Super Duper Music Looper
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products/ showproduct.asp?PID=535
= breakthrough tool
Software Tool (Win)
FREE to try + $ 29.97 to buy

Targeted at kids ages 6 to 10 this simple to use software allows the creation of music tracks by use of the mouse, a paintbrush and an eraser tool.

To use this music creation tool you do not need to know music.
The user is provided in fact with pre-recorded music loops (brief audio recordings that are played in a "loop") for all of the instruments that she will want to use.

Each instrument has a related horizontal track on which the user literally paints where the instrument will play. By painting a few tracks you are ready in a matter of seconds to try out a music track, and when something does not work out as you expected, the eraser tool makes it extremely easy to clean up parts you do not like.

The user can pick from nine possible instruments that can be played together including drums, bass, keyboards, guitars, horns, percussion, orchestra, vocal and audio effects.

The full version of the program comes with over 700 studio-quality sounds and instruments, nine categories of instruments and 10 sample songs to work with.

Super Duper Music Looper allows for the effective control of tempo and pitch in any song allowing to easily shift the key of a whole composition.

Super Duper Music Looper provides the means to expose kids and young-in-the-spirit-adults to further their musical experiences, visually understanding the issues of tempo, intros, crescendos, mixing volumes of different instruments, and the actual creation of effective music tracks.

Sonicfoundry's creation truly allows exploration of loop-based music creation in a playful and intuitive atmosphere. While you may not feel any closer to Strawinsky or Bach after playing it, this technology offers powerful insight into how music creation and editing tools will turn out to be for the rest us.

Sonicfoundry is indeed one of major developers of professional audio software that has also expanded recently into the realms of Video Editing and Web Presentations with some very interesting products. While Super Duper Music Looper has very little of the sophistication, depth and controls available in its other higher end products like Acid, it nonetheless showcases highly effective and simple interface design, immediacy of use, and in its effective focus on few simple functions instead on overwhelming the user with universe of options to learn.

Users can also record their own vocals on top of the pre-existing music loops and can save their recording for later editing, reuse or sharing needs. Music files can be exported in standard .wav files (Microsoft Wave uncompressed) and .wma (Microsoft Windows Media Audio) file formats.

Music tracks created with Super Duper Music Looper can be easily e-mailed from without leaving the program.

System Requirements:
133 MHz Processor, 32MB RAM
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, or Windows 2000
16-bit or greater color display
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later
Windows-compatible sound card

A very effective Flash-demo of what Super Duper Music Looper can do is accessible at:
http://www.musiclooper.com/flashdemo.htm

Once launched click on the "Help" button and find out step-by-step how to use this tool. The Flash demo is very well done and it actually allows you to test out well how the real program works without any need for download or purchase. Mac users can try it out too!

Screenshots of this software can be viewed at:
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products/ showproduct.asp?PID=535&FeatureID =5142

A mini-website also supports this unique music creation at:
http://www.musiclooper.com/
Find here two sample music tracks, and a video tutorial showing how to use the software.

Download a limited-functionality free trial version of Super Duper Music Looper at:
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/download/ step2.asp?DID=355