Features

• Includes both Pinnacle Studio and PCI analog and digital video capture card
• SmartMovie automated video editing and integrated Video CD and DVD creation
• Experience a stunning array of video editing features
• Add titles, transitions, sound effects, and background music
• Add powerful one-touch video and audio restoration tools

Reviews (8)

Worth Every Penny
I'm very stingy with 5 star ratings, but this product deserves it. First the hardware: the board and its driver were a snap to install. You'll only have a problem if you're uncomfortable opening up the computer to put the card in a PCI slot. Otherwise, you're home free. The board itself has digital and analog (both RCA and S-VHS) inputs. As for the Studio 9 software, it is very easy to use; I was able to able to start doing basic stuff within 15 minutes of finishing the install, and have been able to easily pick up more advanced techniques as I've gone along. The finished DVDs look pretty sharp, with menus and various types of transitions. As a result, I've been able to combine my pile of VHS-C tapes into edited DVDs. The program doesn't have the power and controls of Adobe Premiere, but Premiere is aimed at professional videographers and lists at $699. Studio 9 is for non-professionals. The closest thing I can compare it to for ease of use is Easy CD Creator 5, before Roxio tried to make it a media swiss army knife. Creator 5 was brilliantly designed for ease of use, but Media Creator 7 tries to do too many things and ends up a mess (I've uninstalled it and gone back to 5). Like Creator 5, Studio 9 has a good, clear manual included if you have any questions (and you won't have many). As a book of tips for advanced uses of the program and shooting video, Visual Quickstart Guide to Studi 9 by Jan Ozer is pretty good, but for the basics, the manual included with this product does the trick. Here's the proof: I bought this three months ago, and I have yet to call tech support.

Poorly engineering product - refuses to start.
As I write this review, I've spent about 10 hours total fiddling with my computer (which is an HP AMD XP 1800+ based system with an NVidia GeForce 2 grahpics card) trying to install this product. I spent about 2 hours installing and re-installing the product. The software would not start up and would throw an Windows XP exception error.

Upon reading the support forums on the Pinnacle website, I came upon several users with the exact same problem. I tried solutions suggested such as cleaning the registry, defragmenting the hard drive, installing patches, several re-boots, switching the PCI card, IRQ settings, upgrading drivers etc. None of this will work, this software is plain poorly designed. Don't waste your time on this product since I am a programmer by trade and know exactly what I am doing with my computer.

Avoid this product at all cost. One example of poor product design is that the Studio 9 software does not come with an Uninstaller - so you cannot do a clean uninstall. The patches you download from the Pinnacle site will install but do nothing to improve the situation. And guess what? No uninstall facility for them too.

I think this product could use a 'Zero' star rating if there was one.

SETUP learning curve but beats anything in simplicity
Been using the product since almost first inception. This version installed much more easily. Best advice: Find other users in your neighborhood/church/workplace. ASK! There are many of us around! Having a mini-forum locally is dynamite for solving those little buggers of problems that crop up.
I videotape and burn onto 2-6 DVDs a week and love to do WMVs with it!

Good Product, Bad Tech Support, Marginal Manual
I have to say that the product does work. In fact, it works pretty well, but because the manual doesn't really cover a lot of the basic problems in setting up the card and the program, I recommend caution in buying this product. If you have computer knowledge and certain degree of perseverance, this is for you. If you get intimidated by changing windows system settings, monkeying around in your device manager and cleaning your registry, you might want to think twice.

On the plus side, the firewire capture worked very well the first time and its pretty easy to do. The analog capture is more difficult to get figured out, but it works well too once you're set up correctly. You'd better have a lot of hard drive space - like an extra 20 gig for a 90 minute video.

I had to contact technical support on a couple of relatively minor issues and found out that technical support is pretty bad. You can get support via email (you need to have your serial number handy to do this). I don't recommend going this route, however, because it's a 24 hour turn-around for each question and response. And the responses are awful -- just quotes from the manual. "Make sure all background programs are closed." "Make sure your chipset drivers are updated." "Make sure you defrag your hard drive..." It goes on and on. And they won't give you a substantive answer until you promise you have done all of the "stock" things that the manual already tells you to do. I'm on day 4 with email tech support over a green line that showed up on one of my captured videos. The tech support person keeps giving me one more little "task" to do before he will address the issue of why there is a line on one video capture but not others. Email support is abysmal in its helpfulness.

Telephone support, on the other hand, isn't bad. I would like to give you the technical support telephone number, but its against Amazon's rules. That's a shame, I could have saved you 20 minutes because that's how long it will take you to find it. From what I can tell you get your first call free and they want $30 for all subsequent calls. Ouch! That hurts, especially when the manual doesn't tell you how to actually capture video using the S-video connector. (You've got to make a change to a setting at an odd place in the software and its not addressed in the manual or in the help file that comes with the product.)

My bottom line is that the product works, but you have to be ready to take your lumps on the technical support side. I've transferred a couple of home videos from MiniDV format as well as a kid's vhs tape for use as a svcd. I'm happy with both. Now that I'm past the initial learning curve, I hope I can enjoy the product more. If you're the faint of heart type or don't have a bunch of computer experience, this product is probably not for you. Once its up and running you're fine, but there is a lot of "tweaking" required to get to that point and you can't expect much help from Pinnacle.

Better than the consensus
I bought this 1 week ago and it works well. I've made 6 DVDs from old video tapes already.

I bought an excellent MPC Millenia 910i computer capable of using this package in November, mostly to get SVHS home videos onto DVD, and was scared to buy Studio with AV capability because of the Amazon and other reviews, and by the many complaints on the Pinnacle forum.

I've had problems from tape anomalies. The package has crashed, but Studio 9 and the AVDV board seem not to have introduced problems. I'm pretty sure that many of the complaints are from people with less (or less well designed) computers than my MPC (2.6GHz, 512MB, 120GB single hard drive, XP).

Pinnacle's staff seems to have been stung by the previous "lousy support" comments. They seem to be trying to fix problems.
There have been two patches since Studio 9 came out -- it probably won't work without them for some people.

As I watch the files eat up hard drive I think how ambitious the making of videos is. I can't have anything else running and I throw away old disk files and defragment the hard drive before every big session. I wish I had two drives.

