Developer Uses Claude to Reverse-Engineer GarageBand Files, Builds Windows DAW
Sztef_213 · reddit · 2026-11-05
A developer is building Lumen, a Windows DAW written in C++/JUCE with Claude's help, and this week got real GarageBand 11 .band projects opening on Windows without a Mac.
- GarageBand project files are undocumented, so the author fed Claude real projects and Logic Pro screenshots to infer the format
- Lumen now loads audio tracks and regions with positions and trims, plus volume, pan, tempo, key and effects like EQ, compressor, noise gate, pitch correction, echo and reverb
- Effects were ported as built-in plugins and tested against the originals
- These are genuine .band projects, not pre-converted files; MIDI and software instruments aren't supported yet, nor GarageBand 10+ due to a different format
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