jeffmatt

Thanks for the advice, I tried a few and ultimately settled on an easy setup. I compose in Finale, export MIDI to Garageband, reassign my instruments and set reverb and dynamic levels, and then open that file in Logic Pro for the extra mixing and mastering abilities. GB is great for a guy with minimal DAW knowledge, and Logic gives me all the extra stuff I need.

There's a program called Acoustica Mixcraft that supposedly is very good. Fruity Loops is supposed to be like GB but from what I've heard it's too simplified in comparison.

I can't get any of my SF2's to play on Garageband and/or Logic Pro (I use both). Does anyone know why this is, or have any ideas on how to get them to play? When I click on individual midi notes sometimes I can hear that note, but when I hit PLAY nothing comes out.

Thanks for the informative reply, I had a feeling I was a bit vague. I downloaded musoscore and while it does the basics I think I'm ultimately going to get finale. It has an amazing depth of features and I've used older versions in the past. Plus at the moment I have a flexible budget. For the DAW, I guess I don't really know which one I want. I know that I want one that can sync up music and picture (VG soundtracks and effects, short films) and one that can be used alongside finale, meaning i record the basic tracks from finale into the DAW and then mix, add VST sounds, etc. I know Logic can do that, so if Digital Performer can't, then it's Logic. The VST sounds are probably what I'm most ignorant about, at least beyond the GPO. I'll be making classical soundtrack pieces and more modern sounding techno-ish music (think smash bros). From your experience, what plug-ins and soundfonts gave you an interesting and/or unique sound? (this is asking both Cheeselord and anyone who's had a good or bad experience with certain plugins) Again, thanks for your help. Talking to real people is always better than searching websites; most are either too bias or just as vague as I am.

I should also add, the programs I'm currently looking at are Finale, Sibelius, Lilypond, Overture ---> Logic Studio, Digital Performer.

Hi. My apologies in advance for asking questions that are probably very basic, but I think this'll be a useful thread for anyone who's just gotten started. My goal is to make music totally from scratch, using just my mouse (I can write way better than I can play). I just got a new imac, and I haven't decided on what notation program to get or what DAW to get. THe process I want to use is to write the actual parts in the notation program, then export them to the sequencing program to mix the tracks properly and replace the instruments with better sounds. So, I think my questions are 1) what notation/daw to get that will work well together for exporting midi and/or recording from one program to another, and 2) how to I actually do that? (move the tracks from one program to the other)