Studio 9 makes editing easy, although I read the manual a lot to learn the many features. I'm working as hard as the computer, but doing this work with Studio 9 is very enjoyable. ... Read more

Features

• Essential tool for motion graphics and visual effects
• Powerful motion controls and 3D effects; particle system; scripting
• Advanced keying and warping tools; AAF and OMF support
• High-tech visual and audio effects; 16-bit color support
• Automated production; flexible motion tracker; network rendering

Features

• This color hardware sensor is actually a 7-filter, emissive colorimeter -- measuring the color of your monitor more accurately than a human eye.
• Create better fleshtones, more even grays, and more open shadows
• Automatically calibrates your monitor to industry standards for color, gamma, white point, and luminance -- you'll get professional results, every time
• Free technical support makes it easier for the leap to true digital color control
• Comes bundled with Adobe Photoshop Album, for better editing & organizing your images

Reviews (1)

Amazing Deal!
I am an amatuer photographer, and painter. And I have always had trouble producing consistent colors and contrast with images. I adjusted my monitor all the time, but the images would look different on other monitors. I really wanted to get the Pantone Sypder, but couldn't afford it. When I saw ColorPlus and the price I got it right away. Let me just say that after installing the software (which was easy) and hooking up the hardware (easy too) and then going through the on screen guide (which took maybe 10 minutes), I noticed a HUGE difference in my pictures. At first I really didn't notice anything, until I opened some pictures of people. You can see excellent flesh tones. Before it was like looking through a blurry glass, now pictures of people are sharp and clear. Plus my video games are much clearer as well.

Bottom line: If you do lots of graphics work and are on a budget this is a must have. ... Read more

Features

• Complete MIDI recording, editing and pattern creation -- plus sequencing, combination and reorganization of MIDI clips
• New Ableton instruments -Simpler, for creative sample-based synthesis and Impulse, for dynamic percussion sound design
• Track-to-track I/O routing for complex mixes, post-effects recording, MIDI-to-audio conversion, submixing and synth layering
• Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks, inputs and outputs
• Work with hundreds of one-shot drum samples for use in Impulse

Product Description

INport ... Read more

Features

• Record from your home stereo using your desktop or notebook as a piece of high fidelity recording equipment
• Bypass inferior soundcards with advanced USB digital rendering technology
• Use RCA composite audio cables to send music to your PC
• Full ground loop isolation to ensure your recordings remain crystal clear and free from hum
• Installs simply by plugging into a USB port ? watch the INport automatically load without the need for any special drivers

Reviews (8)

Works with Macs
This a great product for the price.It will work on an Apple Mac running 10.3.8 - 10.4.1 (as of 5/27/05).It's not listed as being so.Felt Tip Software's "Sound Studio" works beautifully to use as recording software.It only costs $50.It's easy to use/has great features.

The Hardware works great........
I first bought the ADS Instant Music to try an convert some cassettes, and the idea behind the product was great, and the software was fantastic. But with Instant Music I had some serious feedback issues, and ADS support was basically non-existant! I saw the INport product here on Amazon and figured I would give it a shot. The INport product works great! I simply plug the INport adapter into the PC with a USB cable, and then hook up my stereo with the RCA Adapters, and push play on the cassette. It's so easy...even for a non-technical guy like me! The ADS product was just as simple, but the feedback issues I had to try and deal with made the process a real nightmare. The big difference between the INport and the ADS product, is that the INport device is grounded, meaning it shield the product from all electronic interference. The only thing holding me back from giving the INport 5 stars, is the software that comes in the package. I found the ADS Nero software very user friendly, and quite a bit less complicated. So while I put the ADS hardware back in the box, I am keeping the ADS Nero software, and just using the INport device instead. If you have alot of vinyl or cassettes that you want to convert, then I would recommend the INport device, and then see if you can get a hold of the Nero software. That's the best combination I have found.

Just what it says
The main thing about this item is that it just works. It uses only line level inputs, so if you're trying to rip LPs, you will need an RIAA preamplifier. The manufacturer makes no secret of this, though, and anyone who owns a turntable probably has something to plug it into for a line output. Or, if you need a cheap but pretty good one, you can haunt eBay, or see here:

http://www.paia.com/riaa.htm
Some soldering required. For those still inexplicably using Windows ME, time to move on up. You'll be glad you did. As to sound quality, all I can say is that it sounds as good as the source signal allows. I only gave it 4 stars because the bundled software is pretty rudimentary, if adequate. The utility for splitting a file into tracks is not all that reliable, but they never are, and that doesn't trouble me much. It does not include any sort of a burner, but there are any number of them out there, some pretty good ones freeware. Perhaps this is partially in relief after my dismal experiences with the ADS RDX-150, but I am very pleased with this item.

Works great when you get everything else figure out.
I have an extensive LP collection that I am currently
converting to music files. This is a relatively inexpensive
device and software that does a decent job without going to
insanely expensive hardware and and software combos. I had to
overcome several problems though, and I deducted one star for
the lame manual and accompanying software. The hardware device
itself works flawlessly when hooked up right.

I'll be as direct a possible. DO NOT buy this product if
you are not comfortable doing things like routing cables and
using your Windows XP's control panel. You will cry in your beer
and make it taste bad. The ability to read instructions is a
plus, too...

This product was designed to work with the LINE OUT jacks
on your existing stereo amp. The setup is fairly simple. BUT..

As my stereo is nowhere near my computer, I decided to
run my turntable direct to my computer. Here are the things
to do to make things work right - 1. You MUST use a preamp to
boost the phono cartridge's signal. I'm using a Recotron SP2.
It's no big deal, about the size of a pack of cigarettes and
about $15. 2. You MUST ground the turntable to your other com-
ponents unless you like 60Hz hum. I used my turntables ground
wire on one of the RCA jacks on the LINE OUT side of the
preamp - works fine. 3.If you are using just a turntable, you
will NOT be able to hear your live LINE IN unless you do what
I did, which is get 2 RCA "Y" adapters to plug into the RCA
side of the INport. You run a couple of RCA lines from the
splitters to a 2xRCA into 1/8" miniplug and plug it into your
LINE IN on your souncard.(Radio Shack has these off-the-shelf.)

READ THE INSTRUCTIONS on how to get into your Sound
Devices and choose "USB Device" for default recording device
and your computer's setup (I.E. "Realtek 97"or whatever) for
playback. If you don't, you'll get silence.

For software, I am using Microsoft Plus Digital Media
Edition. I bought the cheap version as I only wanted the
Analog Recording software, not all the other stuff. It's easy
to use and the noise reduction feature works pretty well. I
didn't like Xitel's recording software. I am converting
to .WMA format for use in the Windows Media Player. Others
probably want to go MP3 or whatever.

I had to learn how to "trick" the noise reduction feature
into working right by starting the recording, then starting the
turntable from "Off" into the first cut of the side. You have
to do this with older or worn records so the software can get
usable levels for the noise reduction to work. You usually also
have to manually edit where a song begins and ends.

