Users learn about the different types of guitars, how to hold and tune a guitar, and the fundamentals of reading music. Learn to play melodies, chords, scales, and songs in a variety of styles, all at your own pace. After finishing the course part of each location, you'll have to successfully complete a puzzle or game in order to gain access to the next stop in the journey to stardom. Like the course material, the games are concealed somewhere in each location. You have to go through the course material before you're allowed to play the game and move on to the next step.

The software teaches how to read standard music notation and TAB. Songs include full accompaniments in a variety of styles with more than 60 popular songs in all. Guitropolis introduces advanced techniques like hammer-ons and pull-offs. Get right to the course materials at any time by accessing the method-only version. The software includes an interactive song player that lets you see exactly how each song should be played. Use the player to adjust tempo, mix accompaniment audio, and record performances, as well.

The interactive song player lets you adjust tempos, mix accompaniment audio, record performances, and transpose song accompaniments to any key. Use it to learn to sing rock, jazz, blues, and other popular styles. Follow along with the music on the computer screen. With this program, users can teach themselves to sing, even if they have never taken a lesson. The software supports both Windows and Mac platforms.

The Music Studio package consists of several components, the most prominent of which is Screenblast ACID Deluxe, a simplified version of Sonic Foundry's ACID Pro. Loops are short, prerecorded musical passages that may be pieced together to create original, royalty-free tunes, and ACID Deluxe's highly intuitive timeline interface allows you to quickly and easily "paint" these loops into complex block-rocking beats of unlimited size and scope. Hundreds of topnotch loops have been included for your enjoyment.

You can later enhance your compositions by recording vocals or traditional instruments (up to two simultaneous tracks at a time), adding reverb and distortion effects, or tweaking the pitch or panning of individual tracks. You may even want to remix songs from your favorite artists or add prerecorded movie clips or graphics to fashion a homegrown music video. After you've assembled all the parts, you can save your masterwork in a variety of formats compatible with both computerized and standalone audio players, or post it online at the Screenblast Web site.

Also featured in the Music Studio suite is Screenblast's sophisticated media player and CD burning application, Siren Jukebox Deluxe. With Siren Jukebox Deluxe, you can record audio and data CDs, rip music tracks to your computer in WAV, WMA, or MP3 formats, and, of course, play audio CDs. The application includes integrated EQ, reverb, and time-stretching parameters, the latter of which allows you to play a song at various speeds while maintaining its correct pitch--an invaluable aid for musicians.

Screenblast Music Studio combines an assortment of semi-professional tools, a slick interface, and a cool mix of loops at a reasonable price, and is therefore recommended to home-based audiophiles and musicians. --Gordon Goble

MIDI Music Pack features a 10-foot cable that will connect your Windows desktop's sound card to a MIDI keyboard or other compatible instrument or device. A quick-start guide shows you how. Once you are connected, you can use the bundled Cakewalk Express 8.0 program, an entry-level version of Cakewalk's full-fledged Home Studio software package. Surprisingly functional, Express is ready to go with recording, editing, and mixing of MIDI (up to 256 tracks) and digital audio WAV files (up to two tracks).

Besides recording from your MIDI instrument, you can use the included Virtual Piano utility right on your computer. There's good control of mixing tracks, along with adding chorus and reverb effects. Perfect for any music student or songwriter, the software lets you view your pieces as music scores as well as print them out, including lyrics and chord diagrams for guitar. As you build your library of MIDI tunes, the Virtual Jukebox tool lets you manage and play your tunes in order. --Rich Dragan