GarageBand '11, the latest version of Apple's amateur musician software, builds on an already impressive, easy-to-use app, with more ways to help your band play better together, more amp and pedal styles, and better tools for teaching you how to play instruments. It was already a bargain as part of the $49 iLife 'll suite that comes free with brand-new Macs, but now that you can cherry pick suite members on the Mac App Store, you can snag GarageBand for just $14.99 as a standalone—of course, that's after you've paid the Apple tax of a high-priced computer. While it's no match for pro-level studio software such as Reason, Ableton Live, or Pro Tools, those apps cost hundreds of dollars instead of just $15, and they don't offer GarageBand '11's well-designed instrument lessons.

Interface
Let's face it, nobody does interface better than Apple, and GarageBand '11 is no exception. You start from the welcome screen by choosing whether you want to create a new project (which can be a piano, electric guitar, voice, acoustic instrument, loops, podcast, or movie), learn to play, buy lessons at the online store, indulge in Magic GarageBand virtual combo, or create an iPhone ringtone.
GarageBand '11's recording and editing screen shows the typical timeline view, with tracks running in the center, track adjustments along the left, and sources and effects in a right-side panel. Double-clicking a track brings up a detailed edit view in which you can see the waveforms for recordings and piano roll or score for MIDI tracks. It's at once more capable and far more intuitive than the interface of Audacity 1.2 (Free, 3.5 stars), but that's a free, multiplatform program.
Recording and Mixing
When you start a new project, you choose a template based on the source—an instrument, voice, loops, or the built-in piano, or on its output purpose—podcast, movie, songwriting. Next you name the project, and optionally set a tempo, key signature, and meter. Any loops you add, either from those include with GarageBand or separately purchased, will match the key you choose.
To connect my Yamaha keyboard, I first had to install its driver from its maker. After this, the program let me control all its software instruments from the keyboard. After recording, I could correct mistakes from the Track Editor either in piano role, or, even more helpfully, in score view. I could also record another take: The takes will be accessible from a dropdown menu, but you can't see them all at once, as you can on more sophisticated recording software.
I like how you can easily set any duration to repeat, so that you can decide which sounds to add to the flow, but there's nothing comparable to Ableton Live's session view, which lets you mix and match tracks on the fly. But, again: $15.
After creating a song with input from my keyboard and joining Apple loops to it for bass and drums, I recorded a vocal track, again taking advantage of multiple-take capability. I could then have GarageBand automatically fix both the pitch and timing of my singing, which didn't always align perfectly with the underlying rhythm. A slider let me choose how much of either correction to use. I found it simple to limit pitches either to the nearest chromatic scale note or restrict notes to the song's key. If I added too much pitch correction I started sounding excessively auto-tuned (like Finn on Glee, for example), but about 50 percent correction yielded a good effect. It was also neat to see the waveforms realigned when I chose to quantize the note rhythms, with choices from whole notes down to 64th notes. Right sidebar options let me apply some striking special effects, like helium voice, R&B, and onion vocals.
One of GarageBand's coolest features is Flex Time. This lets you drag waveforms around to align or stretch sounds without losing the pitch. This let me extend a note cut short when I ran out of breath, thus making it work better in my song. For this to work, I had to enable "Follow Tempo & Pitch." Luckily I could undo the sound stretching, since I got some ugly results with it with a choral track. Even with a vocal track, it was hard to get clean sounding results when dragging the waveforms to match a beat; extending a note worked well, however. Flex Time also lets bands sync their performances to the most rhythmic member, rather than to a strict metronome beat, which gives a performance a more life-like feel.
To get the full complement of samples and loops, I had to download 1.2GB of extra content, which took a half hour on my cable Internet connection. To expand your sonic possibilities even more, Apple offers JamPacks, which add loops and software instruments in bundles including voice, drum, orchestra, and world music. Each of the five available JamPacks costs $99.
Learning an Instrument
GarageBand has had instrument lessons in the past couple versions, but '11 adds some useful tools for keeping track of your progress and a bunch more lessons. There are now 40 lessons for piano and guitar, and for $4.99 a pop, you can download video lessons by famous performers like Sting and Norah Jones showing you how to play one of their hits. I counted 23 of these in all.
Most of the regular lessons have to be downloaded, usually at a sizable half gig or so. After a video lesson, it was my turn to play, and GarageBand kept a real-time percentage of my accuracy while playing—in sort of a Guitar Hero motivation. For this to work, my instrument had to be directly connected to the computer—it won't use the computer's mic to detect acoustic playing accuracy.
Once I made a few attempts at playing lesson songs, I could easily view my progress by clicking the history, which showed a line graph of the accuracy of my attempts. While these tools can never completely replace an experienced musician-teacher, they can get autodidacts surprisingly far. The only competition I saw in the Mac App Store cost $50 for each instrument, and though that included over 180 lessons, it didn't have the polish of GarageBand's lessons.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376719,00.asp