I saw a recommendation to download FL studio to get started with music production. However, this is not compatible with OS. Any free alternatives?

Now, a lot of (let’s hope) well-meaning people may pull you aside from time to time and say And while this is, on the surface, good advice, it tends to overlook something important: GarageBand is, and you may not want (or be able) to drop a couple of grand on a Mac just to be able to use one app. Well, we feel you. We here at Appamatix have done a lot of investigation to see what people are saying about PC equivalents and alternatives to GarageBand, because, despite in the late 90s and early 00s, Mac users do not have the monopoly on artistic creativity. It’s cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strenth and freedom.

The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony. — Choose Your Platform Before we dive into the main event here, I’d just like to get a couple things off of my chest about platform choice. And since you’re looking for PC GarageBand alternatives, then I’m guessing I’ve got a sympathetic audience right here. Can we for once and for all just admit that both Macs and PCs? Because I feel like there’s this culture war going on just beneath the surface of the tech community. Granted, it’s not quite as strong as it once had been (I point you again to my comments about the late 90s), but it seems like as soon as you tell people your platform of choice, you’ve alienated half of your audience.

If you say that you use a Mac, people assume that you like to imagine you’re a rule-breaker (who uses incredibly popular hardware, for some reason), or that you’re just generally a snob — or even that you’re a technological idiot who can’t work your toaster without calling an Apple Genius. Meanwhile, if you say that you’re a PC user, you get condescending comments about unreliable hardware, or how your software is all Mac-derivative, or you just have to face that tacit implication that you’re only using a PC because you’re too poor to use a Mac — but you secretly have Mac envy!

Can we put that to bed once and for all? Because I feel like it all comes down to the cost — and I don’t just mean the comparison.

I mean that once you plunk down how ever much you’ve paid for your machine, you want to feel like you’ve made the right choice, and that often means siding with the army of your fellow users and plugging your ears against any indication of the virtues of the competing platform. And I feel like some of the recent tech decisions on the part of Apple have made things worse: because now that there are so many devices that can integrate with your Mac, it creates a pressure (once you buy a Mac) to buy nothing but Mac products for every need: You must have an Apple Watch (when maybe a FitBit would do nicely). The only choice for a tablet is the iPad (whereas Surface is a solid machine.) For phones, it’s iPhone or bust (don’t even say the A*****d word).

And when it comes to your MP3 player, it haaaas to be an iPod — there’s no way you would Actually, that one’s probably true. All this to say, sure, the native software suites and apps on each device is better tuned towards different needs. Photo shop elements for mac.

And sure, maybe the native setup of a Mac is better for people who want to do graphic design (although given the variety of PC components, that’s not necessarily true), but the truth is that some Mac users like to code and do their taxes in long form, and some PC users are in bands and design their own album art. Cross Platform Solidarity!* *(okay, so in the above rant, I left out Linux users. But they’re used to that.) GarageBand Basics So if you didn’t bring up this article specifically because you’re looking for GarageBand alternatives — perhaps you’re just a regular Appamatix reader curious to see what the newest article was — then some basics on GarageBand. If you are familiar with GarageBand, then please be patient — it’s just courteous rhetoric to define your terms. GarageBand is an app in what was once called the iLife suite that comes natively bundled on all Mac devices. Whereas iPhoto Photos is for managing your, erm, photos, and iMovie helps you manipulate video, GarageBand is a really robust app that lets you edit multi-track sound recordings.