Microsoft preps Windows-only ‘Monaco’ competitor to Apple’s GarageBand

“Microsoft isn’t blanching at competition from Apple’s Boot Camp. In fact, the software giant is aiming straight at Apple with a forthcoming music-making program for Windows Vista,” Mary Jo Foley writes for Publish. “Monaco would be very similar to Apple’s GarageBand application, but would be optimized to take advantage of Windows Vista and the Aero user interface.

“GarageBand is Apple’s MacOS application for amateur musicians. It comes with 1,000 pre-recorded sampled loops, and 50 sampled or synthesised instruments that can be played using a MIDI keyboard connected to the computer, or using an on-screen keyboard,” Foley explains. “Monaco will be aimed at the same audience, sources said, and will be positioned in the same way – except that it will work on Windows only. Microsoft also is expected to play up Monaco’s use of Microsoft-devised search algorithms for finding particular music clips.”

“It’s not clear whether Microsoft is considering bundling Monaco with Vista,” Foley writes.

Full article here.

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Related article:
Apple releases GarageBand 3.0.1 Update – March 02, 2006
Thurrott: ‘Nothing on Windows approaches the quality of Apple’s iLife ’06’ – January 31, 2006
San Francisco Chronicle: GarageBand 3 has by far the most extensive package of podcasting features – January 30, 2006
Apple announces iLife ’06 with new versions of iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand and new iWeb – January 10, 2006

59 Comments

  1. GOD DAMN THEM!

    THEY’RE MAKING A BLASPHEMY OF MY LAST NAME!

    I feel all dirty inside…I may have to change my name to Sam Jones or maybe Sam GarageBand in support of Apple.

    Anyway, “Monaco” is likely to suck. Shouldn’t pose any major threat. Why couldn’t they have used a different name for their crappy product though???

  2. regarding the quote above that Monaco will be like garageband but be optimized to take advantage of the windows vista interface”…

    I’m sorry, but this is just too easy MDN. If you’re gonna put things on here that I can be sarcastic about, at least make it harder for me than this…. come on!

    take advantage of the vista interface? you mean monaco will…
    1. get push back in release date five or six years
    2. be vaporware
    3. crash repeatedly
    4. be a new portal into the os for hackers and malware providers
    5. generally be clunky & not work as well as the software they’ve copied

    MDN word is “nuclear” as in…. nuclear war is about to errupt between redmond and cupertino in the next few years.

  3. This is just vapourware. And even if it weren’t, the supposed threat is a long way off. If it requires Vapa (oops, Vista) to run it, it probably won’t be available for at least a year.

    And then it will be like Windows 1.0.

    and imagine how much they’ll probably charge for it.

    And I expect that plug-and-play will be just about as good with it as anything else.

    And it will probably require a new computer to run it along with Vapa!

    And you know for sure that people will now be able to make a direct comparison of it with GarageBand on the same Mac.

    LOL!

  4. Why don’t Microsoft just work on the screwed up Vista OS. They can’t seem to even copy Apple on that so why try to add other Apple things to it. Plus even if Vista is ready to ship in 2007 it will take to 2012 to get some of the bugs out of it, that is if Microsoft is still making software. They should stop all this crap and stick with what they do know about…games.

  5. It’s a misspelling. It should be “MonoCo” because where GarageBand sounds like poor musicians, Microsoft wants you think “music company.” The first part of the name is because it will not work in stereo. (They can’t get the driver for the other speaker to work on all hardware yet. But they will!)

  6. Monaco is just a code name. The actual product name will be something stupid and unimaginative – like Windows Audio Maker Extreme+.

    As for whether it will be a worthy competitor to Garageband? Maybe…if you compare it to Garageband 1. This doesn’t even take into account the fact that by the time MS ships this thing, Apple will be releasing iLife ’07 – which will feature Garageband 4.

  7. “Microsoft Windows Butt Monkey Lemming Fan Boys”

    That is PRICELESS! My mental image is hysterical. I picture little red monkey fez hats, lederhosen, and Groucho glasses for secure anonymity.

    I’m almost snorted soup through my nose. Thanks for the laugh!

    ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />

  8. Or MS could bundle it with an antivirus package that runs in the background and also sends your music compositions to the RIAA automagically to check for copyright infringement. The DRM of the future!

    They’ll call it Band Aid.

