response 4 of 15:

Sep 4 01:30 UTC 2003

I've never heard of Cakewalk, Tod-- can you describe?

response 6 of 15:

Sep 4 12:40 UTC 2003

for about $35 you need only the midi adaptor by Advanced Gravis.  You should
have an open RS-232 port in the back of your computer (7-pins + 8-pins). 
 This is where a joystick would commonly plug in.).

You only need a new sound card if the sythesized samples don't come near
enough to your ideals.  That is, does a violin sound something similar to a
real violin?  You need better software if you find your creativity limited
by the number of tracks you can create, difficulty in entering notation.

Cakewalk certainly has its fans.  From discussion on another forum, it fails
as a full-feature notation program, but jazz muscision like it for creating
charts from which to practice improvisation.  Band-in-Box is even easier to
use for this limited purpose.

For full-featured notation, you would want something like Finale or
Sibelius, which cost hundreds.  Both are excellent, but Finale leads the
way in setting standards.

What sort of purpose do you have in mind?  

MidiStudio is about $50, i think, and makes all sorts of sounds.  It has
an editiing program where the sequencing output can be tweaked graphically
or numerically.