Как установить garageband для windows

You want to download Garageband for Windows? Don´t get confused by online rip-offs as there is no Windows version! Luckily you can run the original Mac version also on Windows and there are pretty good Garageband alternatives for PC as well.

These days I stumbled over a nasty fake page that promises to offer a download for Garageband for Windows as a ported version. The professional design of this website really struck me and I am sure quite some people stepped into that trap already. When you want to download Garageband for PC there you will get nothing but instead create ad-income for the website owner who forces you to do online surveys.

Digging a bit deeper I found that this was not the only case of fraud, there are plenty of other misleading pages like this one. When searching Garageband for Windows on Google a desperate user might really start to believe there was indeed an existing port of Garage band for Windows.

Some also want to make you believe that you can run the mobile version of Garageband with BlueStacks which is not true either as BlueStacks is an Android emulator and there is also no Android version for Garageband. You might however want to run a Garageband clone for Android using that technique which I explain here in detail.

Let´s clarify this, there is no native or ported Garageband for Windows! Instead you can run the original version for Mac OS X also with Windows using a virtual machine. This is not difficult to achieve, but as a real enthusiast you definitely should check out the native Windows Garageband alternatives which are also used by professional musicians. Here I show you all options.

Running Garageband for Mac OS X on Windows

The only way to use Garageband on your PC is to virtualize a complete Max OS X environment which then allows you to run Garageband like any other Mac OS X App.

While you can find working VMware images with MAC OS X quite easily, we advise you not to use them. Instead we recommend you to create your own virtual machine which is not too difficult. Here is a good guide which runs you through the process and provides a download which enables VMware to run MAC OS X.

This is what you need for a smooth experience

• System that supports Intel VT-x or AMD-V
• Intel i5 CPU or higher
• 8GB RAM or higher
• SSD Hard Disk or RAMDRIVE (otherwise it will be sluggish) with at least 45 GB space
• A retail copy of Mac OS X Mountain Lion operating system on DVD or in ISO format
• VMware Workstation Free Trial (for setup)
• Free VMware Workstation Player (running the machine)
• VMware Mac OS X Unlocker

Garageband for Windows alternatives

While Garageband is a great and intuitive Software to get started it is not the best music creation tool out there. There are plenty of other programs used by professional musicians which offer a Windows version. We have picked the six most recommended packages to make music.

1. LMMS (Freeware)

LMMS (download) stands for Linux MultiMedia Studio, although it has a working Windows version since quite a while. LMMS is a free open source sound generator, synthesizer, beat/baseline editor and MIDI control system. When you first install it you might be disappointed from its visual appearance which is quite the opposite of stylish Garageband.

But make no doubt, LMMS is like the Gimp (free Photoshop clone) of musicmaking and it does a great job. LMMS comes with a good variety of pre-loaded software instruments, samples and effects to get you started. It supports the VST and VSTi plugin standard for 3rd party audio synthesizer and effects.

Here is a list of tracks that have been made with LMMS featuring different instruments and styles.

The LMMS homepage provides a good list of free and commercial VST´s that have been found to work with LMMS for instruments like Guitar, Harmonica, Keyboard/Piano and many Synthesizers.

2. FL STUDIO

FL Studio (download trial) is like the big commercial brother of LMMS. It seems that developers of LMMS took their main inspiration from FL Studio, even the interface looks quite similar.

As an out of the box solution FL Studio will offer you everything you need to get started. While free software like LMMS lacks documentation, comes with bugs and problems and has no customer support. Apart from that FL Studio offers a much better support for VST plugins which can make a key difference for a particular project.

However this comes at a cost of at least € 89 for the very limited fruity edition which does not support audio recording, so be careful with that. Here you have a detailed feature overview of all four available FL Studio editions.

3. REAPER

With just $60 Reaper (download free trial) comes at a much cheaper price than FL Studio and has a simplified and highly customizable user-interface. It requires less system resources and comes with many great features and a good recording functionality.

When you like to chop sounds and throwing them around on different tracks, Reaper makes the job much easier than FL Studio. Out of the box you also get 300 free plugins which gives you enough material to produce decent pieces of good music. It might be more compley to use than if you´d have Garageband for Windows, but among the professional tools Reaper might be one of the more intuitive ones.

