composing

[cpc]

im a big fan of composing/arranging/creating music... all aspects of it, bass, drums, vocals, synths, everything. i love having complete control at times. soo i was wondering where is a good place to get started with doing this on my computer? i have fruity loops which has some cool drums/loops/instruments but i would prefer to do it in real time instead of clicking on every 1/4th beat with my mouse.... i.e. i would like to control the virtual instruments with a keyboard if possible.... would i need a midi controler? or midi keyboard? usb? midi interface? is fruity loops a good program for this... what are some good programs to look into with some good virtual instruments.

if im completely off let me know and any other ideas or suggestions would be appreciated to get me started.

[LfO]

I'm under the impression you can record MIDI into Floops (though I haven't tried - all I do is program drum lines in it with the mouse and slave it to Sonar). If I were you, I'd get a USB MIDI keyboard and see if using it with Floops is good enough for you. Something like this might be good:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDORADIUM49

If you still feel limited by the interface and focus on loops, you'll have to step into the more-costly full sequencer world.