No comments about Photo Editing Pro Software 2008 Alternative for Adobe Photoshop.

5 comments about Toontrack Ez Drummer Multi Layer Drum Sampler Software.

1. I have Cubase 4, Reason3, Drum addition to Reason. I am using this with Alesis DM5 electronic drum set. Cubase and Reason don't come close to how real and full sounding the EZDrummer sets sound. I am really appreciating this product.



2. I'm a bit baffled by some of the reviews here. I got EZDrummer recently and I'm very happy with it so far. Let me clear up a few things:
   
   1) It's a virtual instrument (says so right on the name). Apparently some people don't understand what that means. What that means is that you plug it into your favorite "main" sequencer program (FL Studio, Cubase, Mixcraft, whatever) and use it from there. Actually, EZ Drummer *does* come with a stand-alone program as well, but it's mainly a virtual instrument. Complaining that you need to buy a sequencer to use it is like complaining that you need to have a computer or an operating system, or a disk drive, or a power outlet. Duh! That's it's nature, and it's well understood.
   
   2) The licensing is not *that* bad. Here's what it is: you install the program from the disk, you login to their website and fill in some info including the "license key" that comes with your disk, Toontrack generates an automated email containing an authcode that is specific to your computer and your serial number, you type that in on your computer, and you are done. The bottom line is that you can set two machines up to run with a single copy of EZDrummer. Then if you want to install it on a 3rd machine you have to de-activate one of the licenses that you had previously activated.
   
   I'm not real thrilled about the licensing. It is certainly a bit confusing, and I wish it were either a little more flexible or let you license it via a dongle but I've seen much much worse, and I had things running 15-20min after inserting the disk into my machine. It's actually pretty similar to how Adobe does licensing for example.
   
   Ok, so how is it at helping you create drum beats? Seems pretty darn good to me. The "default" drum beats are great. Just select what you want and drag it right onto your favorite sequencer. That is one way to use it. And even using it on that simple level it gives you a lot of power. You can make modifications like how hard the drum strikes are, and you can control the mixer right on EZdrummer itself to tailor the individual drums and symbols. The other way to use it is to create completely custom beats. I have not played with that much yet, but that is the feature that distinguishes it from places that just offer you drum loops that you pretty much have to take "as is" for example. And to me the fact that it offers so many different "upgrades" is a nice plus. It means that you can start small and expand, and also that the company is alive and well and motivated to keep making their product better.
   
   I haven't used it enough yet to give a real in-depth review, but I felt like a few of the things that were said about it were pretty far off-base, and I wanted to chime in on that. I think the real telling thing about EZDrummer is what the real experienced hard-core musicians think of it. Go and do some searches and I think you'll see that this program has a real nice, well-earned reputation in the musician community.
   
   By the way, I've been using it with FL Studio and Mixcraft and it seems to work very well with both those programs.



3. BUYER BEWARE Do not buy this product. This company is a bunch of liars and cheats. Once they get your money they run you around and then leave you cold. Don't be a sucker like I was.
   Forget about support, forget about straight answers.



4. Hands down the best drummer I've worked with. Shows up on time, has no ego, and has no psycho girlfriend to deal with. Oh and did I mention that it sounds amazing?
   
   I love this software. I've had it for two weeks and fell so in love with how easy it is to use that I just ordered all the expansion packs.
   
   I was trying to use Session Drummer2 that came bundled with Sonar 7. It was awful. Took me two recording sessions to figure out that it would be forever useless. I now use EZdrummer exclusivley.
   
   There is no end to what you can do with this software. Drag and drop and then edit the clip if needed. Just go to toontracks website and check out the video. If your not sold then get a real drummer.
   
   But if your like me and you live in an apartment and you are tired of using drum machines that sound, well machine like. Then this is for you.
   
   As for the whole registering it thing,it ain't that bad. In fact it was no harder then when I loaded up Sonar and had to go thru registering that.



5. If you are using a computer-based recording system you can't make drums easier than this. And they sound awesome. You can use the large library of midi samples, or you can make your own. The thing that is so awesome about EZDrummer is that the loops are midi loops. as opposed to audio loops. So you can edit them in any way you want and it wont effect the sound. They now have Superior Drummer 2, but this program works great and it is much much cheaper. If you end up wanting Superior Drummer 2 you can upgrade from this.

2 comments about CD & DVD Maker Platinum 7 Professional.

