Garageband versus Audacity - when to use which?

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Garageband versus Audacity - when to use which?

I've had iLife for a number of years now but I've generally found Audacity has met all my recording needs - mostly recording and editing stuff off the radio, or recording my own amateurish music-making live, i.e. without using tracks. Lately, however, I've been moving into the multitrack world and thus resorting to Garageband a lot more (yes, I know Audacity does tracks too). Much as I appreciate (without being fully conversant with) all the features in Garageband, I still find Audacity more intuitive in some ways. For example, if I want to edit a waveform or adjust EQ, I will sometimes just export a Garageband track to AIFF and then bring it into Audacity for some more tweaking.

So, what I'd like to hear is how everyone else takes advantage of these two apps. When it comes to tasks that both programs can handle, are there some that you feel are much easier to do in one app than the other, and what are they? Can both apps complement each other as part of an audio workflow? What are the most outstanding/useful little tricks that each app can do?

Thanks.

Richard

Message was edited by: RichardLim

MacBook white polycarbonate mid-2009, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jul 21, 2009 3:36 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 21, 2009 6:11 AM in response to RichardLim

Audacity (and other audio editors) are better suited for simple audio recoding and editing - they're much leaner and more reliant. I would never trust GB for a task like recording a long speech or concert.

I also prefer an audio editor to edit recorded speech - you can edit with much more detail, and by default the stuff you delete doesn't leave a gap (I know GB can do that too).

So basically, I use GB for anything that has to do with music or at least multi-track recording, the rest I do in an audio editor.

As for using both apps together: I've experimented with using both in parallel in the past – like taking a recording with a low level and normalize it in Audacity while the GB file is open. Nothing for the faint-hearted, since this is not something you're supposed to do - but as long as you don't change the length of a recording, GB was quite tolerant towards that procedure.

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Answer 2

Jul 21, 2009 7:52 AM in response to RichardLim

I use them much like iPhoto and Photoshop.

I use iPhoto for organizing and light duty editing.
I use Photoshop for heavy duty to the pixel editing.

I use GB for my general recording and track editing / arranging needs.
I use Audacity for heavy duty sound processing like pitch shifting and noise reduction.

IOW, what Christoph said. 8^)

Message was edited by: Keith Barkley

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