So, to this day, when I compose, I’m always more concerned with the artistry and construction of the writing itself, knowing that the final result with live instruments will always come out the way I want it (erm, that is, after the whole rehearsal-thing… lol…)īut, the way the current SoundFont (I was using TimGM6mb.sf2 at the time, decent but definitely MIDI-esque like I said, I didn’t care…until…) was behaving as my score got bigger and more complex finally caused it to revert to some weirdness with the violins at one point in the middle of the score. I’m usually not phased one bit by what sounds do or don’t come out of my computer’s speakers while I’m writing… When I ultimately started composing (in the truest sense of the term, I guess) at the tender age of 13, I didn’t have a computer! So, everything I did was by hand, with only a miniature keyboard and my own mind to guide my sense of the resulting sound. In the midst of working on my latest composition “Of Roses and Lilies” with my current favored music notation program, MuseScore (which is FREE, btw!!), the SoundFont I had been nonchalantly working with - without any further thought about it until now - decided to go a little wonky on me…. 😕 Finally, I’ve also been using the free Audacity to create really amazing sounding finishing touches… It all helps to give a much fuller and more realistic sound. I am still fully hooked on the notation software Notion for both iPad and desktop and fully enjoy using it for the ease of my process of composing as well as the ease and beauty of rendering the digital demo recordings - thanks to their beautiful playback sampled from recordings of the London Philharmonic! But both MuseScore and GarageBand have come out with incredible updates!! So, as of late, I use GarageBand as my DAW (it does import tempos now! And the “live drummer” option is phenomenal to work with!) and I use my Notion playback as my base then play with the sounds in the MuseScore SSO collection to overlay and enhance certain families, like the strings. UPDATE (): I am always experimenting with new technology to improve my demo-rendering experience.

Free musescore soundfonts