It’s not a videogame but Music
Studio 10 offers pro and novice musicians a great tool for creating and
composing music.
All right this review is going to be
a little bit different then a regular game review. We’re not discussing a
videogame, instead the review is going to cover a piece of software designed for
musicians. With that introduction out of the way then I need to be honest with
everyone and let you know that I would consider myself a musician. Now I must
admit that I’m not a professional musician or have ever attain the status of a
professional musician but I’ve been playing/composing music for close to 15
years. What’s scary to me is that some of you that might read this review
aren’t even 15 years old yet! Man I’m getting old.
With Music Studio 10 Deluxe Magix
has developed a comprehensive music studio package that allows almost everyone
with a computer a chance to record their own music. For someone new to playing
music, Music Studio 10 is a great introduction to recording and making music.
The program offers a good tutorial program to introduce you to the features of
the program. For professional musicians there won’t be anything new in Studio 10
that you wouldn’t already have but Studio 10 offers a nice package for creating
pieces that could be used in a professional project.
There are two parts included in
Music Studio 10: Audio Studio Deluxe and Midi Studio Deluxe. Audio Studio Deluxe
offers up to 64 audio tracks for recording while Midi Studio offers an unlimited
number of Midi tracks to use for recording. I should add that for this review I
was only able to test the Audio Studio Deluxe portion of the software. The midi
cable I’ve been using must have gone bad since every time I tried recording midi
data the Midi Studio program would go nuts. But then again this happened with
another recording program that I was using as well (Cakewalk).
The new feature of Music Studio 10
Deluxe that I was most excited about was the drum samples/loops available in
program. For years I’ve been using a drum machine (Alesis SR-16) that has
provided me with some great results but I’ve wanted to play around with creating
drum tracks by loops. In case you don’t know loops are short pieces of music
that can be combined together to create a long track. Music Studio 10 includes
several synthesizers that can be used to create drum loops. You can customize
the loops to your satisfaction simply by pressing a few clicks of your mouse. Be
sure to pay attention to the beats per minute setting you have for the entire
track before you start to start creating a drum loop. There’s no point trying to
create a slow pattern when the default beats per minute is set to 120. I was
creating some unique loops/beats that I would have never created before unless I
used this program. Hey, I like metal/hard rock music so it’s a huge dive into
the deep end when I start messing with synths called the Beatbox and Drum &
Bass.
But since I am a guitar player I
spent most of my time tinkering with the LiViD synth since it offers the
opportunity to almost natural sounding drums tracks. There are four settings in
the LiViD synth, Pop, Funk, Rock, and Latin. With each drum style there is an
additional four settings that can be used. Then within each setting, broken up
simply by 1, 2, 3 or 4, there are several different patterns that can be used to
create your drum track. If that wasn’t enough each drum style is displayed as a
kit that allows you to change how the pattern is performed. Do you want to use a
cowbell? Then just click the button and your drum track changes. How about
having the drum track played out with just a rim shot instead of the regular
snare? All of these patterns sound amazing. The LiViD synth won’t replace a real
drummer but I’ve always had a hard time keeping drummers behind the drum kit.
Even though the LiViD synth sounds
amazing there is a limit in how the synth can be used to create a realistic drum
track with precise and unique changes. I wasn’t able to change the pattern in
real time during a song without changing the entire loop. In order to change the
loop to match the change in the music I had to create another loop based on a
different drum pattern. Not a big deal really but getting the right drum track
out of the loop was the challenge. There isn’t a step-by-step mode to edit how
the drums are played in the LiViD synth. There is a great feature to set the
shuffle rating and the humanize factor in the drum loop. Adjusting those ratings
will change how the drum pattern is played. But without a step-by-step editing
feature, which is available in some of the other synths, it was a challenge
piecing together multiple loops to create one complete drum loop. No matter how
many times I tried shifting the time code of the different drum patterns I would
still end up with one or two drum loops that just didn’t fit the flow of the
song. Usually the verse or bridge part of the track was fine it would end up
being the fills or transition parts that wouldn’t fit the song.
Some of the other great features
included in Music Studio 10 Deluxe are the effects available in the program. The
effects range from some great noise reduction tools, which are a must if you ask
me, to an amp module effect that I didn’t enjoy. I probably didn’t have the
setting configured properly but I wasn’t able to hear the amp module until after
I recorded a track. Even after I changed the settings on the amp modules I was
never happy with the sound. I used a POD Line 6 unit to record all of my guitar
tracks, which was plugged straight into the mixer that then went directly into
my soundcard. There are plenty of effects to use to change almost every setting
of the tracks that you will record. The user interface is simple to use but it
will require a little time to get familiar with once you start recording.
Music Studio 10 Deluxe is a great
program that offers a ton of features at a great price. The 64 tracks of audio
recording and unlimited Midi recording should offer enough room for anyone
looking to create songs. The performance of the program was exceptional as well
with no drop outs or crashes while recording or during playback. However there
are a feature issues that should be addressed. One is the editing features of
the loops and of the audio once recorded. The program wouldn’t let me edit an
audio track while I had a project (song) open. I would have to close the song
out and then import the audio track back into the song once I completed my edit.
Another issue was the limit in the number of MP3 tracks you can create. You’re
limited to 20 MP3 tracks but you can use an external program to convert your
tracks into a MP3. But these are small issues that shouldn’t deter anyone from
trying out this program. I’ve only scratched the surface of the features
available in Music Studio 10 Deluxe. Give it a try if you’ve ever been
interested in creating music, you probably won’t be disappointed.
Overall Score 8.5
Here are some of the songs I worked
on for this review:
www.thebse.com/music/emergency call.mp3
www.thebse.com./music/slow day morn.mp3 – with samples from Kevin MacLeod at
www.incompetech.com .
www.thebse.com/music/another day.mp3
