MIDI / Virtual Orchestration: practice and fundamentals
What you'll learn
- to confidently create expressive and realistic orchestral mock ups with any level of sample instrument or Digital Audio Workstation
- that you craft the music, not the technology.
Requirements
- Basic knowledge of GarageBand (or chosen Digital Audio Workstation)
- Reading music is not essential, but an understanding of Western Notation could be helpful
- A suitable DAW, this course uses GarageBand as its free but the techniques are applicable in most DAWs. (I have used them in Logic, Reaper, Pro-tools and Cubase.)
Description
I don't know about you, but if I could have a real orchestra ready and waiting in my garage, I would! However, unfortunately, this is logistically (my garage isn't big enough) and economically (orchestral players need to eat too!) viable. It is for this reason that I have put together this course on the fundamentals of MIDI Orchestration, an area in which I have over 10-years of experience and use regularly in my professional capacity as a composer, arranger, orchestrator and educator.
This class is aimed at those resourceful music creators who want to produce orchestral music without necessarily having the most up to date kit and, like me, cannot afford a real-life garage orchestra. It is also designed for those who want to build their skills before investing in more advanced and expensive libraries, as the skills I teach in this course are applicable to modern libraries aswell.
Stripping back to rudimentary sample instruments in a more limited Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), like GarageBand, presents a challenge and opportunity to learn extensive technical, professional-grade skills in the art of MIDI orchestration. To get these instruments sounding more realistic it can take more effort than a modern library, this extra effort yields an opportunity to cultivate deeper skills and knowledge in MIDI orchestration, as well as the effort of putting it into practice. The course works on the theory that when you learn to produce effective mock-ups in GarageBand, with the in-built sample libraries, then you will be able to produce exceptional work once you have access to better sample libraries and Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). Or, if you're like me, who does not believe music-making has or needs to be an expensive endeavour, you can get more out of limited sample libraries! Surely this is the right way to do it, learning how to get the most out of virtual instruments before investing loads of money on libraries you cannot get the most out of!!?
The resources I use for this course are classical works. The reason for this is that they are out of copyright, meaning you can use them openly as portfolio pieces and/or share them with family and friends to show them what you have been learning!
Who this course is for:
- Music makers with limited budgets and resources.
- Students who want to improve the audio production of there composition, arranging and/or orchestration work for school/college/university
Course content
- Preview09:44
- Preview05:01
- 00:12Resources for sections 2-4
Instructor
![George Marshall](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
- 4.2 Instructor Rating
- 9 Reviews
- 91 Students
- 2 Courses
A prize-winning composer and PhD Scholar with both a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Music, George boasts 7+ years as a freelance composer and published arranger, writing concert works, film and video-game soundtracks.
As a composer, he specialises in acoustic, orchestral music and the reproduction of this with MIDI. George won a 2018 Contemporary Piano Composition Competition for his cue Nocturne, which is a solo piano cue for the video-game Haunted Emotions. His work has also featured in film festivals and game exposés internationally, with his latest contribution to the game Forgotten Sea featuring at EGX 2019.
His PhD via composition research investigates the influence of context in different composition projects, such as the implications of a tight deadline and/or the importance of collaboration in the composition of a soundtrack for a game that is early in development. Throughout his PhD studies, George has also studied theory and philosophy surrounding creativity and how this relates theoretically and practically to the composition of music, which has profoundly impacted his capacity as a music maker.
As a teacher George has provided tutelage and lectures on MIDI orchestration as well as facets of academic studies, such as research preparation. In addition to this George has worked as an intervention tutor providing 1-1 lessons with students who are not in school due to behavioural or SEN reasons. In this line of work, the focus is on Maths and English, rarely Music and George is eager to teach more music in whatever format he can.