Rating: 
Summary: Raises the bar for its price point
Review: For those with a modest sound card and a modest budget, there is hardly any difference between HS2002 and Sonar, its much-praised big brother. The old HS only let you play back 8 audio tracks. 2002 offers unlimited tracks. The ability to use Acid-style techniques is revolutionary. HS2002 sounds better, even if not used in the new 24-bit mode. And the effects bundled with 2002 are much better than those that came with HS9, especially the EQ. The analog synth that comes with it is not real exciting, but the mono synth that can be downloaded free from Cakewalk's website right now is great!
This is a serious product, and if you are the type of person who tends to work alone, someone who does not need more than two simultaneous inputs and outputs, you may never miss the extra features in Sonar. With the level of power this product has, I would be hard-pressed to think of ways to make it easier or more intuitive to use.
My only complaint: I only recently upgraded from HS9, so maybe I'm missing something, but I cannot find a way to set it up so that double-clicking on an audio clip takes you into an edit window. Now it opens the acid loop window. It appears that the main window functions as the edit window as well. This slows you down, having to keep zooming in and out all the time to edit. In addition to music, I use HS for sound design and editing, so I really miss this feature. Other than that, a very worthwhile upgrade. UPDATE: I have not bought it yet, but the new HS 2004 is even better. You can now record more than two tracks at once (8 simultaneous tracks in '04, I think), which makes it a great upgrade if you want to record a group of musicians, or dump a ADAT session into the computer. It can run in 24/96 mode, and I think you can use more plug-ins and aux sends than in 2002. I plan to upgrade later this year and will offer my comments at that time.
Rating:
Summary: I keep finding more stuff it can do!
Review: Great product. I bought HS2002 in November 2001 and have since upgraded to the XL version. It is very VERY deep, but also quite intuitive once you have learned the interface. I agree with one reviewer who said that if you work solo, you won't miss much in choosing HS2002 over SONAR (there are some things - SONAR has more effects, more synths, better groove quantizing -- but most of these limits can be overcome with free or low-cost DX plug-ins -- ... If you need more than two simulataneous audio inputs, you need SONAR (and more hardware too). I'm a singer/songwriter (mainly guitar, some keys), and I've done a lot of home demos and even started to use HS2002 as a writing tool, playing with loops and drum tracks. I have a MIDIman "AudioBuddy" and a dbx 286 microphone processor for getting audio in, a cheap Casio keyboard and MIDIsport 2x2 for MIDI in/out. Pretty basic, but I can get some decent sounds on a good day (my skill, patience, and creativity are the limits, not so much the tools). ... Cakewalk provides great value with this product. It is close enough to SONAR (exactly the same interface) that books such as SONAR POWER (Scott Garigus) are very useful, but if you go through some tutorials and play around, you will be making music before you know it. Very powerful, excellent integration of MIDI and audio, reasonably easy to learn and used. P.S. Right now I'm learning to program drums in MIDI and just discovered the "percussion" staff in the Staff view of HS2002. I like this better than piano rolls for programming drum parts. I discovered it also has guitar chord diagrams in the staff view. After a year, I'm still finding useful new stuff!
Rating:
Summary: I keep finding more stuff it can do!
Review: Great product. I bought HS2002 in November 2001 and have since upgraded to the XL version. It is very VERY deep, but also quite intuitive once you have learned the interface. I agree with one reviewer who said that if you work solo, you won't miss much in choosing HS2002 over SONAR (there are some things - SONAR has more effects, more synths, better groove quantizing -- but most of these limits can be overcome with free or low-cost DX plug-ins -- ... If you need more than two simulataneous audio inputs, you need SONAR (and more hardware too). I'm a singer/songwriter (mainly guitar, some keys), and I've done a lot of home demos and even started to use HS2002 as a writing tool, playing with loops and drum tracks. I have a MIDIman "AudioBuddy" and a dbx 286 microphone processor for getting audio in, a cheap Casio keyboard and MIDIsport 2x2 for MIDI in/out. Pretty basic, but I can get some decent sounds on a good day (my skill, patience, and creativity are the limits, not so much the tools). ... Cakewalk provides great value with this product. It is close enough to SONAR (exactly the same interface) that books such as SONAR POWER (Scott Garigus) are very useful, but if you go through some tutorials and play around, you will be making music before you know it. Very powerful, excellent integration of MIDI and audio, reasonably easy to learn and used. P.S. Right now I'm learning to program drums in MIDI and just discovered the "percussion" staff in the Staff view of HS2002. I like this better than piano rolls for programming drum parts. I discovered it also has guitar chord diagrams in the staff view. After a year, I'm still finding useful new stuff!
Rating: 
Summary: Excelent value and Help files, + using "Acid Loops" +++
Review: I am in 180 degrees of opposition to the "sour grapes" reviews. Having read the review after ordering I was worried. However haveing spent just a day with it my concerns are gone. There is an adequate "Getting Started Guide" with many tutorials and EXCELENT on-line Help with on-line interactive tutorials, (Guys ...Help will tell you why you have an "out of memory" error and how to (hint,OPTIONS-MIDI DEVICES)fix it. For Drum loops use "Fruity Loops" (on the CD). The very first tutorial shows where the "record" button is:) The on-line "Help" will educate you as far as you can reasonably expect. Cakewalk is as competent a sequencer as any individual musician could possibly need. It may not be as "intuative" as you like, however as I work though the on-line tutoials, they are very complete and easy to understand. Being an X amiga guy I find Cakewalk reminiscent of Bars & Pipes Pro, which I really enjoyed.
