Product Reviews

If you've ever tried to use 'proper' music software, you may have been put off by the array of buttons and menus on offer, when all you wanted to do was plug in your microphone and warble away. Finally someone has decided to do something about it. Tracktion is a music program that's as straightforward and sensibly priced as it is flexible.

It's different to other music software. Firstly, it's only available as a download from Mackie's Web site. Modem users shouldn't worry, though - even a full version with several songs weighs in at a very sensible 4MB. Once downloaded, you have 30 days to try it out and see whether you like it. If you do, you'll need to pay £45 to use all of Tracktion's features permanently. Mackie is good enough to provide two serial numbers - so if you have, say, a desktop PC at home and a laptop while you're out and about, you can legally install it on both machines.

If you're used to music software such as Cubase, which opens multiple windows on screen and has a myriad of menus, you'll be astounded by Tracktion's simple drag-and-drop interface. All the music making happens in the Arrange window, which allows you to move clips of audio or MIDI data

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along a timeline by clicking and dragging. Flicking the mouse wheel allows you to zoom in and out rapidly - handy for quickly editing out dodgy vocal takes or accurately chopping up snippets of audio. And because Tracktion allows you to work with an infinite number of tracks, whether sampled clips or MIDI data, you can let your imagination run riot with more complex compositions. The only thing limiting you is the speed of your PC's processor.

Even if you don't already have a library of audio samples and music-making equipment coming out of your ears, you can still make beautiful music. Recording your own audio is easy. Plug a microphone into your sound card, then drag the audio input at the left of the screen to whichever track you'd like to record to. Press Record, and that's it.

Even if you don't have a rack of MIDI synthesizers and instruments hooked up to your PC, Tracktion comes with a couple of virtual synthesizers that allow you to make all manner of noises from simple piano sounds to exotic bleeps and bloops. If you don't have a MIDI keyboard, don't fret - you can use your mouse to enter notes one by one using an on-screen keyboard. There's also a built-in sampler that allows you to play back audio samples at different pitches to keep them in tune with the rest of your composition.

Tracktion is an utterly brilliant piece of software - we can wholeheartedly recommend it. It's awesomely sophisticated, yet still easy to get to grips with - and it makes most other music software seem long-winded. Even on its own, it offers strapped-for-cash musicians everything they need to make great music (bar talent, of course). Pair it up with a good music sound card like the E-MU 0404 and a USB MIDI keyboard, and you'll be in music-making heaven.