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GarageBand

Score9.4 out of 10

23 Reviews and Ratings

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What is GarageBand?

Apple offers GarageBand, a digital audio workstation packaged with its operating system.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about GarageBand.
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First option for quick audio editing

Incentivized
David CalvertView profile
Pastor for Creative Arts at Grace Community Church (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use GarageBand for quick and dirty editing of audio content from our worship gatherings or other events. I have several templates built in the program so it is easy to drop in new content and edit it for podcasting. There are also easy integrations with iMovie for simple clips if i need to do any fine-tuning of the audio but don't want to pull up Logic Pro.

Pros

  • Audio editing
  • Audio mixing
  • Audio tracking
  • Recording songs
  • Recording spoken word

Cons

  • GarageBand could better integrate across platforms (MacOS, iOS)
  • Some of the auto-functions are hard to turn off (auto connection to phone microphone, for example)
  • A few limitations for plugins

Return on Investment

  • GarageBand makes it easy to onboard volunteer audio editors
  • GarageBand makes it simple to demo new songs for our team
  • The availability of GarageBand on multiple devices helps with consistency

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Logic Pro X and Avid Pro Tools

Other Software Used

Planning Center, Canva, Google Analytics, Facebook Messenger, Vimeo

Feature-Rich, Beautiful, and Free!

Incentivized
Mark Feauto
Associate Pastor at Living Word Outreach Ministries (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use GarageBand at my church to record audio of prayer meetings and worship services. We will then use it to further edit the content of those recordings to publish the audio as an audio file for email and flash drive transfer or web publishing, or even burn it to a CD for those that request it.

Pros

  • It has a quite simple UI that has a low learning curve for beginners.
  • It's impressively feature-rich for a free application.
  • The help documentation and user community are very helpful if/when you get stuck with something.

Cons

  • Older versions of GarageBand had the functionality to create tracks when burning CDs natively in the app. This is no longer available in the current version, and I miss it.

Return on Investment

  • It's easy for church volunteers to use. I haven't had any issues with the functionality from any of my volunteer team members.
  • It costs $0 (it's hard to beat free in the church world).
  • It allows us to quickly and easily publish audio recordings of messages or meetings. This expediency is appreciated by our congregation members who request the recordings.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Audacity

Other Software Used

Final Cut Pro, ProPresenter, Apple Keynote

Free and powerful

Incentivized
François LavalléeView profile
president at Aliter Concept (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use GarageBand to create jingles and original songs and also to record soundtracks for role playing scenarios for my training sessions. Using the built-in tools GarageBand allows me to easily modify the vocal tracks for optimal sound quality. Like any other Apple software, the commands are intuitive and the results are professional sounding. My clients are always impressed by the fact that I can create these amazing soundtracks by myself. GarageBand allows me to be effective and professional.

Pros

  • Plug and play with external devices
  • Nice sound effect for voice or instrument
  • Amazing sound quality
  • Very easy to export to Apple Music our Soundcloud for sharing

Cons

  • Using modified loops is sometimes difficult
  • Difficult to adjust the timing when recording tracks without prior metronome
  • Sometimes the input are not recognized immediately
  • The software keeps trying to connect the iPhone microphone even though an alternative input has been selected previously

Return on Investment

  • Amazing value
  • Very easy to get started
  • For novices and professionals alike
  • Loops library is simply awesome
  • Export capabilities very effective to share tracks

Alternatives Considered

Cubase

Other Software Used

Apple Keynote

Garage Band is a must have for Music Entrepreneurs of today!

Incentivized
Tara BrueskeView profile
Vocal Workshops and Voice Development at Tara Brueske (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

  • It is easy to edit in the way that you can highlight something and simply delete a part of what you are working on.
  • I love that I can drag two or more tracks together to keep them in sync when editing.
  • It's not difficult to add a click track when you need it.
  • I think the whole process of highlighting, cutting out parts and the basic editing doesn't take huge amounts of time because it seems intuitive.

Cons

  • I think it's a little confusing as to tweaking the EQ of a track. I don't find it intuitive and sometimes can't re-find it.
  • The ability to edit the EQ or the entire project also doesn't seem easy to find or make consistent.
  • I also wish it was easier to find the set up for midi

Most Important Features

  • It's came free with my computer--huge plus!
  • The ability to record talking or music is also a game changer.
  • It can record in minutes or measures, depending on whether you are doing music or speaking.

Return on Investment

  • Positive in that was able to record vocals for a recording project that I was paid for.
  • Positive in that I'm able to put out a podcast so that I have listeners all around the world that can potentially become clients
  • Positive in that I can record audio for some of my online courses.

Alternatives Considered

Audacity

Other Software Used

Trello, Calendly, Zoom, PayPal Payments, Stripe

GarageBand, A Podcaster's Pick

Incentivized
Kira Dineen, MS, LCGC, CG(ASCP)CMView profile
Podcast/Radio Host and Producer in Product Management at DNA Today, LLC (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

  • Easy to manipulate multiple tracks
  • Simple export of MP3's
  • Offers different size MP3's to export

Cons

  • Can't save the preferences for the tracks such as turning off reverb etc.
  • Project files are large, a 30-minute podcast episode with only 4 tracks is typically around 1 GB
  • Auto feature to silence guest not talking
  • Optimize for podcasters (I use the old version 6 as new versions hasn't had podcast options)

Most Important Features

  • Intuitive design for easy editing
  • Ability to manipulate multiple tracks
  • Fading audio levels in and out

Return on Investment

  • No cost
  • Integration with Macs (ease of inserting audio clips)

Alternatives Considered

Audacity

Other Software Used

Canva, Hootsuite, LinkedIn Jobs, Google Drive, Skype, Facebook Pages Manager, Twitter Ads