Music Composers Unite!

HELP! Do I need a DAW as well as Finale?

Hi folks,

I'm pretty much a newcomer to the composing world and I've been composing in Finale for the last year. I have Kontakt 3, Ethno World 4, all the Garritan instrument packages and Tapspace percussion.

For some of my work I'm getting great results, however in the case of composition where I want to depict a lot of action, such as war, I can't seem to get enough vigour into individual notes (on playback) where I want it. I've tried using expressions etc such as ffff but that still doesn't depict say, how vigourous a violin bow stroke should be.

Other problems I have include occasional slightly flat notes on violins, (when played in conjunction with other instruments) and squeeks and hmmms at certain note frequencies when certain instruments are playing in combination.

Would I be right in thinking that I need a DAW to iron out these problems when I have done the bulk of my work in Finale? If so a haven't a clue which to go for! Can anyone else reccommend a DAW for use in conjunction with Finale for orchestral, world and eclectic soundtracks?

Thanks,

Cathy.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Alpiar on March 29, 2011 at 7:27pm

maybe Izotope Alloy or Izotope Ozone? Probably others here can answer that question better than I. And there are tons of plugin settings to start with. Its no real substitute for the real thing, but if you have no budget for anything then a plugin with some presets is at least better than nothing at all

Permalink Reply by Sandy Herrault on March 29, 2011 at 7:32pm

Thank you so much, I will look that up. I was just discovering that my track had clipping in it. It seems the sum of the parts can cause the overall to clip even if the individual tracks are no where near clipping. Ah... so much to learn.

Permalink Reply by Doug Lauber on March 30, 2011 at 3:30am

A good start are books by Roey Izhaki: Mixing Audio, and Bob Katz: Mastering Audio.

Permalink Reply by Chris Alpiar on March 30, 2011 at 11:42am

I dont know the first book Doug mentions but that Bob Katz book is considered the kind of holy grail intro to mastering, very worthwhile purchase

Permalink Reply by Sandy Herrault on March 30, 2011 at 11:44am

Thanks! I am going to try doing some mastering myself, as I have about 15 pieces I'd like to produce.

Permalink Reply by Doug Lauber on March 30, 2011 at 12:31pm

The Izhaki book is really fantastic too. It's about $33. I refer to it often. It comes with a DVD of audio examples.