Have fun recording your musical ideas and create complete songs easily. RiffWorks includes looped recording, automatic track creation, 7 studio-quality effects, 4 Backups (InstantDrummer, REX Player, ReWire, Metronome), instant podcasting, and more.

Try RiffLink online collaboration service integrated within the multitrack recording interface - no worries about latency or distance between the users. Great for guitar players and other musicians wanting to have fun recording at home and interested in jamming online with other musicians. RiffWorks Demo does not time out. The demo does allow you to save your sessions so you can keep working on your songs with RiffWorks Demo or with RiffWorks Standard.

Download RiffWorks Standard 2.1 in Softonic

Music is great for dancing to, but did you know that it's also makes the perfect accompaniment to chopping wood, playing tennis and making sandwiches? Install Jaybot's Catchy Cadence on your device and you'll find out why.

Catchy Cadence is a free game where you must test your rhythmic abilities by tapping the screen to the beat of a song. It includes more than a dozen games each with its own song and unique storyline and graphics.

What I loved about Catchy Cadence is the sheer diversity of the gameplay. One minute you find yourself hopping on pipes as a robot in a futuristic world to techno music, while the next you're entering a latin dancing competition in a Simple Simon-style beat-matching game. The graphics in Catchy Cadence are colorful and well rendered and all the scenarios are wonderfully presented.

In terms of the music, Catchy Cadence doesn't contain any licensed tracks, so you won't recognize any of the tunes. Nevertheless, the original songs are very catchy and you'll find yourself humming many of them for some time after you've finished playing.

The control system is ultra-simple and you just need to tap the screen in the right place at the right time. Mastering the games in Catchy Cadence is not so straightforward though, as they move at a very fast pace most of the time. Because you can't progress to the next game until you've completed the previous game, this can become frustrating.

Although there's no two-player mode to speak of, Catchy Cadence still has enough to keep you coming back for more, and the novel Extras menu, where you can unlock songs and other goodies provides a good incentive to stay glued to your screen.

If you're a fan of games like Guitar Hero, Rockband or Frets on Fire, then you'll love playing Jaybot's Catchy Cadence.

Download Catchy Cadence 1.0 in Softonic

As an aspiring guitar player myself, I'll take any help I can get at trying to improve my strumming and picking.

iPlayMusic is a user friendly guitar learning pack which aims to help even the most novice player come up to speed. However, note that this particular download is not actual learning software. It merely gives you access to pick and choose from the hundreds of tutorial videos and packs available from the iPlayMusic Download Store or updates any iPlayMusic packages you may have already installed.

Therefore, this software simply works as a standalone product that acts as a gateway to the rest of the developers products although there are a few free video tutorials and samples available from the Download Store. Everything else will cost you anything between .99 cents and $35. The basic tutorials are just that - unless you're a complete beginner, you won't want to learn too much about the mechanics of a guitar or how to play a G chord. However, the videos on sale look like truly comprehensive learning packages some with over 4 hours of videos complete with GarageBand and Acid projects, pre-encoded iPod videos, and special songs by famous artists not available in the Download Store. All come with split screens showing you the correct hand position, the lyrics and right posture.

If you want a gateway to a huge database of user friendly tutorials and beautifully presented learning videos, then iPlayMusic will have you rocking out in no time.

Download iPlayMusic 1.5.0.68 in Softonic

If you've ever played the guitar classic Guitar Hero then you'll see immediately that this game is a tame imitation both in name, graphics and just about everything else.

The game employs the same scoring meters and song listings right down to the font and layout. At the moment, the game only supports a guitar controller so you'll need a PS2 to USB adapter to play it which is a major downside for most people for a start. It's also very similar to Frets on Fire but the music is nowhere near as good or original. That said, despite the distinct lack of originality, this is one of the few Guitar Hero style games available on PC and has a definite appeal for those that have never played Guitar Hero or Frets on Fire. For those users, the game will seem like a revelation and once you've got your USB adaptor, you should have hours of fun on it.

