Any experience with DirectMusic Producer?

Hello,

I already own FruityLoops 5: Producer's Edition. In the near future I plan on building my own c++ game engine using the DirectX 9 SDK, more specifically DirectMusic 8.

The initial plan was to use OpenAL for audio but recently I found out that OpenAL, like FMOD, is just a layer on top of DirectX Audio. I want to get the best performance out of my game engine without x86 assembly knowledge So using an immediate layer on top of the hardware(the API) rather than using a layer on top of another(ie: FMOD, OpenAL).

Another change from the initial design is to switch audio formats handled by the engine from .ogg to .mus(the format produced by the DirectMusic Producer application).

I just wanted to know. Anyone here experience with the DirectMusic Producer app? Is it easy? Is it fun to play around with?

Note: 'easy' is a relative term. I want to know if it's easier than FruityLoops.