Composing on Music Creator

I have some complaints and one question.  The question is at the bottom if you'd like to skip the complaints.
 
I've been looking for a program that will enable me to compose music.  I played violin in a county ensemble a decade ago, but I honestly can't say I play any instrument well enough to record.  My interest is in composing.  I don't know if Music Creator 5 is the best program for composing with software instruments, but the music composition software options at the store were limited (two programs) and this looked like the better one.
 
Here's my problem: everything in Music Creator 5 is geared toward people who want to record their own performances.  When I enter a search in the help, I get a hundred results that deal with recording and nothing that deals with just composing.  I've tried using the staff view for tracks (because that's what I learned in music theory) but the notes don't go where I want them to.  The program keeps inserting rests and pushing my notes forward.  I've made myself learn how to use the piano roll view instead, and that's worked pretty well, but I've spent countless hours trying out different things and learning by trial-and-error because I can't use the help files.
 
I'm starting to get a composition together, but I've encountered yet another problem.  I want an acoustic guitar and none of the "acoustic guitars" in the sound center sound anything like the classic six-stringed acoustic guitar.  Is there any way to download more instruments to my program?

Lilbitz

As Greg has said, there are other instruments you can purchase or download for free, but I would agree that many (especially guitar) don't sound great. There are a few that get good reviews but are not necessarily cheap.
Considering cost, and the fact that you're main interest is composition, I would ask - does it really matter if the guitar doesn't sound authentic IF you're not going to use it in a production of some sort?

If you want to compose something original, have an idea of what it sounds like but then play yourself from the printed score, the lack of authentic sounds won't stop you doing that.

Either way, you'll get help here if you need it.
There are other programs more geared towards notation too. I have Guitar Pro 5, which despite having Guitar in the title will, as a notation program accommodate all kinds of instruments and has it's own sounds. Not trying to steer you away from here but I have started to import notation from that into MC5. 

Edit - just reread the original post and saw that the interest is composing with software instruments, so perhaps sound quality is a little more important than I thought.

Lilbitz,

After a little exploring right on the Cakewalk site, I stumbled upon "[font="verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal; "]

http://www.cakewalk.com/P...RealGuitar/default.asp



I'm not sure this will give you what you need.  Let us know.


thanks...........matt

Try the Yellow Tools Independence Free VST.  This is a free version of their (much dearer) rompler, but includes some reasonably good acoustic guitar patches, particularly for picking.  Strumming is not so good though.

Welcome to the forum.  I'm a piano player (only) but have composed several pieces with MC3 (and have upgraded to Studio 8 in the meantime, but that's neither here nor there.  It can all be done with MC5.)  I did have to invest in more software to get better-sounding instruments.  I wish I would have in the beginning.  It really wasn't that much of an outlay of money and it would have saved tons of time trying to get good sounds out of less-than-great samples.  Specifically Dim Pro (I've used a couple of their guitar sounds (picking) that aren't bad (see my 'Silent Night' I believe it is.)  For all the other sounds (violins, etc.), I use GPO (Garritan Personal Orchestra).  I wouldn't be surprised if they have another sale around Christmas time (see northernsounds.com) and you can pick up some great sounds for $99.00.  There are several people around here and the other forums that can help you get the best sounds out of those programs.  For the piano sound I use Ivory Grand, which is only about $169.00. 

Anyway, yes, it's definitely possible.  You don't have record any audio to get great sounds.  Check out rolifer@verizon.net on the songs forum if you want to see how good these samples can sound. 

Unfortunately, if you thought you could do it all for $39.00, well, it's just not true.  It IS hard to get your head around at first.  But, it IS possible and it IS fun.  :-)