Cakewalk Music Creator 4 [OLD VERSION]

by Cakewalk

Product Features

• Professional audio quality up to 24-bit/48 kHz
• On screen mixer to seamlessly mix all your audio and MIDI tracks
• Create audio and MIDI tracks using any instrument, vocals, or audio loops
• Create backing tracks using included ACID format loop library
• Browse, preview and purchase additional audio loops right from Music Creator using built-in SamplePort plug-in

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000TME1IQ
• Item model number: 10-CWMC4.00-10C
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 13, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,583 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

Start making music right from your home computer with Music Creator 4. Just plug in and hit Record. No matter what you want to record-guitars keyboards vocals CD samples or any other sound source-Music Creator makes it easy to start making and recording music.Turn your musical dreams into polished professional recordings right from your home computer with Music Creator 4-no previous recording experience required. With Music Creator you get the tools instruments and effects you need to create record edit mix and promote your music in one integrated software solution. Creating music on your PC has never been easier more fun and more affordable.Features: Up to 160 total tracks (32 audio and 128 MIDI) Professional 24-bit audio quality Create backing tracks using included ACID™-format loop library Play and record using thousands of high-quality instrument sounds 25 studio effects including an Amp Simulator EQ Delay Compressor Reverb more On screen mixer to seamlessly mix all your audio and MIDI tracks Add more instruments and effects with support for DirectX VST and ReWire Built-in audio metronome and tuner Create and print your own musical scores and sheet music Create online music players of your songs to share on the Internet Create playlists and burn CDs for fans family and friendsFormat: WIN XPVISTA Genre: PRODUCTIVITY UPC: 787537064018 Manufacturer No: 10-CWMC4.00-10C

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do Not Purchase, January 28, 2008

By 

B. E. Moore "madbrad" (GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cakewalk Music Creator 4 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I have never published a review on Amazon , but in this case I felt duty bound considering how much I rely on the opinions expressed by others on this site.


The problems I had are as follows:

I have tried to be as accurate as possible. If I have misspoken on anything, it is because I tried to call customer support, a number found in the manual. After calling, a recording states that Cakewalk does not offer phone support for this product. I was directed to an email address that would answer my questions. Never heard back from anyone.

Poor Customer Support
Never replied to my emails.

Only Allows One Active Input
Most sound cards these days have more than one input. Although this product recognized all of my inputs (Example: Mic In, Line In), it only allows one input to be active. Activating another input requires that the user select the desired input and then shut down the application and restart it. Therefore, more than one input may not be active at one time. This means that you cannot record two tracks simultaneously in stereo. For example, you cannot sing into Mic 1 and have guitar recorded on Line In at the same time. This option is only available if you upgrade. There is no mention of this limitation on the package.

The Use Of Real Estate Is Poor
The interface for the track view requires you to expand the view for each track to view track details such as input and output. Its takes up way too much room and makes the view appear cluttered.

Non-Intuitive Concepts - Over-Complicated To Use
Example: In order to use the software based synth you would think that you would need one track to record the MIDI that has been assigned to output to a particular synthesizer.
However you need three tracks (Again consuming much real estate)
One track for the recording of midi with its output set to a synth.
One track to "hold" the synth with its input set to the Midi track and its output set to an output "bus".
One track to receive the output of the synth and the output set to a wave file destination.

What-You-Hear Is Not Necessarily What-Is-Exported
After creating a short song that sounded ok, I decided to export.
The exported wave file sounded great but had no drums. After much reading I figured out that the midi out was being sent to a synth on my sound card. The only way I figured out to play drums was to use the included software based synth which required building a tedious drum map.


Conclusion
The cost is cheap considering the features. But then you realize this is really an up-sale vehicle. That is, you are almost certainly going to pay to upgrade if you want to record anything serious.

There are better products on the market.

If you are a beginner, this is a hard program to use. I have been mutlitrack recording for over 20 years and if I had problems understanding how to run this application, you certainly will.

Felt cheated because the manual states that more than one instrument can be recorded at the same time but found this not to be true.

Have heard about Cakewalk for years but upon finally trying one of their products, was very disappointed.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great program for the price, December 3, 2007

By 

B. White "note finger" (Carmel, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cakewalk Music Creator 4 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

This is a great program and it only cost $35! Also they give you free video training. The program GUI looks good and is logically laid out. I don't need a big giant program yet. I just want something that I can record a few guitar tracks and the MC-4 is perfect and it is great training if you do wish to move up to a more full featured program. For the low price you get a lot of bang for your duck.
An interface is needed to get your music instruments and mics into the computer. I use a Eurorack MX-802 mixer going into an M-audio Firewire Solo. The M-audio box comes with Abelton music program which is much more expensive then the MC-4 but I prefer the Cakewalk program.
I can record 1 stereo track or 2 mono at once. That's fine for me. Maybe a guitar to USB cable if all that's needed is one guitar. I also have a midi keyboard (Creative Prodikeys DM)also going into the program.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Photoshop of Computer Music!, October 6, 2008

By 

Erol Esen (Liverpool, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cakewalk Music Creator 4 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Wow! What an amazing product for the price. Dozens of channels; uncountable musical instruments; formal music notation; guitar strings that look real; piano keys; export to WAV files...and on and on seemingly never ending feature list--OMG!

Now, like myself, you may not have a fancy MIDI device hooked up to your computer. You may spend sometime trying to figure out how to playback your composition. Here is a useful set of instructions:

Step 1: select "Insert" menu option
Step 2: select "Soft Synths" menu option
Step 3: select "Cakewalk TTS-1" menu option

Now you can play the notes and hear them with your headphone.

Enjoy!