Well, I'm recording and ripping like crazy. Thanks INport!

Inport doesn't work
We tried to connect the Inport to a Dell Dimension running Windows Millenium. It took a day to learn that the software patch needed by Millenium was not listed on the Microsoft web site, but that Microsoft will send it to you as an email attachment if you speak with a human.It took another afternoon to learn that the software patch needed to upgrade a stock Soundblaster sound card was not provided by Soundblaster, only by Dell. When the machine still did not function, we swapped all cables to be certain there was not a defective cable. Xitel does not offer telephone customer service, a phone call to their headquaters was answered by voicemail and went unanswered. The enclosed software offers customer service via email only, and requires you to spend about 45 minutes providing a transcript of software operations. The email for software was returned 24 hours later on two occasions, each time indicating the software was operating therefore the problem must be the hardware (which was not their domain). Two 3-hour telephone calls to Dell ascertained that the computer was functioning correctly. If you own an old cassette of an album available on CD you are better off buying a new recording--the sound willbe superior to any home remedy recording, plus you won't lose all that time! ... Read more

Reviews (7)

GREATT!
This Is So Great! You Can Choose An Event Like Award Shows & More! Choose The Music I Love Music! & Watch A Video! And A Treated Before & After Shot!

Barbie Boutique is a great computer game
I highly recommend this computer game for girls who are interested in Barbie's and the dress up thing. My daughter (age 6) absolutely loves it - it doesn't get old to her. It is very easy for her to use and there are so many different variations she can do - it never gets boring. Highly recommended.

Barbie Beauty Boutique ~ Wonderful game!!
I have a four year old that wanted this computer game really bad. I was worried that it might be a little difficult for her because a lot of the other Barbie games are still a too old for her to understand. This game was perfect. It is easy to use but fun for everyone. She loves changing Barbie's make-up and clothes. She has played on it for hours now. I think it was worth the money!

Beautiful!
This is a terrific activity for girls 4 and up. It allows the girls to be creative as they design "new looks" for Barbie and her friends. From choosing hairstyles, to coloring it (even highlights) to makeup application, nails, clothes. The girls do it all and are very proud of their efforts. And the best part for parents is that they're doing it on the computer instead of making a mess with makeup etc. in the bathroom.

The girls will sit and play this alone or together for hours.

A must-have for girls who love dress up, make up and the likes.

Not That Much Fun
First off, I don't know what game the other reviews on this page are talking about, with the ice skating, Prince Stephan, castle, and maze references. The Barbie Beauty Boutique we bought had nothing like that.

My four daughters (ages 4, 6, 8, and almost 11) have been seeing this game advertised on TV, and all four of them wanted it so bad. I caved in and purchased the game for $30.00 at a store in town, even though we usually never spend that much on a PC game. We took it home, installed it, and all four girls played it, but really didn't like it much. It's just not that much fun. On the TV adds and on the box it sounds like there are a lot more outfits, jewelry, and hairstyles to choose from than there are in reality. The hairstyles especially disappointed us. You can either choose to style the hair in an "updo" or leave it down. We expected to be able to have choices like braids or pony tails, but there is nothing like that, the only hairstyle choices are "updo" styles. Most of the hairstyles looked fake and weird to me, my girls said they looked stupid. If you choose to leave the hair down you do get to decide how long the hair is, and whether to leave it strait or make it curly, but the curly hair looked as weird as the hairstyles. The accessory choices for the hair were mostly dorky looking, especially the butterflies and flowers. There were also not a lot of hair accessories to choose from, they just had a few things to choose from. I think the hair styling part is what my girls looked forward to the most so they were disappointed. I also have a problem with a lot of the clothing choices, a whole lot of midriff shirts and short skirts. The make up and nails part was alright, but nothing great.

The plus of the game is that it is easy for the kids to play so younger girls will be able to play with little to no help. (My 4 year old was fine with it, no problems at all.) However, the clothing choices and event choices are more geared to kids maybe 8 and up. My 4 and 6 year old girls didn't like as many of the clothing styles as the 8 and 10 year old did. If you are looking for a game that an older girl would like that is easy to play, this fits that bill. It would be a good game for girls who are older but haven't yet had much computer experience yet. (They learn quick though!)

All in all the game is not bad, but I do regret paying what we did for it. If I had it to do over again I would probably wait until the game was older and therefore not so expensive. If your kids want it, maybe you should see if they like the idea of the What's Her Face PC game instead. We have had that game for about a year, and it still gets played with. It's along the same lines as the Barbie Beauty Boutique, you get to choose hairstyles and clothing for your doll. There is a little more to it than the BBB, though, so I think it is more fun for the kids to play. With the What's Her Face game you get to choose your dolls face, which is fun, and then you get to choose dance moves and music for the ending scene. However, with some girls it's got to be Barbie, so that may make the BBB better in their eyes. ... Read more

Features

• The incredible new Soloist generates professional quality solos over any chord progression
• With the Melodist, you can create songs from scratch with chords, melodies, intros, solos, or even a title
• Type in the chords for any song, using standard chord symbols, and Band-In-A-Box plays it in any style -- Jazz, Pop, Country, Classical and more
• Built-in audio harmonies will turn your audio track into multiple harmony parts and even adjust its pitch
• Print out your finished creations, complete with repeats and endings, DC markings and codas - or save it as a graphic file for web publication or emailing

Product Description

FL Studio is a full-featured sequencer perfectly suited for creation of complex songs and realistic drum loops, with 32 bit internal mixing and advanced MIDI support. The resulting song or loop can be exported to a WAV/MP3 file and all MIDI events can be exported to a standard MIDI file. FL Studio is a pattern based sequencer, which means you create your songs in pieces (patterns) using the Step Sequencer and the Piano Roll view and then weld those pieces together using the Playlist window (the Playlist also supports full-featured audio tracks with hard drive streaming). ... Read more

Features

• High-precision mastering and special effects filters - reverb, compressor, procedural equalizer, distortion, phaser, flanger, bass boost, delay line and others
• Sequencing methods for realistic drum loops, and complex instrumentals like advanced piano roll, arpeggiator, keyboard tracking and real-time gate
• Unique note properties morphing ability -- pitch, cutoff, resonance, panning
• 68 mixer tracks to work with - 64 insert and 4 send tracks - supporting up to 8 filters each, with ASIO input support and the ability to create mixer chains
• Integrated procedural equalizer, volume and panning for each mixer track

Reviews (1)

