Magix Music Maker 15

When home videos were kept at home, and only shown to friends and family, you could use whatever music you wanted as background. Now that we can broadcast on the web, you need to take more care – copyright holders don’t want digitally perfect copies of their music on YouTube, even if it is only there to hide the ropey sound you recorded at your child’s birthday party. So what’s the solution? Write your own tunes.

Features:
That’s easier said than done, so Music Makerfills the creative void by offering themed samples you can clip together to make looping, layered music. It comes with six genres (Ambient, Chillout, Disco House, HipHop, Rock Alternative and Techno Trance), with hundreds of samples to get you started. By dragging samples from the browser at the bottom of the screen to the track mixer at the top, you can build up a simple but effective piece of music.

Performance:
It works surprisingly well. At its basic level, it doesn’t provide much creative flexibility, though you can do clever things like change the pitch of the samples to make them more tuneful and less repetitive. You can also record and import your own music or vocals, and there are virtual racks of effects machines, drum machines and synthesisers for tweaking and creating new sounds.

Ease of use:
There’s no barrier to getting started with this – you just drag, drop and manipulate files – and creativity will increase as you grow familiar with the software. You also don’t need to know anything about music (though it does help). Getting the most out of it will require time and effort though – there’s a lot in here to master.

Value for money:
Considering the wealth of tools you’re getting, it’s pretty good value for money. It’s also royalty-free, so you can use the music you create as you wish, with a clear conscience. If you’re regularly after soundtracks for your online videos and slideshows, this could be invaluable.