Composers: What do you use?

I fail epically at composing. Though I'm only still learning composing to GCSE standard, Sibelius 4 works fine for me. It has good notation and tab functions. The only thing it's lacking is a sound libary tbh. Would really like to add some sound effects to pieces and fail at using converter programs etc.

I think that would be pirating
AND WE DONT SUPPORT PIRATING AT RMRK

You should give Finale a try. I used to hate it, but once you actually figure out how it works, it's very effective. And it comes with Garritan Personal Orchestra, which is a very nice orchestra sound library.

I think that would be pirating
AND WE DONT SUPPORT PIRATING AT RMRK

Nuuu, I mean that converting from a MIDI to an MP3 and inproving quality >_<

You should give Finale a try. I used to hate it, but once you actually figure out how it works, it's very effective. And it comes with Garritan Personal Orchestra, which is a very nice orchestra sound library.

I'll give it a try.

I started using FL7 the other day, it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be.
it's a little overwhelming to look at at first, but imho so is any other good audio program.

I'm gonna be seeing what I can do with this, hehe

I use Finale 2009. It has everything I need. And, it's great to use when writing percussion parts. I write a lot of marching percussion pieces and, it's the best program I've used to write them with.

I use GuitarPro. Very easy to use and got some really good features.

Why isn't there so many ppl using Finale? 

I use finale 2009 with garritan personal orchestra - (from silbeus 4 and defualts)

I do consider myself a successful transposer/composer.

Finale is great, you just need to get used to its interface. The only thing wrong is that the Garritan Output is very umm low in volume 

I use GuitarPro. Very easy to use and got some really good features.

LOL WUT. For a tabbing program, it's the worst considering you need to put in the rests.

Also, Loche, I think arl uses Finale. He's majoring in MT so I think he uses everything. >_>

Updated setup:

Finale for composition
ACID Pro 7 for mixing and various processes of production
Reason 4.0 for synthesis
Cubase Studio 4 for recording
Soundforge 9 for mastering

Then a bunch of really awful hardware, aside from my Axiom, which I love like an estranged ex-wife.

Don't know why exactly I'm posting this, it doesn't matter to anyone lol

Dropping Finale and switching to Sibelius. In short, Sibelius has made composing fun again. Finale can suck it

I'd switch to Sibelius if I didn't already know more about Finale than the programmers of Finale do. 

But I suppose it wouldn't matter in the end, because I could xml my UNFINISHED Finale scores INTO Sibelius.
Because my finishes scores are just pdf files, and once they're finished they really don't ever need to be opened in Finale ever again.

Being so familiar with Finale (like extremely familiar as you are) is what kept me from doing this earlier too. But after using Sibelius several times at school I realized that I actually hate Finale and it's why I barely write anything anymore unless I have to. Sibelius is so intuitive and just makes things so much easier.

However I think this is a recent development. I know Sibelius used to not be able to do a lot of things, but now it pretty much does everything Finale does (as far as I can tell) only it's simpler. Plus there's a discount for switching from Finale

A DISCOUNT!? :O

Shit, that's all I need to hear.

My school has Sibelius. We use it for our theory class. Is it really that good? o_o

In my opinion, Sibelius is much more intuitive and easier to use. It makes composition fun. :-]

You just said what I said but in a different way

My school has Sibelius. We use it for our theory class. Is it really that good? o_o

I think so. Plus it seems professional composers (like for movies and shit) mostly use Sibelius nowadays. So it's professional :B

yay, i use sibelius, before i used to use Finale2003... its cool too, but oldy =D

This is my first post, as I just joined today. 

Our family is big into music, so my dad and I turned
our garage into a music studio. I play (and collect)
synthesizers. So that's what I use to make music.
My main workstation is a Yamaha Motif XS6,
and I record into a program called Digital Orchestrator.
It's a pretty no-frills program, but I use rack equipment
for effects anyway.
So thats what I use. 

MilkyTracker (for original chiptunes samples) + Acid Pro 7 (for putting it all together)

I love how everyone has switched to Sibelius.
I tried Finale because everyone here was using it and it didn't do much for me.
I also like that NAM is running Acid Pro. Sony production suites are vastly underrated.

MadTracker is a good program it playes xm,mod,it and etc music and you can export them to ogg format to use with rpgmaker 2003,xp,vx etc you can get it here...

http://www.madtracker.org/main.php

I should be beat for saying this but I use.... EASY MUSIC COMPOSER.... There I said it*phew* don't be to alarmed though I still write all my music and juts usse the progam for sounds its cheap so...

(Hooray. This is my first post on this site).

When I'm making video game music, I use FL Studio 9 and Audacity. 

Yeah I use FL Studio 9 and Audacity too for some stuff, like if I wanna make a fast tempo battle piece. For the most part I use Finale though. For me it's easier to write out in regular notation and export to a MIDI, then I can edit the sounds however I want to with FL Studio and then Audacity for equilization and compression if needed.