Others say...

"More for computer midi people then multitrack musicians"
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.

"Great Product- Getting bad rap."
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.

"Possibly the worst software I've encountered"
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).

"Great software, but make sure this is what you need."
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.

"Newbie Beware"
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.