Looking for a useful library of MIDI phrases - guitar strumming, drum patterns, bass patterns, piano arps. I have demoed Catanya but it seems kind of abandoned now and it doesn't include any strumming presets. Are there any alternatives? I have Halion Sonic but it's a closed system (it doesn't let you send the phrases via MIDI out to other plugins or instruments). I know there are lots of software arpeggiators but none of them (besides Catanya) offers any categorized realistic guitar/drums/bass/piano phrases. I guess I will have to start saving for a Motif keyboard...

http://www.cognitone.com/products/mps/intro/page.stml

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http://secure.keyfax.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_ Code=M&Category_Code=TWIDS

yeah... at about the cost of a used Motif XS rack. But thanks! (I have never heard of it before)
The other link looks better (I could probably afford a couple of them)

Careful with these. I bought one of their Twiddly Bits guitar midi "loop" sets. Problem is, many of them are not really loops, i.e. phrases which can be copied back to back so that they, you know, "loop". Rather, you get very long midi files which contain, say 20-30 riffs each, seperated by a bar or two. To actually get loops out of them you have to listen to the whole track and if you like something, then snip it out yourself. Really awkward. Imagine if audio "loops" came that way. One of my worst purchases. I even called them to say that it was very misleading to market them as loops. The Keyfax guy insisted they are loops, even though he admitted they don't loop. It was but surreal; he seemed ready to say anything, even something nonsensical, to "save face".

Furthermore, some of the loops which *do* loop have a slight pause at the end, which requires trimming to make it a truly seamless loop. A bit sloppy on their part, I think.

Having said all that, some are well-played

No libraries per se, but some fun tools are:

Nicfit's Chords for one finger chords with strumming (well 2 with the left hand hitting modifier keys), actually quite easy to use:

Then there's in my opinion the best arpeggiator out there, arp!0 - groovy midi arp. Looks simple but does a lot of random stuff so doesn't sound like your ordinary arp. (all params do randoms separate of each other etc) Get to know it and see if you really want ready made stuff after that. Comes in several skins too:

I really liked the arp implementation in Hypersonic 2: polyphonic arpeggiator with some useful midi patterns and phrases, midi import, everything editable in a step sequencer - very flexible! By comparison, the flexiphraser or whatever it's called in Halion Sonic and Halion 4 is not at all flexible (you can't edit the phrases or import your own ideas and there is no midi out so you can't use the phrases with other plugins).