  9. That’s just further proof that a Mac can do everything a WinPC can do.

    Of course, the Mac does it first… and better… and easier…

    52 days without a reboot (damn software update ruined my streak.)

  10. Monaco means that MS is gambling that this new rip off of OS X will somehow fix all their problems.

    “optimized to take advantage of Windows Vista and the Aero user interface”?. . . soooooooo, it’s optimized to take advantage of the keyboard, mouse, and gui windows? Wow, sign me up!

  11. Ampar, my girlfriend and I blew beer out our noses laughing at your take. I love the Dentist drill whining sound idea, might as well thro in some low level hum and modem noise for good measure..

    Virus’s included, no extra charge!

    Way to go Redmond.

  12. How PATHETIC! Do these low lives have to copy every single thing Apple does? It’s completely sickening. I hate Microsoft!!!!!!!!

    …and yet now you can run Windows natively on a Mac thanks to Apple.

    Too weird! Love the irony though.

    They tell me BetaMax was better too, wouldn’t know, all we had was VHS, BetaMax gave up.

  13. Ok, we at Microsoft are somewhat hurt. Apple told the world that we are still using the old fashioned BIOS even Vista. And apple is using the state-of-art EFI BIOS. And that a Mac can operate smoothly in both cenyuries.

  14. “Microsoft isn’t blanching at competition from Apple’s Boot Camp. In fact, the software giant is aiming straight at Apple with a forthcoming music-making program for Windows Vista”

    Hmmm…Apple doesn’t make GarageBand for Windows, and MS has no plans to make Monaco (great name BTW [rolls eyes]) for the Mac, so how exactly are they competing? That’s like saying the new Eclipse aircraft is competing with the Ford Mustang. They play in different arenas, how can they compete?

  15. This is good news, I was thinking about buying a miniMac so I could use garage bad, but now I will just keep my pc…

    anyway the Vista OS is going to be out any day now and it is so much cooler then anything on an Apple computer

    go MS !

  16. Thanks, Heidi!
    I’ll be here all week. Please remember to tip your servers.

    This might explain the problem MS management has had for years:

    Excerpt from MS Encarta:

    in·no·vate v.<>
    in·no·vat·ed, in·no·vat·ing, in·no·vates <i>v. tr.

    1. To use or follow as a model.
    2. To copy the actions, appearance, mannerisms, or speech of; mimic: amused friends by imitating the teachers.
    3. To copy or use the style of: brushwork that imitates Rembrandt.
    4. To copy exactly; reproduce.
    5. To appear like; resemble.

    Clear as mud?

  17. Bill: Gentleman, the photocopy of Tiger is almost done. Vista is coming.

    Journalist: So Mr Gates, when is your next major upgrades?

    Bill: We have to wait and see what Apple OS has to offer. Porbably after their second or third upgrade. We willopy, er….., I mean inspired by them. We will do a thorough research, and copy, er…., i mean……….. Anyway, we will just wait and see.

    Bill and Steve B: O man, we can’t innovate anymore, we are doomed!

    Steve B: Bill, I LOVE THIS COMPANY!

  18. M$ missing the point again. GarageBand doesn’t exist in it’s own universe. It’s a little bundled app that basic users can cut a few ideas on, and when they’re ready they move up to the big daddy app Apple produces (Logic). GarageBand acts as a sales pitch to enable Apple to get Logic into every serious musician’s studio within 10 years.

    Microsoft’s half hearted rip off is only there to try and prevent people switching to the Mac in the first place. It’s the “me too” attitude that is the root of all the blog site despair.

  19. What Windows Movie Maker is to iMovie, and Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is to iPhoto, Monaco will be to GarageBand. In other words, it will be semi-functional garbage nobody uses. That is, assuming it ever ships. My guess is it’ll be axed before the final release of “Vista” sometime in the next couple years just to get that hideous beast out the door.

  20. This is another example of MS not being able to focus on what is important. Apple’s GarageBand is a fine app, I’m sure. I’ve played with it a little bit, but I’m no musician (weekend or otherwise). While I’m sure a small percentage of users love GarageBand (and would hate and ridicule a MS rip-off), it’s probably a non-issue for most computer users out there. MS needs to focus on getting Windows Vista completed and out the door. Otherwise, “would be optimized to take advantage of Windows Vista and the Aero user interface” is less than meaningless.

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