Music Creator 2003

Indeed, Music Creator is essentially a less capable adaptation of Cakewalk's celebrated professional-level music system, the considerably more pricey Sonar. Certainly anyone familiar with Sonar will instantly recognize the program's presentation. Even those who don't will have little trouble becoming acclimatized, as Cakewalk has furnished a large and detailed set of tutorials designed to guide newcomers through the procedures and pitfalls of PC music making.

Supporting traditional instruments such as guitars and drum kits, and MIDI-based devices such as computerized keyboards, Music Creator is extremely versatile. You'll need to supply the equipment to transfer your sounds into the computer at first, but the program is ready to handle everything thereafter.

Through its graphic waveform-based interface, Music Creator allows you to fine-tune and reposition your audio and MIDI files, apply multiple effects to both single and multiple tracks, and take advantage of an expansive range of synthesized virtual instrument sounds. With a little practice, you can add fades and crossfades, rip samples from your favorite CDs, and concoct any number of ACID-type loops. Of course, one of the great advantages of digital recording is the ease with which you can remove unwanted background noises and wayward notes, and the program allows you to do just that with just a few mouse clicks.

The package also features a stripped down version of Cakewalk's reasonably respected CD burning utility Pyro, and an extremely valuable search tool that automatically checks your drive(s) for those easily misplaced bits and bytes of seemingly lost tracks.

Despite its relatively friendly nature, Music Creator sports a wealth of rather complex concepts, and thus shouldn't be taken lightly. PC music rookies and hobbyists may well find that Music Creator 2003 is the only application they'll ever need. --Gordon Goble

Amazon.com Product Description
With Music Creator 2003 you can simply connect any instrument to your PC and record audio and MIDI tracks using instruments, vocals, or audio loops. You can also write music for CDs, sheet music, home videos, and the Internet. Music Creator 2003 includes Pyro Express CD Maker and WAV Ripper, Virtual Sound Canvas DXi soft synth, Dreamstation DXi soft synth, and an ACID audio loop library.

Music Creator is designed to let you concentrate on making music, and not bog you down with confusing software. No matter what you want to record--guitars, keyboards, vocals, CD samples, or any other sound source--Music Creator makes it easy. Record your own tracks, or click and drag to create music with loops from the included Cakewalk loops library.

Intuitive point-and-click tools make it a snap to quickly edit, arrange, and mix your music with professional-sounding effects and great synth sounds. When you're done, share your music with family and friends: burn it on CD with the included Pyro Express CD Maker, print out sheet music, or create MP3s or Windows Media files to distribute your music on the Internet.

HOWEVER, if you log in under a non-privileged account, Music Creator dies with a message about "unable to create Staff view music font." Then, rather than exiting, the program hangs with its initial splash screen displayed. It just sits there, frozen, until you kill it with the Task Manager. (Very lame...)

From this behavior, I have to assume that no one at Cake Walk ever tested this software under a non-privileged account. (I probably shouldn't be surprized by this, given that no one ever tested it with DirectX 9.0 either...)

Of course, one workaround is simply to run the program from Admin all the time, but this is a TERRIBLE security risk. Admin-enabled accounts should be used ONLY for system maintenance -- NEVER for day-to-day work. (Unless of course, you really like giving viruses the run of your machine.)

In my case, I think the correct workaround for this problem is to return the software and get a refund...


Great Value   January 23, 2004
I was planning on using Christmas money to buy one of much more expensive Sonar programs but my brother bought me this because he knew I wanted to set up a home studio. I've really enjoyed this program so far. If you are a beginner to computer recording you might want to consider Music Creator 2003. I used the extra money I was planning to spend the Cakewalk Sonar software to get a quality soundcard(M-Audio Delta 44), condenser microphone(AT3035), and preamp. The results have been great so far. I use a Dell computer with Windows 2000XP and haven't had any of the problems others user claim to have had. I just downloaded DirectX version 8.1 from Cakewalk's website and downloaded the updated drivers for my Delta soundcard from M-audio's website. Everything has worked like a charm. Soundwise, the results have been very impressive. I've spent lots of money to record in studio's and the results have not come out nearly as good as the results I'm getting on my computer right now. I put $40.00 aside in order to get the 'Music Creator 2003 Pro' upgrade from Cakewalk's website. I've been so pleased with this program I decided to forget the upgrade and put the forty bucks toward getting an extra microphone. So if you want to get started recording music on your computer and are on a budget I suggest getting this program and using the money you will save to buy other recording equipment. This will keep you plenty busy for a while.
Just to note: I don't use, or plan on using, the sheet music maker included in this program so I have no idea how good that part of it is. I just use it to record vocals and guitar.


Great Product   January 22, 2004
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is the best program I have ever seen for music. Not only can I create sheet music of songs I have written I can also create accompanyment CDs for any song I have sheet music for. It is well worth the cost of it.


Not what I was told it would be   January 7, 2004
 4 out of 36 found this review helpful

I had asked the salesman at the Best Buys what software would let me record LP's and cassette tapes into my computer for playback and burning to CD's. He sold me this Music Creator 2003 and when I tried to use it it turned out to be a complete waste of my thirty bucks! I kept getting asked to specify a MIDI output and found out it wouldnt accept the one on my VAIO with XP. I was also rudely informed I would have to buy yet another software from 12Tones to get closer to my purpose of buying this in the first place.
I am forced to rate it as one star when it actualy earns a minus one.
If you want to record your LP's and cassettes into your computer and play them on it or put them on a CD, FORGET this "stuff"!
Buy a stand-alone CD recorder!