I love these conversations, because I'm always learning more. I'd like to throw in my two cents, as well.

My set up at home is an MBOX2 with PTLE 7.4. Because I'm a tight budget, I use it for everything: composition, MIDI, recording, editing, etc.

Its MIDI functions aren't nearly as flexible as some other programs, but you just have to learn to work arounds and be creative. If you don't have enough tracks, you could always record from the hard/software samplers, bouncedown and then reimport the tracks to open up more.

I also use Audacity as my digital audio editor for more fine tuning issues. But as yjbrown mentioned - it's a preference issue. I started on Pro Tools, I've used Digital Performer (better MIDI) and a couple of other programs. Once you learn a program's weaknesses, you can be creative and come up with interesting solutions.

-George

Pencil and paper are free!




...or at least cost-effective!


:)

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Original post by jjandreau Pencil and paper are free! ...or at least cost-effective!

AMEN! [wink]

Heh, unfortunately, I can hardly be called "musically inclined". I can mash my way through a song (I've done a few), but me writing notes on paper, where I can't hear them, is not the most greatest of most great ideas.

I like to write on walks, so I take a digital recorder with me, and I sing the parts in as I walk down the street--probably a strange sight.

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Original post by Dannthr I like to write on walks, so I take a digital recorder with me, and I sing the parts in as I walk down the street--probably a strange sight.

Me too man most of my ideas come while walking, i feel like a knob humming a tune into a recorder hah. About 25% of the time they also come to me when I am almost asleep, so I start recording and really annoy my girlfriend.

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Original post by Jay Taylor About 25% of the time they also come to me when I am almost asleep, so I start recording and really annoy my girlfriend.

Haha! Same here! Only my ideas tend to wake me up at 3 or 4 in the morning, and I have to get up and either hum them into my recorder or go into my studio and write them or I'll lose them by the time the sun rises. Drives my husband crazy!

It's funny how the mind works.

Quote:

Original post by Dannthr I like to write on walks, so I take a digital recorder with me, and I sing the parts in as I walk down the street--probably a strange sight.

Not only did Beethoven sing to himself while he went on walks through Vienna, he also used to sing obnoxiously loud while playing the piano in his apartment. :)




Dario, if you're interested in composing for a full orchestra using EWQL samples, make sure you have at least a million gigs of RAM. Ok, so not a million, but you will need an exorbitant about because of how demanding the samples are.

http://www.soundsonline.com/EastWest-Quantum-Leap-Symphonic-Orchestra-PLAY-Editions-pr-EW-177.html

You also have to manually integrate the sound libraries with those programs that you're looking at - EWQL doesn't come with any installation software that does that for you.


Hope this helps!

@jjandreau:

Would one of the new 27" iMacs handle it ok with a Quard Core i7 and 8GB of RAM?