MAGIX Music Maker 2014 Premium [Download]

If you check the prices of such DAWs as Ableton Live, and other professional DAWs, they can cost around eight hundred dollars or even more. This product actually comes close for considerably less. There is very little this cannot do. It is extraordinarily complete. For example, if you do orchestrations and symphonic work, you would be surprised to see this even has a contrabassoon. Not only does it have it, it has three contrabassoons! It also has a great assortment of synths and other instruments. But there are a few important ones missing. There is no harpsichord(that surprised me) and no dulcimer(don't laugh! That instrument provides a wealth of unusual and interesting sounds). It also has no pipe organ. How could they leave out the "king of instruments"(I inserted a few pipe organ plugins)? But even though this is at the higher end of completeness, I would still say it is relatively easy to use, certainly easier than Ableton. The plugin feature is one of the easiest I have seen and it pulls in your plugins very smoothly, which compensates for its lack of some instruments. It even gives them an icon list. It has an enormous number of effects, as well. For example, it has the best vocoder I have ever used, I have never heard one like it(that alone is worth the price of the whole thing!). It cannot convert midi to musical notation(Mixcraft pro can), unfortunately, nor can it slice audio to midi(Ableton can; also, this actually comes close since it slices audio in the pitch correction feature which resembles the piano roll, but you can't copy or otherwise extract the discrete data). Because it is very plugin friendly, this is a great, inexpensive addition to other DAWs(the simplicity, great tutorials, and great instruments of Acoustica Mixcraft Pro make it one of the best to combine with this, as well as the fact that Mixcraft has a similar conceptual approach), since it can share their features.Additional features include video editing(no tutorials on the video feature!) and some impressive automation ability(automation appears in several places, so be sure to hunt around for all of it). It can even automate the Surround Sound center in two dimensions! And, of course, it can produce Surround Sound.I suggest you purchase the DVD version, since it will come with an extra DVD of 6000 sound samples that you can use on ANY computer(the download is only good on one computer). The Soundpool DVD will let you save any file(or all files if you want something like 17 gigs on your drive) so you won't need to load the DVD each time. There is also another free download of 1000 samples you get by clicking on the Catooh button(a little below and to the right of the clock) with the enclosed coupon code(on the same card as the serial number). You have to select the download that costs around ten dollars and then enter the coupon code(this code is actually case sensitive, you use the caps; very strange) which will bring the cost down to zero. It then goes into your cart and you then download it(be sure to wade through those steps; it is confusing; such is the world of digital audio!).There is yet another free download! When you see the Welcome panel when you first open the program, notice at the top left of the panel there is a button to download an additional add-on. It is straight forward(if anything in this business is straightforward!).The biggest drawback of this is the lack of documentation, especially tutorials. It has a pretty good PDF manual, but it is not very explicit. There is a Magix Youtube channel with some good tutorials, but they are either basic or specialized; they don't cover the full gamut of features(by comparison, that is a strength of Mixcraft which has exhaustive tutorials that are easy to understand; Ableton also has quite a few, but Ableton still remains treacherous to fully comprehend). Interestingly, while there are other providers of Music Maker tutorials on Youtube, I have yet to find anyone who seems to understand all of the features(other than Magix employees, but, as I said, they don't go into all of the features in their tutorials). But eventually, you can figure this DAW out. I have not hit any walls yet, but it is a challenge.For the price, this is a must-have!Let me add one more important point. While instrument plugins are easy, effect plugins are a bit mysterious but are possible. You place all of your plugins in your own plugin folder(I keep mine on my desktop). You also put your effect plugins in this folder, but if you look in this folder through the plugin browser, it will be invisible! To use the effect, as long as you put it in your plugin folder and there is already a path to that folder(the path should be set in the program settings under "folders" and then "Add VST plugin path), you open the audio fx rack(there are a few ways to do that, including just double clicking on the audio track) and at the bottom right you will see buttons for FX plugins. Click on one of them and select "VST FX". The previously invisible effect plugin will magically appear and you just click on it to activate it for that track. You can add DirectX plugins the same way and you will see a selection tab for them above the one for VST FXs. Yes, it is complicated and that is why people suffer to learn all of these tricks!

I'm sure once I figure this out, I will love it. There's a learning curve but at least there's an undo and a save button - some programs don't have them. As long as I have my undo and save button, I'll figure this software out. It's very cautious about loading from cds and loading from the hard drive. Once I saved my first upload, I copied it twenty five times so that I have plenty to work with as I learn how to record a vocal with a bkg track. I know I made the right decision!Main thing to note is that you need to check all of your settings on your PC. If you have default settings and you are trying to upload, your upload will go directly to the default instead of to the Music Maker. Remove your default settings and your upload will show up at Music Maker. I spent an hour and a half to figure that out. You won't have to cuz I just told you.

Just downloaded. BIG mistake. Apparently you can't write sheet music on this thing??? What the hell? What's the point? I am so ticked off that this isn't readily apparent from the description. Also, some sound function (drums?) isn't downloadable into my Windows 8? I had to shut Music Maker down and bring it up again to make the warning box go away. I thought I downloaded some sort of electronic piano, but the keyboard on this thing makes no noise at all. I'd love to watch the videos that I supposedly downloaded to show me how this thing works, but they don't work either. Big waste of money. BIG! I am very, very angry.

If you're looking for "professional quality" software, this isn't it.This software isn't nearly as user-friendly and intuitive as I was led to believe. Also, I had some trouble saving and then re-opening files, and the software would occasionally hang up (and this is on a Windows 7 Professional machine with an i7 processor and 12gb of RAM). In addition to this, the tutorials and user manual were somewhat difficult to understand, to some degree due to improper grammar (I would guess it was probably poorly translated from another language to English).I will say that the actual working interface was very pleasing to the eye and laid out pretty well graphically, but that cannot make up for software that doesn't get the job done.Sorry, but I cannot recommend this software. After trying this out for about a week, I chose a similar program from another, more reputable software company.

audio does not work as it should, when you put down lyrics it only repeats the first verse over and over in stead of what I am singing, I have been buying the new versions since magix started and this is the first time I have had this trouble.