The first task when creating a piece of music is usually setting up a drum track around which the rest of the music can be based.

Unless you have access to an electronic drum kit (or a studio) it's going to be necessary to use some kind of software. BeatCraft is a particularly good way of doing this, with plenty of options to add variety.

BeatCraft does only this one thing – so you will need other software for creating or recording other instruments – but it does it very well. With this in mind, it is possible to just use it to create short drum beats that can then be imported into other software, such as Magix Music Maker, rather than a complete drum track.

The basic building blocks of BeatCraft are patterns: short snippets that only last a few bars, containing the actual drum beats. These patterns can then be exported as audio files or added to the main tracks that make up the song itself. The interface is very flexible and easy to adjust into a way that works best for you.

There is a reasonable collection of drum samples included to make up the patterns, and it is possible to add new ones. This can either be from the BeatCraft website, or you can use any drum samples already on the computer. There are reasonably complicated rhythms available, including triplets, which are often hard to work with on drum machines. The volume of each beat can also be easily adjusted, which is great for giving the track a more natural feel, and for emphasising certain bars.

Drum samples or whole patterns and tracks can have a variety of musical effects applied to them, such as reverb, delay and flange. Reversing the samples can also result in some interesting and useful sounds.

The library of drum sounds is a little limited but it is hard to complain at this price, especially as it is possible to use existing drum samples. The effects do give a wider scope for sounds than the selection might suggest. More drum sets can be bought from Acoustica for between $15 and $20.

This is a very impressive utility, particularly given its cost. A drum synthesiser to create original sounds would be a great extra but you really can't complain at this price.

Vista compatible: Yes