Help with DAW selection

[Geostma]

People, i could use some advice over choosing the best daw suited for my purpose.

I mainly compose for classical acoustic instruments, from solo to full orchestras. I write in Finale, gonna purchase VSL. Now what i want to do is trade between Finale and a DAW whatever it is, midi or XML or whatever.  That means that either i edit my Finale midi on the DAW, or i compose on the DAW and then import that on Finale. I might need mastering in the longer future, but for now mainly editing in such environments. Good live recordings would also be welcome, perhaps a piano.  Also film composing could be a possibility in the future. 

Those are mainly the things that i need my DAW to do. I am doing my own investigation but it would help so much if more experienced people gave their 2 cents.

Any tips and advice are most welcome.

[Bill]

We'll need to know which OS you use

[Geostma]

I use macbook pro retina late 2013, OS X El Capitan 10.11.3, the latest update.

Note that i'll also probably switch to Sibelius 8.1

Also i'd love to get some recommendations on sound cards, regardless budget. 

[Beat Kaufmann]

@Geostma said:

I use macbook pro retina late 2013, OS X El Capitan 10.11.3, the latest update.

Note that i'll also probably switch to Sibelius 8.1

Also i'd love to get some recommendations on sound cards, regardless budget. 

I would choose between Logic or Cubase. I think that these two DAWs are those with the most users in the background. Both of them have good midi-possibilities.

I would compose with the score program and produce a nice sounding result afterwards in the DAW.

RME-Audio-Interfaces (regardless budget) are always a good value. A Steinberg Inferface could be a good choice together with Cubase. But also Focusrite, Apogee, Presonus, Universal Audio... have good products. Important is, that you choose an interface with more than only two Audio Outputs. 4-8 Analog-Outputs are never bad. As soon as it comes to the question of surround or 2 Channels for the monitors and 2 separate channels for the headphones... you will be happy having more outputs. Some more channels always save applications and new situations in the (often close) future as well.

All the best

Beat