quote: Original post by Lazsnipe
As a college student im trying to spend the least amount of money while getting just about everything I need software wise until I can afford getting some hardware.

I agree, this sounds like an appropriate course of action if you are not sure as to what sound you want but you still want to compose using MIDI. Back in the day I composed in MIDI using nothing but a SB16 card and Cakewalk 3.0. Since then, I''ve become increasingly good at it despite any upgrades of my synthesizer and hardware. If you have soundfont capabilities, I suggest you should use any cheap/free soundfonts you can find online until you are comfortable enough with your arranging abilities to upgrade.

quote: Original post by Andrew Russell
If you want me to send you a demo of orchestral stuff done in Reason (not mine, but sounds bloody fantastic)

I''d be interested in hearing any orchestral stuff done in Reason. I knew it came with orchestral samples, but I haven''t heard many purely orchestral pieces that use them.

@Andrew - Thanks I will definently check this out and work with it some. Thank you for all the information as well it has been very helpful in explaining some of the things I didn''t understand. Now I just need someone to give me acronym dictionary for some of these music sites. I swear I''ve never seen so many acronyms on a site before haha.

@Sil - I am very confident in my composing/arranging ability. What I am not confident in is how to use the software.. and how to use it efficiently. What Andrew suggested will probably be my best route. Thanks again for your input it helped!

TO any others that wish to put their 2 cents into this topic I welcome it. As many opinions and thoughts about different products help show me what the semi-professional and professional folk prefer and use.

Again thanks all.

if you''re poor but have a fast connex, you can set up a spider to d/l a million soundfonts..

freeware synthesis is excellent.. but reference to real instruments for ie. conventional, commercial crap.. there''s a lot of good free, but it''s labour to sort.

imho this is better than being milked every year ''oh, my string samples are out of date and don''t have enough articulations, i''d better shell out another $3k for sample discs..''

personally, for real instruments, i use physical modeling.. which can sound great (korg z1s go for cheap.. $600 for good controller and sounds) but are hell to program convincingly..

g/l

For people who want that orchestral example, I''ve threaded it here.