start: http://www.energy-xt.com/.

Frankiestylee

I used to use adobe audition all the time ... I can't imagine anything being easier or more straight forward.

davidclayton

thanks for the feedback, i think i'll try out audition and see how i get on

TelePaul

most sequencers are pretty similar if you spend a few hours messing with them. I'd go for Reaper.

SprostonGreen

I recently got Sequel from Steinberg, its excellent, especially for a newbie like me. There is no demo available, but there are examples of how it works on YouTube.

Frankiestylee

I thought Cubase was Steinberg's baby of creation?

cornbb

SprostonGreen wrote:

I recently got Sequel from Steinberg, its excellent, especially for a newbie like me. There is no demo available, but there are examples of how it works on YouTube.

First I'd heard of that! It seems like Steinberg are trying to crack another corner of the market, namely that occupied by Ableton Live/FL Studio. Will be interesting to see how it goes. How do you find it SpronstonGreen?

SprostonGreen

cornbb wrote:

First I'd heard of that! It seems like Steinberg are trying to crack another corner of the market, namely that occupied by Ableton Live/FL Studio. Will be interesting to see how it goes. How do you find it SpronstonGreen?

I find it easy to use, but bare in mind its my first venture into making music that doesnt involve bandmates.

Browsing through the various loops and sounds and then dragging and dropping is simple. Then adding effects is great fun, but I love been able to make up keyboard melodies and then having the tools to build a song around it.

I have a demo version of Ableton Live that came with my EMU xboard, but I have done to much with it, I'll wait til I master Sequel first.

Whether Sequel is better or worse than Garageband or FL, I cant honestly say.

@Frankiestylee

Supposedly there are similarities with Cubase, but they stress that its not "Cubase Lite".

Simon201

http://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/

and you can load Garageband packs.

Frankiestylee

hah hah, I also have a copy of ableton from an emu xboard that I've never bothered to use. I hear it's pretty rockin for live music, but as of yet I haven't seen the light