Check out their video section which gives you a quite good idea about how Reaper works.

4. ABLETON LIVE

Ableton Live (download free trial) is one of the big competitors of FL Studio and online there is a wild debate which is the better product. Judging by popularity, FL Studio has the lead. Ableton Live is being called more adequate for professionals.

Although FL Studio has also capabilities to use it for live-mixing, Ableton Live seems to do a better job in live settings. Looking at it from a Garageband perspective, this is definitely a product at the other end of the spectrum. If you look for specific features, here is the detailed comparison chart for the Intor, Standard and Suite versions of Ableton Live. Looking at just the cheapest offering, Ableton Live seems to be the better deal as the Intro edition comes with multitrack recording, something the FL Studio Fruity Edition does not offer.

5. REASON

Reason (download) is another powerful professional music software that puts its focus on an intuitive workflow and great sounding default instruments. While setting up and tuning instruments on other tools might require quite some effort, Reason makes it quite easy to use them right out of the box.

Reason in general puts a stronger focus on traditional instruments where other programs have better synthesizing features. If you are a instrument based musician, Reason might be the right tool to produce great songs adding virtual instruments to your own stuff.

6. BITWIG STUDIO

Bitwig Studio (download) is a quite new new suite for music production, the first version came out in 2012. Developers have taken a deep look at the existing programs and came up with some unique features you will not find elsewhere.

One of the most highlighted features of Bitwig Studio is its so called Clip Launcher which can show Session view mode together with Arrange and Mix view. Ableton, which also has great live session features requires you use two separate windows for each view mode which can get annoying when on the go.

Another unique feature worth mentioning is their VST Plugin & Crash Protection using sandboxing. This means if a plugin crashes, it will not crash the whole application. You still can save your project and don´t lose hours of work.

You can check out their article of Top 10 Reasons To Switch From Your Current DAW To Bitwig Studio to get a better idea about the differences of Bitwig Studio. Here a detailed video review from an independent source.

Running a Garageband for Android clone on Windows

The good thing about Windows is that using virtualization, you can run apps every from other platform. This also includes Android of course. Check out our guide with the 3 best methods to run Android apps with Windows 10 and you can also play with music apps from that platform.

While you might not find something of the same quality than Garage Band on Android, there are still some Apps worth checking out. To have a look, you can just use BlueStacks which is a no-brainer and then get started. Here the most popular Garageband alternatives for Android with their official app description.

1. Walk Band

Developer description: Walk Band (download) is a music studio (a toolkit of virtual musical instruments) customized for Android. It contains tons of features including Piano, Guitar, Drum Kit,Drum Machine, Bass, Multi-tracks synthesizer etc. All instruments use the realistic instrument sounds. You can add the drum beats and guitar chords to your piano melody. Play your favorite music everywhere with your phone. Another fantastic feature, External MIDI Keyboard over USB is also supported. You can connect your YAMAHA, Roland midi keyboard/controller with Walk Band.

• 88 keys piano keyboard
• 3 Guitar Type Sound: Nylon Guitar, Steel String Guitar, Clean Electric Guitar with Midi and Audio Recording, Playback and Sharing
• Drum Kit with Play Along Feature; Five Drum Kit Program: Jazz, Rock, HipHop, Percussion, Dance
• 3 Bass Type Sound: Acoustic Bass, Picked Bass, Slap Bass
• Multitrack synthesizer for different instruments
• Support for External MIDI Keyboard over USB MIDI. You can play Perfect Piano via the external midi keyboard (such as YAMAHA P105, Roland F-120, Xkey, etc) over USB

2. FL Studio Mobile

Developer description (download here): FL Studio Mobile (download) allows you to create and save complete multi-track music projects on your Android phone or tablet device. You can even load the FL Studio Mobile projects into the ‘FL Studio Desktop PC’ version* and take them to the next level.If it’s a beat on the step sequencer, a melody on the piano roll or a full song on the playlist, FL Studio Mobile has you covered. Never lose that idea again. Get it down and happening wherever you are.

