Rating: 
Summary: Powerful tool, on a budget!
Review: I have read the review above from the guy who says that Cakewalk Home Studio stinks, and cannot disagree more. True, you do have to learn how to master the tool before it will perform optimally, but what's the alternative? You either learn how to do it, or pay someone to do it for you.
As a musical nerd/geek, I use Home Studio a LOT. I have produced my own music as well as that of others, and for the price you simply cannot beat it.
Unless you are a complete weiner, you should be able to figure out how to use the software. Go on, by the software and start recording...You know you want to!
Rating:
Summary: Tremendous product
Review: I have used this software for about 6 months now. Like any powerful software, at first it's confusing, but soon afterward, CakeWalk HS became my friend. The confusion, I believe is not so much the software per se, but rather the techno-music world. Simply, the software emulates real world editing hardware and uses real world terminology. For that reason, it uses jargon that most of us are not familiar with. Still, I would think any good music software would do the same, but this product is so inexpensive for it's power. A friend of mine has someware similar to this which cost him hundreds of dollars. He can't or doesn't do anymore than I can do. It will be years before you outgrow this software. You can't go wrong if you are serious about home music.
Rating:
Summary: Tremendous product
Review: I have used this software for about 6 months now. Like any powerful software, at first it's confusing, but soon afterward, CakeWalk HS became my friend. The confusion, I believe is not so much the software per se, but rather the techno-music world. Simply, the software emulates real world editing hardware and uses real world terminology. For that reason, it uses jargon that most of us are not familiar with. Still, I would think any good music software would do the same, but this product is so inexpensive for it's power. A friend of mine has someware similar to this which cost him hundreds of dollars. He can't or doesn't do anymore than I can do. It will be years before you outgrow this software. You can't go wrong if you are serious about home music.
Rating: 
Summary: Older versions of Cakewalk are better
Review: I just wanted to say that this program is very buggy and does many counterintuitive things that annoy you when you are using it. It just doesn't feel very solid overall. You can tell that the code they used has been around for awhile, with band-aids applied with each release, as opposed to just rewriting it.There are many visual artifacts that get left behind when moving notes, etc. I think there are way too many features in this program that bog it down and decrease its feel and efficiency. I had to use this version though, because Cakewalk Apprentice (which I really like) doesn't recognize my midi devices of the sblive in WinXP. It does do a few nice things, like put controllers right along with the piano roll, and gives many options when copying & pasting.
Rating:
Summary: Love the Program for the Inexpensive Cost!!
Review: I purchased Cakewalk HS2002 when it first came out. Yes at first it is confusing but you have to take the time to learn it as in most software you buy. I have a setup of guitar, bass guitar,keyboard all through a mixer to the software. I love it! It is really cool that at such a small price you can do so much and create your own cd's. I did purchase Scott Garrigus's book also for an extensive look into home recording. I love to create music and Cakewalk has made it affordable for me to do so. There is a lot that you can do for a home studio!
Rating:
Summary: difficult but outstanding
Review: I purchased this item in spite of the warnings about how difficult it was to learn. It is indeed difficult. The tutorials are detailed, but regretfully silent on some key issues. I had to search the web for solutions to some problems I had in getting it to run on my laptop computer. The solutions simply involved toggling some options in the pull down menus, but I'd never been able to stumble onto the fixes without investing a few hours in searching the web for advice. I still can't get the chorus and reverb options to work on the mixing board. Oh well. Nevertheless, there really isn't anything else like this product -- especially for the price.
Rating: 
Summary: Cakewalk Stinks-Save your money!
Review: I received my edition of Home Studio 2002 and it STINKS!! It's terrible, there aren't any clear cut instructions on how to record drum tracks, set up guitar tracks and add other mixes. The owner's manual is terrible, it doesn't explain anything. Sure, it's great to know how to do loops and punch tracks, but what good is that if I can't create any recordings. The online help manual isn't any better. Musicians want to concentrate on their music, not some complicated piece of software where you have to guess how to record. With all the music software programs out today, you would think Cakewalk would have userfriendly software. When I called Cakewalk's Tech-support line, they told me to buy an after market book which explains their program better than their owner's manual. Not to mention the book cost me $.... It has become apparent that the Homestudio 2002 is so confusing that books have been printed by others who are not associated with Cakewalk. If you do not have prior Cakewalk Homestudio experience, I urge you to please shop for another home studio software program. (Cakewalk will not return any merchandise once it's open)
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievably powerful for the money
Review: I've only been using HS 2002 for a few weeks and don't feel like I know it well enough to write a review but after reading the two negative (out of three) reviews here I felt compelled to offer this insight. Cakewalk has given away an incredible amount of power with this package for .... I think the problem here is that the name and relatively low price confuses inexperienced users into thinking they are buying something targeted at more casual users. This is serious software for serious amateur home recording musicians. Couple that with the fact that Cakewalk does a pretty poor job of documenting its software (they always have) and you get reviews like those you see here. What you need to know is that this software is a huge bargain, it is very powerful, and if you are willing to take the time to work with it and learn it you can do amazing things. It is NOT a toy for casual users.
