Groovemaker 2.0 is a great tool for anyone entering the field of electronic music. The interface is a little difficult to master at first, but after you play with it for a while, it becomes pretty intuitive. The randommix features allow you to create endless nifty grooves on the fly, which you can save in a variety of formats.

PROS:

1 - Loop Libraries: Groovemaker comes with a lot of really cool sound loops in different styles. You can also import your own.

2 - Ease/Speed of use: It takes a lot of fooling around to figure out what you're doing, and the manual is no help at all. However, once you do get it, the process is fast, easy, and will keep you entertained for weeks.

3 - Value: Different versions are available from $25-$125, depending on how many loop libraries you want with it. I got the cheapest version, which has more than enough loops for me at this point.

CONS:

1 - 8-bar limitation: All loops are 8 bars long. Period. You can't get around that. Anything you import will also be 8 bars long. Period.

2 - The Interface: It's gorgeous, but nonlinear. Too many buttons. Takes much to long to figure out how to use it. The manual, as I said, is no help at all, and there is no phone support.


The most important thing to understand about Groovemaker (which the manual does not give any hint about) is the mental model: the file types and how they fit together. Here's a rough breakdown:

Loop: an 8-bar series of sounds. You can use 8 of these as once, in which case they are called "tracks."

Song = "library of loops." When you load a "song" from the CD, you're actually loading that group of loops.

Randommix = random combination of loops, picked by the computer. You can save this as a single file, or as a group of tracks.


Mix = combination of loops hand-chosen by you. You can save this as a single file, or as a group of tracks.


Groove = "song". A groove can be a randommix, a mix, or a single loop. All grooves are 8 bars long.

.gmd file: A record of the session you're working on, saved for later use. Reload into Groovemaker in order to continue working on it.

To mix a custom song, you must hand-pick loops, assign them to "tracks," and record each part of the song as a separate, sequential "groove." Record one loop as a groove, two loops as a second groove, three loops as a third groove, etc. for the "crescendo" effect.

Confused yet?

All in all, this is a fun tool for beginners. I'm having a blast with it. But pros will probably get irritated by the limited editing capabilities quickly.