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Originally Posted by PlayTrumpet
Hmm. Interesting thing about DAWs and VST. I wanna know what would be the best program if I wanted to write classical music/wind band/film score and that whole genre, with very good quality intrument sounds (probably expensive plugins) - and I want to be able to use a piano roll-type input, MIDI, etc.
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You're in luck! I just graduated berklee with a dual degree in Film Scoring and Contemporary Writing/Production
Your DAW of choice should be something you feel comfortable with. Each DAW has its strengths and weaknesses when it comes to Film scoring/notation - with the exception of Reason...which has only weaknesses hehehe
But on a serious note, there's no doubt that your sample library could potentially be the deciding factor for what work you get in the industry. For the best orchestral sounds, you're looking at companies such as EastWest, Project SAM, Tonehammer, Vienna Instruments to name a few. For more contemporary instrument sounds, Native Instruments offers a s***-ton of different sample packs you can purchase and download all for use in Kontakt or Kontakt player - which imo is one of the best sample players out there. To completely build your library with the instruments that would get you industry standard sounds and prepare you with any kind of work you may be asked to do, you'll be spending a really large amount of money - not all at once, but eventually. (PS, buying samples is like buying crack. you'll never be satisfied with just one pack)
For notation, I've been using Finale since around 2001 and have no problems with it. Everyone else who hates Finale, uses Sibelius (which I hate). They both do the same thing - people say Finale is harder, but that's because they typically don't take the time to figure things out in it - either way, notation is notation, so choosing what software you notate with is up to you.
Berklee teaches film scoring by using "Digital Performer" which is one of the DAW's i hate the most. It's extremely powerful, and allows you to do a ton, but I just hate using it. It has a ton of useful tools for film scoring, such as the abilities to create punches and streamers (not gonna explain what those are if you dont know), as well as really good sequence/chunk management. For stuff that I score not related to school though, I use Logic - simply because I just like it better.
Message me for more info on that stuff, and I'll be happy to answer - here's a clip of a rescore I did for one of my projects, done a few months ago (in Logic)
http://www.vimeo.com/22886204