Garageband Files in Windows

[Thatguy]

I'm looking to record the majority of a song on a Mac in GarageBand, then record percussion on my PC. I'd also like to be able to then bring the file back to Garageband. I've been reading about Mixcraft and Reaper, but I am unaware of whether or not they can do that. I also don't want to install the trials, only to remove them later, as I don't want to clog up my registry.

 

[dgatwood]

I'm looking to record the majority of a song on a Mac in GarageBand, then record percussion on my PC. I'd also like to be able to then bring the file back to Garageband. I've been reading about Mixcraft and Reaper, but I am unaware of whether or not they can do that. I also don't want to install the trials, only to remove them later, as I don't want to clog up my registry.

AFAIK, Garageband uses the fairly industry-standard AIFF file format for pretty much everything. You shouldn't have much trouble dealing with them even on a PC. They're basically a byte-swapped WAV file....

The easiest way to do what you describe would be to have GB export a mixdown of the project (AIFF), convert to WAV if your audio app doesn't support AIFF import, then add the resulting mixdown to a new project on your PC, record the drums, and edit it to suit. When you are satisfied with the results, mute the track containing the main mixdown, then mix the drum tracks by themselves down to a file and import that with GB on the Mac.

I don't have any suggestions for an app to use on the PC. I've been pretty much exclusively a Mac guy (and some Linux) since 1994 or so.