A great sequencer! but not an all in one solution
I use FL Studio frequently. It's my primary sequencer for Drums and melody.Well at least when I'm clicking notes on a grid.It actually snaps the notes to grid (something Sonar 2.0 didn't do)
As far as original melody creation and midi sequencing it's a joy to use.
Plus it supports VST effects. and I actually Like it's effects.(The EQ is nice to work with, as is the fast distortian)
Now down to why I gave it trhee stars...
For some reason It won't let me use ASIo 2.0 (even though sonar will)which makes inputting notes from my keyboard almost pianful) so I simply use the grid, or enter notes into sonar (sonar 2.0 I've seen it for $15 on ebay), my solution is to get an m-audi card to replace my OLD Soundblaster card.that should fix that problem.
Loops are difficult to control in teh playlsit window, you either have the loops snap to cell or beat (which I don't like because I don't have very much control) amd when I turn off snap to grid it's very difficult to sequence one loop after another it's too easy to put a loop to far away from the previous loop or accidentally overlap loops.
I'll get acid for all my loop sequencing needs.

The bottom line:
The only sequencer that you'll ever need (if you have a low latentcy soundcard) but not a good all in one solution.
In the future (once I get acid) I will convert my orignal material to wav and sequence in ACID ... Read more

Product Description

SoundSoap 2 is a user friendly audio cleaning program for Mac OS X and Windows XP. It eliminates or dramatically reduces almost any type of audio noise ? without degrading the original audio. Along with Hiss, Hum, and Rumble removal, new for version 2 are Click & Crackle removal (for vinyl LPs and other sources), and Enhance, for added "sparkle."Vinyl LP Restoration Made Easy with Click & Crackle RemovalSoundSoap 2 has the same high-performance, great-sounding algorithm as SoundSoap Pro, but gives the user a greatly simplified, single-slider control. SoundSoap 2 is a perfect, incredibly cost-effective solution for musicians, audiophiles, and video enthusiasts who need to remove everyday clicks and crackles. Simply Powerful "One Click" Audio RestorationDespite SoundSoap 2's powerful new features, it retains essentially the same fast, clean, and easy-to-use interface made famous by the original SoundSoap. And while other solutions can tend toward complexity, SoundSoap 2's strength is that it depends upon highly advanced digital signal processing to do the "heavy lifting," without forcing users to confront a bevy of confusing controls. For instance, by clicking the Learn Noise button and adjusting just two knobs, even an audio novice can instantly remove most common problems such as hiss, fan noise from air conditioners, and other background noise. As described, a single slider can effectively remove most clicks and crackles. Attractive buttons for Remo... ... Read more

Features

• Scrub your audio clean - dramatically reduce all types of unwanted noise, from tape hiss, clicks and crackles, to buzzing, hums and rumble
• Intelligent software algorithms for one-click restoration of audio
• The intuitive interface handles sound restoration with a single click

Features

• Control almost anything in the rack with the Matrix Analog Pattern Sequencer - an analog sequencer with 32 steps per pattern, with free sizing of time signatures
• Merge and split audio and CV signals easily with Spider Audio & Spider CV Mergers & Splitters
• Advanced RV7000 Reverb lets you dial in your desired reverb sound in seconds, and saving it as your own preset
• The all new Combinator builds elaborate chains of Reason units - instruments, effects, pattern sequencers, you name it - and save as patches
• 512-band Digital Vocoder modulates in analog and digital, for a robotic voice or weird harmonics

Reviews (61)

Worthwhile upgrade for the DVD tools
I used the retail version of Nero 5.5 for 2 years. The learning curve on Nero 5.5 was rather steep (compared to EZ CD Creator), and I ended up just using it to burn CD's and VCD's while using other software for MP3 encoding and video/audio editing.

I recently bought a DVD burner and now need DVD-savvy software. The DVD and video tools in NeroVision Express (NVE) that came with Nero 5.5 didn't impress me. I have Magix Video Deluxe 2.0 for video editing, and it came with DVD burning tools, but it was so buggy at dealing with large MPEG files that I desperately had to look elsewhere. So I have been trying out Nero Ultra 6.3.1.15 for the past week strictly on the DVD functions, since I know that CD (and VCD) functions worked flawlessly in Nero 5.5. The basic Nero Burning Rom user interface in 6 Ultra isn't much better than 5.5, although it's prettier. The Nero StartSmart interface is a lot better than Nero Wizard. It took a few minutes to get used to StartSmart, but now I'm sold on it.

NeroVision Express 2 (NVE2) is quite an upgrade over NVE, especially since the DVD encoding tools don't require an extra-cost add-in. I was able to pull in large (1 Gb) files with only a few seconds delay for loading each file (Video Deluxe can take up to 10 minutes each), split/crop them inside NVE2, add chapter markers, and create decent DVD menus.

I made a 2 hr 10 min (4.2 Gb) DVD using a mix of clips from 8mm video via an ATI All-In-Wonder analog capture card, MiniDV, and photo slideshow output from Video Deluxe (it has a lot more transition effects than NVE2, and still works pretty well for small files of up to a few meg). I was able to burn them to DVD+RW and DVD-RW with only minor startup issues on a 1.1GHz Athlon and NEC ND-1200AD DVD dual-format burner with Windows 2000. The 4.2 Gb file took 15 hours to encode to DVD format files on the hard drive. But actual burning takes 25-40 minutes depending on media type. There was little online or help documentation to explain the benefits of encoding to the hard drive, but it will save time if you need to burn the same project multiple times. Most notably, I am able to do almost everything using the tools in Nero 6 Ultra - something not possible (or at least with satisfactory results) with Nero 5.5.

Nero Cover Designer is quite handy. It's powerful enough for the enthusiast, with basic text, image, and database tools. But it's not for professional graphic artists who need borders around text, translucent fills, or aligning objects with each other.

Small problems I ran into with the DVD creation process:
1. One bug I found in NVE2 was not being able to splice more than one movie clip back-to-back with one another on-the-fly - it allows you to do it, but produces an obscure error at the start of the burn process. The workaround was to add each movie clip separately and list them as separate movies (with their own chapters) on the DVD menu, or use NVE2 to combine multiple clips, export them to a single clip, and then use only the new combined clip.

2. Another more annoying bug with NVE2's DVD encoding is that audio will sometimes lose sync with the video by a few seconds. I'm not sure what exactly causes this or how to fix it, but I can live with it for what I'm doing.

3. Nero Cover Designer has an annoying bug in the user-defined Paper Stocks utility where you are not allowed to specify paper orientation, yet it defaults in portrait (which is useless for doing something such as a custom DVD insert stock). You can't modify the predefined stocks either.