For prospective Van Halens or those that really love to rock out but can't play the guitar, this is a great if heavily copied Guitar Game.

Download Guitar Zero Alpha in Softonic

Music Makers fall into two categories for me - inspirational and a pleasure to use or cluttered and down right depressing.

Music Maker 14 is one of the better efforts on the market containing so many features that it's almost impossible to go through them in depth. However, this is no bad thing because many of the features are a little overkill but the basics are so easy to get to grips with, you'll be making sweet music in minutes. The program works with sixteen tracks laid out at the top of the screen although you can only see six at one time. You can drag and drop music samples from the soundbar into any track, and building a basic tune is simply a matter of picking out some drum, guitar, bass and keyboard samples. Then just add some special effects and the tunes you create will really impress. To get the mix and pitch of your composition right, there's a list of pitches labelled one to seven from where you can experiment and make it sound pitch perfect. On the left of the track, you'll find a panel which allows you to adjust the overall beats per and apply effects such as those simulated by a guitar pedal.

Overall, this one of the most powerful and fun music makers out there and if you can't make decent music on it, then try another hobby.

Download MAGIX Music Maker 14 (UK) in Softonic

Guitar Chords could save many guitar players time as it is a comprehensive database of the chords on your guitar and all their possible combinations.

Leaving aside the salmon-pink background, which is a little difficult to cope with, the way it works is that after pressing the Start button, you have to choose which type of chord you are looking for: Major & Minor, Augmented, Diminished Suspended, of 6th, of 7th and so on. At this point just click on the name of the note you want and view all the available combinations for creating that chord on the central window.

View the ‘How to read the chords’ sections if you have any problems understanding what ‘X 0 2 2 2 0’ means. This represents which cords you have to play, and where you have to put your fingers. That said, I’ve found it strange that the most common way to play chords is not the first solution available, but instead appears in the middle of a nearly endless list. I don’t really understand the logic behind this, although I hope there is one. If you want, you can also export the list of combinations as a text document by clicking on the Printable Format button.

Guitar Chords is a useful database of all the possible chords you can create with your guitar. It also features all the possible combination of notes you can use to create that chord, although, as the list is very long, it can be confusing to find the most common way to play a specific sound.

Download Guitar Chords 2.1 in Softonic

TuxGuitar is a full featured music composition tool that can be really helpful to musicians, whether they use their computer to compose music or not.

The program looks really complex at first sight – at least for a music newbie like me – so I have the feeling it may overwhelm more novice users. But the amount of available tools, along with an extensive help section and documentation really encourages you to give it a go.

TuxGuitar features a nicely designed interface with clear, simple lines that turns your music composition tasks into a lighter work. Besides composing right on the tablature, you can also have a virtual guitar fretboard or piano keyboard to make composition even easier. What's more, the program lets you play the songs you just composed, using one of the many instruments included in it.

In spite of a confusing first impression, TuxGuitar well deserves a chance from all music composers: it's nicely designed and features many interesting tools.

Download TuxGuitar 1.0 RC3 in Softonic

What's better than learning to play a musical instrument to unwind from a busy day? Although my advice would be to take an instrument and start playing it learning bit by bit, more methodical and expert users may advise you to follow a guide and practice theoretical exercises.

aGuitar Pro lets you manage your guitar or bass progress with exercises on the notes and on the accords. There are many advanced lessons you can follow and surely it can be helpful for advanced students as a reference point. The program features testing tools to sample your knowledge of the harmonic world.
Unfortunately, I don't see it as an easy tool for beginners. This is because of the way information is displayed which seems to be too technical. It would have been good to have a simple mode display for beginners so to ease things when learning and testing basic notes.

The tab reader and tab editor are also interesting as they can modify or create music sheets with text and notes of your favourite songs. It would have been good to have a function to search for songs online in free databases, but you will have to do it manually.

aGuitar Pro can be useful to study and test your knowledge of guitar theory if you are already a medium experienced player. It also includes a tab reader and editor, which ease the transcription of songs for professionals.

