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Cakewalk Pyro

Cakewalk Pyro

List Price: $39.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: More absurd facts about this product!
Review: Please heed everyone's "avoid like the plague" comments. Here's something I couldn't believe. I bought the 1.0 version, then got the latest version (1.5) from their web site. It installed okay on Win 2000, but about half of my MP3 files would not play, and would not be converted to other formats, because Pyro reported that the files may be corrupt. These are the same MP3 files that play perfectly in Jukebox, RealPlayer, and Easy CD Creator 3. So, I can't play MP3s or burn CDs. Here's the thing that takes the cake(walk) -- the tech support response I got says:

"Q: I can't play song files.
Try playing the same MP3 files in MediaPlayer, do you still get an error? . . . If the file does play, possible causes include:
* MP3's with extremely long file names may not play
* MP3's with non-English characters in their names frequently will not play in Pyro."

YES, THAT'S RIGHT, they are telling me that long file names may make their software incapable of playing the file!!! As if that is just a fact, it's okay, no defect for them to fix!!
(By the way, changing to shorter file names didn't help any.)

I've basically had it, since this is the 2nd annoyance I had with Pyro. The first was when I bought it specifically because the package said it worked with Win 95 -- only after I got it home and tried to install it did it report that it wouldn't run because I didn't have Win 95 OSR2.

I also wanted to get this product working because I wanted to rip tapes and LPs as Pyro claims to do. But after reading what others have written about that I know I can kiss that idea goodbye too.

Waste of money and waste of time.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: More absurd facts about this product!
Review: Please heed everyone's "avoid like the plague" comments. Here's something I couldn't believe. I bought the 1.0 version, then got the latest version (1.5) from their web site. It installed okay on Win 2000, but about half of my MP3 files would not play, and would not be converted to other formats, because Pyro reported that the files may be corrupt. These are the same MP3 files that play perfectly in Jukebox, RealPlayer, and Easy CD Creator 3. So, I can't play MP3s or burn CDs. Here's the thing that takes the cake(walk) -- the tech support response I got says:

"Q: I can't play song files.
Try playing the same MP3 files in MediaPlayer, do you still get an error? . . . If the file does play, possible causes include:
* MP3's with extremely long file names may not play
* MP3's with non-English characters in their names frequently will not play in Pyro."

YES, THAT'S RIGHT, they are telling me that long file names may make their software incapable of playing the file!!! As if that is just a fact, it's okay, no defect for them to fix!!
(By the way, changing to shorter file names didn't help any.)

I've basically had it, since this is the 2nd annoyance I had with Pyro. The first was when I bought it specifically because the package said it worked with Win 95 -- only after I got it home and tried to install it did it report that it wouldn't run because I didn't have Win 95 OSR2.

I also wanted to get this product working because I wanted to rip tapes and LPs as Pyro claims to do. But after reading what others have written about that I know I can kiss that idea goodbye too.

Waste of money and waste of time.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Average Ripper/Burner, Mediocre Features, Poor Interface
Review: Pros:

Stable (at least with 2.0.1).
Acceptable MP3 Quality at 192 or higher
Audio Editing has some limited uses

Cons:

Poor interface
Lack of library or playlist features

Unless you have a tremendous need to split up your audio files, I'd recommend looking elsewhere because Pyro doesn't really have much else to offer. Pyro is a no-frills CD ripper. The version that I purchased (2.0.1) seems reasonably stable compared to other CD-ripper programs. The MP3 converter quality is acceptable at 192bits (I don't bother with anything lower than that).

The interface is unwieldy, non-intuitive and often aggravating. Suprisingly, it doesn't appear to have any playlist features. This means that once I rip my CDs, I end up adding them to my playlist in MUSICMATCH and listening to them there. The audio edit features have come in handy in a few cases. It's nice to be able to cut out parts of a song, or split it up into multiple tracks. However, the lack of playlist or library features limits the value of the product.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easy and powerful software at a great price.
Review: Pyro is awesome! I had no trouble installing, and was burning CDs within minutes. Pyro quickly found my CD burner, and located my mp3, WMA and WAV files. I've been making my own compilation CDs and converting some of my favorite CD tracks to mp3, now they're small enough for storage or to e mail to friends. The label maker is really cool because you can import your own pictures and text. Pyro automatically finds album and song titles on my CDs. It also records audio, and it was easy to connect my old turntable and transfer songs off some old records and tapes, then enhance the sound with EQ and other effects. This thing is the bomb!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great for simple rippin and burning CD's.
Review: This product is great for the beginner who basically wants to copy Cd's and ripping. The audio effects are great. Yon can pick different recording sounds. For a bonus added to the package are a Labeling software and a blank Verbatim CD-R disc. The only dissapointment I had was, you are limited in arranging and organizing the selected format songs you want to record. This is not to say there are ways around this, just takes abite longer. Overall, this software is a start for the beginners who are not familiar with the muiltimedia realm. For the price, this is a simple user friendly software. Stay away from price tags of $20. It probably does not have ripping capablities. (copying from Cd to MP3)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't Buy This!!!
Review: This software is truly one of the worst software purchases I've ever made -- it makes Microsoft's first-run products look bug-proof. I have installed this on three computers, so far. It has become a game to see just how many machines this software can crash. Its features sound great, but I have yet to have an opportunity to use them -- just can't get past that "fatal error." I just purchased MusicMatch Jukebox 5.0 -- it installs, runs, converts files, and burns CDs without any fuss or problems. Buy that instead

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst piece of [...junk]I ever wasted $$$ on...
Review: Unbelievable!!! After several e-mails, only a few resposnes, No satisfaction.
It will not let me burn a CD without messing that up...
E-mail them and when they DO respond, they give you a whole buch of things to try, none work and you just waste blank CDs...filling them up with random bits from each music track, usually 10 seconds at most of a song.

Worthless...I have tried several other programs and this is the worst. AVOID!!!


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