These are relatively minor problems. It was very stable, and never crashed Windows. I'm satisfied enough that I will spend the money to upgrade from 5.5 to 6.3 just for the new DVD features in NVE2. But if I was just burning CDs, VCDs, and MP3s, I'd stick with Nero 5.5. I would have given it 5/5 stars if it didn't have the audio/video sync problem.

Great Product, Very Slow Support
I have been a fan of the Nero line for a good while and still love the product, but their support response time has got to be the slowest. As some have already mentioned, I recently had to wait over a week for a response to a simple registration question I had -- I had to reinstall my system and needed my registration key. I figured I'd have a response the next day considering how simple it was but no. Other than that, though, I'm still satisfied with the product.

Good software suite
I just bought a Plextor 708A burner, and opted to use this suite rather than their packaged software (Roxio). I found Roxio to be very glitchy. Nero is pretty user friendly and runs smoothly on my Dell Inspiron 8100, 1.6ghz, 384mb Ram, 30gb HD. Be sure to visit Nero's website for their update package, which makes a huge difference in functionality.

Support Sucks - Stay Far Away
I sent them an email with a support question and it took almost a week one time and the other time I'm still waiting (3+ weeks). Call me stupid, but I even called them once and was ripped off to the tune of $1.29 minute. Nothing like buying it all over again!! I ditched this piece of trash and now have Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 and it works great and their support for the one time I needed it is far better - received an email response in a day.

Not as good as Roxio Creator 7
I found DVD compatibilty issues with Nero during playback that Creator 7 did not have. There are also a lot more features and an easier user interface in Creator 7. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Common knowledge says that if you don't practice diligently and master technique, you can't play a musical instrument. Casio, however, thinks otherwise, which is why it developed the LK-90TV lighted keyboard, which connects to users' TVs to guide them through lesson plans while individual keys light up to direct them to the proper notes. The keyboard employs a comprehensive three-step lesson system, which lets people learn as they play and grades their progress after each tutorial. The keyboard's complement of 61 illuminated keys also means folks will learn on a full keyboard, and the 100 pre-recorded songs gives them plenty of choices for accompaniment. Budding Elton Johns will appreciate the sing-along function, which lets people karaoke their way through 65 classics, with the option of loading more songs when connected to a computer through the USB interface. The karaoke option displays song lyrics across people's TV screens while they play, so both keyboard players and guests can harmonize their way through a host of favorites.

The LK-90TV owes its impressive sound to its HL dual-element sound chip, which delivers rich, crisp tones. The setup also offers an extensive repertoire of 128 general MIDI timbres, 128 tones, and eight drum sets, letting users experiment with a variety of beats and sounds. The advanced MIDI interface makes it easy to add other tones as well, all of which store via the SmartMedia medium. Additional features include an assignable pedal jack with sustain, soft, and rhythm start/stop options; 120 rhythm patterns; transpose and tuning controls; and a practice phase switch. Now stop messing around with ineffective keyboard lesson plans and get to work.

What's in the Box
61-key keyboard, AC adapter, score stand, video cable, user's manual. ... Read more

Features

• Musical keyboard with 61 lighted keys
• Sing-Along function with 2 speakers at 12 cm diameters for listening
• Light-up keys allow player to learn songs by following the illumination of the keys
• 264 tones with 120 rhythm patterns; song bank holds 100 tunes
• General MIDI with input and output jacks

Amazon.com Review

If you're looking for a writing package that provides guidance but isn't overbearing, the Writer's DreamKit package from Dramatica is a great solution. This package is targeted at beginning to intermediate writers, and attempts to get you involved in working out the mechanics of your story before you even begin writing it.

You'll get started with the StoryGuide: the central location for establishing your "storyform" and structure. You can work with the StoryGuide either directly or by creating scenes, but either way, the creative work done in this portion will be tracked and available in all other parts of the application. For the fastest route, you can start with one of three structure templates: novel, screenplay, or short story. In these templates, the essential characters are already created. Using these in conjunction with the StoryGuide gives a writer both efficiency and flexibility.

One of the strongest features of the StoryGuide, however, is the Dramatica Query System. This system offers aquestion and answer approach to storyforming, and allows you to focus on one element, relationship, or idea at a time. In the DQS, the questions may be very straightforward or somewhat indirect; regardless, newer writers will appreciate the help buttons that appear for each question, offering an explanation, the theory behind the question, usage, illustrations, definitions, context, and story examples.

If aquestion and answer bombardment or too much structure is not your thing, you can find relief in the Story Engine, which offers a more holistic and freeform approach to identifying your storyform. The Story Engine does lack help, which makes it more suitable for experienced users, and also looks somewhat daunting on the first few uses. However, it also is the quickest way to get to your underlying structure.

While the Writer's DreamKit is somewhat linear in progression, there are many opportunities to diverge from the standard path. You can create characters, one of the most enjoyable parts of the creative process, at any time. You'll do more than just assign a name and a few stock attributes: you'll build your people from scratch (or from a template) and instill in them the complex characteristics that will guide them through your story.

If you've never taken a creative writing class or are looking to refresh your skills, the Writer's DreamKit definitely offers a great foundation for structuring your story. However, it's still up to you to write your great American novel or the next box office hit. --Emilie Dirks ... Read more

Reviews (21)

If you're serious about writing then this is for you!
I've been writing for a while now, and am enrolled in a correspondence course, and although I am learning a lot, this Dreamkit helped me so much more than I could have imagined! It is easy to use, and helps you see where your story is going, and where it needs work. It takes the guess work out of your story. I highly recommend this to anyone who is serious about their writing! The templates are easy to use and understand. The Query system takes you through some questions about your plot, characters and scene structure and helps you consider things you may not have thought of. It shows you your beginning, middle, and end, so that you can get to writing your story faster. It even has a character builder, so you can visualize your characters. The Dreamkit will not write your story for you, but it is of imense help. Move over Writer's Block! The users manual is a bit vague, but half the fun of this was in finding all the goodies on my own! It is fun and easy to use. It is money well spent!!

Stressful and irritating format
I found that this program did not help me at all. The format is very irritating and confusing. It is hard to learn to use it and I am a professional computer programmer. Once I did learn it, I found thhere is not much there. It is very limiting and in many ways stifles creative flow.

I would reccomend trying Storycraft instead, which I found to be helpful and user intuitive.