Download aGuitar Pro in Softonic

MagicScore lets you precisely tune up the notes' sounds and their timing features, process the effects and the dynamics. In this program, you may use both general and extended sets of musical symbols and as well create your own symbols, terms and chords for complex compositions with a peculiar or a non-standard grammatical solution.

Special tools such as: virtual piano, virtual fingerboard for six and seven-string guitars, notes performance editor, real-time notes play-back editor and the navigator let you easily and efficiently record and work with both single pieces and large musical compositions.

The basic features of the Maestro version are as follows:

• Automatic spell-checking of entered information
• Extensive editing capabilities (copy, paste, delete, transpose both single notes and selected blocks)
• Note entry using the virtual piano
• Score entry using the Chord Builder
• Capability to bind comments, links, and other appearance elements to all score elements
• Adjustment of volume, balance, and effects for each track (of an instrument's score)
• Reading from MIDI files and writing to MIDI files
• Play-back of the entered notes both by a single instrument and by the entire orchestra
• Printing scores, including previewing the scores
• Drag & Drop support
• Capability to cancel the running operation
• Score recording from a MIDI device

Download MagicScore Maestro 5.325 in Softonic

If you've always wanted your own orchestra in your bedroom but can't play a single instrument then this is the program for you.

This program is a hell of a lot of fun if you're a music lover. The samples feature full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. They sound like a real drummer, because they are genuine recordings of a real drummer - not just MIDI tracks. And adding a real instrument to the mix makes all of the Band-in-a-Box parts sound more authentic. There's a huge library of RealDrums styles and a superb "Chords from MP3" feature (Audio Chord Wizard) which automatically figures out the chords from any MP3, WAV or WMA audio file, and displays them in Band-in-a-Box - great for learning songs on your instrument. There's also a new soundtrack feature allows you to generate new royalty-free music of a specified length of time for use in home or corporate videos, soundtracks, etc. The "Reharmonist" feature figures out a chord progression for any melody which allows you to create a new chord progression or enhance an existing one. Other great features include save your creations as an MP3 and batch MP3/WAV/WMA generation. The only problem I had was exploring all the features which seem to go on an on. Once you've tried this though, you'll be hooked. The latest version features even more realistic instrument sounds such as even better acoustic guitars and saxophones. It also features a new "multistyler" which bascially allows you to create compositions with far more depth. Note that this demo version is fully functional except that the Save features, Notation, Soloist/Melodist, and accessory plugins have been disabled.

This is a music program with incredible range and features although it does take some getting to grips with so prepare to immerse yourself.

Download Band-in-a-Box 2007 in Softonic

Synaesthete is a highly original game that mixes music and arcade action in the style of Dance Revolution.

The objective of the game is to basically eliminate all enemies in each room - or phase. To do so you must move your character around by hitting a sequence of musical notes whilst lasers fire at them. Therefore, the movements of your character are also dictated by the musical rhythm of the soundtrack. If you've played Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't, then it works by making you push one of three keys in the right order to keep pace with the tracks. The better you do, the more your character avoids being struck down by a shot or laser beam. The graphics are 3D vector style and you have to guide your tiny character around the grids and across bridges which does get a bit boring. The 3D images are not exactly well crafted and in this respect, the developers could have done a much better job. However, for pure originality and pumping soundtracks, it's guaranteed to keep you buzzing for a while.

Synaesthete gets full marks for originality and if you're a Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero fan, you'll probably enjoy this a lot.

Download Synaesthete 1.0.1 in Softonic

Remember those old Casio keyboards that were so popular a few decades ago? Well, now they're back, at least in your PC.

