The Australian newspaper’s IT section doesn’t often review music software, but they’ve just published a look at Sony’s Acid Pro 5. It’s a pretty bright and breezy review — hey start by comparing Acid to the obvious competition, Apple’s Garageband. Among Acid Pro 5’s many features, they mention the Groove Mapper quantisation tool as being ripe with possibilities. And even though the review is short, there is one simple nugget of wisdom that we should all keep in mind: “While no actual instrumental or vocal ability is required, you need your wits about you and a modicum of taste to aid in the development of the music.”

I feel they didn’t really exercise the program to its fullest extent — the only bad point they found is that the included loops soon grow stale. Apart from that they think Acid Pro 5 is good fun, describing it as “a great way to create an original score for your latest home video or presentation, and it’s perfectly possible to use the music created here as a bed for something a bit more original. … With less musical effort than ever before (why bother learning an instrument?) you could soon be able to create music that will be at least on par with half of what’s out there today.”

Buy Acid at SameDayMusic.com