Audio Editing:  

For its price Music Maker makes a convincing argument for itself, with easy to use audio editing tools and applications, intuitive mixing controls and nearly 1500 sounds and effects to choose from. Music Maker doesn’t stray too far from the traditional mixing and mastering interfaces common to most physical sound boards, but it does so clearly and concisely, offering a simplicity and presentation that many Audio Editing software programs lack.

The audio editing tools in Music Maker include a processor, a channel mixer, infinite cue point notation, an effect previewer, an equalizer, a frequency tuner, a mixer and more. It also has tools for web publishing, as well as the ability to add meta-information and incorporate a wide variety of visual effects into the audio track.

In terms of audio effects, Music Maker can harmonize discordant sounds, fade in/out, add reverb, resample, stretch, trim, change pitch, feedback, echo, warp time, among other features. Though it does not include every possible effect, many of the included effects can be altered to create effects and sounds similar to those missing. The vocal reduction feature is conspicuously absent, meaning that creating pure karaoke tracks or instrumental samples for use in sampling or mash-ups is greatly impaired, but not altogether impossible.

Music Maker has band pass, notch, high pass and low pass filters, but it does not offer shelf passes. It can reduce noise and silence; however, it does not offer pop, plick, FFT or a smoother. So it is not the best product for tape or vinyl music restoration.

Even though Music Maker does not have mouse scroll zoom option it does offer more zoom options than most audio editors such as the ability to change pane size, zoom by frames and by time, vertical zoom and the option of zooming in on a specific range.

Since Music Maker is more of a mixer than a simple audio editor it provides a variety of options for adding sounds and genre effects, such as disco, hard house, hip hop, among others. It also includes many simulated instruments including guitars, keyboards, strings and vocals, or you can add MIDI recordings from your own instruments.

Overall, this is a pretty good option for those looking for a simple to use audio mixer or editor. It could also be used for amateur recording, mixing and burning/ publishing of music.

Recording/Burning:  

Music Maker can import and record from a variety of audio sources and file formats, including sound cards, MIDI recordings, line-in, as well as audio CDs. For publication, Music Maker can record to CDs and it can easily export to portable devices, such as an iPod, iPhone or Creative Zen or directly to the Internet. For both importing and exporting, Music Maker is compatible with most frequently-used audio file formats, including MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, AIFF and MP4.

Ease of Use:  

Music Maker audio editing software has an extremely attractive interface with easy to understand editing tools such as the mixers and equalizer. However, it did take us a bit to figure out how to add effects to specific sections of track and how to select a specific piece of track, usually you just have to highlight it with the mouse and select it, we had to consult the help section to figure out how to do this. Keep in mind though, that this type of software is complex by nature and does take a bit of time and practice to figure out if you are not used to using audio editing and mixing software.

Also this software takes a while to load, likely because it includes over 1500 sound samples, and it took quite a while to import a song from a CD, even though we used a computer that more than exceeded the minimum specifications requirements of this software.

Help/Support:  

Music Maker features embedded support that comes with this software. Included in this embedded support are tutorials, helpful images, and how-to information that can and can easily be searched or referenced. Online registered also have access to a searchable knowledgebase and user forums and can contact technical/customer for further technical support. The online Magix knowledgebase also offers online bonuses such as free music samples, online albums and a podcasting services.

Music Maker 15 by Magix is a great tool for amateur mixers and recorders. It is easy to use and has numerous intuitive features, tools and applications that greatly reduce the learning curve experienced by both professionals and non-professionals. However, if you are looking for an audio editor for restoration check out NCH's WavePad. Audio restoration aside, Music Maker 15 is a well rounded Audio Editing software program, albeit one that leans slightly more towards music and track embellishment than pure audio editing.