Midi Orchestration education

[Chalfant]

Anyone know of the Professional Orchestration Volume 1 Ultimate Learning Package by Peter Alexander or Truspec?
I've heard it's worthwhile, any opinions?

I bought the Guide to Midi Orchestration book, seems well written but want more.

Has anyone got any good websites they know of to assist, thanks.

[JohnG]

I would urge you to look at Sam Adler's "real" orchestration book, because it comes with CDs so you can hear every single example.

http://www.amazon.com/Study-Orchestration-Third-Samuel-Adler/dp/039397572X/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9702010-7715266?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193371169&sr=8-1

I do midi orchestration but it is based on real orchestras and it sounds better that way, plus you then know what you are doing when you get a real orchestra.

[rdonnelly]

Am I right in thinking that the CDs are not included... as in you have to buy the book and then also the CDs?

I've been interested in this for a while and never can seem to figure this out.

[AlexDavis]

You got that right. CDs NOT included. An extra chunk of change, although I don't recall how much.

-Alex

[dalek3]

I would suggest the Kent Kennan orchestration text instead. While the Adler is more comprehensive in dealing with bizarre articulations used in some 20th century music, I find it as not as good in explaining some of the basic concepts. Plus the Kennan includes the audio CDs while with the Adler book you end up paying $$$ more for them.

[Garritan]

You may want to check out the Interactive Principles of Orchestration course, based on the classic Rimsky-Korsakov orchestration text, offered on this forum free of charge - http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=77

Also, soon we will be announcing a new expanded Orchestration course on this forum.

Best,

Gary Garritan

[Chalfant]

You may want to check out the Interactive Principles of Orchestration course, based on the classic Rimsky-Korsakov orchestration text, offered on this forum free of charge - http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=77

Also, soon we will be announcing a new expanded Orchestration course on this forum.

Best,

Gary Garritan

I could put my GPO to good use that way :)

As for the other suggestions, thanks. I'll check em out....

[loydb]

The Truespec course doesn't come with CDs, but *does* come with a free 1-year Naxos membership, which has all the CDs plus thousands more for streaming (or grabbing with TotalRecorder or the like).

[Ashermusic]

You may want to check out the Interactive Principles of Orchestration course, based on the classic Rimsky-Korsakov orchestration text, offered on this forum free of charge - http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=77

Also, soon we will be announcing a new expanded Orchestration course on this forum.

Best,

Gary Garritan

While that is a good text, Ravel basically re-invented modern orchestration and all that John Williams and others have used to such great effect rests on his shoulders to a large degree IMHO.

If you want to learn orchestration you could do a lot worse than spending a lot of time listening and reading the score to "Daphnis and Chloe."

[zaque]

Peter Alexander's books are great. There are some rough spots with things like finding the spot in the MP3 where the pieces of the score you have are but I think he is working on that. All in all his Professional Orchestration series is worth the money and because of the online/digital nature of some of the materials and his ability to to update and stay involved with his readers/users, I expect his tools and teaching to be useful to many years to come. I have sent many emails to with inquiries to the Alexander's and always get a prompt reply. Very helpful and friendly. His book on Ravel's Mother Goose orchestrations is top-notch as well.

I also refer to Alfred Blatter's Orchestration book and tend to take it with me. The only downside to the Professional Orchestration (if this could be considered a downside) is that it is huge! Not something to take the cafe and study, that's for sure.

The Adler book and CDs are on order and were a gift. I think finding concrete examples of individual instrument sounds wil be better with Adler but you can't beat the sheer amount of musical material that comes with Alexander's series. Together they will be a wonderful pair and keep me occupied, quite likely, for the rest of my orchestrating days. :-)

[JohnG]

I would suggest the Kent Kennan orchestration text instead. While the Adler is more comprehensive in dealing with bizarre articulations used in some 20th century music, I find it as not as good in explaining some of the basic concepts. Plus the Kennan includes the audio CDs while with the Adler book you end up paying $$$ more for them.

