4 comments about ACID Music Studio 5.

1. I can't believe there are NO reviews for this thing (as I write this)!
   I wanted this in mainly order to re-mix my favorite songs. I got pretty excited reading the box, and more excited when it arrived. I installed it and started running it and all of the sudden I found myself thinking "uh-oh, this is wayyyy over my head." But, like many programs, all you have to do is just start experimenting and playing around with it, and in no time, you will get the idea. The versatility this allows you to have with so many aspects of any track you import is incredible (and NO, I am not on Sony's payroll). The software comes with an honest-to-goodness, spiral-bound, hard-copy MANUAL! How rare these days! So you can be like me and take it to work to read on your breaks and then race home to try out the new techniques you read up on.
   The interface also has a "How Do I...?" button that covers a lot of varied functions, and it has a great, integrated, step-by-step approach that actually *teaches* you AS you do it. A great "hands-on" approach. I just can't begin to say how impressed I am at it's comprehensiveness and design. I sat with it for about 2 hours to do my first (serious) 4-minute-song re-mix, but when I was finished, I had a great track - all burned to inkjet-printed disc, and ready to give to my wife (it was one of her favorite songs).
   I like any software that actually allows me to *accomplish* something I really want to do, and this software did exactly that! Unless you're a super-techie who would stick his nose up at anything that runs with less than a $500 price tag, I think you'll be happy with this.
   I guess I should mention for those that want to *create* music from loops and so forth, it's still just as versatile, although you may not be happy with the 1001 loops included (oh well, buy the upgrade) - I am more than satisfied with them however, and will probably never use even a 3rd of them.
   Take Care and May God Bless You!
   James



2. I wanted a simple full featured recording program that would rival Garageband and this is it. No complaints. Well worth the excellent price.



3. All I read about this product gave great reviews, now that I own it I find it's made for Kids age 2 to 6. Absolutely confusing to produce one beat at a time to build a drum kit, the Beatmapping tool is extremely hard find and manipulate. If you want a real working music writting tool for computer this is NOT IT!!!
   If you want a toy to play with senseless loops have fun, enjoy.



4. I wanted a program where i could create my own loops and make my own music. Instead they give you crappy loops to use and to make your own loops it takes 764588076654 hours! biggest disappointment! if you want to be a cheater and use pre-made loops go ahead. Anyone else don't waste your money

No comments about Magix Entertainment MP3 Maker 11 Deluxe.

No comments about Imagine It Spiritual Graphics.

No comments about Spiritual Expressions 2 by American Greetings (Win 95/98/NT CD-ROM).

1 comments about Printmaster Gold Classic 3.0.

1. I ordered 3.0 I received 4.0
   I ordered 3 of them. I received 3 4.0 and was charged
   postage for all 3 even though they came in the same envelope.

3 comments about Dreamweaver 4.0.

1. I decided I HAD to have Dreamweaver 4 after trying the Dreamweaver 3 demo software. And I think there is a big improvement over version 3. A lot of tweaks, here and there, that I couldn't live without!

   I love the easy Flash text and Flash buttons, how wonderfully Dreamweaver integrates with Fireworks (and if you download the extension, you can import ImageReady HTML as well). I know I haven't even scratched the surface of this wonderful program, but it is head and shoulders above any other WYSIWYG program I've used. And such wonderful resources! Plenty of Dreamweaver extensions to download, plenty of fun new things you can get it to do!

   I know how to do a little HTML, so I appreciate how I can "look under the hood" at my code with BBEdit, or with Dreamweaver's "split view" that shows both WYSIWYG, and code windows. So, even if you don't like to be far from the code, you can still find a lot to like about Dreamweaver.

   All I know is that because of the program, my web pages have a more polished appearance, and web authoring is easier and more seamless. The program runs fine on my little iMac, with OS 8.6. Though - if you want to run Dreamweaver *and* Fireworks/Photoshop at the same time, stock up on RAM! RAM is always a good thing.




2. While there have been a few minor upgrades in this version, it is nothing to get excited about. The tools are powerful but the interface is still cryptic and difficult to understand. There are just to many open window, that could easily be consolidated. Adobe's Golive, has all the same functionallity and is more intuitive and user friendly. It works better with photoshop too.



3. I've been developing web sites since 1995 and I have tried absolutely everything for web development. I keep coming back to this as the solution. I tried Microsoft Front Page, but that took so long to learn to get past the basics, and I had so many problems with uploading sites and especially individual pages that I concluded it is just not a professional tool.

   The system for creating templates can speed the creation and update of your web creation tremendously. I have done over 400 small business websites with this product and think you should start with this one, and learn how to use it really well. It is the best. I now have other designers working with me and we can all use this tool and co-operatively design websites and control content. Great integration with other products and technologies too.

1 comments about PLAY MUSIC TOGETHER (DVD MOVIE).

