Rating: 
Summary: Ups and downs over the previous version of Pyro
Review: As a regular Cakewalk software user (I use Sonar for my home recording projects) I always had high hopes I could integrate my music programs into one seamless package from Cakewalk.That was why I initially bought Pyro 2003. I immediately preferred it over CD Creator. When the new verison of Pyro came out, I picked it up anticipating a newer and better program. I was pleased to some extent. Here are the ups and down of Pyro 2004 compared to Pyro 2003. UPS
Better on-screen interface; more info is packed on the screen
More streamlining in audio capture (rip, folder, and mic recording all accessible from the same sidebar menu)
Improved MP3 decoding (as always, Pyro gives you the most options for bit rates with MP3s)
More audio effects applied to sound files in the editing process. DOWNS
Slower burning of audio discs for some reason (Pyro 2004 takes a long time to prepare a CD but then takes a considerably less amount of time burning tracks) Difficulty when interfacing it with an older Creative Sound Card (I solved this problem by upgrading to Audigy 2, something I was going to do anyway) THE SAME
Awesome realtime viewing of your waveform data, cuts, zooming and crossfades The most reliable software I've found for burning discs without errors Transfer of data to portables (though I don't have a portable so I haven't used this feature PROBLEMS I HAD AND TIPS Some plugins don't seem to automatically install correctly haven't learned how to fix this. Don't use Pyro 2003 and 2004 on the same computer. One required DirectX 8 and one requires DirectX 9. I had problems trying to fully use both programs. Be sure to have the updated drivers for your audio card and all Windows updates. My biggest problem was with MP3 encoding. It sometimes worked and didn't. At that time I had a sound card that was 3 years old with downloaded drivers. Upgrading to a newer card (Audigy 2 ZS Platinum) seems to have fixed this problem. That's it. I hope this review helps some who are now or soon will be users of this program. Happy burning!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good for Making CDs from LP/Tape
Review: I almost didn't buy this program based on the negative comments I read here. I run XP and wanted to take my old, out of print vinyls and make CDs from them. I found it to be very good for that. I just record an entire side of an album to a file, split it up into tracks visually by looking/listening to the waveform, and optionally cleaning up, enhancing the sound. I can truncate tracks if I let the record go too long. I found the process to be very easy, and it produced a good quality CD. I also used it to rip MP3s from CD so I could combine a number of audio CDs onto a single data CD (I just got the Cambridge Soundworks table-top radio CD player, that support MP3s; love it). There were a few small user interface things that I thought could have been better. Like automatically putting my ripped MP3s into a folder hierarchy based on artist and album title. But all in all, I'm very pleased so far.
Rating: 
Summary: Do you want to be a beta tester?
Review: I am running XP; I bought Pyro 2004 to replace Roxio because I liked the idea of an integrated package. However, there were problems from the start.
In "Record an Audio File" mode, Pyro unpredictably shut down when I hit stop play on an mp3, or when I tried to display an mp3 in the lower panel. In some cases it generated an error message.
I contacted product support; this is what they told me to do: 1. You'll need to uninstall Pyro 2004 or MediaWorks. Remove all
shortcuts also. 2. Click the Windows Start button and select Run. At the prompt type
REGEDIT and click OK. 3. Backup your Registry before making edits - you do this by clicking
the Registry menu, Export Registry File. 4. Now delete the following Registry keys
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cakewalk Music
Software\"MediaWorks"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cakewalk Music
Software\"MediaWorks" If you have "Pyro 2004" instead of "MediaWorks" delete that folder
instead. 5. To ensure that other programs are not interfering with the
operation of MW or Pyro, do the following. * turn off auto-insert notification for all of your CD drives (click
Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager)In XP, put a CD
in and select "Take No Action" and put a check where it says "Always
Take this Action."
In Win 98/ME/XP, choose Start | Run and type MSCONFIG. Click OK, then
click on the Startup tab at the upper right of the window that opens.
Uncheck all items listed, click OK, then restart your computer. You
can always recheck those items again at a later time. In Win 2000,
click Ctrl+Alt+Del and manually End Task on the items you don't need
running. Restart 6. If you have Adaptec Direct CD, Napster or Roxio's GoBack, make sure
you uninstall or disable them temporarily. Also temporarily uninstall
any other burning software on your machine. Now reinstall Cakewalk. Other mp3 burners do not need this much nursing; Roxio and Xing work perfectly out of the box.
I'll probably have to go through this procedure, since I won't get my money back. If I'd known then what I know now...
Rating:
Summary: VERY LAME
Review: I am very unsatisfied with this program. I have many mp3 files, some a couple hours in length.This program only reconizes about fifty percent of them. This program is going in the garbage.
Rating:
Summary: Not that easy to use
Review: I bought this as an upgrade from Pyro 2003 which worked very well. I found the 2004 version to be less user friendly so far and not any faster than Pyro 2003. At least it works better than the Roxio CD Creater 5 did! I mostly burn CDs from MP3 and LPs and it works fairly well for that.
Rating:
Summary: Might be good, but BIG installation problems
Review: I bought this program after reading reviews of several products. Maybe it's the best thing since sliced bread, but I couldn't get it installed. I called and e-mailed Cakewalk's tech support, and after 5 tries I gave up. I have a new machine running Windows XP, and even though the program is supposed to be compatible, it isn't. I've since heard from several would-be users who have had similar problems. I don't know what to recommend instead of this program, but unless you're willing to pay a high price in frustration, get something else.
Rating:
Summary: DOA
Review: I bought this program three days ago, 7/12/2004. I just bought a brand new computer with XP, and a CDRW Drive, and a DVDRW drive came standard with the computer. PYRO 2004 keeps telling me my computer has no rewritable drives installed, so I go to the cakewalk website to download the new drivers list so it will recognize at least one of my drives, and still no sucess. The only way to get support for this product is through E-Mail. Three days and I'm still waiting. I will never buy a cakewalk product again. They use to be good with music programs.
Rating:
Summary: Love it
Review: I don't understand all the hate for this product. I admit it has a learning curve. But once you get all the details down it works just grand. This years version also lets you burn on CD/RW disc which makes it even better than last years version that I thought was just as good. The sound reproduction is the best i've heard. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is the learnig curve. Otherwise im very happy with pyro 2004.
Rating:
Summary: not user-friendly and insufficient tech support: DO NOT BUY!
Review: I had the same experience as the person who had to go into regedit and tweak stuff to get this puppy to work. And then they won't give support over the phone -- only by email! Originally I was going to buy Roxio, but was successfully sidetracked by the cheaper price of Pyro. Ooops. I'm going to the computer store where I bought this thing to buy a copy of Roxio or Xing.
I'm giving it one star here because they won't let me give it none.
Rating:
Summary: Never got it to work
Review: I had the same installation problems. THe program would install and I could open it, but nothing worked. I couldn't play any audio file. I just got the same error message that the file could not be opened. Emailing customer support gets very old. I tried to jump through the hoops but could never fix the problem. I'll likely give it to my sister for Christmas and hope she has better luck with it on her PC
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