Cakewalk Pyro

Getting started is a breeze: select media files from your hard drive or CD, click a button, and wait as the tracks convert into your desired format. Once converted, the tracks can be played through the integrated media player. Environmental Sound Processing effects optimize the MP3 and WMA audio output (CD audio is unaffected). These effects sculpt the sound for listening via headphones, a desktop system's speakers, or a home stereo. Other settings simulate a concert hall, stadium, and orchestra hall, among other environments, adding flavor to certain recordings. Customizable effects such as flange, chorus, delay/echo, and reverb are available as well, though the advanced-controls interface may intimidate some. Home-recording enthusiasts will benefit most from these effects (and hundreds of additional downloadable DirectX effects), since the settings can be permanently affixed to sound files. General users who simply want to turn their favorite CDs into MP3s will likely play around with these effects a few times for entertainment value, then ignore them.

Moving the tunes off your hard drive is, in theory, a snap: a few clicks send your files to a portable media player or onto a blank CD. However, both options have potential limitations. Only a few portable players--Creative Labs's and S2/Diamond's most popular brands--are compatible with Pyro. The CD-burning function supports a wider range of popular CD-R/CD-RW drives, though our ostensibly compatible model (HP 8100 CD-Writer Plus) refused to successfully burn a CD after numerous tweaks.

When properly configured with the user's hardware, Pyro provides plenty of sound-sculpting options for the amateur music engineer. But for those who simply wish to convert CD tracks to MP3 or WMA files for general listening, one of the dozens of other popular--and often free--programs may provide a more economical, no-nonsense solution. --Eric Twelker

Amazon.com Product Description
Pyro provides a complete system for recording, playing, and organizing your favorite digital music. Burn CDs, make MP3s, or turn your PC into a customized jukebox. Start "ripping" songs from your CDs, LPs, and cassettes and turning them into MP3 or WAV files. From there, it's easy to listen to your music on your PC, export to portable MP3 players like RIO and NOMAD, or make a custom CD. Need help? FastForward Tutorials are there for you when you need them, and Environmental Sound Processing (ESP) optimizes the sound of your digital music in any environment you choose.

Pyro is compatible with many industry CD-R and CD-RW recordable drives. Some supported manufacturers are Acer, Backpack, BTC, Creative, CyberDrive, Delta, Hi-Val, HP, IMATION, Iodata, Iomega, I/O Magic, JVC, Kodak, LG (Goldstar), Matsushita, Maxell, Memorex, Mitsubishi, Mitsumi, NEC, Olympus, Pacific Digital, Philips, Pinnacle, Pioneer, Plasmon, Plextor, QPS, Ricoh, RWD, Samung, Sanyo, Smart and Friendly, Sony, TDK, Teac, Toshiba, Traxdata, Waitec, Wearnes, and Yamaha

Stable (at least with 2.0.1).
Acceptable MP3 Quality at 192 or higher
Audio Editing has some limited uses

Cons:

Poor interface
Lack of library or playlist features

Unless you have a tremendous need to split up your audio files, I'd recommend looking elsewhere because Pyro doesn't really have much else to offer. Pyro is a no-frills CD ripper. The version that I purchased (2.0.1) seems reasonably stable compared to other CD-ripper programs. The MP3 converter quality is acceptable at 192bits (I don't bother with anything lower than that).

The interface is unwieldy, non-intuitive and often aggravating. Suprisingly, it doesn't appear to have any playlist features. This means that once I rip my CDs, I end up adding them to my playlist in MUSICMATCH and listening to them there. The audio edit features have come in handy in a few cases. It's nice to be able to cut out parts of a song, or split it up into multiple tracks. However, the lack of playlist or library features limits the value of the product.


Not that great   July 13, 2003
I don't know if it's just me, but this program takes, what seems like eons, to read a song off a CD and convert it to an MP3. I'm running a P4, genuine Intel 2.0Ghz computer with 768MB of RAM and this program is taking a good 1-2 minutes per song (sometimes longer depending on the length) to fully convert it. I haven't done a lot of ripping in my lifetime, but I can swear that I've used other programs (like MS Mediaplayer) that took nowhere near as long as this one does to read a song and convert it. On top of that, this program demands like 100% of my CPU in the process of doing all this. Anytime I was ripping music, it was next to impossible to do anything else because this program was using all my CPU. In all, I don't like this program very much.


Error - Error - Error   May 29, 2002
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Never got it to burn a .wav disk. It ripped, slowly, and did burn a mp3 disk. It told me to contact Pyro and let them know about the error no.

I did this a couple times with no response. I ended up calling and speaking to someone in sales. They told me to e-mail them with all the info and they would make sure it got in the right person's hands. I got a response telling me how to do a "FIX". The step-by-step instructions were not accurate for what I was supposed to see, and after I guessed, I still got the same error no. I called back and they actually agreed to take the program back. I had to send a letter stating that I had deleted the program. I was in the process of doing that and decided to try just one more time. This time it told me I had to contact Pyro for and authorization no. I didn't have to do that at the installation. I still haven't figured out the program knew I was supposed to delete it. I was disappointed, if it worked, it would have been perfect for my needs. I guess now I'll have to try Music Match.


Horrible WAV to MP3 Converter!   March 18, 2002
James W. Anderson (Alpharetta, GA USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I purchased this software for two reasons: to let me digitally record old cassette tapes, and to convert those files to MP3 format to save space. The CD Wave Editor is an *excellent* digital recording program, and you can buy it ala carte from Cakewalk's website... I highly recommend it.

The MP3 converter, however, is completely unacceptable. Every MP3 file, regardless of the bitrate, has a very annoying tinny, digital quality to it, and even my old analog recordings, which weren't exactly studio quality to begin with, sound awful after conversion.

My recommendation is to buy the Wave Editor software separately and download any LAME-based WAV-to-MP3 freeware.


Worst piece of [...junk]I ever wasted $$$ on...   January 18, 2002
Richard (nanticoke, PA United States)
Unbelievable!!! After several e-mails, only a few resposnes, No satisfaction.
It will not let me burn a CD without messing that up...
E-mail them and when they DO respond, they give you a whole buch of things to try, none work and you just waste blank CDs...filling them up with random bits from each music track, usually 10 seconds at most of a song.

Worthless...I have tried several other programs and this is the worst. AVOID!!!