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Any Musicians Here Use Digital Audio Workstations?

by Steven Wagenheim
3 replies
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I'll make this as short as I can.

I use Finale 2012 music notation software to write my orchestra scores. The
Garritan Orchestra sounds that come with it are very good but I feel that maybe
I can do better.

At the Finale forum I was told to get a DAW. I am not familiar with any and
reading the reviews of several I'm no closer to deciding if I even need one than
I was before.

Do any of the musicians here use a DAW like Cubase? If so, what are they like?
Are the sounds vastly superior to Finale's VST or is the difference not worth
the extra money that I'd have to throw into a DAW?

Any user feedback is greatly appreciated. I'm mostly interested in the DAW's
orchestral sounds (brass, woodwinds, percussion, piano, strings)

Thanks for your help.
  • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
    Steven,

    I've used several DAW's over the years... Sonar, Cubase, Pro Tools, and Logic, to name a few. A DAW is kind of like a swiss army knife... they can handle just about any audio-related task out there, but they focus on the sequencing / recording / editing part.

    If you're looking for sounds, then you either want a "soft synth" (which generates sounds from scratch), or a "software sampler" (which plays back pre-recorded samples of instruments, etc). Most modern DAW's have some soft syth / sampling capabilities built in, but again, that's not their focus.

    If you're on a PC, then Google "VST soft synth" or "VST software sampler". There are tons of them out there... many of them free. I've never used Finale, but if it supports VST plugins, then you should be able to use any downloaded VST soft synth or sampler with it.

    Also, there are a bunch of hardware synths / samplers out there too... but the good ones are not cheap. I guess the same could be said for software synths / samplers, but the software variants tend to be a lot more cost-effective, all else being equal.

    I've never been much into the "orchestral" type sounds, so I couldn't make any specific recommendations for you there. You might want to ask around at some of the audio recording forums @ that. I doubt there are very many audio tech geeks hanging around in the Warrior Forum OT.
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Schenk
    Steven,

    I just started playing with Reaper. It is a commercial DAW software normally priced at a few hundred dollars. However, the manufacturer also sells it for non-commercial studio use at only $60, and there is a 2-month free trial of the full software.

    It comes with a boatload of decent VST and JS effects, and can use VSTi plug-ins too.

    Take a look. Give it a listen. I think you'll like it, and the price is right.

    My main DAW (an Akai DPS24) died last October. Fortunately a company near L.A. bought all the parts when Akai orphaned the machine, and does repair. But the DPS24 really is old technology that is starting to show its age, and it's just a matter of time before it becomes a large door-stop.

    That is why I am playing with Reaper.

    :-Don

    You can see my setup here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joshua Rigley
    Banned
    Hey Steve. You might want to check out this site: http://www.groove3.com/str/

    They offer a bunch of video tutorials covering the basics of multiple different DAWs, MIDI Orchestration, and they even have a tutorial series for the Garritan Orchestra products.

    Hope that helps.
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