Comments on: Cakewalk’s $35 Music Creation Software for Windows Gets Major Polishing

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:38:15 +0000

Actually, GarageBand recently added a video timeline preview – presumably motivated to do so by the fact that GB is part of the iLife suite along with iMovie.

But there are things you don’t get in GarageBand: a proper mixer, for one, the preset playback features with pre-mapped knobs, the more sophisticated notation features (with printing!), the web publishing stuff, and some of the content.

There wasn’t *that* much to say about GB this year in CDM terms — but that was before it got this as a rival. Maybe a comparison is in order, if folks are interested. ;)

By: KeyOfGrey

KeyOfGrey — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:19:35 +0000

This looks like a great Cakewalk product. I remember using Cakewalk in the early 90’s and it’s definitely come a long way. One thing I see in Music Creator that I don’t see in Garageband (although I’m not a power user of it), is the ability to put a video along the timeline. This allows you to score music to video and set correct timing cues. That’s pretty neat stuff for a 40 dollar program.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:06:00 +0000

Ah, yes, but remember, that interface didn’t originally show up in GarageBand. GB looks a whole lot like the original version of Acid. And, let’s face it, most multitrack audio software looks like most other multitrack audio software — the basic interface metaphors go all the way back to the Mac and Atari ST software from the late 80s.

By: voiceofreason

voiceofreason — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:47:50 +0000

yup…and the new version looks even more like the complete rip-off of garageband that it is

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:20:23 +0000

Yeah, actually, I agree — for the beginner, I’d probably recommend Cakewalk Music Creator over Reaper just because of the added included content and a slightly friendlier interface.

I actually think either is a little better balanced than GarageBand, certainly than Steinberg Sequel.

By: Puffer

Puffer — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:14:03 +0000

I recommended Reaper at first, too, ’cause the price-point is great for the entry-level. And then I remembered how baffled *I* was trying to get up to speed on Reaper. Now, sure, I’m a little dense sometimes, but I have enough experience working with digital audio that I know, more or less, what I’m doing. In my experience, admittedly limited, Reaper did not strike me as ‘new user’ friendly, any more than Sonar, Logic, Live or Insert-DAW-Here is.

If I want to give my 12 year-old nephew something to use on his family computer to learn and have fun with digital audio, this looks perfect.

I’m not saying this is a revolutionary product or even that there aren’t alternatives. But I totally get the point of it. And the price-point is pretty spot on for what it is.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:26:43 +0000

@Puffer: Yes, absolutely. I have a lot of respect for Apple, their audio team, and the Mac, but I can’t see buying a Mac for the sole purpose of getting GarageBand, certainly.

Cakewalk also makes the Cakewalk Power Studio which comes with an audio interface. I would recommend getting a dedicated audio box that has decent drivers on either platform, regardless. And this package would absolutely be high on my list, along with Reaper.

By: Puffer

Puffer — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:15:55 +0000

Not to be all Cakewalk fan-boy here, but last week I was out at a local performance and some young wannabe singer was asking me questions when she heard I had a home studio. Specifically, she wondered what software she could use to make demo tracks. What would I recommend, that wouldn’t cost too much money? Did she really need to get a Mac so she could get Garageband? And everything that I could think of was way overkill for someone like this. This person isn’t worrying about gain-staging and routing matrix flexibility and low-latency drivers.

As much as we ‘in the know’ folks may scoff at products like this, I think it’s good to have simple, well-designed music apps that give the punters legal access to home production.

Home production is the new Top 10!