Rating:
Summary: Fantanstic Program!- And Inexpensive Too!
Review: I am new to using my home PC to make digital recordings. Cakewalk Home Studio 2002 is the only recording software I have and it works great! I have a Dell Dimension 8200 computer and am running Windows XP. I agree with other reviews of this product that once you go through the provided tutorials, it's a cinch. Plus, the controls and toolbars of Home Studio make sense and are quite intuitive. The contextual help and help references are quite good. I am using an M-Audio Omni Studio with a M-Audio Delta 66 sound card and everything works great! I was pleased when the software recognized the sound card immediately after installation. I think my learning curve on Cakewalk Home Studio 2002 may have been positively influenced by my previous experience with using a 4-track, tape-based unit (Tascam Portastudio 414). Plus the toolbars remind me of the ones in AutoCAD 2000. Because the icons make sense (e.g., two small metronome buttons- one with a red square that sounds during recording and one with a black triangle that sounds during playback), the software is easier to learn. For the money, I don't think you can beat this package. I am a guitarist (classical, jazz, folk), so it may be a while before I get around to exploring all of the MIDI-type features. I think the track view is great for recording and the console view is great for mixing- very straightforward and convenient. I love that I can make MP3 files and send them as email attachments to my music loving friends. The only bummer I've encountered so far is that the MP3 encoder is only a trial one and if you want to keep it, you have to spend an additional $29.
Rating:
Summary: Fantanstic Program!- And Inexpensive Too!
Review: I am new to using my home PC to make digital recordings. Cakewalk Home Studio 2002 is the only recording software I have and it works great! I have a Dell Dimension 8200 computer and am running Windows XP. I agree with other reviews of this product that once you go through the provided tutorials, it's a cinch. Plus, the controls and toolbars of Home Studio make sense and are quite intuitive. The contextual help and help references are quite good. I am using an M-Audio Omni Studio with a M-Audio Delta 66 sound card and everything works great! I was pleased when the software recognized the sound card immediately after installation. I think my learning curve on Cakewalk Home Studio 2002 may have been positively influenced by my previous experience with using a 4-track, tape-based unit (Tascam Portastudio 414). Plus the toolbars remind me of the ones in AutoCAD 2000. Because the icons make sense (e.g., two small metronome buttons- one with a red square that sounds during recording and one with a black triangle that sounds during playback), the software is easier to learn. For the money, I don't think you can beat this package. I am a guitarist (classical, jazz, folk), so it may be a while before I get around to exploring all of the MIDI-type features. I think the track view is great for recording and the console view is great for mixing- very straightforward and convenient. I love that I can make MP3 files and send them as email attachments to my music loving friends. The only bummer I've encountered so far is that the MP3 encoder is only a trial one and if you want to keep it, you have to spend an additional $29.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing buy
Review: I feel i must express my opinions about Cakewalk Home Studio 2002. This is the best studio for home recording.... but i would like to clarify something. this is not for beginner musicians. this is a very technical product that is easy to use if u have used a cakewalk product before. recording audio and midi so easily is so amazing in this product. you get a bunch of loop writing programs to install as well. for the money this is an excellent but if you are a cakewalk user and an experienced musician
Rating:
Summary: Very good software
Review: I have a full review below. Just wanted to add something else. Home Studio XL in Windows 2000 gives annoying little problems that force you to stop your flow (in some cases for as long as 5 minutes when it crashes and you let windows 2000 sort everything out on its own). Every problem in the full review pertains to working in windows 2000. However, on windows 98, its smooth sailing. I never had a problem with it while working in Windows 98.
Rating:
Summary: Very good software
Review: I have a full review below. Just wanted to add something else. Home Studio XL in Windows 2000 gives annoying little problems that force you to stop your flow (in some cases for as long as 5 minutes when it crashes and you let windows 2000 sort everything out on its own). Every problem in the full review pertains to working in windows 2000. However, on windows 98, its smooth sailing. I never had a problem with it while working in Windows 98.
Rating: 
Summary: So far, not so good
Review: I have been plugging away at this darn program for over two days and I still haven't recorded anything! The user's manual is of no use and nothing seems to make sense. There is seemingly nothing intuitive about this program at all. Perhaps once I have figured it out, I will feel differently. But for now I am simply frustrated. I have no HD recording experience and this seemed like a good way to get into it. I think I was wrong. I have downloaded trial versions of other Cakewalk products and Sonic Foundry programs. They seemed to work fine. So why is this program so rotten? And then when I try to apply effects, it says I am out of memory. But I have TONS of memory! I am unable to record onto a second track without recording the first one on to it also, but there is no logical explanation as to why this is happening and how I can resolve it in the user's guide. At this point, I can't recommend this program, which is very disappointing. Hopefully in time, this will change. But I think you're money would be better spent elsewhere. Maybe this is why Cakewalk doesn't have a demo version on the site.
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