Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time...
Review: ... The packaging is very deceptive on this issue, and you've got to read very closely on the inside flap (one phrase, in parenthesis, and small print) to discover that despite at least 11 references to MP3's plastered all over the box, you can't really do anything useful to your MP3's with this software if you want to still listen to them as MP3's. Consider this stetement, in large white type one the front: "Digitize and enhance audio from LP's, CD's, cassettes, MP3's, etc." or this statement on the back: "Vinyls, cassettes, MP3 files, and your favorite CD tracks - MAGIX music cleaning lab 3.0 automatically makes everything shine." ...
Rating:
Summary: Magix should be embarassed by this scam...
Review: Audio Cleaning Lab does a good, but basic, job of recording and cleaning up old LPs (the reason I bought it). If you're willing to accept the builtin wizards recommendations for the cleaning functions, it's also quite easy and intuitive.Editing, on the other hand, was less intuitive and at times tedious. The two most basic editing functions - cropping at either end and fade in/out - are OK, but manually touching up a cut is not. The quality of the files produced seems good. Now for the bad... despite being plastered all over the ads and the box that MP3s can be read AND WRITTEN, you can only save 20 files before you're forced to pay for an upgrade. Of course, you can save as .WAVs and use the free utility CDEx to do the conversions, this is inconvenient and I'm suspicious you may lose a little quality. I find this behavior despicable and can NOT recommend software by a company that treats its customers like this.
Rating: 
Summary: Good basic software - bad company
Review: Audio Cleaning Lab does a good, but basic, job of recording and cleaning up old LPs (the reason I bought it). If you're willing to accept the builtin wizards recommendations for the cleaning functions, it's also quite easy and intuitive. Editing, on the other hand, was less intuitive and at times tedious. The two most basic editing functions - cropping at either end and fade in/out - are OK, but manually touching up a cut is not. The quality of the files produced seems good. Now for the bad... despite being plastered all over the ads and the box that MP3s can be read AND WRITTEN, you can only save 20 files before you're forced to pay for an upgrade. Of course, you can save as .WAVs and use the free utility CDEx to do the conversions, this is inconvenient and I'm suspicious you may lose a little quality. I find this behavior despicable and can NOT recommend software by a company that treats its customers like this.
Rating: 
Summary: Basic audio cleanup is easy with this, but
Review: Basic audio cleanup is easy with this, but if you want detailed cleanup this wouldn't be your editor of choice. I've had good results from Cleaning Lab 3.0 (I'm putting my vinyl albums on cd). The problem is that you have to choose one entry per filter. For example, if you have to remove two kinds of hiss, you have to remove one hiss, then export the file with the filter on, import the file you just exported, then go on to your other hiss filter. I have created some superb cd's from this package, but have had to invest a lot of time to get the results I want. I'm now looking into more professional packages. For the money this is a very good buy, especially if you can live with the quality of the basic preset filters, which is really very good overall.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful Tool for Cleaning Old Audio
Review: I have used Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0 on two projects so far: to clean and digitally master a noisy, twenty-year-old recording of an interview with my great aunt; and to transfer an album (also twenty years old) from cassette to CD. My verdict: Audio Cleaning Lab is an excellent tool, albeit with a few quirks and one notable flaw. The quality of the original interview recording -- made on a cheap, portable cassette recorder -- was awful. Some of it was virtually inaudible. Although Audio Cleaning Lab couldn't polish it enough to make it sound like a studio-quality recording, it did eliminate considerable hiss and hum, allowing barely audible portions to become understandable. It also turned the flat mono into a more-expansive sounding stereo signal. The final recording did exhibit a subtle electronic quality, but overall it was much improved. The album, from an off-beat group called Daniel Amos, was a label-produced cassette. Of course, twenty years ago most recording companies used some of the cheapest-quality cassettes available for this purpose, so sound quality and durability were not the best. Even so, I eliminated virtually all tape hiss and brightened the somewhat flat sound quality. The result is a high-quality digital recording comparable to a present-day, commercially produced compact disc. There are a few quirks with Audio Cleaning Lab: produced by a German company, occasionally the English instructions are curiously worded, though almost always readily understandable. Some of the tools, such as the cutting tool, are a little difficult to work with. And the biggest flaw: its CD-burning functionality is incompatible with Adaptec/Roxio's DirectCD and other packet-writing applications, which are installed on many systems with CD burners. The workaround: either uninstall DirectCD or create all files as WAVs and then master them to CD in another application, such as Roxio's Easy CD Creator. Not a very satisfactory workaround. All in all, an excellent application with some room for improvement -- and room for a patch that will allow it to burn CDs _without_ uninstalling packet-writing software.
Rating: 
Summary: Recording not bad, but has it's problems...
Review: I recorded a cassette to put onto CD and the recording was quite good but I had endless problems trying to burn the stuff to CD. When I downloaded the Magix 'CD Profiler' their web site has to help with this, it completely crashed my computer and I had to pull out my recovery disks and lost everything on my C drive. Needs a little more work to make it professional I think...
Rating:
Summary: Recording not bad, but has it's problems...
Review: I recorded a cassette to put onto CD and the recording was quite good but I had endless problems trying to burn the stuff to CD. When I downloaded the Magix 'CD Profiler' their web site has to help with this, it completely crashed my computer and I had to pull out my recovery disks and lost everything on my C drive. Needs a little more work to make it professional I think...
Rating:
Summary: Great cleaner, the difference is obvious
Review: I used this product as a cleaner, not as a burner (yet). And as a cleaner, I used it manually only (no wizard yet). In the respect of cleaning, the results are really amazing. I recorded old songs from vynil disks played on a non-amplified turn-table. After normalizing the volume (which in fact magnified it several times), all the noise was increased tremendously and quality degraded badly. However, by using the cleaning tools in Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0, I was able to bring the songs to a good quality. Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0 saved me money freeing me from buying an amplifier! I observed though that the program fares better with music than with voice. When cleaning voice recordings the program provides quite mediocre performance. For music however, I think it is an excellent cleaner for the money.
Rating:
Summary: Magixal Deception Probably
Review: I'm surprised that [it] would advertise this product as being able to encode MP3. In fact the program will encode MP3 for 20 times. After that, the purchaser must spend $14.95 to unlock the encoding capability. [It] should mention this additional charge to prospective purchasers.
Rating: 
Summary: I love it!
Review: It was the perfect companion for saving my old records in the digital age. Very easy to use and fully automated. The mastered CD sounds better than the original vinyl! I love it!
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