Hey guys, I just was looking for some advice on what to look for/steps to take as far as how to get started coming from my background/and what I'm wanting to do w/ the program.

I'm mostly a classically trained musician, focusing almost exclusively on solo piano. I was way too much of a purist on just the piano growing up, and I never showed any interest or discipline in actually understanding the electronic composing/recording/production side of things. I'm trying to right my wrongs nowadays and I would like to use my musical skill set on the computer. I've only recently spent some months learning how to record and mix my own live recordings through an interface and Studio One 4, which I'm still learning about.

The only real experience I've had composing on a computer without adding live instruments or recorded tracks is working with Finale 2008 for a few years off and on. It's very comfortable to me but it's obviously outdated, and from the looks of things, serious DAWs aren't as old school or simple as something like finale.

But I know that you can assign nice VST instruments to midi composed tracks so.. if I'm most comfortable just composing on a score can I actually make nice electronic music that is appropriate for projects/business/my own production just sequencing midis, assigning VST instruments and I guess mixing it appropriately?  Or should I really just learn/start messing with one of the popular DAW programs that people generally use? I'm not trying to limit myself to classical instruments or just electronic orchestral music, I'm open to composing many styles of music. I'm sorry I'm very new to this whole thing but I'm trying to figure out what's right for me and I'm trying to ask around. 

This is generally the kind of stuff I'm composing: https://www.instagram.com/p/Br9B1vNBQCm/

You need to hook up this one soon :

Check from 3:07

Finale can do quite a bit but the problem with it is you cannot get under the hood as much as you can with a DAW. For example, I really tweaked a bunch of the CC data for a client recently who had written an entire piece in Finale. She liked how Finale had things set up for the most part but in a few spots she wanted a bit more realism and humanization. Plus I was able to dig much deeper and do things like side chaining and use better effects (and samples) than what came with Finale. 

You can certainly compose in Finale but some DAWs like Nuendo, can use Wwise and set things up for implementation which is a huge factor in game audio. And most DAWs are easier to use when writing to picture than Finale - at least in my experience. I'd keep exploring DAWs and seeing what works for you. Finale (and the like) are vital for score part preps for sure. But when creating audio, I think DAWs have a lot of features to offer. 

Cool video.

The way to go as an aspiring contemporary composer for multimedia (in general) nowadays is undoubtly adopting a DAW and learning to work with VSTs, as well as mastering mixing and post-production at all. Your workflow will be quite unique and basically "what works best for you", as it is to anyone; there is no "right path".

Still, I wouldn't say you can go really further only by using Finale on the whole process - it's a great tool for creating the midi file for your piece and the score of course, but it's highly recommended for you to look for a DAW that suits you best to actually produce your piece - not only for the tons of features it has to offer, but mostly for the comfort and practicality.

You said you are classically trained; for big orchestral pieces I like to use Digital Performer. Give it a look.