The World of Goo soundtrack is incredible and I'm curious to know what software or tools were used to do it.  The programs I've used for music composition output junky-sounding MIDI's, nothing professional sounding like World of Goo.  What software can be used to get high quality mixed music like in World of Goo?

According to the soundtrack page, Kyle have used SFZ SoundFont Sampler. ;)

Thanks.  I'm sorry if I sound like a novice, I appreciate the info about the SFZ, but there has to be a lot more to it than this?  I downloaded the SFZ program, and I'm not sure exactly what it does, but it is a very simple program that does 'sampling' or whatever that is.  Any ideas what it does and how I could apply it to writing music?

I don't see how that applies to how Kyle actually inputs the music he writes.  Is it just all on a keyboard and he plays it back?  Isn't there some software being used that stores the notes and instruments?  I would imagine there's software being used where all the notes are entered, and this software somehow renders the music in a really professional way.

If it's the keyboard, does his keyboard just happen to sound fantastic?  My keyboard sounds like crappy old MIDI's like every other keyboard I've seen out there.

Given the wink at the end of nicosmos' reply, I don't think he meant it seriously.

I think it's highly likely that Kyle uses Cubase for music composition, though it is possible that he uses the infamous Soundtracker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Soundtracker) emulated through UAE (www.amigaemulator.org/) running via WINE (www.winehq.org/) on DSL Linux (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/). ;)

On a serious note, Cubase can utilize the SFZ Soundfont Player, but then, so can any VST-capable host such as Logic, Orion or FLStudio. If you're serious about getting started in music composition, Orion is a good deal at only $99, given that it comes with a pretty vast library of professional instruments built into it.

Thanks daskizzle, that was the information I was looking for!