Dang! Thanks for all of the replies.
Here's a stab at answering your questions.
I obtained the full score of the 9th Symphony and started working with my favorite, the 2nd Movement. I used the Staff view in Sonar to input all of the notes. With EWQLSO, there are different instruments for different articulations, so I had more than the 12 types of instruments (violin, viola, cello, contrabass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, french horn, trumpet, trombone, and timpani) to input. For example, for first violin, I needed sustained vibrato, which is a harder attack articulation, and sometimes needed a legato articulation within the same measure, or a staccatto, and there are also pizzacatto parts as well. As you can imagine, this took quite a long time to complete (about 4 months start to finish), the input taking the lion's share of time. It was a definitely a learning experience for me. I played trumpet in junior high school, and can read music, but I have no experience or formal education in orchestral music. I was able to read up on it, which was a big help. MIDI doesn't care which instrument is playing, it will play what you input using the instrument you configure. But the instruments in an orchestra are sometimes in different keys. I had to figure out and transpose the MIDI notes for what was written for Horn in the key of D and Horn in the key of F. Also, I had no idea contrabass was written an octave higher than it is played. And there is math involved with figuring out how to input some of the tripletted 16th or 32nd notes and such, but I love problem solving and puzzles, so it was all good to me.
After I got all of the notes input and the articulations the way I wanted them, I used Piano view to work on the dynamics by setting the velocities of the notes. Then I used volume control on the clips to add further dynamics.
And you know the rest - mixing and "mastering" (quotes due to the fact that I have no idea how to really do mastering!), bouncing and rendering.
The 4th Movement is known as Ode to Joy, but I must say that this was a pure joy to do all the way through. It is so gratifying to put so much effort into something and have it come out so beautiful.
I have completed the 1st Movement and am in the process of putting together a story line in photos for a YouTube video of that one.
I have composed several original pieces that I will post here at some point.
Hope this answers your questions and thanks again for the feedback. I welcome any other questions or comments.
Thanks,
Jerry