Another Newbie... Hobbyist...., Lookin' for ways to make music! Options

[Turner]

Hi -

Ok, here's my situation.

I've got a Blue & White G3 and a Casio CTK-601. (About to get USB to MIDI interface) Also iTunes and Toast CD burning software.

Basically, ideally, what I'd like to be able to do is:

1) Score "standard" orchestral pieces; by orchestral I mean traditional instruments - I know there is plenty of stuff out there to do this. I've downloaded some demos - cheaper is better - and found that while some look pretty good, their operation is a tad strange. Even Finale, which I just started playing around with (the demo) doesn't seem to want to let me drag notes horizontally. So ease of use is important. I'd like to be able to change time signatures mid-composition, too.

2) Score "ambient" pieces, and by ambient I don't mean dance ambient, I mean traditional ambient, e.g. Brian Eno... (after all, he did invent ambient)... I guess what you might call "soundscapes". Long sustains and long transitions would be nice.

3) I just learned about SoundFonts on this board! Yeah! Ok, what I suppose I'd like to do here is... eh... use them and also make them if it's sensible, and I realize I need some type of input device to make them... I think? Dunno.

Any help appreciated!

Thanks,
Andrew

[Synthetic]

well... it may not be the cheapest route but... I would suggest looking into something like Logic Silver or the "Big Box" and the consider possibly adding the ESX24 sampler.

Logic has a score area like Finale but may offer a bit more freedom that you seek. Logic has opened many new midi ideas for myself but it is a complex program.

The ESX24 will play soundfonts and comes with some really nice sounding traditional instrument sounds. You can find other great sampled instruments to add to it easily too.

As far as creating soundfonts... I am not sure what is the best method for that. I have used Recycle to make soundfonts for use in my ESX24 before but it was just for beats and exporting the midi file to play the beat sample. I am not sure if it offers a way to make a multisampled instrument soundfont file or not as I don't use it a lot.