No comments about PowerPack for GarageBand - New Instruments & Apple Loops.

No comments about M-Audio ProSessions-Vol 7 Hydrosonics Disc 1.

No comments about National Geographic Greeting.

No comments about Magix Movies2Go.

No comments about STAR WARS - EMPIRE AT WAR.

3 comments about Notation Composer by Notation Software.

1. If you want an easy to use program that automates the most used jobs like printing out lead sheets, adjusting tempo's and pitch,volume levels, etc., this is the one to buy. It doesn't stop there. Adding lyrics is a breeze. All you do is click the lyric tool, and lyrics advance accurately as you type and click the space bar or tab button.
   
   For the more advanced user, the toolbar allows for almost any kind composition. The downloaded and online help is very comprehensive, and layed out in sections to learn any of the many features, as well as a friendly , helpful forum.
   
   I am a musician, and don't want to spend big bucks on the hard to learn programs, when this does it all for me.



2. I have been using Midi-Notate for over a year now and I rate it above the other more expensive packages. Note entry is easier and there are many ways to achieve it. It does not have all the bells and whistles of the top range packages but it has some unique features - like play the accompliment while displaying the tune and highlighting the note in real time. I use it to practise with my violin.



3. Although I know of people who use Midinotate for instrumental practice or editing scores, I use it for the creation of original music, primarily symphonic. After many months of trying one after another of similar programs, I settled on Composer.
   
   Basically, it offers an unlimited supply of virtual manuscript paper and easily learned tools to fill it, erase and re-write just as easily, and finally print the score. I am no printing maven, but the only actions I've found necessary to get a good print-out is to change to legal sized paper for the conductor's score when there are 20 plus staves. Since Composer offers a page view--which is essentially a print-preview that can be edited in the normal fashion--changes to the appearance, such as adjusting slurs so they don't cover notes, can be made before printing.
   
   Perhaps best of all is that Composer is continuously developing, with most of the development in response to user needs. As easy to learn as it is, I find the internal Help file extremely well organized, indexed and cross-referenced. It is linked to the on-line help forum, which has a remarkably fast response time.
   
   In short, one can do anything possible with a pen and blank manuscript paper, re-do it as often as necessary and achieve a result a calligrapher would be proud of. And of course hear it, too.

5 comments about Pinnacle Studio 9 Upgrade from Previous Version.

1. I had Studio 8 and enjoyed it. I moved to studio 9 and hate it. There are lots of bugs too many to mentions. There Quality Assurance and marketing department has done a horrible product release that is full of bugs!!!!

   My suggestion is stick with studio 8 if you have it. Otherwise go buy another competitor product.

   Good Luck




2. My review is for the full version 9, not the upgrade, but they should be the same. I had so many problems with version 8, but I made the mistake of hoping version 9 would be better. WRONG.
   The good: Pinnacle Studio is packed with features and is quite easy to use.
   The bad: It's JUNK. Full of bugs even with the latest updates. It's slow too. STAY AWAY from this product!



3. First off, I'm about to buy Studio 9 Media Suite after having used both Studio 7 and Studio 8. My experience is that all of them are buggy, but in some respects that is not surprising given the impressive capabilities of the product. Other editors don't come close to the performance. I'm not saying the program is perfect, but I learned painfully how Studio can hang; here's how I worked around it.
   
   I was the parent support to a group of high schoolers putting together a sports team video almost three years ago. The final version ran 32 minutes and 4.7 GB, with about ten different music tracks, about 30 video clips, and almost 300 pictures, all with special effects, titles, etc. The end product was really impressive, but the project wouldn't render. Parents had paid their money. Kids were getting ready to go away to college. I knew that Studio 7 wouldn't handle anything bigger than 4.0 GB, so I had to splice two projects onto the master (seamless with a digital camcorder).
   
