Software

[GreekGeek]

I understand it's not the perfect forum to ask this because this forum is a Nintendo sheet music forum and not a music software forum, but I guess a lot of you have got lots of experience with music software so I was wondering.
We use Finale (Notepad) because it's easy (I totally agree), easy to download and free (well just Notepad of course). However it seems to lack a bit of software you can find in programs like Cubase SX, Cakewalk etc., which are therefore of course much more expensive. Could somebody please give me some advice which software is the best for my purpose (which means making soundtracks of songs with a lot of different instruments I'm gonna record f.e. a violin, acoustic guitar, piano, trumpet, voice, drums etc.). Can I best buy some good microphones and one of these expensive programs (and which of them is best according to you) or should I just keep things simple and trust on Finale?

Thanks a lot!

[blah54]

i can't give you a suggestion on a better program to use...

but i HIGHLY suggest against remaining with finale if you want to record yourself playing, there are tons of better programs out there...

of course, if you're willing to go this route, you could always find a torrent for those expensive programs and get them that way...

[Parker2334]

You might want to try fruity loops

[The-Real-Link]

If you're willing to spend the money Finale 2009 The only put off...it's $600. But it has EVERYTHING.

[Tranzlater]

Finale Printmusic 2008 is brilliant. It has everything you'll need for starters and is only $100. (compared to Sibelius 5, VERY expensive and compliacated, has tons of features which are nice to have but you'll never use, costs £600 (around $1200))

[GreekGeek]

Well I asked a friend and he told me about Audacity, which is a FREE software program with of course limited functions, but I guess it's enough for the time being. I'm still thinking about buying Printmusic indeed. Thanks a lot

[kotorfanboy]

I have audacity, but I found I had trouble converting my stuff (it wasn't original recordings, but parts of songs cropped and different effects added and such) to mp3. They always forced you to make it an audacity project. I might be missing something really obvious though (I've only used a few times for a school project, unsuccessfully) so there could be a way to make it work.

[GreekGeek]

Well you can save it as a WAV file, but for saving it as a mp3 file, you have to download something strange, so that's kinda awkward...

[Tranzlater]

On printmusic you can save files as mp3 and wav (or indeed midi) directly from the software. BTW you can get a free 30 day trial from the finale site, check it out.

[GreekGeek]

Yeah I already downloaded a trial and I really liked it, but I just think the voices sound horrible (could also my soundcard, I know).