Music Creator 2003

Rating:
Summary: Excellent MIDI and audio interface
Review: I bought it thinkin' that it would help me with my band and stuff, but it needs to be alot more simpler. I think the MIDI and the Audio part need to be separated more. I can't get any sound to come through my speakers!
Shock on,
SeAwEeD

Rating:
Summary: Very impressive MIDI program
Review: I bought this program to record songs on my computer and to record more than one track to a song. when I first brought it home it was a little hard to use but after about two days it was so easy. I am able to make awesome songs and the sound quality coming from the instuments is good. It hardy ever screws up or breaks down, its reliable, its easy and its fun. For the price its the best MIDI program out there and you can always trust cakewalk, belive me even if you are just a beginner get this.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent MIDI composer with great feature set
Review: I decided to buy this in the "PC Music Pack" version because I needed a midi to pc cable. I was impressed with it and began using it exclusively. Compared to other software at this price range, this is the best. It is in fact a lite version of Sonar, which will run you $400. This is a good way to start learning to use Sonar and recording. The included synths are great if you have an Oxygen8 or other MIDI controller. You can use Livesynth for more pro sounding instruments, but between Edirol and Dreamstation, you will be busy. The MIDI effects, like arpegiator and echo delay are great and realistic. I'm still making new Dreamstation sounds. Music Lab products work great, I use Slicy Drummer. There are a few extra steps than when you use sonar, you need to add an audio track and the DXi as an effect, then select that in the midi out, whereas in sonar you click "insert synth." I think the pro version fixes this now. I found the only setback was the limited amount of effects, but the effects included are good and usually the ones I use most. I have tried Sonar and this basically has everyhting I used in Sonar. Now for $39 I am upgrading to Music Creator Pro, which has the 24-bit capability and some improvements, so I highly recommend this and the upgrade. For a total of $70, I will essentially have everything I need for pro recording, and when I can purchase Sonar 3, I can open my files and work with the unlimited effects and production even further, but I will be able to produce what I need with CMC Pro and Sound Forge Studio XP.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I was told it would be
Review: I had asked the salesman at the Best Buys what software would let me record LP's and cassette tapes into my computer for playback and burning to CD's. He sold me this Music Creator 2003 and when I tried to use it it turned out to be a complete waste of my thirty bucks! I kept getting asked to specify a MIDI output and found out it wouldnt accept the one on my VAIO with XP. I was also rudely informed I would have to buy yet another software from 12Tones to get closer to my purpose of buying this in the first place.
I am forced to rate it as one star when it actualy earns a minus one.
If you want to record your LP's and cassettes into your computer and play them on it or put them on a CD, FORGET this "stuff"!
Buy a stand-alone CD recorder!

Rating:
Summary: Do Not Recommend for Use with Windows XP
Review: I just bought this product a few days ago, and based on anticipation from everyone's reviews I was so excited about it. Then, when I got home to install it, the nightmare bagan.

My computer is a top of the line Dell Preformance PC and I have never had problems with any of my configurations. That said, the first problem began with an issue with DirectX Version 9. The program is set up to use with DirectX 8.1 which, as you may or may not know, is not compatible with Windows XP. I have DirectX 9 installed (which is designed especially for XP and a much better version). At any rate, I kept getting error messages everytime I loaded the install program, and it would tell me that the program was installing and would restart, but would never actually install. So I tried to call customer service and that was a joke, some ill-thought hours from 10am-3pm EST or therebout. So I tried the website and found a patch. Note that at this point, I haven't even seen the program interface yet and I've already had to download a patch.

Finally I got the program up and running only to find that now I can play music and sound on all of my applications, but Music Creator 2003 won't play any sound at all. I checked the troubleshooting guide in both the manual and the help files and the only thing it came back with was 'check your speaker connections and restart your computer' and 'your sound card is not properly installed, please remove the card and try to re-install the device driver'. So I'm currently at a standstill because I can't even get through to technical support due to the awkward hours.

I gave this product 2 stars because I hate to not give it any, with such good reviews it must be good (once you get it functioning properly I mean). Honestly, I expected much more, especially for being a byproduct of Sonar also by Cakewalk, which is truly and amazing program although it costs near the $300 mark for the full registered version.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I was hoping for at all...
Review: I just wanted something I could write music with. I can't read music but I can lay down tracks with a computer that sound almost as good as anything commercially available. The interface on this is not intuitive, it's not easy to use, and I'm sorry I got it.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I was hoping for at all...
Review: I just wanted something I could write music with. I can't read music but I can lay down tracks with a computer that sound almost as good as anything commercially available. The interface on this is not intuitive, it's not easy to use, and I'm sorry I got it.

Rating:
Summary: If you run XP, stay away...
Review: This is the best program I have ever seen for music. Not only can I create sheet music of songs I have written I can also create accompanyment CDs for any song I have sheet music for. It is well worth the cost of it.

Rating:
Summary: Blown away!
Review: This thing is very impressive! I've been able to put together some serious music using the built in software synthesizers and loops, then plugging in a mic to my sound card. It never seems to run out of tracks so I can keep adding new ideas to my songs. It's a snap. The design is nicely laid out and there are a still a boatload of features that I haven't even touched yet. I won't be changing my virtual music studio anytime soon. Nice job Cakewalk!