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;” />

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