Electronic Piano emulates one of those electronic musical keyboards on your computer, using each keystroke of your PC keyboard to produce a different sound. Just like the original instrument, this software app supports a wide range of different sound styles, enabling you to emulate almost anything from a piano to a guitar, including trumpet, bass, organ, harmonica, violin, cello and a lot more.

Of course, you'll also get the special effects section (typewriter, helicopter, applause, gun shot and so on) and finally the drums, with even a wider selection of sounds.

The program is really easy to use, as it displays the note chart on its interface so that you know what you're playing at all times. On the downside, the keyboard seems to have a slower response than expected, which makes the whole experience a bit disappointing. Also, I notice one note was out of tune, which is certainly not something I would expect from a music program, even if it's not a professional tool.

Electronic Piano is a simple, MIDI digital keyboard that lets you play some basic tunes on your PC. That said, don't expect professional output. This is just for fun.

Download Electronic Piano 2.5 in Softonic

If you no nothing about how to compose music then Encore can help you look like Mozart although it's a steep learning curve. Whether you play directly into Encore or transcribe your MIDI files, you get accurate notation and beautiful printouts every time. You can extract parts, transpose for different instruments, and play your music as you originally conceived it. Encore graphically displays and plays back dynamic marks, repeats, multiple endings, pedal marks, or any MIDI controller.

Encore scores can be fine-tuned with a simple move of the mouse. On-screen palettes let you enter appropriate notes or graphics and both lyrics and text are easily added. As a guitar enthusiast, I was interested by the option to instantly transcribe music into guitar tablature with correct fingering and guitar fret diagrams although in the end, I couldn't quite work it out.

For professional musicians writing compositions, this is a brilliant tool but you'll need some time to get used to it.

Download Encore 4.5.5 in Softonic

Digiband is a Guitar Hero clone for the PC which enables you to emulate the greatest drum and guitar players of all times just with your keyboard.

First of all, bear in mind that Digiband is not as easy as it seems. It takes lots of time and practice to obtain good results, especially if you're using a keyboard. Fortunately the game supports both the Xbox360 and PS2 guitar-shaped controller, so if you have one, plug it to your PC because it will make things much easier.

Digiband includes one song which is perfect to start practicing, but you soon end up tired of it. In that case, you can download new songs from many sites around the Web, including the one recommended by Digiband's developer (Gdamania) for which you'll have to register.

The game is a bit difficult to configure because it doesn't support mouse controlling. Apparently, you can only take the drum if you play solo, making guitars available only if there is more than one player. As for gameplay itself, it works in the same way as Guitar Hero, with notes coming down the screen which you have to press in the right moment in order to score points and eventually become the greatest rock star of all times!

Digiband is a great guitar and drum simulator that can take some time to master.

Download DigiBand 1.0.1 in Softonic

I play the guitar a little bit and so I was glad to discover this program. The problem with my manual electronic tuner is that it's always running out of battery power so half the time I'm playing completely out of tune. However, Free Guitar Tuner totally eliminates this problem by running directly through my PC.

The principle is very simple. You've got six strings and to pluck each one you just click the mouse on them. There are three main settings - acoustic, electric and synthesized guitar. Just keep clicking the string until the tone on the program sounds exactly like the tone on your guitar. The disadvantage however is that, if you're tone deaf like me, it's hard to ascertain when you've got it right. If only the program could "hear" the guitar through the microphone, and show you how close it was to being in tune like a normal tuner, it would score much more highly.

Nevertheless, for a simple and elegant looking tuner, you need look no further.

Download Free Guitar Tuner 1.50 in Softonic

I have a guitar, yet being completely tone deaf makes playing the thing quite a challenging hobby for me. Although I'm fine once I'm playing the chords, I find it difficult to tune it because I can't regonise the notes. I have an electronic tuner but I found that AP Tuner worked much better for me because of the sheer amount of options it presents you with, such as the ability to view and listen to a graph of musical notes and a library of sounds that can be customised by the user.