Just sit down and write.
Want to waste a lot of time when you could be writing your masterpiece? Buy this "program". Face the facts: There simply is no software that's going to write a book for you or anyone else, including me. I screwed around for several days with this thing. Then I got the final print out of "how" I should write my novel. It was impossible for me to follow the "guidelines" provided. They simply did not pertain to the way I wanted to write my story. I tried to imagine some of my favorite books having been written using the generic guidelines the program produced. It assumes that all fiction novel writing is generic and takes the form that the producer of the program dictates. I feel that each and every successful fiction writer has their own individual writing traits and point of view on how they themselves (not F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Mark Twain, John Grisham, etc, etc) should produce a work of art. JUST WRITE! Don't give up. That's my free advice and it's worth more than anything this software has to offer.

Waste of money
When I first ordered the product I couldn't wait for it to come in the mail, but after receiving it I must say I am disappointed. I am a beginner and I have purchased three books on writing and was very pleased with all three of them. So with a brand new Dell computer with a matching laptop, reference books, a good dictionary, and good old microsoft word I was as ready as ready could be to begin my novel. I think I let the word template rope me into this product. I thought a template was a formatted blank form that would get me started and I found this product very confusing and mind boggling. I do not want to discourage anyone from purchasing it but if I had it to do again I would not have made the purchase, however I am thankful that I did not pay a whole lot for it and I will just have to chalk it up to a loss. I have thought about looking into purchasing another product such as this one but why get burned a second time. I think I will stick to the guide books, microsoft word, and my imagination and who knows, perhaps in the future this product may help me but for now I am rather disappointed. I could have made my own template with the books I had purchased. This product was a waste of time and money in my opinion. I didn't expect it to write my novel for me but to do like it said and hold my hand and guide me thorough with a "template".

a little stressful
I think I would have been very pleased with this product except for a problem that developed on my computer after I installed the software. I have windows xp and after I installed the software a serious error occured on my computer. I had never had a problem with my computer before I installed it. ... Read more

Features

• Author in HD—Customers can use DVD Studio Pro to showcase HD content using H.264 encoding.
• Tight Integration—DVD Studio Pro is tightly integrated with Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Photoshop for efficient customer workflows.
• Alpha Transitions—DVD Studio Pro's alpha transitions allow for smooth blends between menus and within slideshows. Over 30 adjustable transitions are available, and customers can create custom alpha transitions.

Amazon.com Review

With its latest package, eMedia goes beyond the drills and tutorials of its earlier eMedia Guitar Method, instead targeting players who already have a familiarity with their instrument. Song-based and fully interactive, eMedia Intermediate Guitar Method covers a lot of ground in its single CD and thus just skims the surface of some topics. It also seems a bit lackluster when compared to Voyetra's exciting, rock and roll-inspired Teach Me Guitar Deluxe. Nevertheless, the program offers a barrage of mid-level and advanced chording, soloing, and picking techniques that should assist any student who seeks to become a more knowledgeable and skillful guitarist.

Divided into six categories--left-hand techniques, barre chords, strumming styles, scales, solos, and fingerstyle guitar--the program delivers no less than 175 individual lessons and 41 appendices featuring most every popular musical scale in both open and closed fingering patterns, and a handy virtual chord dictionary. Most lessons allow you to adjust the speed of the music to suit your personal preference and loop certain sections for repetitive replay. Several sessions also offer optional narratives and video, though the narratives are too abbreviated to be truly informative and the video snippets, where veteran instructor Kevin Garry offers personal advice on certain techniques, are equally condensed and confined to a small window.

eMedia has provided several additional perks to make your job a bit easier, including an integrated metronome to help keep the beat, an optional tablature display for those who can't read musical notation, and an animated fretboard that graphically demonstrates each lesson's fingering positions in both left- and right-handed formats. The program's tuner isn't quite so impressive, behaving just as erratically as most computer tuners, and certainly not a replacement for a handheld digital or quartz unit. A small but serviceable audio recorder allows you to build a library of your own efforts and even jam along with self-penned arrangements.

The program concerns itself more with clean and semi-clean acoustic and electric guitar rather than heavily distorted hard rock. A valuable but curious assortment of songs dominates its many lessons, in particular Grand Funk Railroad's mysterious "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home," The Grateful Dead's "Touch of Grey," and Jim Croce's exquisite "Time in a Bottle." Several complex classical pieces end the proceedings, culminating in the celebrated but extremely demanding arpeggio masterpiece "Romanza." It should be noted that although none of the selections are original recordings, all are capably translated and played.

Although eMedia Intermediate Guitar Method isn't especially high-spirited, it does offer a deluge of material that will ultimately benefit any guitarist with the talent and the drive to successfully take it on. With a ton of challenging musical passages and cool licks, some nifty utilities, and plenty of guitar exploration, it is recommended to novice players with virtuoso desires. --Gordon Goble ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Teacher-in-a-box
I wasn't sure how this would work out, but at the price, the eMedia Guitar method offered a lot more than the books and CD's or DVD's in the local music store.

Features I really like:

Animated Fretboard diagram: How to place your fingers for chords and notes.

Chord Dictionary: Important for playing music--chords are the basis.

Metronome: Nice to have, I find metronomes annoying but they do bring your speed up as you practice.

Guitars and Their Parts: and what might be wrong with your.

Reading Chord Charts, Tablature, Notation: It's important to know how to read a chord chart, but musical notation, the backbone of all music, is not ignored. I think one should read music, so if you don't, you are encouraged to learn here.

The lessons for chords start small--one finger (like a G7), two fingers, three, and up to the tough ones with four or barred. This is rather how I learned because I learned guitar by first playing a ukelele! (The tuning of the last four strings is the same on a guitar and uke.) You are a lot less likely to suffer frustration and sore fingers if you can play a tune or two with a two-finger chord. You just don't strum the entire set of strings at first.

The strumming techniques include good video of the up and down method of the blues, and there is a section on blues guitar style, of which I was most interested.

For the money, hardly a risk. Find a good starter guitar and give it a try.

John Nemerovski Software Review
I have been playing and teaching beginner and intermediate level guitar for over 40 years. Learning this instrument is easy for most people who practice regularly.

Music students pay $-$$ per guitar lesson, and a lot of that money covers instruction and repetition that self-starters and motivated self-learners don't need to spend. At under $$ US for comprehensive instructional and reference material, eMedia Intermediate Guitar Method provides exceptional value for these students.

I remember being lukewarm to positive in my appraisal of Volume One, the beginner CD in this series. It has been revised since then. If it's as good as this Intermediate CD (Volume Two), beginners now have a much better chance of learning from scratch.

