Can Pro Tools do what I want or do I have to change my approach?

[marcel2]

Hi,
I have don't have a lot of experiance working with digital audio. I've done mastering with Sound Forge, did some recording with Samplitude and I worked with the sequenzer software Sion Quickscore with a Roland Fantom XR sound module, all of that mostly in the late 90s to early 2000s.
I'm now looking for a DAW and I'm not sure if I'm approaching this with wrong expectations. So I don't expect tutorials on how things can be done but first only, if things can be done the way I think they would or if I'm completely off here.
E.g. I've created a MIDI pieces with Quickscore, where I had 16 MIDI channels to trigger different instruments and I want to use this piece with Pro Tools.
The drums were one instrument having different kicks, snares, hihats etc. assigned to the different notes.
I thought I could assemble a drum kit choosing from different kicks, snares etc, and create one instrument on one track and would then assing the different sounds to certain pitches so it matches what I created with the Fantom XR.
Is this possible with what Pro Tools brings to the table?
Another example is a piece for piano and trumpet I wrote back then. I entered all the notes with standard notation. Quickscore had a controller editor where I would edit the velocity of each note and I would also insert a lot of tempo changes to make the whole thing sound more "human".
This is what it sounds like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BY877b0Zo8
Is this possible in Pro Tools or are there better ways to do this?
Another thing I'd like to do is to change the articulation of different notes in the same instrument track, e.g. a violin playing pizzicato and then legato again.
And finally, if I get a new (better) virtual instrument later on, can I use that without reworking every note again?
Probably a lot of naive questions. I'm willing to invest time to learn new things but I need to know if I'm heading in the wrong direction.
regards
Marcel

[Darryl Ramm]

You can do all this in Pro Tools (or effectively any other DAW).

Playing pizzicato vs legato depends on the VI you are using supporting that. And for example if you Google pizzicato legato etc. and the name of many VIs you'll find tutorials on how to do this with them.

The way to get started is to get started and actually try doing something (with a suitable VI). Good vendors either have free evals or monthly subscriptions you can start with. The reason I had suggested you start a new thread from you other one was to ask for specific inputs on different VIs to cover what you want to do. I already gave you a general list that you could get started looking at/playing with as evals. https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=427015&page=3

[marcel2]

I've seen and appriciate your reply to my other thread. The reason I've started this thread is, because it wasn't clear to me if what I thought would be a way to work with a DAW is actually practical. I looked at tutorials about about xpand2 and they used it to create audio files from the plugin on several tracks. That's not what I was looking for. Also if I buy some other VI and create something with it, it's still not clear to me, if I can switch to another VI later on without recreating the whole thing.
Maybe I just have to get Pro Tools Artist, as it's not that expensive, and try to do what I intended but it would still be frustrating if I have to do it all over again when I decide on another VI. I always thought once the notes were written it's only about finding the right sound to play them.
Sorry if I appear a bit dull but I still don't understand if MIDI composing is as flexible as I thought it should be.

[Darryl Ramm]

If you want to edit/revise MIDI or instrument content later on you need a license for the VI software. If a subscription you could presumably restart the subscription. You can freeze/commit any VI track(s) and that turn them into pure audio (and hides away the MIDI/instrument track), and mix/process that as long as you don't need to edit the MIDI or instrument settings.

You can move MIDI compositions between VIs, with differing amounts of flexibility for remapping MIDI notes to instruments etc.

These systems are pretty capable, you don't need to so much worry about if they are capable, more work out how to use them. People compose/produce massive orchestral productions for example for motion pictures in Pro Tools (and other DAWs).

If you are talking orchestral type things the costs of the DAW is likely to be less than the cost of the VIs you are working with but you can start with free Pro Tools Intro and play with stuff including any third party VIs and be able to learn all you need, but you are likely to run out of track capacity in Intro fast especially if doing orchestral type things, but then an upgrade of Pro Tools is just installing a different license, not changing any software.

[marcel2]

Thanks, I think during the rest of the trial period I look more into the audio side of Pro Tools and if that checks out I just go for it and see where it takes me.