Garage Band ($18 @ Apple's app store) vs. Audacity (freeware)

[cactuskeeb]

So I bought Garage Band from the app store, because 18 dollars seemed like a pretty good deal for what is basically Logic Studio without all the bells and whistles.  I was of course expecting the overall better experience in terms of intuitive software design everyone expects from Apple, but I was not expecting the recording engine of the Apple software to be so shocking better than Audacity.  I mean, you would think simply receiving the audio from the Line In on the core audio (or soundcard, if you have a PC) would follow fairly standard algorithms, across software platforms, and the immediate result -- pre-processing, recorded at the same bitrate, etc. -- would only truly differ across different hardware configurations.  But no, your basic stereo track recording coming from the XLR outs on my mic preamp sounds astonishingly better -- more depth and detail, better stereo separation, blacker background -- monitoring and playing back recordings in Garage Band than it does in Audacity (and who knows what other recording apps also sound shitty in comparison).

But I'm thinking this may be due to the fact that I have a fairly new macbook pro and, needless to way, Apple themselves would have all the real 'know-how' when it comes to designing software for their (newer) internal audio devices.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Lol, yea, I am not hugely impressed with audacity. I have used Garageband for probably 7 years (PC software like Cubes before that), and it is pretty damn good for the price. I really want the new version, but I have to update my operating system.

I worked in Marketing for a company a number of years ago and I would design advertisements and do the voice over (someone told me recently I had a radio voice, lol) and the company didn't spring for anything more than Audacity, it was a shame because it is very limiting. I always wanted to bring in my recording stuff (better mic, an actual interface and my laptop with Garageband), but they didn't seem to care. I have also worked in Psych Research for about 3 years and they often use Audacity for various things and they wonder why the sound quality isn't great.