Customer Reviews
Good learning tool 
2008-02-05
I bought MC4 at my local Staples store for $39.95 to record a few guitar and bass riffs to share with my music buddy. I have XP, and had no problems with the install other than hanging on the .wav file for quite some time which another reviewer mentioned. (If you wait it out, it works ok.) I had to learn how to use it, and there were a couple of frustrating moments, but after a day or so of playing around I was able to get some nice clear acoustic guitar and bass recordings. For the price it is a great teaching tool, and works exactly as advertised, but I might move up to Sonar 7 in the next several months as there are a lot more support books and info out there to help me.
Do Not Purchase 
2008-01-28
I have never published a review on Amazon , but in this case I felt duty bound considering how much I rely on the opinions expressed by others on this site.
The problems I had are as follows:
I have tried to be as accurate as possible. If I have misspoken on anything, it is because I tried to call customer support, a number found in the manual. After calling, a recording states that Cakewalk does not offer phone support for this product. I was directed to an email address that would answer my questions. Never heard back from anyone.
Poor Customer Support
Never replied to my emails.
Only Allows One Active Input
Most sound cards these days have more than one input. Although this product recognized all of my inputs (Example: Mic In, Line In), it only allows one input to be active. Activating another input requires that the user select the desired input and then shut down the application and restart it. Therefore, more than one input may not be active at one time. This means that you cannot record two tracks simultaneously in stereo. For example, you cannot sing into Mic 1 and have guitar recorded on Line In at the same time. This option is only available if you upgrade. There is no mention of this limitation on the package.
The Use Of Real Estate Is Poor
The interface for the track view requires you to expand the view for each track to view track details such as input and output. Its takes up way too much room and makes the view appear cluttered.
Non-Intuitive Concepts - Over-Complicated To Use
Example: In order to use the software based synth you would think that you would need one track to record the MIDI that has been assigned to output to a particular synthesizer.
However you need three tracks (Again consuming much real estate)
One track for the recording of midi with its output set to a synth.
One track to "hold" the synth with its input set to the Midi track and its output set to an output "bus".
One track to receive the output of the synth and the output set to a wave file destination.
What-You-Hear Is Not Necessarily What-Is-Exported
After creating a short song that sounded ok, I decided to export.
The exported wave file sounded great but had no drums. After much reading I figured out that the midi out was being sent to a synth on my sound card. The only way I figured out to play drums was to use the included software based synth which required building a tedious drum map.
Conclusion
The cost is cheap considering the features. But then you realize this is really an up-sale vehicle. That is, you are almost certainly going to pay to upgrade if you want to record anything serious.
There are better products on the market.
If you are a beginner, this is a hard program to use. I have been mutlitrack recording for over 20 years and if I had problems understanding how to run this application, you certainly will.
Felt cheated because the manual states that more than one instrument can be recorded at the same time but found this not to be true.
Have heard about Cakewalk for years but upon finally trying one of their products, was very disappointed.
Great program for the price 
2007-12-03
This is a great program and it only cost $35! Also they give you free video training. The program GUI looks good and is logically laid out. I don't need a big giant program yet. I just want something that I can record a few guitar tracks and the MC-4 is perfect and it is great training if you do wish to move up to a more full featured program. For the low price you get a lot of bang for your duck.
An interface is needed to get your music instruments and mics into the computer. I use a Eurorack MX-802 mixer going into an M-audio Firewire Solo. The M-audio box comes with Abelton music program which is much more expensive then the MC-4 but I prefer the Cakewalk program.
I can record 1 stereo track or 2 mono at once. That's fine for me. Maybe a guitar to USB cable if all that's needed is one guitar. I also have a midi keyboard (Creative Prodikeys DM)also going into the program.
Limited Caoabilities - Do Not Purchase 2007-11-28
I am way frustrated with Cakewalk....1) the install file process hangs while installing a wav file (just ignore it and the installation will continue, 2) the Help files have graphics and discussion that refer to Sonar software, NOT MC4 (I believe), but really the most frustrating aspect is the Instrument definitions.
I corresponded with a Cakewalk rep and was referred to several links here in the Music Creator forums on how to update the ins files to all another instrument (I have a Korg Triton Extreme). In the course of trying to understand how Cakewalk reads the ins file I tried just editing the Roland GS instrument Patch Names. I did this to validate which ins file that the CW MC4 software actually reads. I modified every instance of the CW MC4 listed instrument name Roland GS (which was found in at least 10 different *.ins files, which were in multiple directories) to see which file affects what is read my CW4. No change appeared in the MC4 list when I viewed the Patch Instrument names list. WTF? I think I get the picture. CW MC4 developers have completely hard coded the Instruments you see in the Instrument Definitions list. The INS files are not even read at all. I know this because I deleted every instance of them and CM4 still displayed the Roland GS patches and Instruments as though CW MC4 were still reading the file. This means that CW MC4 users have NO ability to Define their instrument in CW4 and are solely limited to using the General Midi interface. I have a Korg Triton Extreme and I am really pissed that I spent money on CW4 because I have no means of midi-in of instruments from multiple patch banks. Very frsutrating. Even more disappointing was the Cakewalk Customer Service Rep merely pointed me to the forum links. She apparently has no knowledge of her product.
No way to get your money back from them either.....
Avoid purchase of MC4!!
Wasted time and money on this... 2007-11-14
I could not get this software to work with Vista. I spent 3 days of configurations / updated drivers etc... and could not get it to work.
I gave up, purchased Sony Sound Forge 9.0, and within 15 minutes was making great recordings. HOWEVER, sound forge lacks multitrack capabilities.
