You're at your computer all day, punching numbers, aligning graphics and coding characters, working your butt off to produce something fun and exciting. Finally your work is done – the game is ready to be played. Then you click start to give it a quick play-through just to make sure it's ready to go and discover one horrible flaw: there's no sound!

Believe it or not music and sound effects do affect the games we play, the shows we watch, and the movies we pay $9 to see. Whether you're a big-time game developer, an indie filmmaker, or a kid in a basement working on a new mod for Quake 3, you need sound!

You could go out and make your own. I've done it with mixed results. I'm not much of a musician, so let's scratch guitar, keyboard and drums from the mix. Violin? Nope. Can't play the harp either, or any of those unusual instruments that game and film composers have a love for.

I can record footsteps just by walking on various surfaces, but how is it going to sound with the generic microphone that's attached to my camcorder? What about digital voice recorder? These things are good, but professionals use microphones that go from the mid hundreds to the low thousands. They can afford to do that – they've got a studio paying for everything. You, on the other hand, do not.

I'm sure some of you are made of money and can afford that. We all know that GameZone Online is George Lucas's favorite Web site. He never said it, but logic says it's true. Where do you think he got the whole, "A long time ago, on a galaxy far, far away" thing from? Back when we were retro, that was our slogan. Our staff was not made up of freelance journalists, they were Jedi Knights. The good games were on the "Light Side" and the bad came from the treacherous "Dark Side."

What about The Force, you say? That was what we used to draw power during the Electronic Entertainment Expo. We got it this force from somewhere and couldn't explain it, so we just decided to call it "The Force."

Now let me tell you something that is true: MAGIX Sound Pool DVD Collection 11 has almost everything you need to complete your work, distribute it to friends, publish it online, or sell it for lots and lots of money (let's all gather around for a collective, "Mu-ha-ha-ha-ha!"). This massive collection retails for a measly $29.99 – pennies in comparison to the price of other sound libraries. Granted, those ultra-expensive sound libraries do contain a lot of good stuff. Some professionals have been forced to buy specific sound libraries simply because the one they had did not include exactly what they needed. Again, we're getting into the money issue. If you've got cash, great, buy whatever. If not, then why not settle for the 7,000+ stereo samples that MAGIX Sound Pool DVD Collection 11 has to offer?

These samples have a wide range of content: ambient sound (400+), big beat (800), easy listening (almost 500), dance/electronic (just over 700), disco/house (nearly 800), soundtrack samples (400+), hip hop (600+), pop/rock (800+), techno/trance (almost 800), special effects (1100+).

Within most of the categories are drum, bass, key, string, synth, guitar and vocal samples. You will be amazed by the quality of the music - top-notch tracks that sound like they were made for Final Fantasy, Parasite Eve, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, and countless others. There are several specific songs that instantly stood out as being all-too-coincidentally like Parasite Eve and Final Fantasy, two of Square's best (PE came before the Enix merger, mind you. They haven't continued the series since Enix came on board). Now if I were to hear these songs in a fantasy RPG or a survival/horror game I'd be a little miffed at the fact that they sound like other games I love. But as a creator you benefit from being able to utilize similar sounds that are legally yours to take advantage of.

All songs remain the property of MAGIX, but under the license agreement it says: "All the music files of MAGIX-Products marked with the reference 'royalty-free' can be used royalty-free for commercial or personal purposes under the condition that the created works visibly contain the reference 'MAGIX CREATION.' You will find the logo "MAGIX CREATION" on our website http://www.magix.com. If you do not have internet access, call MAGIX and you’ll receive the logo by mail."

That's all there is to it. Do that and these files are yours to use as in whatever creative way you choose (see the license agreement inside MAGIX Sound Pool DVD Collection 11 for more detailed information).

Sound: 8.5
Stellar music, creepy, scratchy horror effects, useful laser beams, wonderful piano pieces, and countless others that will make your creations more complete. There isn’t an action-lover on the planet that won’t love the gunfire sounds. I wish there were more of those, but the ones you get are on a movie-quality level.

On the downside, the vocal tracks suck (I know they couldn’t use lyrics from the top 40 hits, but the ones they did use are cheesier than the theme from Blue’s Clues). Some of the car sounds (ignition, door opening, door closing, etc.) are effective, while other sound cheap and weak. You’ll have to do some serious editing to make these work exactly the way you want them. Assuming you’re as picky as me, of course. Same goes for the footstep/walking/running sounds, which are good, but too sporadic to fill the void you’re likely to have.

I do love the phone sounds though. Individual buttons, a nice touch. The dial tone sounds are realistic and creepy, both of which are a must in dial tones! How else am I supposed to make “Scream 4: The Unofficial Sequel”?

Given that there are 7,000+ music and sound samples there are just too many to list or to remember for this review. Overall this is a very good package.

Concept: 9.0
Over 7,000 royalty-free sound samples (equal to seven gigabytes, apparently) on one DVD and it retails for the low price of $29.99. Imperfect or not I wasn’t about to let this pass me by. I guarantee that if you are a visual or interactive artist of any kind (that is, an aspiring game developer, filmmaker, music video director, etc.) you will find samples that suit your needs. You will also encounter the joy of inspiration by hearing sounds you hadn’t thought of and thinking, “This sounds like it’d be great for a [enter video game scenario here].”

Overall: 8.5
You won’t find a better sound library for a lower price. Really though, you’re unlikely to find one as good as MAGIX Sound Pool DVD Collection 11 for the same price! $29.99? That’s cheaper than a game. Artists spend more than that on paint. No game, film, mod, demo reel, or animated short will be complete without music. Unless you want to infringe upon copyrighted material and risk offending a potential employer (it can happen. Not everyone understands that it’s “just” for your “portfolio”), you need royalty-free music and sounds. MAGIX Sound Pool DVD Collection 11 gives you both for a low price.