Software : Super Duper Music Looper

Rating: - Easy and fun, if you know how to create and mount ISO files
I got this to goof around with and to consider letting my 3-year-old daughter play with. The program is probably too advanced for my daughter, though I'm sure it's usable by some 4 and 5 year olds (it's recommended for ages 6 to 9). But I find it pretty fun, and it seems like, even for an adult, a good first step toward using Sony's Acid products. So I recommend it, but with reservations.

As another reviewer noted, the program expects you to have the CD inserted (the loops -- the building blocks of the songs -- are on the CD). This is a huge drag. There's a way around it, but it requires some computer savvy. Specifically, you have to copy an image (an ISO file) of the installation CD to your hard drive, then "mount" that image so that your computer thinks the CD is in your drive. You can then run Super Duper Looper and, when it asks where the CD is located, you can point it to your mounted ISO file. I'll try to explain briefly how this can be done with free software in Windows XP SP2.

You need two pieces of software: (1) an ISO-creation program, and (2) an ISO-mounting program.

You can get a free ISO-creation program called ISO Recorder from http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/ . Make sure you look at the programmer's how-to page at http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/HowTo.htm to see how to use it (when you install ISO Recorder, you won't find a shortcut to it, because it is just a shell extension, as the how-to explains). This will allow you to create an ISO image -- i.e., a file on your hard drive -- of the Super Duper Looper installation disk. You can save it wherever you want; next you need to mount it.

For mounting the ISO in Windows XP, you can get a free program from Microsoft (it's not officially supported but seems to work fine) called the Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for XP. Go to this URL and search for "virtual CD" and you'll see a link to it: http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/faq/ . Instructions for installing and using the Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel are in the README.TXT file that comes with the program.

Note that when you run Super Duper Looper after installing it, and after creating and mounting the ISO of the installation disk, you will need to manually type in Super Duper Looper's dialog box the drive letter you assigned to the ISO file when you mounted it. (The drop-down list in Super Duper Looper's dialog box will only show you the letters of your actual CD or DVD drives; since the ISO file is really a virtual CD drive, you need to manually enter the drive letter.)

Note: If you're running Vista, you should still be able to create and mount an ISO of the Super Duper Looper installation disk. There's a version of ISO Recorder available for Vista. You'll need a different ISO-mounting program, though, since the Virtual CD Control Panel mentioned above is for XP only. I think a program called Virtual Clone Drive (Google it) will work, but I haven't tried it.

Also: I don't know whether Sony would argue that this violates their copyright. I don't think it should -- it seems like it's obviously fair use -- but if you're worried about that sort of thing, consult a lawyer. (I'm a lawyer, but I'm not YOUR lawyer, and this review is not legal advice.)

Good luck!

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Rating: - Music Looper - a real hit
This was a Christmas gift we purchased for our 8-year-old son who loves music. He was reluctant to try it, as he thought it'd be too hard to use. Once he got started on it, he plays it about 1 hour per day. He makes his own songs & saves them to the hard drive. We also save them as .wma files, so windows media player can use them. He's used the e-mail feature (with some help) to send his music creations to grandparents. We've also copied them over to his PSP (Sony Playstation Portable) and he takes them on-the-road on road trips & shared them with kids while at daycare during Winter Break. Most of his songs have a lot of drums & word-phrase looping, but that's how he likes it. He starts off a new song w/drums, guitars, bass, etc. & adds word loops here & there. It's really easy for him, as he just picks what type of instrument from a pick list & then scrolls through all the possibilities (many looping sounds from each instrument to pick from). You use a paintbrush to paint in that sound on a staff-like group of bars to the right & you repeat this again w/another instrument. You can see all your music at once & where each instrument sound starts & stops (which can have many of each). This is a great computer game & we've found so many more uses for the created music (like background music for a computerized photo album). We haven't tried the RECORD feature, as we don't have a microphone on the PC, but he'll probably be singing to that once we buy one. It was really easy for him to use & his 6-year-old sister can use it with a little help too. You can change the tempo & key the masterpiece is played in & the volume of each individual instrument playing. This was well worth the money we spent.

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Rating: - My 11 year old daughter is enjoying this
My daughter uses the Apple program at school and wanted a music creation program to use at home on her notebook. We looked at reviews together and chose this software. When it arrived, my wife almost returned it because the package says it is for kids 6 to 9 years old. However, based on these reviews, I advised we keep it. It was a good move. This is simple to use and she's having a great time with it, making fun music riffs. It won't let her become a serious composer, but that was not our goal.

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Rating: - Fun for the kids
My kids love this. I find it annoying that all the projects are saved in the directory with the program itself, but that's somewhat typical of Windows programs. Too bad this isn't available for the Mac.

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Rating: - Son loves it...needs work on the upload.
My son just received this product and he loves it, it really allows
kids to be creative with music and they are so proud of what they
create. My only complaint is that the CD has to be in the drive for
the program to work, you cannot do a complete install. This makes it
hard for portability purposes on a laptop, other than that it's been
a huge success.