From my first encounter with eMedia Intermediate Guitar Method (abbreviated as "IGM"), the experience has consistently been positive. Installation of the cross-platform CD's software takes only a minute or two. Initial 23 pages of sensible, thorough Introduction and Tips cover all necessary instructions, commands, and options, including well-written and illustrated:

Animated Fretboard diagram

explanation of the Chord Dictionary and Metronome

description of Guitars and Their Parts, including holding, stringing, and tuning

details on Reading Chord Charts, plus Tablature and Music Notation.

Once students are "Ready to Take It to the Next Level" the lessons begin with straightforward left-hand melody techniques. Subsequent topics include barre chords, right hand strumming styles, "Using Scales and Building Chords," plus solo and fingerstyle methodology.

One set of icons on the page of each song or exercise takes you directly to spoken short descriptions of a song's history, or pithy comments such as "Use a pick so your fingers don't fall off." A different icon launches the Animated Fretboard's display, playing the song or exercise while fret numbers display simultaneously with a running presentation of the notation or tablature for the piece. Very impressive, all of it, and not nearly as complicated as it appears from reading the above paragraph.

Navigational arrows lower right easily take you forward or back one page, and the Tools and Goto menus at top offers complete navigation throughout the entire application, including:

Scale Directory and audio enhanced Chord Dictionary (REALLY GOOD!)

Tuner and Metronome

Self-recording feature.

Additional observations:

1. Set your screen resolution to one higher than 800x600 for best viewing.

2. The IGM's CD responds quickly and quietly when playing its instructional QuickTime sound and picture files.

3. A special icon launches short QuickTime movies in which a very competent guitarist demonstrates the techniques0 with close-up camera on the active hand.

4. Colored live embedded links take you directly to related chapters, if desired. (Is there a way to jump right back? I can't figure that out.)

5. Special mentions of differences between electric guitars and acoustic instruments are given, when appropriate.

Instruction is segmented logically, with high-quality attention to detail. I plan to begin using the IGM software, movies, and sound files immediately with my students. Its cost is a bargain for the reference features alone.

If you know your way around the guitar and want to "Take It to the Next Level," IGM is easy to recommend. When all your prior instruction has come from a human teacher, the comprehension curve for this multimedia application will seem steep at first. Remember that repetition is your friend, music students. Take your time, practice a lot, and you'll be glad you purchased eMedia Intermediate Guitar Method.

Nemo's MyMac.com "Q/D/S/V Standard" for all product reviews:

Q = QUALITY, including ease of installation, performance, stability, and general happy relationship with everything on my system;

D = DOCUMENTATION, both printed and electronic, plus appropriate website material;

S = SUPPORT, in the form of email, phone, and web updates;

V = VALUE, which includes both original cost and subsequent expenses.

Depending upon previous instruction and self-teaching skills of guitar student, our rating is:

4 out of 5
A very decent product. Worth the time and investment, but look for competing products.
- TO -
BR> Fantastic products! Well worth your money and investment. The best of its kind.
John Nemerovski

Great approach to lead guitar!
When you think of guitar heroes you think of their lead guitar prowess. This awesome guitar CD-ROM does an amazing job of teaching lead guitar through a ton of scales, techniques and licks. After each scale, you'll get some lick or song to practice with. There are even some fully transcribed solos by Hendrix and Clapton. The coolest thing about Emedia is their animated guitar neck that plays all the songs. It shows bend and lets you slow the songs down. There is also a lot on rhythm guitar techniques.

Overhauled version of Guitar Method 2 rocks!
I'm a fan of eMedia. In the 2 years I've owned a guitar I tried to teach myself how to play time after time only to end with frustration. Being in college I'm too cheap to buy lessons and too busy to sit down at a scheduled time. I picked up eMedia's Guitar Method to get the basics of playing down, and after only 4 months of playing I'm finally ready for Intermediate Guitar Method.

Intermediate Guitar Method is incredible! Unlike Guitar Method 2 it has an animated fretboard just like in GM1. It has also expanded it's lesson library from 85 to 175 lessons. It has an expanded chord dictionary with over 1,000 chords providing sound for each chord (a huge step up from GM1's 250 chord dictionary). What I didn't like about GM1 was that it seemed to focus on using the acoustic guitar. Many of the recordings (Clapton, Hendrix) in IGM are played with an electric, which offers a nice balance between the two. The techniques that are learned in IGM are advanced, but I'm convinced that there is no other software available that will make them easier to learn or more enjoyable to play. ... Read more

Features

• Advanced SmartRT technology produces thousands of 2D and 3D effects for broadcast-quality sound
• Thousands of compositing effects -- work with up to 10 streams with real-time effects, true 3D color correction, chroma/luma keys and more
• Integrated DVD authoring -- create your own motion menus, buttons and automatic links
• CX Color Correction features both secondary and selective color correction, Dynamic Slow Motion and other high-precision effects

Amazon.com Product Description

Adobe Premiere 6.0 is a powerful and surprisingly easy-to-use professional video-editing tool. This latest version comfortably closes the gap between DV and Web, and has new support for DV on the Windows platform and cross-platform support for all of the leading Web video formats. Premiere 6.0 provides direct support for IEEE 1394 (FireWire/i.Link) on both Windows and Mac OS. By using only the DV port on your hard drive, an IEEE 1394 connection, and your DV camcorder, you get perfect digital video in Premiere 6.0 every time. Premiere 6.0 offers built-in support for all types of DV devices, ranging from consumer to professional. By simply connecting a DV device to the IEEE 1394 port on a Windows or Macintosh computer, you can capture DV clips and begin editing right away. On a computer with an IEEE 1394 port, there's no need to install additional hardware, such as a video-capture card. Just select the appropriate DV-device manufacturer and model in the Device Control dialog box, and Premiere 6.0 assigns the video-input settings that are appropriate to that device--making the video-capture process more precise. Premiere 6.0's Movie Capture window now includes a Settings tab and a Logging tab. By using the Settings tab, you can view and edit video-capture settings, change the capture location, and set device-control preferences. By using the Logging tab, you can log video clips quickly, set In and Out points, name clips and reels, batch-capture multiple logged video clips effortlessly, and add comments about each clip.

