Product: Cakewalk Home Studio 9
Price Paid: US $89.00
Submitted
03/26/2002
at
05:49am
by
Joe Nicholson
Email: joenicholson at wwdb<dot>org
Ease of Use
:
8
Very easy to use, but reading the manual is a must. Some features are not explained in the manual at all and there are a few features that are touched upon but not in detail that I wished the manual would have gone more in depth upon. However experience and other 3rd party books fill in the gaps on these features. The manual comes on the disk in an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file and is 440 pages total. It had it printed and bound at Kinko's for approximately $40 - almost half of the cost I paid for the software in the first place, but well worth it!
Features
:
10
No "polyphony" involved, some built in effects and much more available through additional downloads you can purchase at the Cakewalk website. It is a full function MIDI program and a pretty good digital audio program as well. It IS a sequencer and so much more!
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
9
The sounds are limited to what you record with your audio tracks and the limitations of your sound card or external device. The on-board effects that come with it are ok. The extra plug-ins you can add to it with additional purchases are excellent and well worth it. It does of course control velocity and aftertouch well if your external keyboard supports it.
Reliability
:
10
Very reliable, and I DO use it LIVE in gigs!
Customer Support
:
10
EXCELLENT!!! Probably some of the best custome support I've ever encountered anywhere in the music software world. But I have the advantage of an inside connection. The regular custome support that most people have to go through is great when they aren't overwhelmed with other customers, which isn't too often. Take a number! It's worth the wait.
Overall Rating
:
10
I'm about to upgrade to SONAR XL, but only because I want to be able to record more than one audio track at the same time and I want all of the DXI Synths that SONAR XL comes with. Otherwise the program is most excellent and very adequate to produce near perfect semi-pro to full professional quality music for recording and live performance. In fact, my first professional CD has been MOSTLY a work of Cakewalk Home Studio 9!
