This post https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=591383#Post591383 gives you an idea how I use Presonus Notion for better sounds of the Melody and Soloist tracks, for my composition demos.

I also use Cakewalk by BandLab as my DAW, and Adobe Audition or WaveLab Elements for finished stereo editing.

I often use MuseScore to read and convert Music XML scores.

I write music in Encore (not recommended to anyone else; it's too buggy).

I sometimes use either ScanScore or Transcribe to grab parts of PDF sheetmusic to save me the time transcribing it.

This is probably only half of what I use, but these are the main ones. In other words, use the right tool for the job.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.