Music Creator Pro 24

Rating:
Summary: Great features, but partially unusable, with terrible suppor
Review: I bought Music Creator Pro to create sound tracks for the video projects I've been putting together, and it's a very capable set of tools. The MIDI and recorded sound mixing, effects, and automation would be perfect for my application - if they worked. The description of the product on Cakewalk's web site is accurate, and the user interface is not very difficult to understand.

I installed the software on a fast Windows XP machine, and soon discovered that it would crash when the drum pattern paint tool was used. Cakewalk's tech support has been very slow in their responses, taking at least one day and sometimes more than four to respond. I still haven't received any help other than advice to reinstall the product (I did), make sure I have the latest drivers (I do), and delete a couple of configuration files (I did). The drum pattern tool still crashes the application, and in the course of working through the tutorials (the ones I can use) I have also discovered some features that appear to be globally disabled.

Two weeks after installing the product, I'm simultaneously very impressed with the features and capabilities, and very disappointed with the responsiveness of Cakewalk's tech support. If everything worked the way it was supposed to, I would probably rate Music Creator Pro with five stars.

[update]
It's now a month since purchase, and the software still does not work correctly. Cakewalk will not support this product by telephone. If you call their (non-toll-free) support number, you are told that they only support Music Creator Pro by email. They have failed to respond to either of my last two email messages, the first of which was sent two weeks ago.