• 133 high quality instruments, drum kits & sliced-loop beats
• All instruments have FL Studio desktop equivalents for FL Studio desktop import and extension
• Step sequencer for fast percussion programming and sliced-loop reworking
• Configurable virtual piano-keyboard
• Drum pads: Configurable number of pads
• Audio tracks: audio recording (with monitoring), wav/m4a import
• Wave editor: cut, trim, normalize, reverse, insert silence, fade in/out (3 curves)
• Browser with preview button and logical sorting into Instruments, Synths, Drum kits & Loops
• Pan, volume, release and attack time configurable per instrument
• Pitch bend via accelerometer
• High quality, battery-friendly audio engine (latency depends on the device)

3. Audio Evolution

Developer description (download here): The most powerful multi track audio and MIDI recording studio on Android with support for over 250 USB audio and MIDI interfaces, virtual instruments, editing with unlimited undo/redo, mixing, real-time effects, automation and much more! Record your voice, guitar, piano or any other audio source or create beats and synth tracks using a piano roll or external MIDI keyboard.

• Multitrack audio recording / playback
• MIDI sequencing (in-app purchase required)
• Drum pattern editor
• Non-linear non-destructive editing with move, trim, split, cut/copy/paste, remove, cross-fade and range editing
• Virtual instruments based on SoundFonts (in-app purchase required)
• Loop playback
• Automation of all mixer and effect parameters
• Latency correction
• Import of WAV, MP3, AIFF, FLAC, Ogg/Vorbis audio files (m4a and others when running Android 4.1 or higher)

4. MPC Music Studio

Developer description (download here): The Ultimate Beatmaker Tool to create music with your device!! The definitive music sequencer with a lot of electronic sounds selected only for you to create amazing beats only with your fingers. With this free version you can make music easily and FREE, with a few ads.

If you are a dj, music producer, music lover, you need this app to make music of any style: Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Electronic Music, load your favorite samples and create loops wherever you are with Music Studio.

• 60 Samples to Create Loop Sequences
• Social Features to Share your Beats
• High Audio Quality
• Amazing real-time edition
• Sound Effects
• Make any style thanks to Tempo Control

5. Cross DJ Pro

Developer description (download here): The best pro DJ app for Android. Mix tracks in perfect sync on a powerful audio engine. Engineered by Mixvibes, digital DJing pioneer for 15 years.

• Accurate BPM detection of your music, down to the last decimal
• Stable sync: one-press, and the 2 tracks never go out of phase
• Progressive, manual pitch bend
• Customizable, manual pitch range (4, 8, 16, 32, 100%)
• Beatmatcher: parallel waveforms to visually check if your tracks are synced
• Accurate beat-grid editing: make any track sync properly
• Quantize: hot cues and loops are automatically set on the beat
• Smart-seek: tap on the waveform to fast-forward & get a seamless jump
• Split Mono: pre-listen your music tracks before mixing them
• Automix: let Cross DJ mix your tracks and play music automatically, from any sources (playlist, album, etc.)
• External mixer: control EQs and crossfader with hardware mixers

If you love making music and you have an iOS device, then you must be familiar with the GarageBand app. It is considered to be one of the best music creation app available on iOS devices. It is also available on macOS, but if you’re using a PC which has Windows OS, then there might be a slight issue because there’s no official version of GarageBand for Windows users.

GarageBand can be used to record and layer up to eight tracks of loop, instruments and vocals to create original songs and soundscapes.

There are various features about this app which makes it stand out from others like:

• A pool of virtual Smart Instruments with pre-programmed chord progressions, scales, and rhythmic riffs.
• Pre-recorded drum grooves.
• Music production tools.
• Sharing features which let the user share songs.
• Organize virtual jamming sessions.
• User can also record vocals or live instruments using a microphone.

Users can also connect an external microphone and plug an instrument into their devices using any particular kind of adapters for professional-quality live recording in GarageBand.

If you’re serious about making music, then GarageBand is the best choice, imagine being able to write, record, and share your own music which is of a professional standard, that too just with a few taps of a screen. It is a powerful digital audio terminal for multitrack recording with impressive, on-board loops and production and top of the line editing tools. The app’s user-friendly controls and graphic interface help users see their music, so it easily explains how songs are put together and recorded.

