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 nice. I just want a good program that will actually sound like a real band.

Can anybody recommend a program?

Thank you.
Keep on Rocking

Hey, I use Reason by propellerhead software,you can check out the deal here> http://www.propellerheads.se/ and you can check out my site and hear samples of what I did with it here> http://www.yachshig4.biz
This is a full production package but with resonable price, the only limitation I found with it is with the vocals, you have to run those through a sampler on the software or master/slave link to something like sonar via rewire (reason interface software) it's not a big issue but requires a little work. Reason is compatible with pro tools and most DAW software, over all I did alot of shopping before I started producing and this seemed the best bang for the buck, been working with it two years and still just starting to utilize it's capabilities, it's awesome. The deal with reason is not the limitation of the software, it's will it melt your processor on the pc running 100 applications at once I have email on site if you want some more thoughts on stuff and I'll check back here on occassion.