"I'll enter and try my hand at writing something for air. While I agree that 3 months is more than enough time for a two-minute piece, I'm in the middle of something right now and could probably use the time. But either way I'll give it a shot."

"UPDATE:
     I've been messing around with my new freebie software. I've been able to get sounds into (from my Carbon 61 keyboard) and out of (to my speakers) Kontact 5 and Reaktor 5. Reaktor 5 is amazing--such great sounds! And Kontact 5 comes with…"

"Possibly not, but I like Reaper because it gives me a little more control. Usually I set everything in the Sibelius mixer to center at 0 dB and then export it to a .wav file. I use Reaper to set my pans and fine-tune my EQ and reverb. Plus, Reaper…"

"This is incredibly helpful. I now know where to start focusing my energy. Thanks a lot, Spiros!"

"Kontakt 5 is a sample player, a very powerful tool and an industry standard in many different genres. A sample player loads a library of already recorded sounds, and gives you some (limited) amount of tweaking over the sound. While you can make your…"

"Thanks for writing, Bob. I appreciate your advice, and I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.
I could easily export my compositions from Sibelius as MIDI files and then assign voices in Reaper, but the only sound library I had before…"

"I cannot compare, as I'm new to Sibelius and have been working with 7, but it's great. A bit clunky, and difficult to navigate at first, as it's a 'new' set up (as far as I know) with the "ribbon" technology, but now that I've worked with it quite a…"

"Well it seems the RAM is enough what about hard drive?"

"What is your set up Bob?"

"Always nice to hear from a fellow illiterate."

"I use sibelius as I am suequencer illiterate!"

"Do you use a sequencer, or to you have Sibelius set up to use the EWQL voices during payback?"

"It is enouygh for the likes of myself but I have EWQL Goliath on board for those special moments!"

"I've gone ahead and gotten Sibelius 7, and I agree with your assessment. I was hoping I could avoid having to buy a sequencer and sound libraries to get professional sounding demos, but Sibelius 7 isn't quite there yet. The sound quality is an…"

"Well it certainly is different and offers a lot more sounds but as for equalling EWQL etc, there is still a way to go."

"Well, I guess I should have worded the question better. According to the Sibelius web site, Version 7 includes a new sound library. I was wondering if anyone has compared the new sound library with the Garritan library included with Version 6."