The 16 best free GarageBand plugins. By David Biedny 28 May 2015. Get more from Apple's music-maker. Getting started. Even though Apple's GarageBand for Mac has all sorts of built-in instruments. The DoorPost - GarageBand tips newsletter is sent to you every three months and is full of extra tips on how to get the most out of GarageBand. It takes a more in-depth look at some important aspects of digital audio and home recording with GarageBand. Also: Links to free loops, effects and software instruments. This is where GarageBand's software instruments come in handy. Just right-click on the left under the other tracks and select New Software Instrument Track or create one with the Option + Cmd + S keyboard shortcut. To select the instrument, click View Show Library or press Y. Here you can select from drum kits, keyboards, synthesizers and more. This collection extends Garageband's repertoire to undreamed-of levels.' - MacUser, Nov 2004 92 brand new instruments for GarageBand covering brass, vintage keys and even Celtic instruments.
Audio Units
Best Free Garageband Instruments
Audio Units can be added to GarageBand to give you many more instruments to play with.Here are some good sources for Audio Units
- One of the largest makers of Audio Units and other GarageBand plug-ins is AMG.
- MDA-VST: Which contrary to its name has over a dozen AU plugins includung Amp Sims, Detuner, Delay, Comperssor/Limiter, and more
- MacMusic.org: a HUGE list of Freeware, Shareware and Commercial Plug-Ins.
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SoundFonts
There are literally
thousands of SF2s available on the web. In fact if you google 'SoundFont' you'll find more hits than you could probably look through in a lifetime. SoundFonts page.SoundFont sources:
sf2midi.com presents a massive collection: At last count over 3,860 free SoundFonts available!
Hammersound
Tons of SoundsFonts nicely categorized. just shy of 1,100! (Piano, Chromatic Percussion, Organ, Guitar, Bass, Solo Strings, Ensemble, Brass, Reed, Pipe, Synth Lead, Synth Pad, Synth Effects, Ethnic, Percussive, Sound Effects, Drumkits and percussive kits, Collections, Miscellaneous)
Fox-gieg
Over 220 nicely categorized SoundFonts (Bass, Brass, Guitar, Loops (not loops like GB loops, actual instruments that paly sequences), noise, Orch Hit, Organ, Perc, Piano, Strings, Synth, Voice, Wind)
The Jazz Page
Muted Trumpet, Trombone, Flute, Trumpet, Brass, Tenor Sax, Acoustic Bass, Contrabass, Harmonica, Soprano Sax, Alto Sax. Guitars: Jazzguitar, Nylon Guitar, Steel Guitar, Clean Guitar, Muted Guitar, Overdrive Guitar, Distortion Guitar, Guitar Harmonics.
Software
MidiKeys
MidiKeys is a small application for Mac OS X that presents a miniature MIDI keyboard onscreen. You can use the computer keyboard to play MIDI notes, or click on the keys with the mouse. There is also an option to select a MIDI source and see incoming notes played on the keyboard.
iDrum adds the missing ingredient to your Mac-based home recording studio - a fully programmable drum machine. It's just as easy to use as the hardware drum machines of yesteryear, but with all the flexibility of a software-based virtual instrument. iDrum integrates seamlessly with GarageBand - or you can run it as a standalone application. Create drum patterns in iDrum right alongside your existing tracks, perfectly in time, all the time. Or use iDrum as the backbeat when you're laying down new tracks. Use the hundreds of included pre-programmed patterns and rhythms or roll your own. The price is a very reasonable $49.
Download Demo - The iDrum Demo Version is identical to the full version except that it will time-out ten days after you install it. It includes Audio Unit and Standalone versions of iDrum.
Free Beats
From the same company comes the offer of 74 FREE iDrum beats for GarageBand.
GarageBand ‘09 comes with more than 100 software instruments, and each of those has dozens of presets that can sound like distinct instruments in their own right. That is a truly astounding number of sounds. In addition, Apple sells $99 Jam Packs, which offer even more instruments that seamlessly integrate with your existing ones.