1. Had a little problem on the beginning trying to get it to install. Had to reboot my computer and then I had no problem. I really like the software. I would highly reccommend it. They were real prompt on shipping it to me.



2. CD & DVD Maker 7 has been updated to a new suite of tools called NTI Media Maker 8. Media Maker 8 has virtually any tool necessary in working with CDs or DVDs. In addition to burning and ripping audio, video, photos, and data, it provides a built-in backup utility called NTI Backup Now. The package also includes tools for editing audio files, creating slideshows and jewel case labels. You can burn data, audio, mixed-mode (a combination of data and audio tracks), standard video formats in additional to Blu-ray. The backup utility allows you to back up to any device writeable device on your system (hard disk, flash drive, CD or DVD). The program has a rather interesting wheel-style interface, which clearly labels any function that you wish to perform. When you click on one of the buttons, another wheel pops up to display a number of specific tools available in that category (i.e., Audio allows you to rip a CD, create an audio CD or an MP3 CD, create a music DVD, record from your microphone or line-in jack, or edit an audio file.) I found all of the tools to be easy-to-use and logically laid out. During my testing, the software performed as expected and the burned CDs and DVDs performed flawlessly in other devices. This is an excellent tool for all of your burning needs.

5 comments about Super Home.

1. Wanting to design and build a backyard deck I was looking for home deck design software. The box inidicates that the software includes "Ulitimate Deck" and AutoFraming. However, after using the software and checking with support it turns out that neither the "Ulitimate Deck" or AutoFraming features will provide a design from which you can use to actually construct a deck, e.g., no footings, joists, etc...



2. As other reviewers have stated, this software has some real issues. Some research indicates that the software engine is about 5 years old, which could explain a lot. It does not conform to basic Windows API standards. Things like undo do not work. Selecting objects can be frustrating, if you have several close together (Corel solves this by using the tab key to sequentially select objects). But my biggest complaints are the topography tool, which works in a bizarre fashion, and the help files, which are no help at all.
   On the plus side, I was able to make a reasonable drawing of my house, so that I could envision an addition. But trying to get the lay of the land right was impossible. So for pretty cheap, you can do basic drawing and planning. I give it the 'high' rating of 2 stars because it's cheap. But you don't get what you don't pay for. Spend more on something else and save yourself the hassle.



3. I should have read the reviews! All I wanted to do was enter the dimensions of my house, my kitchen in particular, and work on rearranging things. Fat chance! The hours of my time I have wasted on this would have been much better spent at work, earning money to pay a professional! 45100 - PUNCH! SUPER HOME SUITE SM BOX CAN VERSION



4. Wow, I should have read the review first...like everyone. But the box makes it sound so simple. I cannot even begin to list my complaints about it but I will say that I only bought it to redesign my fireplace. The box shows fireplaces but I couldn't figure out how to insert one. And getting the little man into the room was like playing an impossible video game with the energizer bunny on speed. Ridiculous. But I will return this product for a refund. What junk!



5. I am planning a major kitchen remodel. Unfortunately I discovered that my daughter had managed to break the CD to our Sierra Home Architect. I bought this Punch product hoping it would work similiarally. I was unempressed with the kitchen item selection and still can't walk through my design. The fly over is just a little better. Objects take a very long time to appear on the floorplan.
   
   I will be offering my copy for sale as one of the used ones. I know it is wishful thinking that someone will take the product off my hands after reading this review.

5 comments about TV Tycoon (Jewel Case).

1. I have played many tycoon games and some are more difficult than others. However, TV Tycoon has absolutely no chance of winning. The setting is 1954, that is fine, except you begin with a Bank loan of 24,000,000 at an interest RATE of 20% per DAY (yes, that's correct)!!! In the beginning you can only make about 1-2 million a day which barely cover the 1 million dollar a day rental expense for the TV station.. by the time you are making any kind of income, the bank loan has compounded to over 60 million dollars, that would be 12 million a day interest, and at the end of 15 days you will owe over 1 billion dollars. NO way of winning this game! Not fun to always lose. Buy Zoo tycoon or Rollercoaster tycoon, or Resort tycoon, or Farm tycoon or SIM city instead. These games are winable.



