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MS "Monaco" to take on GarageBand

updated 02:00 pm EDT, Fri April 7, 2006

MS to take on GarageBand

Microsoft is planning to release a music authoring program for the company's upcoming Windows Vista called "Monaco," which will compete with Apple's GarageBand application. The program will be similar in design to GarageBand, but will be optimized for Windows Vista and the Aero user interface, according to Ziff Davis. GarageBand -- designed for amateur musicians -- is part of Apple's iLife suite of applications for creating and organizing digital content. Microsoft's Monaco will target the same audience, will work on Windows only, and will make use of Microsoft's search algorithms to find particular music clips. Microsoft may use Monaco as a showcase Vista application, according to the report.

by MacNN Staff

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marcuscorder

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04/07, 02:07pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Oh no

I have a hunch this will be less than stellar in comparison...

jimothy
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2000

0

04/07, 02:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
"Monaco"?

Monaco is a city known for it's orchestral music. I suspect this is targeted more to an aspiring Springsteen than a budding Beethoven. Even if it's merely a code name, surely they could have chosen a more appropriate city.

JoelSmith
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Joined: Dec 2005

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04/07, 02:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
Offical Name

Wanna bet it's called something stunningly creative like "Carport Ensemble" when it's released?

LagunaSol
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Joined: Sep 2002

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04/07, 02:31pm | report spam | close Reply |
More of the same

Is there a single original idea in Redmond?

rtbarry
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0

04/07, 02:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: lagunasol

your answer is: no.

tgray
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Joined: Jun 2005

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04/07, 02:44pm | report spam | close Reply |
no.

Redmond hasn't had an original idea yet...why should they start now?

Proof positive that Apple does indeed innovate.

Next up...Microsoft to release high end audio application to compete with Soundtrack. Rumor is they are going to call is Sound Recorder Professional.

jarod
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Joined: Apr 2005

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04/07, 02:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
lol

Everyday marks a more hilarious day as Microshit proves to the world how eternally pathetic they are. What a sorry bunch man, really. Microsoft et al are a perfect example of what true embarassment to society looks like.

ibugv4
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Joined: Jun 2003

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04/07, 03:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
Last I checked..

Apple didn't just invent garageband, they bought out a few larger music-composition software titles and then rebadged them as their own. Oh wait, they did that with iTunes too.... How very Microsoft-ish.

jedi2187
Forum Regular

Joined: Nov 2001

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04/07, 03:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
hi-larious

I can't WAIT for Gates or Ballmer to demo it in front of a large audience. Conan O'Brien should be invited also to heckle them.

ApeInTheShell
Senior User

Joined: Nov 2002

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04/07, 03:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
AHHH!!! Good, good

Monaco sounds like the name of a gas station (e.g. Conaco, Texaco). Who thinks up this stuff?

ibugv4 > You are right that Apple does not invent their own software. They take existing problems and come up with new solutions to them (innovation). For example, a couple years ago the MP3 player was small, ran on AA batteries, and could only hold a few songs depending on how much memory you bought (which was a lot of money). Apple released the iPod; a music device with a hard drive, larger screen, longer battery life, and it could fit in most people's pockets. It used a simple scroll wheel to navigate the menus and synched with iTunes (formerly SoundJam MP). So you see that any company have come up with this solution but they didn't. Microsoft looks at a way to avoid the problems and deal with them at a later time.

Armas
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04/07, 03:44pm | report spam | close Reply |
Steve says...

MS & Bill, have no TASTE. True.... It will not be pretty, logical, intuitive, or "Nice".

It's like "Movie Maker" vs iMovie/iDVD. MS Music Store vs iTunes, WMP vs iPOD, because steve is right.... They have no taste!

mattg333
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Joined: Feb 2006

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04/07, 03:49pm | report spam | close Reply |
ugh

"The program will be similar in design to GarageBand, but will be optimized for Windows Vista and the Aero user interface,"

so basically a S***** garage band running a S***** version of os x

WiseWeasel
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Joined: Apr 1999

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04/07, 03:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
gonna be funny

Oh man, I shudder to imagine what audio software from MS is going to work like. If history has taught us anything, it's that MS will add these features to Windows just so they can have some bullet points with the feature listed, but it won't be actually usable for another ten years...

testudo
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04/07, 05:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
Well...

Redmond hasn't had an original idea yet...why should they start now?

Proof positive that Apple does indeed innovate.

I thought GarageBand was a hacked version of Logic or one of those other apps apple bought. Like iTunes was SoundJam. And iMovie was something bought from Macromedia. In fact, iLife is largely lacking in original ideas when it comes to apps. Presentation/implementation, well, that might be different. But innovative is not at the app level.

Oh, and if you want to look at a positive here for Windows users, at least its free (like Moviemaker). With Apple you have to spend money to get these apps.

Nai no Kami
Senior User

Joined: Aug 2000

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04/07, 05:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
hi-larious 2

It's believed that Roz Ho will do a breakdance demonstration at its introduction keynote.

rtbarry
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04/07, 06:03pm | report spam | close Reply |
the cost of...

