Which Midi software to use with an old P3 computer?

[aznwonderboy]

My dad is an old-fashioned musician. All his life, he has been composing songs with a 6-string guitar accompaniment. Now he wants to add more spices to his compositions (such as adding drumbeats and other musical backups). MIDI seems to be the best way of doing this without having to learn other instruments.

These are the specs we need to work with:
-P3, 500Mhz with 384MB RAM, using Windows XP
-An old soundblaster audio card
-MIDI cable connected via joystick port
-an 68-keys Keyboard with MIDI capability

Does anyone have suggestion for a good program to get him started?

I am researching on ACID, REASON, and FRUITY LOOPS, but the reviews for these programs are so mixed that I don't know which one to get for him.

 

[Purge]

Out of those 3, definitely Reason. I love the hell out of that program, and it's technically the only one of those that are designed for composing from scratch. The others are loop-based software.

 

[ssscientist]

A second vote for Reason. I've got an old version of it on a scrawny lil P2 laptop with 96k of memory and it runs and saves and loads and edits just fine. Since Reason doesn't record audio you avoid the huge files generated by Acid.

FL would be a distant second choice.