Customer Reviews

Cakewalk Music Creator 3

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I purchased this software about 2 weeks ago, and I have to say that it is far superior to any other product in its price range. I will admit that it's not nearly as intuitive as they say it is, but the learning curve (to me) isn't that steep. I say that with some reservations, because I went to school for media production and probably have a little better knowledge base to work from than the average beginner. To make matters more difficult, Cakewalk products have (from my experience) always had very poorly written manuals. With Music Creator, they seem to have made an effort to improve in that area. It's the first Cakewalk manual I've seen that actually has screenshots of whatever the particular topic is. Thank heaven for small favors.

To avoid experiences like the other reviewers apparently had, I would recommend the following

1. Buy the boxed version instead of the download from the website. Yes, it's ten bucks more and you have to pay for shipping, but with the boxed version, you do get a manual (with pictures, no less) as well as a separate CD of video tutorials, plus some other extras. Do the CD tutorials first. If you get stuck after that, the info in the Help section makes alot more sense.

2. If you don't have a background in recording, get yourself a home recording how-to book. There's millions of them out there, and they can be extremely useful if you don't really have an understanding of the jargon. One thing about Cakewalk is that they say you don't have to have any experience to use their products, but somehow they assume that you're familiar with the terminology.

If you're just looking for some backing tracks to jam along with, or drag and drop MIDI sequencing, this will do the job, but is probably alot more than you need. If you're like me and are looking for an all-in-one solution that can take a song from the melody knocking around in your head to a finished, mastered product on CD or MP3 (and you don't have the cash for ProTools or Reason) this might be just what you're looking for.

Help files are not helpful, nothing's intuitive. I have to keep notes for myself just to find out what things do.
This is NOT for impatient jammers who just want to plug in some chords and have everything magically play!
Songs have to be constructed, slowly, painfully, and without any real help.
Overall, I wouldn't reccommend it for beginners. Intermediate writers with a good general knowledge of MIDI and notation will find it useful. Professionals will use Sebalius or Finale or Apple's product.
I like it because it's CHEAP, and gets the job DONE if you're patient enough to fumble around for days or weeks. You get what you PAY for, and for me, this is fine.

If you love MS Paint but hate Photoshop don't buy this software. Cakewalk is not for people who want the software to do everything for them. This software replaced all my music gear and an old $250 version of Cakewalk. I now do not have to pull out my synth modules, drum machine, and digital recorder anymore. This does it all. I am totally blown away by what you get and the price you get it for. Yes, I am old school. I do actually create and modify the music. I do know what midi is and how it works. I did spend a little time learning the software. This software is not for wimps. It needs to be learned and it is not that difficult.

The only thing I need to let you know that the internal synths do not sync with external but that was expected. There is a time lag between internal and external; realize that the computer has to do more math for the internal to work. No big deal. Just use the internal or nudge the track to make it sync.

Cakewalk"s advertisement saying something like..." no experience needed to operate this software..." is, in my mind, mis-leading at least and a down right lie at most. I've had it now for about three weeks, work on it most days, usually in the middle of the night so I can really concentrate on it, and still cant get anything out of it.
All I wanted was some backing tracks for my acoustic guitar work...blues, pop, country....so far nothing and I am thinking about giving up.
I can operate a computer but this skill has nothing to do with this most confusing piece of junk I have ever seen.
BEWARE...unless your a recording engineer you probably will be disapointed.

If you are new to creating music on computer, and just want to delve lightly into the process, stay far away from any software developed by this company. Newbies beware - never venture here! I am not, nor will I ever be, a high-end user like the other reviewers. I produce multimedia not music. I just need straightforward tools to create music for presentations (so I can quit buying readymade music/MIDI clips). Unfortunately (?), I used my child's MAC and Garage Band before using Cakewalk. I was tainted by instructions that made sense, an intuitive software interface, and music actually coming out of the computer.

I agree that this product isn't warranted the bad reviews. It comes with a tutorial disc, and you still may not figure out everything, but be patient. It may not be the software for newbies...as I might buy Sony ACID for that, but it's good. Just make sure you know what you're getting into.

This thing is a nightmare. First, it is impossible to understand unless you already know how to run some other comparable system. Next, it requires a huge amount of fiddling with buffers (believe me -- read the help files on this, which are huge and suggest ten different things to do when your music doesn't sound good, and trust me, it won't, either before or after unlimited tweaking). Finally, it actually does not export as it says it does. It lost my files, including one song I cannot quite reproduce (gone forever). Bottom line: If your idea of fun is spending two weeks of vacation fiddling with software that does not work and will never work, then by all means, buy this garbage. I have been using computers since 1985, and this is, I think, the worst single product I've ever seen. On the other hand, if you want to actually make music, you might want to try Sony's ACID Pro 6, which you can try out for free (the company thinks you'll like it, whereas the sadists at Cakewalk must know perfectly well that you won't, hence no demo).

My main beef is that one cannot do wave edits like Audacity or Magix deluxe, by simply highlighting parts of the wave form, or maybe you can but it's burried somewhere. I didn't buy it for midi making, I was looking for more of a cheaper alternative to Magix deluxe, which is so much easier to use. I don't even think I can adjust the track's volume while it's playing w/ Cakewalk, and it comes w/ a stupid mp3 encoder on a 30 day trial period.?!?! Has anyone in the universe ever PAID for an mp3 encoder??? People w/ processors and drum machines, might like this, but those looking to do some real recording, w/ non-midi devices will most likely hate this and feel ripped off.

I needed to buy this product for an online class I was taking, and finished every project that I had to do using this software. I know this is not the top of the line software, but it was great learning some basic tutorials and concepts. When I went to Best Buy to ask for it, the guys there looked at me twice, basically wondering why I was purchasing such an inferior product.

For the price, however, compared to some of the other music software they had, I did not mind. The interface can be improved A LOT, as it was difficult in the beginning to figure out what I was doing. The tutorials are ok, but I wish there were video tutorials for some of the lessons and more of the terms were defined for those who are not experts already

Customers who are complaining about this product did not take the time out to read the back of the box, and to watch the video tutorials that come with the program. This was my first DAW (digital audio workstation), and thanks to this program, I was able to jump to Sonar Producer Edition, which is much more complicated, without a hitch. I learned recording basics in music creator, and now am working along industry professionals. It is a full recording and production program, so if your expecting it to magically make music for you, it's not for you. If you want to learn how to record like the pros and start off with a program that doesn't have all the bells and whistles that the big boys do (i.e. pro tools, Sonar) then this is for you. It comes with everything those programs offer, but in stripped down versions. Again, it is a recording program primarily, where you can record your instruments, a midi keyboard or vocals, and mix them accordingly afterwards. For the impatient beginners, you have to learn to make music before you record it on a program like this one, last I checked, there aren't any grammy winners out there who won because they knew how to push a button, so stop the complaints people.