This might sound weird, but I have been using cheap old Noteworthy Composer to construct the actual MIDI for my songs for years now. Although I've slowly purchased and improved my other tool sets, I haven't found another program that makes it so easy to arrange the MIDI for my songs. I love the way you can use the keyboard and cut-and-paste things.

I'm curious what others use for the composing stage. I'd imagine there are many who jus play it out on a MIDI keyboard, but (A) I don't have one and (B) I doubt I could actually play some of the stuff I compose.

Does anyone know of another system that is similar to NWC? Especially for the MAC? I struggle to put things together in Logic's editor, its just too sensitive. I like the tangible feeling of only using the keyboard. I have used iSequence on the iPhone for simple pop/rock stuff, but it doesn't let you get into 32nd notes and smaller divisions that you need for more complex stuff.


Any suggestions?

Sibelius?

Hello,

It might be like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut (in Germany we say "shooting cannons at sparrows"), but give Sibelius a try.
You can download a 30-day trial from their website: http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/download/get.pl?com=sh&prod=first&page_language=en

It's all I use for writing my choir arrangements, making layouts for orchestral music or providing note material for other musicians.

When producing, I do most details directly in the DAW of course - and sometimes I grab the good ol' pencil and paper when I sit at the piano, mostly just to gather ideas though.

Cheers,
Moritz

@jbadams: You beat me to it! ;)

Thanks, I'll try it out. I'm so used to that sort of 'word processing' type format in NWC, its hard to get used to anything else. Mouse is just too inaccurate. I'll check those out.