   But first I had to get it to render. On the Pinnacle web site I read someone's comment about hanging often being due to heavily edited projects - you know, adding and cutting a frame here or a frame there to get the perfect transition? So here's what I did. I printed out the storyboard/timeline data as an Excel file. It gave me all of the clips, all of the start and stop times, all of the transitions - everything I needed to to reconstruct the project. I then went back to the raw files and carefully edited them one time, using the storyboard data, and inserting them into two new projects for the two project segments. Disclaimer - downloading and printing the storyboard data was not obvious in Studio 7; I have suggested this to Pinnacle as a desirable feature but couldn't tell you if it's happened.
   
   The entire thing then rendered perfectly on a system running an Athlon 900 MHz CPU, 384 MB RAM, a Radeon 7500 video card, and 120 GB HDD space. A project like that will stress ANY system and may take hours to render, but it will work. I recommend no multitasking or background processes while rendering. I think I even disconnected my ethernet cable and shut down the antivirus and firewall.
   
   Pinnacle Studio is very much like a British sports car - incredibly finicky, but incredible performance when it's right.



4. ACTAUL RATEING IS -***** (thats MINUS 5 stars)
   
   TWO times dealing with Pinnacle, and I feel I need a lawyer to take them to court. They KNOWINGLY sell DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS! AND DECEIVE CLIENTS WILLFULLY!!!
   
   They wrote a program and it's got too many bugs to fix so they make it look as if they are fixing bugs and that there is only a few minor ones, but there ARE NOT VERY MANY COMPANIES AND PROGRAMS OUT THERE THAT HAVE AS MANY BAD COSTOMER REVIEWS POSTED ALL OVER THE INTERNET>>>> DO A SEARCH FOR "BOYCOTT PINNACLE" or "WARNINGS ABOUT PINNACLE STUDIO" or any other similar input to google or what ever, on all the sites your going to find the same sort of thing, but one page I did find which must have been a paid page by pinnacle, said they think "the bugs must be confined user spacific" claiming they had no problem at all, BS, not user spacific if it's rates 90 out 100 user coments on thousands of sites as BAD NEWS!!!!! I think I know the company they used to work at, there was some other graphics software out for win3 and it had tons of problems too, like unable to reinstall, crashing and hanging, crashing windows so bad a reformatting was needed...
   
   I just remembered, there seems to be a connection to that old one and Canon and this new one and Canon, not in documentation as being connected but the software was bundled in with the same lies, full working version of xxxxxxx, then you install it and find bugs and also find its a limited use version if you want any of the feathures you thought you were getting you had pay EXTRA THROUGH THE NOSE FOR MORE GARBAGE....
   
   JUNKWARE................................
   ........JUNKWARE........................
   ................JUNKWARE................
   ........................JUNKWARE........
   ................................JUNKWARE
   What do you call a company like this?¿?



5. I've been using Pinnacle products for years and I've been reading these bad reviews just as long. The fact is many people out there are trying to edit large digital productions with far less than is necessary to do so. The minimum system requirements are just that! If you want to produce a 20 second commercial, that's great! If you want to work with a feature length film, try upgrading your system. And keep a clean dedicated system just for video editing! Stop running all this garbage in the background. Some people expect miracles though and simply don't understand how to problem solve. I've been producing beautiful full length DVDs for years with Pinnacle and I'm here to say THANK YOU!!!

No comments about Learn the Bass Fretboard with Bass Fretboard Addict Software.

2 comments about Furniture Maker Plug In V4 Turbocad Furniture Maker Plug In V4.

1. This product does not come with any instructions. If you are having a hard time loading it, you can not get any help from the company. They have a phone number you can call but they are only there from 9-5 during the week. Then after waiting on the line for over 15 minutes for someone to answer your question, the tech group are no help. I had to send the merchandise back because the company had no idea what was wrong.



2. I agree with "Ocean Girl". My problem and maybe her problem is that Furniture Maker is not compatible with TurboCAD Delux, but requires the Professional Verison. This is according to TurboCAD techincal support. Unfortunatley this is not stated in the description that Amazon Furniture Maker Plug In V4 Turbocad Furniture Maker Plug In V4has nor is it included in the description on the TurboCAD home site. I also found it a waste of time to try to contact TurboCAD technical support by phone, they but you in an endless loop. However, they were responsive to my email support request.

No comments about Nero 5 Burning ROM.