PC alternative to Garage Band

[Mankal]

I'm starting to get back into audio stuff and I heard that Garage Band on the Mac is one of the best programs for making any sort of audio as well as music. It will be a while before I can afford to build my Intel Mac box and mess around with Garage Band and OS X in general. What I'm wondering is if there is anything comparable on the PC. From what I know of Garage Band it not only allows you record audio from mics and instruments plugged directly into the Mac but also to make loops from virtual instruments. The only other program I can think of besides Audacity for audio recording is Adobe Audition but I havn't messed with that either. What all is there for the PC that allows you to record from instruments and make loops and such from virtual instruments?

[xfive]

Skip the fisher price stuff and go directly to something like Ableton Live or Cubase.
I recommend Live as the interface is very easy to work with and loop mangling is it's forte. Recording them from live sources, or rendering virtual instruments... all of that is simple to do.
Check out the new version of Live - http://www.ableton.com

[danielmarshall]

Reason, Live and FL Studio are all decent quality tools with relatively gentle learning curves, that will also serve you well into the future when you'll most likely be using Logic, Cubase or Nuendo as your main sequencer. That said however, all 3 have their own nieche area, and it's worthwhile learning them all.

[vadarfone]

He said PC... So no logic there geezer.

Mankal. I think you need to start from the beginning on this one... Hang around on blackoutaudio.co.uk and dogsonacid.com (the grid) and ask loads of questions.

You need to learn the basics before anything else...

Good luck!

[TechMouse]

Reason, Live and FL Studio are all decent quality tools with relatively gentle learning curves, that will also serve you well into the future when you'll most likely be using Logic, Cubase or Nuendo as your main sequencer. That said however, all 3 have their own nieche area, and it's worthwhile learning them all.
Neither Reason nor FL Studio supports recording of live instruments.

You'll need something like Cubase or Sonar (or Tracktion) to do that.

Not sure if Acid will do it or not?

AFAIK there's no direct equivalent of Garage Band for the PC.