In Summary:

In the article below, we’re going to guide you through the process by which you can use GarageBand on a Windows PC. People have a problem in installing it on Windows OS because there isn’t any official way and many times untrusted software gets installed which can be viruses. Here we will not only guide you through installing it in Windows PC but also give you alternatives which can be helpful while making your own music.

We will use macOS as a virtual machine on Windows physical computer and then install the GarageBand from Apple App store.

GarageBand for Windows as Virtual Machine

You can follow any of the guides we mentioned here to install and use macOS with VMware or VirtualBox.

1) Follow this guide to download pre-installed Mac OS X 10.9 VMware image and use it on Windows 10. Even you can try the latest macOS 11 Big Sur as described in this guide.

Now you will be having a working macOS as a virtual machine on the PC.

2) Open the Apple App Store and search for GarageBand.  Make sure your Apple ID can download this app. I prefer to use macOS VM on VMware workstation than Oracle VirtualBox because of the working sound and display quality.

It is recommended to check the sound of virtual machine (the sound should be playing through the speaker/headphone which connected to your physical computer).

Read Also: How to use Xcode on Windows PC

Alternatives for GarageBand for PC

Garageband is an excellent software for a beginner, but it is not the best music production software out there. There are plenty of other tools used by professional artists which offer an official Windows version and other useful functionalities. We have picked the four most recommended software to make music, and they are official too.

1. LMSS:

LMMS is an abbreviation for Linux Multimedia Studio; it has a version which is supported by Windows OS since quite a while. LMMS is a free and open-source sound generation software, MIDI control system, beat/baseline editor and synthesizer.

If you compare LMSS with GarageBand, then you’ll realize that it lacks an appealing UI, but that can be understood as LMSS is open-source software. But UI isn’t everything; if your work is done with efficiency, then one can compromise on UI.

When we talk about functionality and completing the task, LMSS is a no brainer; it is very helpful in editing and making of music. LMMS comes with a good range of pre-loaded software functionality, which includes samples and effects that will get you started. All these samples are open source too. So you can use the samples in whichever way you like.

1. FL Studio:

FL Studio is a very famous and one of the earliest music-making software. It is like the big brother of LMMS, which is not a freeware. It looks like the developers of LMMS considered from FL Studio while making their software, even the User interface is quite similar.

FL Studio offers a wide range of functionality to get you started. While LMSS is free and open-source software, so it lacks documentation, comes with trivial bugs and problems, and whenever the user faces a problem, there is no customer support. Apart from that, FL Studio offers much better support for plugins which can make a key difference for a particular project.

FL studio has an official app for Windows 10/8.1, and it comes at a price of around € 89 for the elementary edition named as fruity which does not support audio recording, so be mindful of that.

1. Reaper:

Reaper is a fantastic music production software, but it is a bit complex compared to the other professional software present in the market. With reaper, you can do layering of the already recorded tracks, edit the tracks and also add effects to your recordings.

With reaper, you also get 300 free plugins which give you enough functionality to produce fantastic professional level music. Reaper is priced at just $60, so it is a much cheaper alternative to other professional apps like FL Studio, and it also has a highly customizable user-interface. It requires less system power and comes with many great inbuilt features.

1. MixCraft 9:

The last alternative to GarageBand on our list is Mixcraft which is another fantastic music production tool for Windows users which is easy to upgrade whenever you feel like it.

The GarageBand is mostly known for its massive library of loops, Mixcraft 9 is no less, it has a broad selection of loops which is as large as GarageBand’s. This library makes it easy to quickly produce soundtracks. Apart from this, Mixcraft also has a live recording feature, which makes it a serious competitor to GarageBand.

It is not only limited to a huge library, but in the Pro version, the automation functionality has been enhanced, and the sound engine has been made more advanced. The suite of plugins will give you access to any instrument you wish for, and the bundled high-quality sounds help in giving you enough of a base to make music of professional standards.

Final Verdict:

Music production in Windows OS is easily possible even if you don’t use GarageBand on your Windows PC. Setting it up might be a little complicated task, you can try any other alternative from the list above as per your choice.