1. To sound like a schoolteacher - this is metacognitively magnificent! You learn by hearing and seeing! The learning process is broken down on the screen for you: the chords, the actual hands playing it - play the songs with or without words, with or without background music... there are so many ways to learn these songs! The way that YOU learn best! I hadn't touched my guitar in years, and by the third playing of this dvd I could play all the songs :)
   I highly recommend this dvd for people who want to share music with their family.
   My only negative comment is it left me wanting more!!

1 comments about Hijaak Digital Photo Studio Express - XP Compatible (Jewel Case).

1. Got the CD in time to try but there was no serial or activation number to install the software. It was a useless product. Now I am still can't use the product.

No comments about Native Instruments Komplete 5 Crossgrade Software Bundle Collection.

5 comments about 123 Copy Dvd Gold.

1. I bought this software hoping to back up my many movies and put some on my hard drive. The software is buggy and in some cases will take close to 6 hours to rip a dvd movie. Any DVD with episodes will not be able to copy and you can forget about copying to a dual layer disk. There is an upgrade for the software that takes away all the options for copying to your hard drive and decreases the chances of a good burn when doing a strait copy. I ended up going with 1clickdvdcopy and have had no problems, it cost a little more but it was worth it in DVD-Rs that i will save from bad burns because of 123 copy dvd.



2. I downloaded the trial version to give it a test run. Totally nonfunctional. I wouldn't waste the time or money on this product. I gave it a one star because zero stars in not an option.



3. This is a completely useless program. I have tried to install it on 2 different computers and it stopps at 84% and even after an hours wait will not completely install. I tries using it even with the incomplete install and it will transcode the information and try to burn it, but stops at 90% and will not finalize the disk so it can be played. I have wasted over 10 disks trying to get a finished copy.
   Tech support is no help. They keep requesting information that has nothing to do with the problem and then sending information that does not work.
   DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY



4. Don't buy this product!!!! This is a waste of money, and the product is not fully functional, many bugs and every bug is a critical one. The product was sent out to the market just to make profit, there is zero support!!! I had own several products from this company and all had bugs, they work with bugs but at least do what they were mean to do. This product doesn't.
   
   If you wish to copy 1:1 your own DVDs and have a back up it will do it as long as it is not copy protected otherwise you must fish for a plugging that doesn't work right and cause instability to the software.
   When copying a DVD movie, 9 times out of 10 will cut the movie short, somewhere around the 70-75% of the movie. The Audio and Video are never ok, they are always out of synchrony, and I mean way off!! there is no way you can enjoy the movie. The interface that allow you to tweak synchronization doesn't do it right. not to mention you must wait hours to test the finished product at least you wish to test with the lowest possible resolution and still need at least 2 hours if you have a good dual core processor, in a quad processor computer you may at least have the time to go to lunch and come back without wasting all day in a single process...
   In some cases, the uninstall process is not done the proper way, causing your DVD drive to stop functioning, and "disappear" so you must go into the registry and manually delete the low and upper filters on HKEY LOCAL MACHINE, for not advance users this could mean the need to hired a tech to do it for thm and an extra waste of money anywhere from 50 to 150 dollars.
   
   This is in my opinion the single most dangerous commercial software I had seen.



5. I wanted a program to convert YouTube videos and DVD titles to my Smartphone/Portable Media Player. I ended up selecting this without any prior research or comparision.
   
   If you, like me, assume that because this is a boxed copy it will work better, don't be fooled. This is the same stuff you might risk getting in downloaded software made overseas with horrible English and all. In fact, all the box contains is a CD with a serial number. Not really a surprise, these days. This may be even a bit worse since you probably won't be able to get a refund if it's not working out for you.
   
   In the opinion of a professional programmer, the application is a hacked-together wrapper for several open source encoder and decoder codecs with a pretty bland user interface (that behaves differently from buttons versus menus!). Because of the software's large dependency on open source codecs and because of licensing issues related to those codecs, the codecs must be downloaded INDEPENDENTLY from the software installation. This is one aspect that helps keep the price down and comparable to other online software in its league.
   
   Unlike other reveiwers, I wouldn't say this program is useless if you're willing to put in some time, research, and effort. There are online download shareware apps that will work much better for you in a specific task. The thing that was appealing to me about this product despite its downfalls is that it wraps several video-related ripping and conversion tasks into one software package. To buy several applications collectively performing all these conversions will cost you about 3 or 4 times more, however, they will probably work better out of the box/out of the exe or dmg (for Mac folks) instead since many include the codec licensing costs in the software and therefore in the software itself.
   
   Customer support is nothing more than a bunch of cut and paste responses that are only a little less helpful than reading their online forums. However, they did respond to my emails promptly, which was a bit shocking. Although, I did receive information that was self-contradictory, somewhat unsurprising but disappointing nonetheless.