Tools

[KoH]

Ok, I use Sibelius 2 to do all my composing and arranging, but my soundcard is crappy. What tools do you suggest I use to render my tracks? I need one for classical/symphonic/piano sort of stuff, and maybe another for dance/techno/trance sort of stuff. The first tool would be a priority, but if there are decent cheap ones for each or both that would be good.

Can someone point me in the right direction.
Thanx

[Yoozer]

Ok, I use Sibelius 2 to do all my composing and arranging, but my soundcard is crappy. What tools do you suggest I use to render my tracks?
Oh, wait... now I get it. Sibelius plays back as GM. I was thinking that if you rendered things anyway, it wouldn't matter.

I need one for classical/symphonic/piano sort of stuff, and maybe another for dance/techno/trance sort of stuff. The first tool would be a priority, but if there are decent cheap ones for each or both that would be good.

Can someone point me in the right direction.

What's your budget? You could consider a do-it-all like Luxonix Purity, IK Multimedia SampleTank, Quantum Leap Colossus, Steinberg Hypersonic (just Google for the names) - all of which would be magnitudes better than what the wavetables in your soundcard could do.

You could also consider a specialized solution: GPO (Garritan Personal Orchestra > http://www.garritan.com/ ) for your orchestral stuff and buy the whole trance/techno/whatever thing later ( however, keep in mind that this usually doesn't come in a single package, until something like ReFX Nexus is released).

[KoH]

I was hoping for something below about $50, but I may not get much from that.
I would spend about $100.

I also have the free microsoft direct music producer, if there are any good plugins for that, it would be good also.

Basically anything that does orchestral midis to mp3s/wavs and sounds decent would be good.

[Yoozer]

Making music can be horribly expensive :D.

Anyway, sounds like a soundfont player with some good orchestral soundfonts is the way to go. http://www.rgcaudio.com/sfz.htm for part one, and do a few searches for the soundfonts.

[crypto_magnum]

Sibelius is a great notation program... but unfortunately it's not very good for producing the finished product. I also used Sibelius 2 for a long time. One route you might consider taking is upgrading your version of Sibelius and purchasing Kontak Player in a bundle.

I went a different route; I purchased FL Studio: Producer Edition and FL Soundfont Player. The total cost was around $115 (academic price). It was well worth it. I really wish I had bought this stuff a few years ago, because I've been missing out.