The Xbox Music Mixer is a piece of software that comes packaged with a hand-held microphone and an Xbox controller mic interface. The product provides 3 functions; playing audio, singing Karaoke, and displaying image slideshows. The Mixer DVD comes with a sampler of different tunes all in different genres, such as rock, electronic and rap, but most users would most likely use audio tracks ripped from CDs or transferred (WMA, MP3) from a PC. The audio player is more or less a simplified version of the Windows Media Player. You can create a nearly infinite number of playlists from your imported audio and then organize, rename, delete and obviously play the tracks. When selecting the playlist, the options included are fairly simple: there are buttons for rewind, fast-forward, play, pause and stop, as well as a straightforward equalizer, and the option to turn on the video visualizations. The visualizations are like big overblown versions of those included in the Windows Media Player, but there are also quite a few interactive and customizable 2D and 3D visualizations that users can play with. The most amusing would have to be the Rave and Dance clubs. Realtime 3D men and women characters dance around the club to the music, and you can change their outfits, dance styles, video wall and camera views throughout the club. Watching them gyrate wildly to some obviously out-of-place audio is definitely funny the first few times. It's definitely nice to have the ability to show something on the TV screen while pumping tunes through your entertainment center.

The Slideshow feature is exactly as it sounds. You can import JPEG images with the Xbox Mixer PC Tool, set them up into playlists, and then select one of your audio playlists to play along with the slideshow. There are also options to alter the speed of the slideshow as well as the transition between the frames (pan and scan, fade, wipes, etc.) Creating little albums of your vacations or friends/family/pets and then setting them to music is definitely cool, but again, those looking for some full featured DVD-style options and features should look elsewhere. It will probably easily impress most non-techies and various older family members. You can also use the included microphone to narrate the slideshow as it is playing, you cannot however record the narration for future use.

Karaoke is probably the biggest Xbox Music Mixer feature. There are about 15 various Karaoke sampler songs included on the disc, and an infinite number of new Karaoke-enabled songs available for download via Xbox Live for $1.99 a piece. Your own imported audio and CDs can be used along with the vocal stripping option, but honestly, I could not find a single song that the option worked well on. Most vocals just seem slightly drowned out at most. The on-screen interface is standard Karaoke and anyone who has watched or taken part in singing Karaoke will feel right at home and/or extremely embarrassed. The software also supports 2 microphones if you happen to have a second mic/adapter or the Xbox Live headset. The interface is extremely simple, and besides play/pause, you can additionally add some reverb or chorus to your voice.

Last but not least is the Rave mode. The Rave mode is similar to the standard Audio mode, but with some additional realtime audio and video controls. Along with the audio playlist, you can put together a trippy interactive video slideshow. Unlike the fairly static Slideshow mode the Rave mode contains some looping video segments of weird backgrounds, environments, or dancing people, which can be blended together with imported images to make a psychedelic music video. While the audio/video plays, you can manipulate them both using the Xbox controller. The interface and instructions however completely fall apart when trying to describe how to properly create and edit the visuals. Also, figuring out what button preset to choose and then which button does what is confusing as all hell. Once you navigate the confusing menus in the mode, the final result is pretty cool looking, though I can't possibly imagine anyone actually using the Music Mixer at a rave.

Besides the overall simplistic options and the confusing Rave mode interface, there two small issues which annoyed me the most. The requirements for Xbox Music Mixer PC Tool (which is downloaded from Xbox.com/musicmixer) and the inability to import images or digital audio from CD-Rs. The PC Tool itself is pretty cool, and anyone with some sort of home network or a crossover cable should get it working with no problem. Those without Windows XP are out of luck though. In small print on the back of the bottom of the Music Mixer package it does indeed list XP as a requirement. Though without the PC Tool, transferring images or audio files that you may have on your PC or on a CD in MP3 format, is next to impossible. Many users undoubtedly still have Windows 98, ME or 2000, and for Microsoft to leave out support for them is pretty confusing.

The Xbox Music Mixer is a fun, if not overly simple gadget for your Xbox. For $34.95 you get a fully functioning Karaoke machine, the ability to play audio with synched video visualizations on your TV, and a basic digital photo album. The interface and options are somewhat lacking, but the Music Mixer could be fun to mess around with at parties and other gatherings.