# Notation Software with VST support?



## Royosho (Jan 12, 2019)

Hi, I'm not sure whether to go to VST, sampling or notation forum, however the question is this: Is there a notation software with vst plugin support so i can write scores and see all the individual orchestral instruments at once on different lines, which isn't really possible with a DAW. I guess it's a combination of a notation software and MIDI music program, I think finale uses garriton or something? does one exist where i'm able to use my own VI and still see and edit notation on all instruments at once on separate lines?


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## d.healey (Jan 12, 2019)

Royosho said:


> Is there a notation software with vst plugin support


It's often better to host the VSTis in a DAW (or other host) and send MIDI data from your score software to the DAW for live playback. That way you have the advantage of a DAW environment to manage the plugins, also if your score program crashes or you change to another score you won't have to wait for all your plugins to load again. This can be achieved with most score software including Musecore (via JACK). For loading VSTis directly I think Notation can do it and Sibelius definitely can. I'm also pretty sure you can do this with Overture 5.



> so i can write scores and see all the individual orchestral instruments at once on different lines, which isn't really possible with a DAW.


You can do this in Reaper's score view but there is a learning curve and some customisation required to get a decent workflow.


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## JF (Jan 12, 2019)

Notion is great at this, however, you cannot draw midi curves.


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## Royosho (Jan 12, 2019)

I'm using Reaper currently, so I'll try the score view so I can still access the MIDI automation lanes possibly and I'll try the other mentioned software too. Thanks very much, I appreciate the answers and advice!


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## Mackieguy (Jan 12, 2019)

i'm starting to really like what Dorico can do. It natively hosts VSTs - in fact, the maker of Dorico, Steinberg, is the actual developer of VST technology. Not sure if that actually matters but it gives an idea of the level of support it potentially has. I personally like it better than Sibelius as it can natively playback dim/cresc markings in addition to following dynamics and other markings. It has a lot of native playback behaviors that Sibelius requires custom scripts for. (I really hate Finale's 1996 look and feel so I can't speak to it too much.) Dorico is however not perfect (no notation program is) but I think it goes the farthest in allowing a composer to stay in a notation program before having to move to a DAW for the final output.

Overture 5 constantly crashed on me so I gave it up despite having strong MIDI CC drawing functionality.

A word on notation vs. DAW: You will most likely ALWAYS have to finish in a DAW as you will need to use other libraries that are not friendly to notation/stave-based tracks, separate out articulations to multiple tracks, do final mixes and stem outputs and other activities that notation programs are not designed to do. So do not think that you will be in a "one or the other" situation. You NEED both if you want something to sound as good as possible. 

But, if you write music like a traditional composer, Dorico (with Sibelius as a close second) will allow you to write pretty much everything an orchestra will do with decent playback built in.


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## Royosho (Jan 12, 2019)

Cool, thanks again. I might try the notation software in the future, however Reaper surprisingly has a good working notation view for the MIDI editor and it outputs to VST and samplers in real time perfectly (I'm using EastWest libs). Its possible to select multiple tracks/instruments and they all stack like real orchestral sheet music automatically. And it's possible to change specific notes to different MIDI outputs to route them to different articulations for each instrument when needed. The only thing missing is CC lanes, but they're only really necessary for dynamics after the piece is written and not necessarily when writing, and it's just one click to switch to MIDI view to adjust the modulation. It'll work. Much appreciated for the help and account of your experiences with different notation softwares.


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