halfwalk

PreSonus Notion? Steinberg Dorico? Those seem to be notation programs equipped for actual virtual instrument "production" as well as composition. However, I feel like any program that excels in one area is going to be lacking in other areas, so you may end up wanting to use multiple programs after all, to play to each one's strengths in a way that suits your ideal workflow. I don't know that you can work with audio tracks in the apps I mentioned, short of using something akin to ReWire. But on that topic, there are definitely ways to make your programs communicate with one another, so that you don't have to constrain yourself to a "one size fits all" solution. Or perhaps I totally misunderstand the question, because it isn't entirely clear what you are looking for (i.e. what DAW features you need?).

Ahh, Secret of Mana, the game that made me want to become a musician at the tender age of seven... it was my introduction to prog-rock. This one's not done, but is far enough along that I felt comfortable sharing. I was going for some mildly-psychedelic jazz-rock, to set the mood for chasing rabites after dark (and maybe a few cocktails). I haven't made an intro or outro, and the middle part is kind of lacking at the moment. Also, the mix was done on some low-end headphones while my nicer ones sit atop the ever-growing fix-it pile. I'm sure my complete lack of jazz background is apparent with that horn arrangement, but I'm learning as I go. I need a break from this one for a couple days, but I hope to finish it up and mix it by this time next week. In the meantime, please enjoy, and don't hesitate to leave some constructive criticism (or just be brutal if that's your thing, it's all appreciated). Thanks! Follow the white rabite

I'm a firm believer that most "mixing" happens in the arrangement/orchestration stage. Sometimes the best thing I can do for a song is delete a part that doesn't need to be there. It's so easy to get carried away with layering, with today's technology essentially eliminating almost all technical limitations of recording and composing. But just because you can easily stack a hundred tracks on top of each other, doesn't mean you should. Restraint is an art form; the notes you don't play are every bit as important, if not more so, than the notes you do play. More and more I'm learning that trying to fill every possible hole in the sonic spectrum just leads to mush, and ultimately, an endless "tail-chasing" cycle with EQ and compression and all that. The more empty space you have, the more powerful each note is within it. When you've got dozens of synth plugins, and two hard drives full of sample libraries, sometimes the greatest challenge is refraining from cramming all that awesome stuff into every song. Tasteful, well-recorded sounds, when mixed with other well-recorded sounds, should ideally not need any EQ at all. In theory, anyway. If you're trying to carve holes to fit more stuff in there, maybe you've got too much stuff in there already.