Which program is the best hardware? (0-$20)

[zchin]

I already have finale and have bought the notepad for 10 bucks, that's the only non freeware I have bought for composing and stuff... I'm rather good at the acoustic guitar (in classical music) and the violin. Now let me tell you that I'm not on youtube and I'm not a wannabe musician.
After I got finale it occured to me that this wasn't what I wanted, but it's still good for composing classical pieces for my school projects and stuff (I hate community involvement x.x)...
I want to get involved with music making for games and stuff... I'm not really sure what I'm looking for but, I guess a program that will give me a variety of tunes/beats or whatever. Basically, something that doesn't have horrible sounding midi sounds... I"m not sure how far or much I'm willing to spend, but it must be 0-20 dollars, if it's really good otherwise I'm only interested in freeware. So are there any good music making programs out there that anyone has any recommendations for?

Note: Also is MuseScore any good? (quick google if you don't know what it is)

Thank you and have a nice day!

 

[action]

Notepad is actually meant for writing the sheet music, not composing tracks.
A software I know of that's cheap is MelodyAssistant. It's around $20, and it's got revamped/remixed midi tones that sound fine, and if you pay extra, you can get their Gold collection of instruments.
It's meant for writing music on a staff, not using a beatmixer.

Also, musicscore is just another Notepad - meant for writing sheet music. You CAN output it to MIDI files, but... You said you didn't want those "horrible sounding midi sounds," which is all you're going to get with that program. It can't output a MIDI file that doesn't use MIDI sounds, sorry :P

 

[zchin]

Yeah I figured that out when I got it, but I still have some use for it so...
For the melody assistant, is there a demo?
I'm looking for a composing track actually, any help on that?

Thank you and have a nice day!

 

[action]

Composing track? What do you mean by that?

 

[zchin]

I mean, like something without the music score, for example, something like mixcraft, to make music for a game... I guess with the score is still good enough for me, but something that will generate music with out horrible midi sounds.

Thank you and have a nice day!

 

[action]

So MelodyAssistant would still be fine

 

[zchin]

Oh, ok I got it up and running, and I noticed, that there were some instruments that weren't there, I really need them too, I didn't see the harp mainly though... Is there any other programs will more variety in the instruments?

Thank you and have a nice day!

 

[moog]

Notepad is actually meant for writing the sheet music, not composing tracks.

just wanted to bump this cause this is a horribly wrong post

 

[zchin]

Oh, well i gave up and went to hire a music composer instead... Might get back to this and try to learn it. But that's a maybe.

Thank you and have a nice day!