The program can detect all audible tones and is accurate to within 0.1 cents. I found the interface pretty straightforward to navigate, although the lack of a decent glossary means it can be tricky if you aren't well-versed in musical terminology. Thankfully, however, tone deafness is not a problem when using the app.

Download AP Tuner 3.06 in Softonic

If you fancy yourself as the next Elton John but don't want to shell out for a grand piano just yet then you might want to hone your skills with KB Piano. The program transforms your PC into a piano, with the keys on your keyboard replacing those you'd find on the instrument. The app makes getting started as simple as possible, and after following the clear instructions and comprehensive tutorial you will soon be playing, recording and replaying beautiful music.

You can configure the program to play chords by pressing a certain key, applied automatically when you create a new file, and there are a wide range of different tracks and effects you can apply to your compositions. With support for 15 channels and real-time mixing, this really is a pretty powerful program. You will need DirectX 8 to experience the full capabilities and be warned, we did experience a few bugs and crashes when we tested it.

Download KB Piano 2.2.4 in Softonic

This song-based learning software complements guitar tablature by providing additional, detailed instructions that guitar tab alone is unable to provide. Guitar Guru teaches guitarists of all skill levels how to play songs from a variety of genres.

Tools and features:

• Virtual fret board displays proper fingerings in real-time
• Detailed instructions for all guitar parts in a song
• Adjustable playback/learning tempo
• MIDI or CD-Synched Audio
• Customizable display with additional guitar skins
• Step-Through Playback Function
• Delayed start option: Give yourself time to grab your guitar
• Bass guitar support
• Select MIDI playback instrument to match your preferred sound
• Choose colored dots, numbers or dots and numbers to represent fingerings
• Adjust tempo up to 300% without changing pitch (MIDI only)
• Mute Button: The volume reset has been changed to an on/off toggle

Download Guitar Guru 2.1.4.1 in Softonic

For those of you not lucky enough to have experienced Guitar Hero on Playstation comes Frets On Fire for PC. This fun guitar game lets you feel like the next Jimi Hendrix or Slash by pounding away on your keyboard to some cool rock tunes.

When you launch Frets on Fire, your keyboard is temporarily turned into a guitar and we suggest holding it like one if you want to actually keep up with the songs. The Function keys become the frets that you’ll be using to play out the guitar sections.

To get started with Frets on Fire turn to the hilarious little tutorial with Jurgen. Even though he persists in telling you that you suck and throwing hundreds of notes at you at once, he’ll also give you the chance to familiarize yourself with the controls. The trick is to time your movements with the notes. This can become pretty tough when you get to guitar sections loaded with notes and it’ll really put your coordination skills to the test.

The game has only 3 songs to start out with, but you can import new ones created by the Frets on Fire Community, which you can find online, or the actual songs from Guitar Hero 1 and 2. For up and coming Eddie Van Halens, the editor gives you the chance to compose your own tracks. We prefer modifying existing ones, because it gives you a pattern to work with instead of starting from scratch.

Frets on Fire is really entertaining because you don’t need to know how to play the guitar: you just bang away on your keyboard and come up with something. The hundreds of songs available from the internet will keep you rocking away for hours. Add to that a friendly interface and a hilarious tutorial and you get one of the most original free games out there. Rock on!

Download Frets on Fire 1.2.451 in Softonic

Guitar & Drum Trainer is all about helping you to be the best musician that you can be. (Soldiers included.) And if you are serious about your music, and you think there is room to improve your playing, then Guitar and Drum Trainer is for you. And if you're already blazing down the fretboard at lightspeed, then Guitar & Drum Trainer is your perfect transcription tool to help you get things down on paper.

Guitar & Drum Trainer is the ultimate musician's practice tool. We've all heard the gurus say, "gradually build speed" and we know that's true. Nobody starts off blazing like Yngwie or Vai. Speed and accuracy take practice. Guitar and Drum Trainer can help you improve the quality of your practice time and get far better results.

Download Guitar and Drum Trainer 3.3 in Softonic