Steinberg Sequel Music Creation and Performance Software (Macintosh and Windows) (Version 1.0)

List Price: $129.00 Discount Price: $79.00

Features:

• Complete all-in-one package - ready-to-use straight out of the box!
• Record, edit and mix music in any popular style
• More than 5000 loops from world-class producers included, covering popular styles
• More than 600 ready-to-play instrument sounds including more than 60 drum kits for various styles
• Built-in studio-quality audio effects, including EQ and Dynamics in every channel

Customer Reviews:

Let your creative drive flow - Quick and easy - very sharp looking [Posted on 2007-06-10]
For that price unbelievable value no question. You will be able to record quickly after installation. Tasty layouts easy to navigate good sounds and loops effects etc. drag and drop ease. Its still very new for me but so far what I have done, incredible. For quick songwriting ideas ideal. Similar to Live Lite. If you need a pro studio though get Pro Tools or Cubase 4. Sequel is designed for use with Vista so no worrys there. Tracks are only limited by how powerful your System is. Steinberg is a great company, I love Cubase and I have been using them since the 90's with a (ready for this) Commodore Computer.....btw for more info visit youtube and there you will find a 10 min demo of this software. After watching it I have a feeling you will buy it! 100.00 or less... I dont think you can go wrong.... For Musicians and Songwriters or for a hobby, or even young kids a must have.

dont buy it - try ACID instead [Posted on 2007-06-15]
Problems since the very beginning.. the installation was about 1 hour long because problems with the activation software not mentioned in the product manual, after spent days trying to find how to solve it , i installed the sw, but it could not run because it does not work with my Behringer BCA2000 ASIO driver.. i even tried with an AUDIGY sound card but it didn't work either.. i am totally dissapointed with this program..i've installed many music sw in my DAW (DELL DIMENSION 8600,XP PRO SP2, 1GB RAM, PIV 3.0 HT , 1GB RAM, 2 X 80GB SATA HD) and NEVER , NEVER i had seen something so complicated to start as SEQUEL -- My recommendation : AVOID IT AT ALL COST-- I cannot understand why the creators of NUENDO can make a mistake like this...

an excellent starter program [Posted on 2007-10-30]
I've really been enjoying using this program. It's got a nice library of sounds and instruments to use, and once you figure out how to make it all work, it works reasonably well.

First, the bad stuff: Unfortunately the instructions are somewhat lacking. For example, it'll give a wonderfully detailed step-by-step explanation of how to hook up a guitar and record a track, but won't explain how to use their own preset instruments. Or it'll show you how to drag a premade drum loop onto the track screen, but won't show how to import your own audio files. For the most part, the instructions seem catered to either people who have their own instruments to hook up and play, or to those who are content with repeating a premade rhythm laid over a premade drum beat. But like I said, I played around with it for a bit, interpreted their instructions and used them in different ways, and got to where I need to be (which was somewhere in between ;D).

One more knock (then it's all positive): the lack of a wave editor. There's no way to reverse a sound, to fade in a note, to do many of those basic things that you'd expect (not easily, at least). If you have a drum loop playing, but want one of your cymbals to play in reverse... good luck :) record a single cymbal sound, export as audio, load into another program, reverse it, export as audio again, click and drag the audio file into the track selector, and readjust it so it isn't sped up or slowed down the tempo of the song you're making. Wee!

But, I feel the pros far outweigh the cons. A multitude of preset instruments, from a cello duo to an elektro kit to an accordian to gunshot and thunder sound effects, all on a nice little piano scale. Each instrument lets you mess around with reverb and eq and all that jazz, as well as echo effects, distortion, gating, etc. You just have to start a new track with the same instrument if you want one or two notes or effects with a different sound setting is all.

Bottom line: seems dissappointingly simple at first, but if you give it a chance, it can surprise you.

I recommend this to anyone who wants to put together some music, but can't afford the more expensive programs out there. If you ever outgrow this program, the files are compatible with Sequel's big brother Cubase (also by Steinberg, of course). Yay!

Fun to play around with [Posted on 2008-08-02]
All the loops and ease of use make Sequel a fun program to play around with and make music in. However, I got it for a school project and quickly found out that's really all it was good for (for me anyway). Sequel is touchy when it comes to installing and activation. You can only have it installed on one computer at a time and if you move it to another computer, you have to log on to the Steinberg site and request a new activation code. The whole process of installing it is painfully irritating. If you're looking for an easy to use program, this is it. If you're looking to do something more serious, I'd look into a different program.

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