Hi guys!

So I bought Miroslav CE and Dimension LE and I want start producing classical music, some orchestral songs.

Any guidelines instead tell me to listen to my favorite composers? (Bach, Handel, Dvorak, etc...)

There are many production tutorials about producing trance, house, etc, I dont have problems producing these genres nowadays, but I would appreciate some guidelines for more classical/orchestral music.

Can you guide me, please?


And if you produce such music, share your links so I can listen to your tracks to get some good influences...

http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php/77-Prin ciples-of-Orchestration-On-line

you won't get much better than that imo.

great link, thanks!

If you know how to read music, study full orchestral scores:
http://imslp.org/wiki/

One of the things I like to do is mock-up sections from pieces I like to help me see how certain orchestral "colors" are put together.

Also, when working with scores, don't forget to transpose MIDI tracks depending on certain instruments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposing_instrument#List_of_ instruments_by_transposition

Thanks, mgpqa1, very useful links.

I found these too:

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/production/quick-tip-how -to-create-orchestra-hits/

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/production/quick-tip-get ting-realism-in-orchestral-music/


Keep them coming!

to mix Classical music as if you were sitting in a symphony hall. I pan the double bass and cellos hard right, tuba, trumpet, and trombones about 3 o'clock, percussion from 11-2 o'clock, flute, clarinet, oboe, and french horns about 10 o'clock, piano about 9 o'clock, violin hard left, and viola almost center, depending on where it fits. Here's a piece I just finished. It's actually my first ever full orchestra tune. Hope you like it!

http://soundcloud.com/jason_scott_ross/a-dreamers-dream

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - use General MIDI.

No thanks!

Actually some days ago I tried to make some orchestral-like movie music. Just to see if I can do it and if my tools are good enough for this. I've never done that style before.

This is what came out:

http://soundcloud.com/goodstreet/goodstreet-magic-dream


All the sounds are Ableton Live's intern Instruments.
The most important thing for me was to humanize the music as much as possible.
I used the groove editor and gave the instruments some randomness, so the piano doesn't sound too static. Also I played with other midi effects a lot (for example the midi compressor is a brilliant thing to give an instrument a emotional curve).
At 1:40 you hear a harp appregio which was also made by ableton's intern midi-effect.
To create some special moments and give a moment more meaning, I lowered the tempo sometimes.
I didn't care too much for panning. This might be something to focus on next time.
90% of the track were made in 3 hours. The rest was done in several 1-hour sessions or so.

Effects used:
Thrillseeker Comp and BootEQ (preset "famous") on the piano (both from "variety of sound")
ValhallaRoom (a small one for the piano and a big one for the rest)
Vintage Warmer and T-Racks3 (opto comp, vintage eq) on the maste channel ...but they do almost nothing.

hope that helped

Nice one, MrMagneto. That's a nice, bright piece with room for expansion, if you ever wanted to do so.

PlasticSoul, depending on what you mean by "orchestral songs", you may fine with what you have or seriously lacking. If you really want to create something resembling the music Bach, Handel or Dvorak made (odd grouping there), then you have a lot of learning to do away from the computer. It's not about what plug-ins you use or how well you know your DAW, it's about theme, variation, key changes, harmony and expression. There are no production tutorials for any sort of classical music because it takes years to learn. This isn't meant to be condescension, I just want to be clear that no sample pack and no DAW tutorial is ever going to teach you how to write a sonata or a chorale. It's just a different art.

Now, if you just want to write up some orchestral scores to augment popular music, then you're on the right track. Orchestration is one thing that you'll want to learn fairly well, and yes, working with general MIDI is the best way to start. Here are some other resources:

http://www.groove3.com/str/midi-orchestration-explained.html

http://www.amazon.com/Composing-Music-A-New-Approach/dp/0226 732169/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336606279&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Orchestration-Dover-Books-M usic/dp/0486212661/ref=pd_sim_b_10

Oh, and read your user manuals. All of them.

Don't concern yourself with what classical composers have done unless you want to dedicate yourself to a lifetime of learning. I wouldn't discourage you if that's what you want to do, but I don't think it is.

I heard Gladiator was scored using an old Casio 61 key keyboard using only internal sounds with a bit of reverb applied.

But I hear a lot of things when I'm not paying attention, soooo.....