Rating:
Summary: Use the Tutorials!
Review: If you want a product that you can use on the day you get it, look elsewhere. But if you take the time to go thru the tutorials
, you will have a powerful tool. And you can go to the tech support newsgroups at cakewalk.com if you have problems getting it installed. I use it mainly for digital audio, and I like looping my guitar licks thru Ampsim lite or revalver amplifier
simulator to here different sounds.They sound accurate to my ears
. I don't know much about midi, but it looks like HS2002 can do what you want it to.
Rating:
Summary: Great Starting point and Worthwhile Upgrade
Review: Man Cakewalk Home Studio 2002 comes up strong! Home Studio XL heads up:
If you're looking to purchase HS XL because of the DR-008SE (by FXpansion, then I suggest you don't. The DR-008SE is extremely buggy, and frequently (as in everyday) crashes and brings HS down with it.
-------------- DR-008se Elaboration -----------------------------
It's a terrible nuisance! Absolutely horrific that such software was packaged and sold. I think it was just an incentive to get people to buy the pro or full version - the DR-008. Also, if you've used the DR-08SE in a project, it always says that it cant find the audio file and you have to listen to this for EVERY wave file that is used by the DR-008SE. It doesn't take long to get sick of this. FXpansion offered no solution to this when i posted it on there message board back in November.
--------------------------------------------------------- Home Studio � for the Upgrading user
Awesome. I upgraded after being an expert with HS 7 (toot-toot). I think the new features I use the most are the Envelope which let you �draw� how certain parameters change over time, like volume (It�s a vast improvement over recording the parameter changes into the track as in HS 7), audio exporting, like to .wma, .wav, and .rm. In HomeStudio XL, you can export a limited number of .mp3 files with this trial software. Also, augmented in this version (at least from an ex-HS 7 user�s perspective) is the fine-grain time. A note used to have 120 places within a meter where it could be placed. Now it has (wait let me check�) 960! Funny, thing is, I�m so used to 120, that is difficult to get calibrated to 960 when reading the note start times. Ah, but HS is a sympathetic app and allows you to choose how fine you want the time to be. The gamut is from 120 � 960. I�ve been working with 360 lately. One of my favorite new features is Groove-Clip looping. With it, you can take any piece of audio (either recorded or imported into your project/song) and delimit it using a window that makes the audio part you�re looking for pretty easy to find. You adjust the beginning and the end of what you want looped over and over again in a non destructive manner until you�re sure you�ve gotten it (you can play the delimited audio from within the window to test your loop). Once you�re happy with it, you then lop off all the audio outside of what you want and what�s left is called your Groove-Clip. With your groove-clip all set up, you can extend or contract [by dragging] it in either direction (right or left) and it is looped over and over for the distance you finalized it at. MAGNIFICANT!! I use it for guitar parts that luckily come out right. The absolutely most used feature is something called, (um hold on a sec�) slip editing on MIDI clips. This allows you to silence notes without having to change there velocities to 1 or delete them. This is an INVALUABLE, and a Welcomed augmentation.
For some reason, they moved Normalize Audio, and 3db louder and quieter operations off of the context menu for audio and kept it in the Edit->Audio menu section. Home Studio for the New User
I have to assert that this is an excellent program for learning to compose with. It comes with tutorials that will get you up and running fast. The online help is very good too. I can�t say that there has been an instance where I couldn�t find what I wanted (not many anyway - I can say with certainty). Its user interface is so easy and it looks nice. You can mark parts of you�re song such as "Guitar Solo" or something) and navigate them quickly in 2 different ways. One takes you there immediately while the other steps you through marker by marker from where ever you start. Recording is like a 2 (setup and record) step process, which is good seeing as how you�ll be rerecording a lot. Recording can be stepped up and specialized at the cost of maybe 2-4 more steps that you only do 1 time for each Different time period of the song you try to record in. Most often I use punch-in recording when specialized recording is required. This allows recording only during a time period you set. You can also set whether to record over existing notes or in addition to them.
There is non-destructive editing of both audio and MIDI clips (clips are sections of notes or audio). You can import audio, export audio, and add effects to midi and audio tracks like a distortion to audio tracks that sound good. My only qualms
1-Sometimes Home Studio will playback at some awfully fast rate. Like if you recorded with the tempo at 100 bpm, then playback might be at like 600bpm. It�s a pain in the neck when that starts happening. I think that only happens when the sound card is �tired�, so you should probably give it rest then.
2-To get someone on the phone at tech support takes a long time. A LONG time. However, the person I dealt with was pleasant and put an honest effort into helping solve the problem with the Dr-008se. This review is probably a bit too long, so I�ll end it now. I highly recommend Home Studio or Home Studio XL. And when you buy yours, be sure to register it, so you can get spectacular deals from Cakewalk that not even auctions can rival � seriously! Once you use it, you�ll want to use it exclusively. I�ve tried Cubasis after knowing HS and it was an unpleasant experience. The only other software I would use instead of Home Studio is Sonar. But Home Studio gives me everything I need to put songs together.
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