Magix Music Maker MX review

There isn’t much music-production software designed for home users these days, but Steinberg Sequel 3 sets a high standard. Magix’s latest offering squares up pretty well in terms of features. There are 64 tracks with eight effect slots on each, plus eight virtual instrument types – welcome improvements on Sequel’s 48 tracks with three effects each and three virtual instruments.

Quality is more important than quantity, though. There’s a new analogue synth called Lead Synthesizer, but sadly, its controls and sounds are as uninspiring as its name. Also new is Loop Designer, which takes a drum loop, manipulates it beyond recognition and throws in a bassline for good measure. It reminds us of Steinberg LoopMash, which comes bundled with Cubase. Like LoopMash, the results tend to be fairly off-the-wall, but those who embrace bizarre noises should get some mileage from it. Drum Engine takes a no-frills approach to electronic drum sounds, with high quality results. They join the instruments from previous versions, including LiViD, which provides auto-accompaniment drum performances, and Vita, with its generous library of convincing orchestral and pop instrument emulations.

I play synth… we all play synth

Ultimately, though, Sequel’s instruments are less diverse but they have the edge for quality. They also benefit from a library of MIDI phrases, so users can press them into action if they don’t own a MIDI keyboard.

Music Maker now supports VST plug-ins to expand on the built-in effects and virtual instruments. Only two of the eight effects slots per channel can be used for VST effects – the others are hard-wired into the signal chain. However, while Sequel can only use VST3 plug-ins, of which there are very few, Music Maker works with VST2 plug-ins too – of which there are thousands.

The bundled loop library is another highlight. It’s not huge but it’s well organised by genre and instrument, and the quality is unusually high for a consumer package. We’re used to wincingly cheesy sound libraries that could have been knocked together by the work-experience boy, but Music Maker MX’s are performed and recorded to a high standard. Best of all, the harmonic samples are presented at seven pitches – not simply pitch-shifted but re-performed so they can be used together to create chord sequences.

Sadly, these features are let down by a lack of attention to detail in the interface. Editing performances was fiddly, with a confusing snap-to-grid function that rarely did what we wanted. Some pop-up windows had to be closed before other parts of the interface could be accessed – we couldn’t even click the Stop button. Simple functions such as reordering tracks, setting the recording start point, previewing a loop at a particular point or even just changing the editing tool took more mouse clicks than they should have.

Most worryingly, despite all Magix’s experience with music-production software, it still seems to be struggling with sound card settings. When we clicked record, a pop-up box appeared with a long, confusing message about the perils of not using ASIO drivers – as well as the perils of using them. Having followed the message’s advice and chosen an ASIO driver, the result was not only occasional clicks but also a significant loss of sync, with audio recordings appearing almost half a second later than we performed them. Returning to a non-ASIO driver and hitting record threw up the message, “Cannot close Waveform Device for recording! The specified device handle is invalid.” To our surprise, the recording went ahead anyway, but it’s not what we wanted to see just as we were about to pour our heart out into the microphone.

There’s a prize for anyone who can read this without dozing off

As we experimented with sound card settings, we often found that the recording sample rate had mysteriously changed, thereby pitch-shifting the entire track. Admittedly, getting music-production software to work smoothly without a specialist musician’s sound card – or even with one – isn’t easy, but the system requirements only specify an “internal sound card”. Magix needs to rise to the challenge rather than leave users to troubleshoot using inelegant controls, especially in a consumer-oriented package.

Two stars may seem harsh considering the software’s strengths, but for us, life is too short to be grappling with cumbersome controls, especially when it distracts from the creative process.