Waveform for Film Scoring?

[bielphc]

Hello! I'm a student. I wan't to compose scores and mainly orchestral music.

Waveform is cheap. Very cheap indeed.

Is it good for composing orchestral music, advanced midi editing?

How is video sync?

Do they plan to add a score editor?

Thanks guys! I tested demo but it's a different daw with a completely different workflow. Thank you so much!

my influences are Thomas Bergersen, Two Steps From Hell and all the guys from Audiomachine, Colossal, Etc.

[MBO]

IMHO Waveform is not the best choice for composing scores and especially orchestral music. You need to use notation as a main tool - composing orchestral parts in MIDI editor is - to put it mildly - not so efficient. If price is important, you could try Reaper (has notation system and unlimited possibilities, Reaper's MIDI editor is a matter of taste but effective, learning curve can be steep but finally everything can be done) or Logic (when on Mac - more user friendly than Reaper). Another possibility is to use Notion 6 which is also cheap but it's not DAW per se, it's typical scoring program. It has good sound library for its price and it's easy to export data as MIDI to DAW (you can even export directly to Studio One but this DAW is significantly more expensive). Video sync is provided by all of them.

If you are serious about this business, you can try Finale, Dorico or Sibelius - but they are not cheap at all.

You can download demo versions of almost all of these programs, try what is possible and after some time decide what way is best for you.

[frankvg]

Is it good for composing orchestral music, advanced midi editing?

It rather depends on what you mean by ‘composing’. If you want to create a written score, then the answer is no. No score editor is planned, as far as I know. For writing a professional score you need Finale or SIbelius.

Midi editing is sufficient but probably not advanced in any way.

If you want to import your midi files from notation software, Waveform is not adequate to deal with that unfortunately. There is a bug with midi files that doesn’t correctly translate these. Also after import, it is quite difficult to work with. As I read today, there also appears to be a bug with midi export.

How is video sync?

It used to be quite adequate but I haven’t used it in a while and there have reports about it not functioning properly. Advice: test it out for yourself.

I tested demo but it's a different daw with a completely different workflow.

Different from what?

In certain scenarios Waveform might be possibility. I did a huge project in T3; a seven part tv series that got me an award. However I wrote the score in Sibelius and the orchestra was recorded on a ProTools rig. Tracktion was more the arrangement platform for audio and a bit of added midi syncing to the video.

Today I would probably choose Logic since there have been no improvements for professional composers in Waveform. And unlikely that the software is heading that way.

[zzz00m]

Hello! I'm a student. I wan't to compose scores and mainly orchestral music.

Waveform is cheap. Very cheap indeed.

Is it good for composing orchestral music, advanced midi editing?

I would probably say that Waveform would not be my choice for composing with scores and orchestral instruments.

Waveform is certainly budget friendly, but probably not suited for scores due to lack of a notation editor.

MIDI editing in the piano roll editor is good, and I bought Waveform for the MIDI creativity tools, like the MIDI pattern generators. Great for composing with chord progressions, and they just added the chord track in W9, which is a big plus.

But Orchestral composing will not be cheap, if you want good tools to do the job. Scores are usually written in dedicated notation programs like Sibelius, Finale, Notion, Dorico, and Overture. There is Musescore, which is free, but has no VST support, so if you want to hear what you write as you go you will have to live with a General MIDI soundfont.

Some of the better notation editors support professional orchestral sample libraries so you can hear your work as you progress.

Probably the cheapest deal around right now would be to crossgrade to PreSonus Studio One Pro for $168.99 (available until March 31st), then you can use the Studio One to Notion 6 crossgrade for $49.95. So for $218.94 you have a complete DAW and scoring setup. Notion will send data to Studio One, as well as rewire to it, so it has decent integration. Notion 6 also comes with a decent starter orchestral sound library, and sample scores to work with. https://shop.presonus.com/products/soft ... onal-Users#

https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/pr ... crossgrade
$168.99 in the cart here with coupon code 'MAR2018'.

Qualifying DAWs for crossgrade:

Cubase 5 or higher
Pro Tools 9 or higher
Nuendo 5 or higher
Logic 9, X
Sonar X2 or higher
Live 8 or higher
Digital Performer 7 or higher
Acid Pro 6 or higher
Reason 6 or higher
Reaper 4 or higher
Samplitude 9 or higher
Mixcraft Pro 6 or higher
FL Studio 11 or higher
Notion 5
Bitwig Studio
Tracktion T7 or higher
Notion 6

[zzz00m]

...[edit: duplicate post]

[Steve Bolivar]

If you qualify for the educational discount and can get the Sweetwater card you can get Digital Performer for $9/month (0% financing over 48 months)
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... sion-boxed
If it carries any weight, Danny Elfman uses it.

[gesslr]

If you qualify for the educational discount and can get the Sweetwater card you can get Digital Performer for $9/month (0% financing over 48 months)
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... sion-boxed
If it carries any weight, Danny Elfman uses it.

Strongly suggest you try the DP 30 day trial before doing that. DP has a lot of things going for it in terms of scoring, but some aspects of it (GUI, lack of proper “objects”) can be very off putting depending on your working style.

I think you can certainly get your feet wet using Waveform for film. The basics are there. If notation is important for you, there are things like Noteflight (https://www.noteflight.com/) and MuseScore (https://musescore.org/) available too.

Again, it all depends on where you are on the learning curve.