Free Garageband Instruments

I like nearly all of Apple’s $99 Jam Pack add-on sound libraries for GarageBand (Voices doesn’t do a lot for me), but I also like free. And when I think free and GarageBand I think SoundFonts, E-mu Systems’ sampled sound file format—a software instrument format supported by GarageBand.

Here’s how to obtain and install SoundFonts:

Free garageband vst instruments

1. Google “soundfont” to find one of the many sites that offer free SoundFonts—HammerSound is a good place to start.

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. Free GarageBand Instruments GarageBand for MacOS comes with dozens and dozens of top notch virtual instruments for you to wrap your fingers around. That said, there will come a time when you want to broaden your sonic horizons with some new instrument sounds.

2. Once you’ve downloaded a few SoundFonts, place them in this directory: /Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks.

3. In GarageBand create a new Software Instrument track, click the Details triangle, and from the Instrument Generator pop-up menu choose DLSMusicDevice and click the Edit button next to it.

Free Garageband Vst Instruments

Load up on Apple Loops for Garageband. Macloops is a massive resource for free apple loops and samples. We have thousands of AIFF format apple loops ranging from drum loops, bass loops and synth loops to guitar loops, cinematic and lots more. Load up on Apple Loops for Garageband. Macloops is a massive resource for free apple loops and samples. We have thousands of AIFF format apple loops ranging from drum loops, bass loops and synth loops to guitar loops, cinematic and lots more.

4. In the window that appears, choose your SoundFont from the Sound Bank pop-up menu to play that sound.

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Note that not all SoundFonts are compatible with the Mac OS. I’ve also found that GarageBand is happier if the SoundFont extension is spelled .sf2 rather than .SF2.

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Also note that SoundFont files are often compressed in the RAR format. You can expand them using a tool such as the donation-ware UnRarX.