Music Magician

Creativity Tools

Musical ability, knowledge, and an advanced degree would all be helpful when you boot up Music Magician (Sony Classical, ages 8 -13). This is an incredibly complex and convoluted program, a clear case of having too many options and too little instruction on their effect. The ornate graphics don’t help the situation. You have on-screen options for editing pieces that include “Mutate, Breed, Build and Transform.” Check with Help and it asks: “How do I breed? How do I mutate?” That ‘s our question. You can hear Bach on electric guitar and Beethoven doing the blues, but that’s only scratching the surface. There’s the capability to do a million things, but you’d need a very thorough tutorial and context-sensitive Help, neither of which are included, to begin to appreciate all that this program has to offer. Wait for the next version.

– June 1995