I have been playing around with the Sundog 2 demo for a few days.
The available videos cover the basic use fairly quickly, so it doesn't hurt to read the brief user guide, and just dive in.
It is a standalone app that can send 15 instrument channels to your DAW via a virtual MIDI cable, or play the Windows GM sounds, so it is multi-timbral, but without a tracksheet or trackview to see the big picture.
It offers some unique features for working with scales (300) and chords. The central view is a modified PRV (Piano Roll View) that shows only the notes in the chords or scale used by a part. So you can paint in any pattern of notes and they will stay in key. Cool!
You have full control over channel, instrument, velocity, key, scale, chords, tempo, length of part (up to 16 bars), and you can chain multiple parts together. No way to import MIDI, but it supports drag and drop to your DAW (works with Sonar), or MIDI file export.
In a nutshell:
> First, you choose a scale and a base note. Now all notes that are played will match the scale. > Second, you select some chords. Sundog offers a wide selection of useful chords per scale. You can listen to them by clicking on buttons. > Third, you trigger playback patterns by dragging your mouse or entering notes with your keyboard. > Now all output notes can either get mapped to the currently active chord notes or to the scale notes There are still a few things that I'd like to see improved, so I will definitely be checking out V3.
I like the features offered, but the main issue for me is the UI. The workflow is just awkward for me. Setting up chord progressions could be easier.
Only seeing one track at a time seems unnatural to me. I like to see the relationship of all tracks on a timeline. There is a reason most DAWs use that metaphor. Except that I don't want this to become yet another DAW, but a project view would be helpful.
DAWs are now a dime a dozen, but there is a true lack of MIDI only song composition assistance tools. So I think this has a lot of potential.
