GarageBand for Windows PC
I see a lot of people asking how to install GarageBand on a windows pc, or asking is there a GarageBand for Windows. The short answer is that it does not exist, but actually this a good thing. Why? Because I get to tell you a little secret about a program called Mixcraft 5. I started using GarageBand some time time ago and I have always loved it’s no BS drag & drop, user friendly, don’t need a degree in computer science to work it vibe. This is the strength of Apple products generally, no one can doubt the creative and technological minimalism of the IPod right?[Edit 09 Feb 2010] there is a 10% discount for Mixcraft 5 available for readers of the Guitar Blog see here for details: Mixcraft 5 10% Discount Coupon [/Edit]
Sadly, nearly ALL apple software refuses to play nicely with other computers and GarageBand cannot be installed on a Windows PC, this left me with a conundrum, do I:
a) bite the bullet and get a Mac Book and dual boot windows with boot camp (I need windows for work basically)?
or
b) find a GarageBand alternative for Windows.
I have to say that I thought the latter would be pretty much impossible, but I started Googling and stumbled upon a review of Acoustica’s Mixcraft 5. Having read a little it seemed to be just like GarageBand for Windows, so I decided to give it a test drive. It installed VERY fast, so I wondered if it would be up to the job given the epic install time for GarageBand on my Mac Mini. This is likely because of one of the clever Mixcraft 5 things, you don’t download a loop till you need it, so you don’t end up using a bunch of space on your hard drive unnecessarily for unused and probably unwanted loops. Even cooler is that you can import your GarageBand loops into it too (if you really want to, there are a good bunch included and you can extend these by purchasing extra packages). I was mainly looking to record Guitars, Bass and Vocals but even then I have found I use the loop library quite a lot to add special effects etc. and some of the bass lines and drum loops are pretty cool too.
In the end I purchased the Musician's Bundle 3 which includes BeatCraft which is a good solid drum sequencer/drum machine, it integrates nicely with Mixcraft 5 and means you can record songs complete with drums or basic percussion backings. You can add effects to the drum sequence or individual tracks too in the same way that you add effects to tracks in Mixcraft.
The Mixcraft 5 interface is VERY similar to GarageBand, so you have the typical stack of horizontal tracks on a timeline to play with:
As with any recording software, it's very essential to have a good sound interface, I have been using a Line 6 POD Studio UX1
which works really well with Mixcraft 5 and allows me to record an effected or clean guitar/bass and an effected or clean vocal at the same time. The benefit of the Line 6 POD Studio is that it has almost zero latency and almost noiseless transfer which means there is almost no delay between when you sing/play a note and what you hear from your monitoring headphones or speakers, which makes it a thousand times easier to record a great (in time/sync) track. For those of you thinking "I can use my microphone directly into the PC", think again! I reiterate, you NEED a good sound interface, think hissy, tinny and everything you hate about bad demo's and that is what you will get, not to mention that actually monitoring what you are recording in real time is nearly impossible. Line 6 championed amp modelling in the now ubiquitous pod series and this box takes that whole concept a step further giving you near zero latency digital recording and more amps, effects and presets than you will ever need in a lifetime. The POD Farm software it comes with, like Mixcraft, is easy to use and worth the money! (see here for more detail on the POD Studio UX1). If recording 2 sources at the same time is not so important for you, then I would recommend you take a look at the Line 6 POD studio GX, which is the UX1's little brother and around 50 bucks cheaper. If however you want to record with 2 mics and need phantom power then the Line 6 POD Studio UX2 is probably your best bet, it also has a PAD input for hot signals (from electro-acoustics) and costs about 50 bucks more than a UX1.
In Mixcraft 5, like GarageBand, you can choose from a bunch of images like drums, guitars and bass to give each track a visual pointer as to what it is. The recording process is totally simple, you click a track, arm it and hit record. It is also totally easy to take a recorded guitar riff for example and edit it into a loop, which you can then extend indefinitely along the timeline, this is cool for making a quick backing track for practising. But here's a secret.. how many times these days do you think a pro musician plays the same riff over and over again? I'd say 3, if you are lucky, just to get some texture and after that it is looped.
Mixcraft already has a bunch of built in effects that you can add to all tracks or a single track at a time, but if you have your own favorite VST effects you can use them too. Personally, I like recording dry guitar tracks then using the PodFarm VST plugin from Line 6.
Mixcraft 5 also comes with a bank of virtual instruments, so if you have a Midi keyboard you can synth away to your hearts content. The virtual instruments include a bunch of ethnic sounding instruments, which I like to use to add character to acoustic songs, while you can download software synth keyboards it is far easier to use a midi controller, my M-Audio AXIOM 49 MIDI Controller
Conclusion
If you want a professional sounding, reasonably priced recording set up for your PC and you are already used to using GarageBand, I really don’t think you can go wrong with Mixcraft 5. While it does not have all of the bells and whistles that it’s significantly more expensive competitors have, it does a fantastic Job of making it very easy to record and for the price, it offers an amazing range of functions. 9/10
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