Garageband vs. Audacity

Recording feels like an endless eye-doctor session. Do you like this one... or this one? This one... or this one.
Garageband's real-time filters can be a lot of fun but I'm starting to find a few features frustrating.

Garageband disadvantages

• Pausing recording. To pause you click the play button again this then creates a gap until the end of the measure. If you then record again it makes another section. You can join these two sections together but this is extra effort.
  
• Recording in correct track. I'm very often recording in the wrong track. I'm getting better about this. I would select a time within a track and think that would switch me to the instrument that is in that row.
  
• It would be nice if you could use metronome without recording.
• With Garageband muting and soloing tracks seems more difficult than it should be. Solo isn't really solo. When a solo is added then all other solo buttons are kept- it functions like a checkbox rather than a radio button. The mute button already functions like a checkbox.
  

Garageband advantages

• Adjusting for people's timing and tone problems- Due to my tin ear I'm having some trouble with detecting the changes in tone but it is very clear how it can moves songs toward the beat.
  
• Monitor works correctly- I haven't gotten the monitor function working with Audacity.
• Tuning feature- Tuning feature is useful for quickly figuring out what note you are playing.

Other notes

• There is quite a bit of background hiss that I need to find the source of.
• There are bad sounds with my 't's and 's's
• When I tune the guitar the strings are often sharp. I thought that strings over time, unless they are tightened, strings only went down in pitch.
• I wasn't sure how many beats/min to say the song was. I was able to use Metrognome to tap it out.
• There are two disadvantes to the in-ear headphones I'm using. A lot of the original sound come through so it is harder to get an accurate picture of what recording will sound like. Also some sound escapes the headphones and is picked-up during recordings.