Magix Music Maker 17 (PC) Review

“The collection of tool and features in this software is impressive to say the least.”

Magix Music Maker 17 is a music generation and editing suite designed to allow you to create your own tunes, songs and remixes easily and quickly without the need to play an instrument or have musical technical experience.

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart created his first masterpiece, he only had a piano, a pen and paper at his disposal. Imagine what he could have done with today’s software at his disposal. The latest piece of musically oriented software to hit the shelves is Magix Music Maker 17 by Magix Entertainment. It promises to get you started in the music world straight away, and allow you to turn your ideas into music easily.

This digital mixing software is both easy for new users to get started but yet has plenty of features to keep seasoned musicians happy. First impressions when you first run the software is that it’s fairly basic, but as soon as you start playing around with the menus and settings, you quickly find out there is more here than meets the eye.

As a first time user, you’ll probably need to read some of the manual first to get a feel for what’s involved. This isn’t software that you can just jump in with both feet and expect to get something out of it. If you’re used to music software it’s possible that after an hour or so you may have something vaguely melodic to show for it, but to begin with you’ll be finding your way around the program and discovering all the proverbial bells and whistles do.

Features
Speaking of bells and whistles, once you get down to the nuts and bolts you’ll find a massive library of built in sounds and loops. More than 1,500 to be exact, and they are categorised for you by genre, so depending on your taste in music you should find something that sounds good to you fairly easily. All the samples are of fairly good quality, and it’s easy to download and import your own and edit them with the built in effects manager. One of the features that really stand out is the professional quality piano and saxophone samples, they really are top drawer and will compliment any style of music you intend to make.

Also included are a multitude of effects that are studio quality, enabling you to enhance the sounds you have laid down with almost unlimited boundaries. Your imagination really is the limit here, because with these tools you play and adjust to your hearts content. All the effects were provided especially by professional musicians, and they all offer amazing clarity. You also get a virtual mixer and numerous EQ possibilities that enable you to mix your tracks to get exactly the right balance. All of this takes practice of course, and controlling and figuring out Magix Music Maker’s interface will take time. It’s not quite as intuitive as some other music management software, but it’s not the worst either. Once you get the hang of it and all the little quirks, it’s actually quite quick to drop in loops and mix them to the right volume and add effects.

For those who want to have a go at writing their own songs and tunes, there is the integrated MIDI editor. Even if you don’t know your crotchets from your semi-quavers, you can’t go wrong here, because you can use your mouse to point and click the notes to make up your own melodies quickly and easily. You also get a few ready-made melodies to play with, which is actually quite handy if it’s the first time you’ve tried to write music.

You can also record yourself by attaching a microphone or musical instrument to your computer. You will naturally need a computer with a suitable soundcard, and it can be a bit fiddly figuring out the optimal settings to get the best out of your chosen instrument, but with some perseverance you can play a guitar or keyboard and have Magix Music Maker record you in real time. You can then save your work either as a complete song or as a loop for including in other projects.

Overall
The collection of tool and features in this software is impressive to say the least. You have so many options when choosing sounds and loops, plus the ability to import new sounds and record your own. This all adds up to an extremely flexible approach to music making. You also get some superb EQ options, mixers and effects that really should be on software many times the price of this. You also have a wide range of output options and export settings, meaning that when you’ve created your musical masterpieces, you can ship them out of Magix Music Maker and upload easily to your YouTube, Facebook or Twitter accounts. Or you can save your songs as MP3, WAV or any other type of file to make up albums of your work.

The main gripes are the fiddly settings needed to record your own instruments and import sound into your collection of loops and sounds. It can take an age to get the input gain controls just right to that what you’re recording is neither too soft nor too loud. It’s also tricky to import a MIDI file, so that different instruments appear on their own tracks. Sometimes it seems quicker to import onto a single track and sort it out from there, creating another step. Another problem is the user interface can sometimes seem cluttered and confusing and sometimes a little daunting for new users. As you work with the software, you soon get used to it however.

Overall, the software is powerful and very professional despite the few negative issues. If you’re interested in getting into music and have little musical knowledge, this program will guide you through each step, and the included tutorials are very good indeed. If you’re willing to persevere you’ll find this will do everything you want it to and a lot more.

Check out current prices of Magix Music Maker 17 on Amazon.