Adobe Premiere 6.0 includes three (automatically installed) plug-ins for exporting an individual clip, a segment of the Timeline, or the entire program to a Web-optimized file format. When you have finished editing your video program, select one of the following Web-export options: Save for Web, Advanced RealMedia Export, or Windows Media Export (Windows only). By choosing one of these options, you will open the respective plug-in dialog box, in which you can specify format information for your exported file. The Save for Web menu command exports the Timeline directly into a special version of Terran Interactive's Media Cleaner software, which is customized especially for Premiere 6.0. With Advanced Windows Media Export, you can take advantage of a wide range of formatting options for the most precise output control in the Windows Media format. Advanced RealMedia Export provides precise output control, and thereby offers greater flexibility. RealMedia files (containing both RealVideo and RealAudio) can be streamed from the Web or downloaded to a hard disk, and played by using the RealPlayer application. Also included in this release is the ability to embed Web markers in your video files, which markers could include links to HTML pages, or to chapters in a QuickTime movie or DVD. By using these markers, you can develop streaming videos that automatically launch Web pages at precise points during playback. You can specify a frame target, to designate where the Web content will appear.

Other new features in Adobe Premiere 6.0 include a professional audio-mixing tool; a new Storyboard window, with an Automate to Timeline command; enhanced Monitor and Timeline windows; and improved project management. For added power and functionality, Premiere 6.0 offers better effect support, the ability to create customizable workspaces, and complete integration with other Adobe applications like Photoshop, After Effects, and GoLive. ... Read more

Features

• Prof. digital video editing
• Robust DV support
• Familiar Adobe interface

Reviews (7)

almost perfect...
Oh, i so wanted to give this program 5 stars. However, the glaring weakness that is the helpfile chops off a whole star. Considering my utter frustration as i plodded and plunked away trying to learn the program, i could have chopped off 2 stars for the aggravation. But I am not going to chop the whole tree down because of a few mushrooms growing on the side. Once you learn the program, it is a lot of fun. For us guys just trying to edit the family videos, its got more than enough features. If you want to go further, it has lots of other stuff though I will admit, im just in it to make cheesy little horror films with my buddies and edit the family videos. I can't speak for the professionals who do this for a living.

But really, adobe, make the dam help file usefull. I had to go to some guys webpage to find out how to do cuts within individual clips. As it turns out, it is the easiest thing to do once you know the program but for someone new to the software or technologically challenged, you had better treat us with kid gloves and that means spell it out for me. I dont want to know all these long winded ways to get the job done when theres a one step solution to the problem. Dont get all wordy and hide the answer in a menagerie of techno babble! For a begginner, all this jazz about in and out points and their ilk is nonsense. Just tell me where that razor button is and lets cut this clip.
For someone new to digital video editing, this program can seem daunting and confusing. But stick with it. Once you get going, you'd be suprised what you can do to the family videos. You can add music, adjust its volume in relation to the main audio, add effects, transitions, text, re-arrange parts of the video and compress the end product down so you can share with all your relatives who will marvel at your creativity.
How much better or worse this is than other packages out there, I don't know. This is the first one i got and i am happy with it...now.

Easy to use...
Adobe Photoshop took me a while to get used to when I first got it, but learning to use Premiere was a lot easier though I'm still learning. I would use it more often if it didn't take up so much RAM. After I upgraded my OS to Windows XP, I've used Windows Movie Maker for my basic video editing needs. Recommended only if you're in need of professionalism.

Great Program but....
I jut purchased my first editing program adobe premiere 6.0 and it's really fun but.... I was amazed that if you owned a pc that I couldn't import music right off of a music cd. I have another program that came with the computer I purchased and it imports music cd's just fine with out having to covert them to a wav file. I paid how much for premiere, and it can't do what this free program can? Ca'mon premiere lets step it up and add this wonderful feature.

Adobe Premiere: Go Buy MSP 6.0 ve(video edition)
trust me, msp is the worst, just get the demos of this and msp 6 and you will find out, it renders 5 times longer(on my AMD/Athlon, 1.3Ghz, 256ram, 60gig hd)than MSP 6.0 VE. This is not a good buy, you will be definetly disappointed.

More like editng film than video.
With this application and a suitably powerful computer you can create sophisticated videos that not too long ago would have taken about thirty thousand dollars to produce with tape machines, a vision mixer, and sundry peripherals.

Premiere 6.0 can handle all the cut or transition edits, apply rolling titles / credits, and add soundtracks. The resulting production can then be exported to tape or a variety of computer files such as AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, and RealMedia. Premiere 6.0 can also work directly over fireWire with a DV machine for importing and exporting video. Very handy.

The RealMedia export option is worth pursuing, since it’s the fastest to render out. On my Celeron 500 with 128 MB of RAM, a six minute clip takes about forty minutes to render an RM file, all the others taking about two hours and forty minutes. The RealMedia option does require a little bit of setting up to avoid disappointing video quality if you stick to it’s default selections.

...

My only real gripe is the sketchy help guide, with many pages too large for the viewing window. Why can’t the purveyors of PDF do a decent Acrobat manual like they do with that application, instead? Go figure. ... Read more

Features

• Enter your music in a traditional staff, or display it automatically for a TAB staff
• An extensive library of special symbols and shapes used with notation and for over 50 fretted instruments
• Input notes with a MIDI guitar and see instant TAB notation
• Advanced music scanning technology and optical character recognition helps musicians scan sheet music and turn it into a Finale file
• Rhyming Dictionary helps songwriters find the right rhyme for any lyric

Reviews (2)

Great for a Beginner or Advanced Musician-at a low price
I received this software on Christmas this year in addition with a MIDI keyboard. This software is excellent! Some say that they prefer Sibelius software but I disagree. This software gives you the power to enter notes in seconds, play with a swing feeling, print, and publish to the web in seconds. If people tell you that this software is aggravating then they do not know what they are talking about. Even if you don't have a MIDI connection, you can simply type notes in on your computer keyboard. If you do not trust what I am saying, go to www.finalemusic.com and download Finale Notepad software. If you also do not want to spend $75 on this software, buy Finale Printmusic! software. for $46.88. on this website. And, if you buy this software and master it, you can upgrade to Finale which is possibly the world's best music producing software.

Powerful program but aggravating
This is a powerful piece of notation software. It can transcribe MIDIs, has all kinds of articulations, its notations extends to ALL instruments (not just guitar), can sheet music in from a scanner and read it and convert it, and it can convert regular sheet music into tab (very useful if you got shafted by a songbook that claimed to have guitar notation but only had the chords in a fretboard diagram not the notes), and you can also make your own midis and switch between keys effortlessly. The negatives are that it is not easy to use. Some things seem out of place for example when placing chords you have to click on another menu apart from the Chords menu to get the program to display the fretboard diagram of the chord, replacing notes in either tab or standard music notation is very tedious and sometimes aggravating, placing articulations can be tedious as well, the program will lag your system, and last but definitely not least it has the terrible and annoying habit of changing the tab numbers you copy between measures if your using a certain template with standard notation above it. If you think you can handle all of that then this program might be for you. ... Read more