"Sketchpad" software question

[BassWombat]

I've just recently got into the whole recording thing with a ProTools M-box setup. It’s working really nicely for when I’m recording audio, but I’m after some MIDI based software to act as a “sketchpad” for song ideas before I start recording.

I recently found a piece of shareware on the Harmony Central site that I thought was cool. It's called Digital Rythm (sic) Box, and it allows you to program drums, write guitar/bass riffs in tab and also put in a chord sequence on its three tracks. You can find it at www.harmony-central.com/Software/Windows/digital-rhythm-box.html Check out the cool screenshots of how it works.

It's a really neat kind of sketchpad thing that I think would be great in nutting out a song idea before actually recording it in ProTools. Problem is it only runs on 95/98 (I'm on XP) and attempts to email the author (who wrote it in 1998) have resulted in bounced emails.

Given it won't be the answer, does anyone have any other ideas about a really simple MIDI-based program that would do similar things? In particular I love the idea of being able to use a pencil tool to write in tab, as well as doing drums and chord sequences?

Cheers – and thanks
Chuck

 

[Stealthtech]

Doesn't this use the PTLE software ?
I thought it had full Midi production with score, etc...

 

[BassWombat]

Yes, it does Stealthtech - and I realise I could spend more time getting a real understanding of it. Many people have said to me that PTLE is primarily about audio recording and while it does MIDI (through Reason Adapted) it's not as good as other applications in this area as it's a bit more complicated.

Previously I had played around with MicroLogic and enjoyed the simplicity of the MIDI side of it - and that Digital Rythm Box software looks just about perfect (especially with the ability to enter guitar riffs through tablature)!

I'm just really interested to see what else is out there - I think the Digital Rythm Box appraoch makes a lot of sense and I'd be surprised if someone hadn't released a commercial software product with those features.

Cheers
Chuck