A good composing program?
 

I was wondering if anybody knew any good composing programs for Windows. I'm a vocalist looking to compose a couple of songs. I can play the piano a bit and know some things about reading music. I read about "Band in a Box 2007" and "Finale SongWriter". Both of them sound good to me but looks can be deceiving. Both of them have good points that I like.

I'm just looking for a virtual band that will sound good. I just want a good program that will actually sound like a real band.

Thank you.
Keep on Rocking

Sibelius is good for notation and sounds ok.
Band in a box sounds good but is not as good at notation.
Sometimes you need more than one program to do everything you need.

Sibelius or Finale would be your best bets.

Cubase is superior. Without any doubt. Plus as far as Im aware Sibalius doesnt record vocals.

I was assuming he just needed a program to write and listen to music, not one for recording and mixing.
Personally for that I use a combination of Audition and Reason, don't really like Cubase.

You might be right, I just assumed when he said he was a vocalist. Cubase if used properly, or atleast the most recent package...Has everything you could need in a software package, however it can be difficult to use efficiently for anyone who hasn't been taught to use it.

i can't figure out if it lets you directly manipulate audio. from what i can tell i can't actually edit waveforms in it, which is why i end up using audition. if i'm wrong though, i'd definitely invest more time in it.

I'd try and answer your questions IF I knew what you meant by directly minipulating audio, maybe I'm being ignorant or maybe you're being vague I don't know but if it's the latter then if you try to explain i'll try and come out with an answer for you.

Anyway I don't know why we bother answering these questions, the guys clearly gone.

sorry I am being a bit vague, i have a picture attached of what i'm talking about

basically i often need to edit the wavs i record, and i don't know if cubase will let me do that or just loop/apply effects to them.

Oh no It can be done, I'm sure I'v edited the wavelengths when being taught how to use samples. If I had the software infront of me then I'd explain how but I really don't remember off the top of my head, I remember it being straight forward. And I'm sure it'll be in the manual or on a tutorial site for the software.