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What is the difference between these programs:

Sibelius
Finale
Gigastudio

The prices are all about the same. I am looking to create music something like George Winston does only with more sounds than just the piano, maybe a deeper new age feel to it. It would be more like George Winston meets Yanni. Don't laugh, thats my style. Which would be best for creating music and making quality CD's. I will be using a Yamaha es90.

If you need more info let me know.

Hey Psycho,

Sibelius and Finale are notation products. They may be able to playback and even capture the audio as a .wav file, but it won't give you the ability really tweak the performance or add EQ, reverb or compression.

Gigastudio is a sample player. You load samples into it and it will play what your midi sequencer tells it to. By itself it has no recording capability, but it does do EQ, impulse reverbs and compression. Some of the sampled pianos available for GS3 are awesome.

Since you have a piano that you wish to use I would suggest you buy a midi sequencer/audio production application like Logic, Sonar, Digital Performer, Cubase, etc. Logic is Macintosh only (grrrrr Apple) as is Digital Performer, Sonar is Windows only and Cubase is for either. There are other products out there that do this, this is just what I can remember. I use an older version of Logic on PC (hence the grrrrr) and love it, the final version (5.5.1) is quite stable, but sadly no longer available. Any of these programs will allow you to do everything you need to produce a CD.

When your adoring fans want sheet music we'll have the Sibelius vs. Finale argument. Neither is what you want now.

Thanks for the reply!!!! I have never looked at this type of software before. I like the looks of the sonar program as I do like windows and the prices of their software. They also have training sessions you can sign up for and I know a few people at work that said they use it.

I listened to some of your music and it was good. I am hopeing to get to that point soon. You sure can feel the classical influence. Is it hard to get music like this on the radio and onto a CD and into the stores?

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Hey Psycho,

Thanks for listening. If I was in this to become a well know performer I would write in another genre. Oh wait I've just recently done that. I should add a new link to my sig. You're right about the popularity of classical, but I compose that for my own enjoyment. If others come to enjoy it that's nice too. So check out the Steve Light link if you want to hear something more mainstream from me