2. gameplay:5
   graphics:2
   sound:1
   value:6
   tilt:5
   OVARALL:4.5 (poor)
   
   I wonder why the company made this a low quaility game.This could of been a moderate quaility game and sold it for $20-30 but i guess they dont care if people like it and they are making money or not.There is one old jazz sond in the game but after that short song is over its dead silence and no sound effect whats so ever (if they did add that stuff this game would be big)and the game is all black and white and just 1 picture for each kind of movie and there is 1 for advertisment also (if they took the time to make this like watching a movie on the game called The movies the graphics would of got higher).The gameplay could of been way better and cant be your main game you play becuase this game is no fun if you play it longer than 1 hour max a day.Altho there is so much bad it doesnt mean junk this game is better than junk it can be a great backup game if you get bored of games that are moderate and high quility games (happens somethimes).but the fair value cant cover all the bad. If you want to run a game to do with the Tv and movie industy buy the game called The Movies altho more expensive it is way better than this game.This game just wasnt well diesgned.



3. At first when I went and downloaded this game I was like this is for a kid. Once I started playing it wasnt that bad of a game but I will be honest after starting over like 5 times I think I got control of it now and it seems pretty easy just meet your goals on advertisments and you will be fine.
   
   So if you like tycoon games then get this game for 6 buxs like I did then go for it and buy this game you wont be disappointed for only 6 buxs.



4. the good:uh um lets see thats hard... its cheap,the reqments are low?
   the bad:There is no sound effects,only 1 short song and after thats over its dead silence,gets boring after 30 mins or if you didnt get the starter loan payed off 1 hour,after you pay off the starter loan its gets boring,dont you think you will get a little annoyed if all the advertisement is a one black in white picture of a lady and perfume?
   well there is only 1 scene for each catagory of shows.
   
   Well do you think the good can cover all the bad?I dont think so.I wonder how the devolepers feel about this game,they could of made this a great tycoon and sell it for lots but I guess they did not care.Should you buy this game?Even if you realy realy realy want to run a tv station your better off in buying the game called The Movies.Trust me its cheap but I think of it was made with the other free games that came with windows,its cheap but save your money remeber about shipping handling so its not as cheap as it looks.
   Overall scores:
   Gameplay:3(bad)
   graphics:2(terrible)
   sound:1(abysmal)
   value:5(merly ok...) (becuase of price)
   tilt:3(bad)
   Overall:2.8(TERRIBLE)
   Thank you for reading!



5. This is by far the worst tycoon game I have ever played! I love Tycoon games and have a huge variety. Some are better than others of course but this one was the worst I have ever seen. It is not even worth it to play it if it is free. It is very boring. I thought at first maybe I just didnt get this game, so I had other people play it and they all said it was the stupidist thing also. I thought it was so dumb that maybe I was just doing something wrong but guess not.

3 comments about Adobe Photoshop 5.0 LE (PC/Mac).

1. Other than the fact that it can be a challenge to learn to use, this is outstanding. It actually might be better than outstanding if I could just figure out how to use all of the do dads that are in this software. What it can't do to a photo, probably does not need doing.



2. I've had this version for quite some time now & use it often. Photoshop 5.0 LE is a great program to start with, then graduate to Photoshop 7. I used Photoshop 7 for over 2 yrs at work, & took a night course to really learn how to use it to the fullest. I was blown away. I'm buying Photoshop 5.0 LE for my Mom today, so she can do all kinds of neat things with her digital camera photos. A MUST BUY in photo editing & for the "newbies" on computers. Good Luck!



3. Great software to review pictures taken with my digital camera. I just wanted to be able to see the pictures larger than the 2 x 2 preview my camera showed. Now on my 17 inch monitor I can really see the pictures.

2 comments about PhotoImpact 5 (Jewel Case).

1. I had been looking for this CD for quite awhile. I was surprised to find it when I was looking for something that was similar to it. Thank you.



2. This may be an old version but this is excellent software and for this price it is a steal. Why pay over $100.00? This does everything the average user could possibly need. I use it to restore old photos and I amaze even myself. I have restored pictures that are over 90 years old, loaded with cracks, tears, and missing corners. They have turned out better than when I took them to a local 'professional'. Worth every penny at 10 times the price....you really don't need a newer version!

No comments about Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium [Mac].

4 comments about Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Production Premium [Mac] [OLD VERSION].

1. CS3 finally brings together most of the tools that video and Web nerds need. While I still don't care for Premier Pro compared to Final Cut Pro, this suite provides a consistent user experience from one product to the next. Flash is more approachable than ever, and if you've used After Effects before, you'll find it especially inviting.



2. I mostly use Photoshop and illustrator in my work but I got this package so I could play with after effects and all the other software included. I like how integrated all the programs together so they work more fluidly. It makes it easier to move from one program to the other.
   
