Aside from buying and recording midi off a full synthesizer, what''s a reasonable software package for composing background tracks and minor SFX? I have Sound Forge, but that''s really only for reading, processing, altering, resampling, etc. I''d like a sane tool for authoring? -Charlie

Try looking on sharewaremusicmachine.com

There are tons of programs there, many for free. You could try a tracker like fasttracker, that''s how I started on Amiga years ago (then with the great Protracker 2.2b)

Mark

try http://www.kvr-vst.com for a free vst host