starting out

[shokan]

I have one goal and that is to make songs with a lush sound that features pedal steel, with string sections, strummed and Travis-picked acoustic guitar, electric bass, drums... all done on my desktop. I have: a pretty powerful PC; and, soon will have: Sibelius 7, Pro Tools, a simple keyboard to input whatever software and possibly RealGuitar.

- What do I need to get to have a really authentic-sounding Pedal Steel I can control the notes, slides and nuances of? Is it possible in Sibelius, or by any other means (besides the actual instrument)?

- Is Pro Tools the thing I need to put everything together?

- sound card for all of the above?

I know a little stuff, but really not much.

Thanks.

[albee1952]

First thing you need to check is whether your computer is likely to work. Click this thread above:
Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!
and post a SANDRA report for that answer. As for recreating the sound of a pedal steel, without a steel player....that's going to be tough. I have a suggestion to solve that. In Nashville, there are several great steel players that will record a proper steel track for a nominal fee. You send them a rough mix of what you have(mp3 for is usually fine) and long with details on ideas you want incorporated, the sample rate, bit depth and tempo of your session, and they email you back a link for a yousendit download(or a similar FTP site) and you get what will likely sound much better(and way more "authentic" sounding steel track for your song Sebelius is really about charts and is not what you need to make this happen.