   
   
   Photoshop: I really like all the new features they have in Photoshop CS3 like this stitch plug in, it really makes it easy to make wide landscape pictures. The new smart filters are really great because you don't destroy the underlying photo. The new interfaces also a big plus everything is still at your fingertips but it's more off to the side and not cluttering up your screen.
   
   
   
   Illustrator: I hadn't played a whole lot in illustrator yet but I have tried the live trace feature and I really like it, it makes it easy to get something from real world into the computer as vectors and then you can use the new live paint and color in your work.



3. The product received is what I expected. The price I paid was less then retail. And we are using it/enjoying it everyday without any problems.



4. The Adobe Production suite has MAJOR PROBLEMS! Beware before purchasing it. This pertains to the Macintosh version. Premiere will NOT allow you to use (import) or output any Windows-based media (no AVI, no WMV, etc.). So if you have a digital camera that renders AVI videos they cannot be used or edited directly within Premiere on the Mac platform. (This happens even with the full version of Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro installed.)
   
   But it gets worse, Encore (the DVD Authoring application) will not create DVD's that contain "Slideshows". The program has had a persistent (3 years running) problem, that Adobe refuses to address, when Building a final DVD (either DVD disc or DVD disc image).
   
   Their technical support acknowledges the problem with the slideshow functionality but Adobe has not fixed the problems. They blame it on a variety of issues (non-Adobe generated images, image durations, chapter markers, etc.) but do not act to correct this SERIOUS FLAW in the application. So if you are buying the production suite to do DVD production or Authoring you are highly advised to seek another solution.

5 comments about Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Web Premium Upgrade [OLD VERSION].

1. As everyone already knows, Adobe CS3 is a must-have for creative professionals. This version of Creative Suite lives up to its reputation, providing tons of great new tools. The only problem I have had is the installation of Illustrator - it fails to install successfully.



2. I recently upgraded to CS3 Web Premium on a WinXP machine with Studio MX 2004 installed and separate Photoshop CS2 and Illustrator CS2 installations. For me, the upgrade went very smoothly. This may have been due to my learning from the trials of those installing before me, because I took the advice of many in these reviews and elsewhere: before installing, I manually removed all versions of Adobe Reader and all Flash and Shockwave players and disabled pretty much everything running in the taskbar quicklaunch area, as well as disabling virus protection. I left my Photoshop, Illustrator and Studio MX installs alone, and even with those in place, I was asked to enter the product id number for Studio MX, which I still had. But with these fairly straightforward pre-installation steps, the install itself went well and only took an hour or two.
   
   I've only begun using the new features, but have so far seen the following:
   
   Photoshop CS3 - seems to open and run more quickly than my CS2 installation (on my 5 year old PC.) There is a new default desktop layout for tools and windows which took a little getting used to, but I like better now than previous versions...it makes it easier to get more usable graphic image working area. There is a new magic selection tool that provides a lot of control over selection edge (you drag the tool around and it dynamically builds the selection, then can apply changes to edge non-destructively until you get what you want...very cool!)
   
   Flash CS3 - so far, have explored only the video capabilities...it seems much easier to build integrated Flash video players from 'template-like' components than previous versions. They've also included an external Flash video encoder to convert other formats to Flash video...to test, I converted a WMV file to high quality Flash video...the resulting video file size was large, but the quality was fantastic.
   
   Dreamweaver CS3 - seems to handle CSS designs better than previous versions. This version also seems more stable than my MX 2004 version...that one crashed every once in awhile. Have had no stability issues with CS3. Dreamweaver CS3 also adds a new library of components for javascript and AJAX features like rollover pulldown menu support.
   
   I haven't opened Fireworks, Contribute or Illustrator yet, and have seen only a small part of CS3 so far, but from what I've seen CS3 seems to improve stability, and add features that, while maybe not earth-shaking, are useful and well implemented. Recommended.



3. This is a great package of wonderful programs in a convenient bundle. Powerful tools that will assist any web or graphics designer. It may be slightly complicated for someone who is not techo-savvy.
   I loved Studio 8, and I love this more.



4. Why would you not upgrade? The full MacroMedia suite plus the Adobe tools. Unlike other reviews, I had no problems installing the upgrade. It took me less than an hour to install the full suite.



5. We are getting ready to use this one our website, tradesmart.net. We love it and it comes with some pretty fair video instructions. The new version "4" is now out and we plan to update and finish the site.