The amount of work behind the scenes needed to get MIDI to sound real is astounding. Nuances and inflections are hard to program accurately so that the track sounds completely natural and organic.

You also need to use a good sample set. The minimum entry level IMHO is Kontakt. It is at the bottom of the list for a "professional" level sample library. Kontakt is $400 by itself. The better libraries will easily run into the thousands of dollars each. Some of the manufacturers have started breaking their libraries down into less costly modules. Piano... brass...strings....orchestral...choirs...percussion... etc.....to make them more affordable to the folks with limited discretionary funds. Check out the East/West Quantum collection. The modules are several hundred dollars each, but you can buy and pay for exactly what you need without having to buy a very expensive all encompassing library. And talk about some good sounding instruments. I have a version of the E/W collection. Really nice stuff.

I see lots of ads and notices about other sample libraries on sale for around $100 (approx pricing)...and yes, I have Garritan and Miroslav and some others..... but they are not anywhere near as good as they need to be to get a realistic sound that fools the professionals.

For home & hobby recording... GPO and Miroslav are just fine and sound good.... so please don't misinterpret my comments as being down on the lower priced samples.

my 2 cents worth

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.