My Setup

Hey,

So now that Christmas is around the corner I've been thinking about what I would like.

Right now I have Sibelius 5 and am looking for a sound sampler and a sequencer.

For sounds I was thinking either GPO or EWQLSO Silver. I know EW is more of the "Hollywood" sound but I am still leaning tward it because I would like to update to Gold in the future.

As for a sequencer I was thinking Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio XL.

So, what are your thoughts?

Do EWQLSO Silver, SONAR Home Stuido and Sibelius 5 all work together?

I have Sonar Home Studio 6 XL and recommend it. Depending on how detailed your pieces are you might be able to get by with the "Pocket" Orchestra that comes with it - it is nowhere near as good as a proper sample library though. EWQLSO should work fine in Home Studio as a VST or DX plugin.

One thing I will mention about Sonar Home Studio is that some people have had compatibility issues with Vista (particularly Vista 64-bit), so I'd steer away from it if possible (not saying it doesn't work, just beware that the compatibility isn't 100% yet). I am using Windows XP and have had no problems.

Another thing to maybe worry about is having the right soundcard/interface. Most built in soundcards are fine for basic work if they support either WDM or ASIO mode, but if you have lots of tracks in your composition, then you might start to get clicks or pops during playback. If that is the case then it helps to invest in a half-decent audio interface (Cakewalk has a list of recommended ones on their site).

As for Sibelius and Home Stuio working together I don't know (I don't have Sibelius), but usually the way to go is to transfer midi files between the 2 programs. I have heard that sometimes a bit of editing is involved when you import the midi file in either program to get the right articulation samples to play back properly.

I'll just post what I have:
CUSTOM COMPUTER I BUILT MYSELF! (It wasn't that hard and I'm pretty proud of what I've done!)

-Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Allendale 2.0GHz
-EVGA GeForce 8600GTS
-Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM
-Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply
-Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000
-SAMSUNG 941BW Black 19"
-G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
-COOLER MASTER Centurion 5
-GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775
-LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
-My ultra cool Logitech G5
-Edirol UM-1
-Old Casio keyboard

Software:
- Windows Vista (Got it for 79 bucks, heck its worth it for directx 10)
- PrintMusic 2008
- GlaceVerb
- Synthfont (FluidGM)

Thats pretty much it... I know most of you don't even care about half of my hardware list... lol. Better than having a stinkin' Dell.

All that stuff is around $1000-$1500 total

I'm running these software:
Cubase SX
Cubase LE
Sibelius 2
FL Studio
Audacity
Reason 3

Controlled by my wonderful Yamaha MM6. Great "mini motif" with some amazing sounds and a small price!

Just incase you cared

Originally Posted by jmetzinger

Hey,

So now that Christmas is around the corner I've been thinking about what I would like.

Right now I have Sibelius 5 and am looking for a sound sampler and a sequencer.

For sounds I was thinking either GPO or EWQLSO Silver. I know EW is more of the "Hollywood" sound but I am still leaning tward it because I would like to update to Gold in the future.

As for a sequencer I was thinking Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio XL.

So, what are your thoughts?

Do EWQLSO Silver, SONAR Home Stuido and Sibelius 5 all work together?

I don't see why they wouldn't. It'd depend of course on how many instruments you've got going at any one time and how powerful your PC is but the silver edition shouldn't be too greedy.

I don't know much about Home Studio but if it's anything like Sonar itself I'd say go for it. I know it's only one person's opinion, but I've always found cakewalk products much friendlier to use than the Cubases of this world.

Sibelius 5 should let you use silver in conjunction with it. I use Kontakt with Sibelius 5 and it's great: I assume the kompakt engine that is shipped with the EW products would also work fine (if anyone can confirm this that'd be good).

as far as the sample-library choice, i'd recommend the east west one.
silver is ok, but i'd definitely upgrade to gold (or even gold pro xp).

theoretically, ewqlso should work fine with sibelius 5, but haven't tried it though (sibelius + vst's don't seem logical when you're composing in a sequencer).

i haven't ever used any cakewalk products (mainly cubase and protools) but that's just a matter of taste, in the end they all do the same things.

Using Sibeliu/Finale with VSTs aren't really good, tbh. Get a sequencer like Cubase or Sonar and you're good.

Sibelius 5 works pretty well with VSTs. Not as good as Sonar and the like and it can be a bit of a fiddle but it works well enough to make a decent sounding piece of music.

I'll post my string quartet composed in Sibelius 5 with VSL's solo string samples when it's finished; that sounds pretty decent and it won't have been near a sequencer.

Well, I think the main advantage of having a sequencer is it's piano roll mode. You can edit everything with great detail(channels, velocities, lengths etc. etc.).

i second that, and the sounds sibelius and finale come with these days are far from horrible, so why even bother using vst's in scoring software?

i always thought scoring software was about putting notes on staves and not about quality of sounds..