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]

reason is cool little app but it will not really "score" a song... when I hear score... I think of using actual staffs and notes as seen on sheet music, So not sure if this is what you mean by "score" but Logic will actually let you create by placing these note symbols or by using a a matrix type grid as Reason and many other apps use. Logic will also take a matrix sequence and create a "score" of the music that you can use to print as sheet music if so desired as well.

yep, the ESX24 does not come with big box but ESP24 does. I used to use an EMU ESI2000 hardware sampler but got tired of the non-mac friendly hardware and was a pain to setup so I sold it for $400 and bought the ESX24 after getting Logic. I must say that running Logic with ESX24 on my laptop is way more powerful and easier to use than the ESI2000 would ever. Considering you can use up 24 outputs... and uses RAM wisely, it is great for the cost.