[George Lowell]

I'm really keen on home recording and wil probably bang on about it at some stage, but one tool I haven't seen mentioned here is Band In A Box, which I think is brilliant for song writing.  Basically you type in the chords from the PC keyboard, then select a "style" and BIAB generates an arrangement! It basically has predefined midi players who play the chords you've defined in the style you've chosen.  If you change the style, they all obediently play it differently! It's no replacement for a proper bunch of great players, but it is really good for getting a quick demo/work tape out.  Also you can export the midi tracks if there's something you like.  It does tons more than that and is very handy for the home musician who doesn't want to spend hours programming midi at ideas stage.  Worth a look!

http://www.pgmusic.com/

[Boydie]

I think for many of us it is the hours of programming MIDI at the ideas stage to come uo with something unique and original that forms a fundamental aspect of the songwriting process

BIAB is definitely a useful tool for some but I would rather create from scratch

[mihkay]

There is a reason why I have not recommended Band in a Box. In my early days I did try out all these short cut software's. But I found that I didn't actually create anything new.   
I don't want to decide what style my song is going to be in before I create it.
I chose chords to go with what chords have gone before and as the melody progresses.
The song writing process for me is a dynamic organic process and the song evolves as I go and becomes whatever it becomes. 
I may be foolish, but I do not sit down and decide what kind of song I'm going to write before I start and I know that probably means I'll never sell anything because it's not in a "GENRE".
However I'm trying to put something of me into each piece and starting from someone else's programmed ideas of a rhythm and throwing random chords at it for me has never generated any useful ideas. 

[George Lowell]

Maybe I didn't explain very well.  I write songs by sitting with a pad of paper and my guitar or piano and I write the basic song, or get the ideas down. BIAB is only useful once youve got a song.  It doesn't write it for you...where it's useful is if you've written, say, a country song and need a piano part BIAB can generate one from your chord progression which is handy if you're not a good piano player.  Horses/courses of course.  I take the point that for some genres midi is central to the writing process.  For what I do it's a necessary evil when I don't have a handy drummer or keys player once I get to tracking stage, and by then the song is written.  Everyone has a different method I guess.

[habiTat]

I found this thread and have done some reading up. Although not something you guys may recommend, I quite like the look of this software. Basically I am self taught on guitar (I can't read music), I have a keyboard but can't really play it (I get by, working bits out as I need them) and I am not in a band. I have tried with the whole midi thing on sonar but I just don't really understand it. All my recording/production so far has been done on Audacity and I get on really well with it. Band in a box may be useful for me to put together compositions/progressions which I can then import into audacity and manipulate that way. What I don't want to do is spend loads of money on it, only to find its not for me. Has anyone got an older version gathering dust, they'd sell me, or give me just to try it out? I've looked at free downloads etc but they all look a bit dodgy, and the legal one has really limited capability.