...the iLife apps is ridiculously low. prior to iLife, you would have had to buy separate, and more expensive DVD authoring, web page creator, movie-making and music software.

and none of them would be a simple and elegant as iLife. the cinematic rendered themes in each program alone are worth the cost!

tindrum
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Joined: Apr 2004

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04/07, 06:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
testudo

I often read the comments to see how testudo will bash apple next. rarely does testudo have an actual point. For less than $100, you get a great movie editing program and DVD autoring/burning solution, GarageBand (which i haven't done much with but does let me make little ditties very very easily), and a couple other apps that are simple enough for grandparents to use and enjoy. key word, that - "Enjoy".

st56k
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04/07, 06:49pm | report spam | close Reply |
source of iLife

Yes, the "engine" behind Garage Band came from the purchase of eMagic however the user interface was new. (I'm sure the Logic interface was deemed to complex for the average joe user and probably rightly so.) So you could certainly say that Garage Band is a heavily cut down version of Logic. Much like iMovie is a heavily cut down version of Final Cut Pro. In that case (again) the "engine" was purchased from Macromedia and in fact originated at Adobe as a replacement for Premier before the Adobe management canned the project and Macromedia management canned the project and finally Apple scooped up the developers resulting in something useful.

FYI, I recall that eMagic was in financial trouble just before Apple bought them up. Same thing happened to the eMagic competitor: Steinberg, the maker of the Cubase and Nuendo software, was purchased by Yamaha.

As to the cost of the iLife apps, well, you get them for free with a new Mac. Else you can buy them for cheap. A license of OS X and iLife combined is less expensive than an XP Pro licenese.

Timetheus
Forum Regular

Joined: Jan 2006

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04/07, 10:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
Movie Maker

Anyone here ever used Windows Movie Maker? - I'd hardly put it on the same plain as iMovie. My guess is "monaco" will be the same - way behind it's iLife couterpart.

Jean-Luc
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04/07, 10:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
Monaco?

Should be called GarbageBag.

medelegant
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Joined: Sep 2002

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04/07, 11:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
MS, Bill, Taste?

You can buy a fashion... but style is inherited.

Now, with Boot Camp, you can buy Win XP and make your Mac wear it.... but what does that say about your sense of style?

brainiac_7
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Joined: Jun 2005

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04/08, 08:20am | report spam | close Reply |
The Ecstasy of Innovation

These are the moments from M$ that I savor; the ecstasy of their press release guaranteeing a great product. In time, it becomes much more like dog food; so much better looking going in than the final product leaving the dog.

kw99
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Joined: Nov 2001

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04/08, 07:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
MS does not need to

compete with GarageBand. Microsoft's Windows customers are not going to defect to Mac OS X because of GarageBand (I'm sure there are some exceptions). But MS will lose users if Mac OS X continues to improve beyond the capability of Windows. Or if viruses and malware continues to plague Windows, and leave Mac OS X virtually untouched.

So Microsoft... Focus on getting Vista out the door. No one cares about your "competitor" to GarageBand.

zubro
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Sep 2002

0

04/09, 06:01am | report spam | close Reply |
who cares....

Monaco is known for one thing: It s football team. Then who cares about this software? Off course it will not be user friendly, have a terrible UI and crash randomly.

notehead
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

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04/10, 03:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
Success and innovation...

...often do not go together. Generally speaking, it is not the innovator who reaps the rewards, it is the person who comes along afterwards and really makes the idea or product usable, accessible, and/or desirable. I think that's a key to Apple's success. As others above have noted, they have acquired many innovative bits of software and then took that stuff and really maximized it. MS has never been as good at this as Apple, and if we could somehow "reset" the number of users of each company's OS so that they were equal, we'd see Apple achieve dominance very quickly.

Unless MS has brought in a new team of people for Monaco who have not been totally "microsofted," we can expect that Monaco will be yet another hapless me-too product with no real fan base or third-party support.

Guest
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Joined: Nov 1999

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03/08, 04:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
monaco

personally,i think the monaco will provide PC users with an application that can replace garageband

Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 1999

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03/08, 04:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: monaco

ya monaco wil finaly giv ppl with PCs an app that works like garageband. its a good idea

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MS "Monaco" to take on GarageBand

updated 02:00 pm EDT, Fri April 7, 2006

MS to take on GarageBand

Oh no

"Monaco"?

Offical Name

More of the same

re: lagunasol

no.

lol

Last I checked..

hi-larious

AHHH!!! Good, good

Steve says...

ugh

gonna be funny

Well...

hi-larious 2

the cost of...

testudo

source of iLife

Movie Maker

Monaco?

MS, Bill, Taste?

The Ecstasy of Innovation

MS does not need to

who cares....

Success and innovation...

monaco

re: monaco

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MS "Monaco" to take on GarageBand

updated 02:00 pm EDT, Fri April 7, 2006

MS to take on GarageBand

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Recent Articles

Oh no

"Monaco"?

Offical Name

More of the same

re: lagunasol

no.

lol

Last I checked..

hi-larious

AHHH!!! Good, good

Steve says...

ugh

gonna be funny

Well...

hi-larious 2

the cost of...

testudo

source of iLife

Movie Maker

Monaco?

MS, Bill, Taste?

The Ecstasy of Innovation

MS does not need to

who cares....

Success and innovation...

monaco

re: monaco

Login Here

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