A seismic shift has occurred in how records are made. A couple of decades ago, making an album took a mountain of gear. Now, thanks to the free GarageBand, you can do it with the built-in software that comes with every Apple computer. Unlike the cartoonish version that debuted in the early aughts, GarageBand features a surprisingly serious presentation that roughly mirrors the high-end Logic Pro digital audio workstation (DAW). Although GarageBand lacks Logic's fantastic flexibility, vast array of instruments, and powerful mixing and mastering features, it's almost as versatile when handling other tasks. The fact that GarageBand is free makes the app all the better and a clear Editors' Choice winner for entry-level recording software.
Getting Started With GarageBand
For this latest review, I tested GarageBand 10.4.10 on a 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro (Late 2021, M1 Pro) with 16GB RAM, a 1TB SSD, and macOS Sonoma 14.2.1. I also used a second-gen Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 audio interface and a pair of PreSonus Eris E8 XT studio monitors. To use this app, you must plug in a USB-compatible MIDI keyboard and either headphones or a small pair of desktop speakers. For plugging in an electric guitar or bass or connecting microphones to record vocals and other acoustic instruments, you'll need an audio interface, such as the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 or the PreSonus AudioBox USB 96.
If you haven't used the app in a long while, GarageBand's basic interface layout mimics Logic Pro and other proper multitrack software. When you first create a project, you're tasked with selecting a template for the kind of music you want to record and an empty project you can populate from scratch. Selecting one brings up the main interface. The top-right portion of the window is where you add and mix new tracks. You click any recorded data to bring up an editor in the bottom portion of the display. Here, you can switch between piano roll and score views, an audio editor, and Smart Controls (more on these later).
The left side of the display shows your selected instrument. The top bar includes icons for triggering the various windows, a transport bar for recording and playback, an LED-style readout for the current beat, bar, tempo, meter, and other information, icons for loop recording, a guitar tuner, a count-off, and a metronome. Using the on-screen sliders, it's easy to resize the various windows and zoom levels. To the far right, you can launch a Notes page, an audio loop browser, and a media drawer for recorded audio and movies you want to sync music to.
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Recording, Remote, and Smart Controls
Recording is as simple as arming a track and clicking the Record icon. You can record at 24 bits if you have either a USB-powered microphone or an audio interface with a mic preamp into which you can plug a microphone. You can record and mix up to 255 tracks, and only your audio interface limits how many you can record simultaneously. You can easily record multiple takes and comp them. You can drag and drop on-the-fly Voice Memo recordings of your latest idea into GarageBand.
Basic editing is simple, but if you want to dig into GarageBand, advanced features are available, too. Flex Time lets you massage the groove of a given audio track, while the Groove Track perfectly matches the timing, tempo, and feel of the other tracks to the one you have set up. These are surprisingly transparent sounding, as long as you use them within reason.
There's still no proper mixing board. Instead, you use the left side of the Arrangement window as a mixer, with horizontal sliders on each track. The app has a reverb effect, and it lets you adjust the EQ, pan tracks from left to right in the stereo field, and apply compression to recorded audio tracks. GarageBand includes a basic mastering track to boost your levels and get a finished sound. However, it's nothing like what you'd get in a professional-level digital audio workstation, such as Logic Pro (which received a new Mastering Assistant as part of the 10.8 update) or Pro Tools. Still, it's a much-appreciated inclusion in a free recording app.
GarageBand works with the excellent Logic Remote app, which is available for iOS devices. You can use your iPad or iPhone to play any GarageBand instrument on the Mac wirelessly, adjust the Smart Controls for individual sounds, and otherwise edit and arrange your project. It also has built-in transport controls, so you can record with a guitar or vocals on one side of the room while you remotely start and stop the Mac on the other side using Logic Remote. This process used to require the use of a $1,000 hardware control surface and a professional digital audio workstation program. Now it's free on your phone or tablet—no longer a new development, but still a shock compared with what was necessary just a decade or two ago.
Taking another page from Logic Pro, GarageBand boasts Smart Controls that highlight the most effective parameters to tweak for a given sound and present knobs, buttons, and sliders for you to adjust, depending on the instrument. You can record performances with Smart Controls, letting you shape and evolve sounds in real time that then get printed to the track as automation data.
GarageBand's Instruments and Producer Packs
A solid sound library is built in, and Apple has been continually adding to it. Out of the box, you get an array of sweet-sounding acoustic and electronic drums, electric and acoustic basses, and a small variety of synth pads, leads, and basses. There's a nice acoustic piano, electric piano, clavinet, tonewheel organ, Mellotron patches, and acoustic and clean electric guitars. The orchestral instruments contain several choir samples, a harp, a pipe organ, and the usual strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion. A Chinese instrument section includes the Erhu and Pipa and, for Japan, the Guzheng, Koto, and a set of Taiko drums.
GarageBand comes with eight producer packs containing royalty-free sounds from some of the biggest pros in the industry: Boys Noize, Mark Lettieri, Mark Ronson, Oak Felder, Soulection, Take A Daytrip, Tom Misch, and TRAKGIRL. These span some 2,800 loops, 50 kits, and 120 patches, with modern ambient, bass samples, and TR-808 drum hits.
Guitar and bass players can plug in and choose from 25 instrument-specific amps and cabinets with several microphones, plus 35 separate stompboxes and a handy tuner. You also get Drummer, a virtual session player plug-in that accompanies your tracks with one of 33 players. Drop one on a track, and you'll get an automatic groove you can tune in real time to simplify or busy up the playing. Thousands of Apple Loops help get you started in various genres, and there's even a library of 400 sound effects for basic post-production work. (Note: You'll need to download most of the sounds separately by heading to GarageBand > Sound Library and selecting Download All Sounds; they're not included in the initial App Store download.)
Across the board, the patches sound good to excellent. I particularly like the Steinway piano and the acoustic stand-up bass. GarageBand supports third-party AU plug-ins, so you can buy or download free virtual instruments and add them to your sonic repertoire—and those will carry over if you upgrade to Logic Pro or another professional DAW.
Options, Options, Options
GarageBand has 40 free basic guitar and piano lessons you can download; click Learn to Play in the New Project window to get started. Each lesson provides real-time feedback as you play to show you what you've done correctly or incorrectly. You also get 20 free downloadable artist lessons from famous artists such as John Legend, Death Cab for Cutie, Sara Bareilles, and Rush, playing their signature hits and showing you how to do so.
There are plenty of online sharing options for social networks and the ability to export to MP3, SoundCloud, iTunes, or a custom ringtone file for your phone. You can also save projects to iCloud or start a project on the iPad or iPhone, save it, and then open it in GarageBand on the desktop. You can import projects from the iOS Music Memos app, too.
Stunningly Versatile
GarageBand is surprisingly powerful for a free DAW. Lower-cost DAWs on the PC side can come in at under $100, including Cockos Reaper and Studio One Artist, but there's nothing free with as much power and as many included sounds as GarageBand. If you prefer a full mixing console, many more instruments and effects, pitch correction, proper mastering, and other pro editing features, Apple Logic Pro—an Editors' Choice for Mac users—is an excellent buy at $199. Still, you can't beat GarageBand for getting started making music immediately and affordably, earning it our Editors' Choice award for entry-level music recording.
Apple GarageBand offers easy music recording for novices and pros alike and comes free with every Mac, and it's still the best way to learn piano or guitar on a computer.
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