Mixcraft's interface is a colorful ode to the standard track-based metaphor. It has a pop-up pane located at the bottom of the main window which morphs between a project settings dialog, a mixer, a sound library, a midi editor, an audio editor, and sound information. I wish you could resize the pop-up, but I'm glad the company forsook the old-school pile of windows that was popular for far too long--and that probably wasted a million hours in searches over the decades. Just to be safe though, they let you undock the pane to a floating window if you wish. There are places where the GUI relies on standard Windows drop-down menus--which don't quite match the overall look-- but we're talking a solid B+ in the interface department.

I don't love everything about Mixcraft 5. I like to tweak knobs on my FX and virtual instruments and with M5's and the graphical representations of such are always a step away by means of an "edit" button. Also, notation is on strictly a single track basis; there are no multi-track printouts or arranging that I could find.

The bottom line is, don't sell Mixcraft 5 short just because it's inexpensive. There's absolutely no reason (except for a possible a lack of talent... kidding!) that you can't create professional-sounding recordings with it. I mean, come on now: $75 for a program that has a variety of pro-quality track and mastering FX, eight virtual instruments, rock-solid recording and editing (in my admittedly limited testing), a sound library and notation? Get outta town. Or at least get the trial download of Mixcraft and see if it fits your recording style.