If music be the food of love, then that could quite possibly bring a whole new meaning to the phrase 'air guitar solo'. Whether you're into rock music and head-banging, or dance, trance, hip-hop, drum'n'bass, electropop, acid, garage, shed, driveway or pavement music, you'll find a music package out there which will let you bang out a tune (or indeed 'choon') on your PC.

Some are aimed more at the novice user who doesn't have any discernable musical talent whatsoever (just think Steps), others are targeted at the more serious PC 'muso'. Most composition packages are based around a standard track window format. A track is simply an instrument, so the average song might have ten tracks or so, for example - drums, bass, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals, backing vocals, maybe some backup percussion and a couple of tracks for special effects or that groovy sax solo. Nice...

You simply build your song up by dropping samples into these tracks, and you can visually see where things are going to be played and where sounds come in, as the tracks are clearly divided up into musical bars.

Some packages can get more complex and allow you to actually create your own samples from scratch - but whether you're after a package that's easy to use or explores music in a bit more depth, we've evaluated programs from across the spectrum. Click the 'NEXT' link below to find out which ones are likely to make Beethoven roll over, and which might be more likely to make him turn in his grave.