But beyond GarageBand’s instruments, the universe of software instruments is vast, with prices that range from $500 or more for a single instrument to completely free for entire collections. This universe can be divided into roughly two galaxies: Sample-based instruments and synth-based instruments. To work in GarageBand, they simply need to support the Mac’s Audio Unit (AU) plug-in format.
I’ll introduce you to both varieties and walk you through the process of setting up and playing a collection of free sample-based instruments—Native Instruments’ Kontakt Factory Selection, and the free version of LinPlug’s synth-based instrument, Alpha 3.
Sample-based instruments
Software samplers are applications that store many small recordings of an instrument (or sound effect), and play them back in response to keyboard input. To enhance realism, creators of sample-based instruments painstakingly record each note of a real instrument at many different volumes, played in many different styles, and often with a variety of microphones.
To play a sample-based instrument, you need two components: The software instrument itself and a sampler or sample player. Samplers are sophisticated sample editors that are often pricey, while sample players are pared down versions of samplers that are often free.
Playing from Kontakt Factory Selection
First, quit GarageBand and download and install both the Kontakt 4 Player and the Kontakt Factory Selection instrument collection, both of which are available on Kontakt’s Website for free. Note that you can use the Kontakt 4 Player to play and record Factory Selection instruments (or your own recorded samples) for 15 minutes. However, you can use the Kontakt 4 Player indefinitely with other sample-based instruments that use the Kontakt format.
- Start a new GarageBand project and create a new software instrument track (Select New Track from the Track menu or hit Option-Command-N).
- Double-click the new track (the default is a Piano track, which will work for our purposes) or click on the track to highlight it and click the View Track Info button in the lower-right corner of the GarageBand interface.
- Hit the Edit Tab in the Track Info panel.
- Under Sound Generator, using the top menu (“Piano”), scroll down under Audio Unit Modules to select Kontakt 4. You’ll see the Piano image change to an Audio Unit icon (an orange sphere radiating to the right and left).
- Click on the icon to launch Kontakt.
- In Kontakt, navigate through the folders (in the Files tab on the left) to choose Factory Content.
- Navigate to a sound that interests you. Note: When Kontakt’s folders have plus signs, you can click on the plus sign or double-click the folder to open it. However, when there is no plus sign, you must double-click the folder name (not the folder) to see the individual instruments. The individual instruments will appear in the lower-left window, and will be identified by piano icons.
- Double-click an instrument to display its control panel in the right-hand window of the Kontakt interface (Be sure to drag the window left so you can see the whole thing).
- Play a few notes on your MIDI keyboard to hear the sound.
Tip: If you don’t have a MIDI keyboard installed, call up GarageBand’s onscreen keyboard by selecting Musical Typing from the Window menu (or hitting Shift-Command-K) and then play.
Synth(esizer)-based instruments
In contrast with sample-based instruments, synth-based instruments don’t play recordings; they produce (synthesize) their own sounds, after you tell them how to do so using dozens of parameters. In general, they tend to sound more otherworldly than sampler-based instruments. However, some synths use physical modeling techniques to emulate real instruments, and sound just as earthy and real as recordings.
To make things even more confusing, some sample-based instruments are called “synths,” not because they actually synthesize sound, but because they play back samples of synthesized sound.
Playing LinPlug’s Alpha 3
Free Garageband Instruments
- Begin by quitting GarageBand and installing the free version of Alpha 3.
- Follow steps 2 through 5 above, substituting Alpha 3 for Kontakt.
- Just play (If you don’t have a MIDI keyboard installed, see tip above).
In my humble opinion, the free Alpha 3 default (as of this writing) has an interesting, spacious, and detailed sound.
Now you know what it takes to expand your instrument horizons; the universe is the limit!
[David Weiss is a San Francisco Bay Area based freelance writer.]