So complete is Roxio's Creator Suite 9 that one of the criticisms levelled at it is that it offers far more than the majority of users realistically need. That complaint is clearly not lost on Roxio, which offers some of the tools contained within Creator Suite 9 as separate applications.

Which neatly brings us to RecordNow 9 Music Lab Premier, a useful tool that comes with a friendly price tag. But is it worth it? Well, yes (unless, of course, you already own Creator Suite 9). It's hardly essential, but you're not going to be short-changed by it.

Its title at the outset seems a little misleading, as Music Lab Premier is happy burning data discs as well as putting music, video and photo CDs and DVDs together. And, as you'd expect, the tools are neatly arranged, easily accessible and well presented.

When you start the program for the first time, a welcome screen directs you to the task you want to perform. For instance, if you click on the Copy tab you can access the necessary help, as well as choose from tools such as Burn Image, Copy DVD Movies and Copy Disc.

It's the Audio tab that's the most populated though, and once you click on it you understand why the product is named as it is. Because under this tab are tools to help you convert LPs, tapes and CDs, to capture audio, to create ringtones, edit tags, rename files and simply play back your music. And that's just a flavour of what you get for your £20.

In practice the program is clinical about its business. It's got the right tricks up its sleeve - such as pausing when it detects prolonged silence from an audio source it's supposed to be digitising, and cleaning up your sounds - and they're not tricky to operate. Of course, the open source tool Audacity has also proven a dab hand at audio manipulation, but the less experienced are likely to be more comfortable with Roxio's carnival of Wizards.

Throughout the duration of our tests, we found RecordNow to be a likeable, perfectly competent application that never particularly excelled but could be easily relied upon. Its target audience, surely, is the novice to intermediate user, happy to dabble with their audio but not requiring huge swathes of sophistication. And given the pleasing asking price, that target audience will find themselves pretty well satisfied on all counts.

A slickly put-together tool for non-technical users wanting to digitise their old music collection and much more. Good value, too.