What software should I use for composing?

I use Sibelius for notation software. Right now, I think it is the best one out there, but the new notation software by Steinberg, called Dorico will be released this fall, and I believe it will be better than Sibelius. It will probably have fewer features at the beginning, but overtime, I think it will win out.

For the time being, musescore is a great choice. Even though it’s free, it gives you very good notation. You can use that, and then take the time to decide if you want Sibelius, or Dorico. I haven’t used finale, although I know some top orchestrators in hollywood that do, so I know it can do anything you need. I haven’t been too impressed with Notion, but some people seem to really like it. It isn’t as powerful as other notation software packages.

For a DAW, they all have different strengths and weaknesses. I use Digital Performer, but it is definitely geared towards film composers and is on the more expensive side. Many of my friends use logic, and cubase. I would say Cubase is better than logic, and has better support – apple has been kind of slow to update logic. Reaper is a good choice as well – because it is relatively cheap, and you can use it for free indefinitely without buying the license. It also has a scripting engine, so people write extensions for it, that may be useful for you. Protools is more geared towards audio engineers than composers, but some composers use it as well for the composition side of things – although I’ve heard the midi capabilities are not as strong as other DAWs.

I like working in Digital Performer, but like any DAW, I view them as the place where the performance takes place. My method generally revolves around composing outside of the DAW, either on paper, or in Sibelius, and then taking the parts and performing them into the DAW. It helps to separate out the process.

There is overture, which in the newest edition is trying to merge the best capabilities of a DAW in terms of midi editing, with the notational capabilities of notation software – but it is still early in the process of development – so we’ll see where it goes.

Notation Software
https://sonicscores.com/overture/
http://www.avid.com/sibelius
http://www.finalemusic.com/
https://musescore.org/
https://www.presonus.com/products/Notion-5
https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/dorico.html

DAWs
http://www.motu.com/products/software/dp/
http://www.apple.com/logic-pro/
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/cubase/start.html
http://www.avid.com/pro-tools
http://www.reaper.fm/