It might be cheaper than Adler, but I find my own edition of Kennan's book way too conservative, particularly regarding the range of the brass instruments. It's almost like a high school band or pep-rally-at-college orchestration guide. The "bizarre" articulations of 20th century music are used every day in film scoring, so it's very useful to have them.

The money is nothing compared with your time. It costs $15-25k a year to go to many colleges these days, and you would look a long time to get as good an orchestration class as you get out of Adler. Both Kennan and Adler suffer, in my view, from probably not enough 20th/21st century examples and almost nothing in the pop / soundtrack vein, but hey.

If you want to check out the free stuff that is also fine -- there is no monopoly on orchestration ideas -- but just listening to a few theme and variations (like the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark) is a good reminder that old fashioned orchestration is about 2/3 of the battle sometimes.

cheers,

[J Rodriguez]

I'd like to second the recommendation for studying "Daphnis and Chloe". There are alot of aesthetic devices in there, particularly for strings, that you just can't get from a Beethoven symphony.

[JohnG]

I'd like to second the recommendation for studying "Daphnis and Chloe". There are alot of aesthetic devices in there, particularly for strings, that you just can't get from a Beethoven symphony.


And "La Mer"

[peter269]

Anyone know of the Professional Orchestration Volume 1 Ultimate Learning Package by Peter Alexander or Truspec?
I've heard it's worthwhile, any opinions?

I bought the Guide to Midi Orchestration book, seems well written but want more.

Has anyone got any good websites they know of to assist, thanks.
As the author, I'm briefly responding to this message.

1. Truespec is the sister site to AlexanderPublishing.com which is under revision.

2. There are two learning packages, Ultimate and Platinum. Ultimate comes with the Professional Orchestration Volume 1 text, over 10 hours of DRM-free MP3s covering a majority of the book's examples plus the movement the example is included in, the Professional Mentor workbook creating a convenient home study approach, Strings Position handbook, and through the courtesy of the Vienna Symphonic Library and Jay Bacal, 13 MP3s and MIDI files teaching MIDI mock-up skills for each individual instrument.

3. The Professional Orchestration Platinum Learning Package contains the same as above plus an additional 78 tracks of DRM-free MP3s making up an average 20-minute concert for the main orchestral instruments plus harp and percussion.

Our choice of DRM-free MP3s enables the student to listen whenever and wherever on any computer or MP3 player, plus to import the file into the sequencer for MIDI mock-up purposes.

4. The Naxos Music Library has been replaced by the DRM-free MP3s from eClassical.com so that students can download the music rather than just have it streaming.

Detailed brochures and sample PDF downloads are available at the Truespec site.

SUPPLEMENTAL RECOMMENDED TEXTS
I generally recommend Orchestration by Forsyth for historical background and deeper information on many older instruments that are now being replicated by Vienna and other libraries.

The Blatter book is also an excellent supplement.

Also not as well known is the online Instrumentation section on the Vienna web site.

Also feel free to check out the online library at the Alexander site:
http://alexanderpublishing.com/library

Thank you for your questions.

Peter Alexander

[peter269]

You got that right. CDs NOT included. An extra chunk of change, although I don't recall how much.

-Alex

$105US (see Amazon for current pricing)

[peter269]

The Truespec course doesn't come with CDs, but *does* come with a free 1-year Naxos membership, which has all the CDs plus thousands more for streaming (or grabbing with TotalRecorder or the like).

As mentioned in another post, we no longer make Naxos available with Professional Orchestration. An annual subscription is $120 per year. What you're proposing publicly with TotalRecorder is copyright infringement.

[Chalfant]

As the author, I'm briefly responding to this message.

1. Truespec is the sister site to AlexanderPublishing.com which is under revision.

2. There are two learning packages, Ultimate and Platinum. Ultimate comes with the Professional Orchestration Volume 1 text, over 10 hours of DRM-free MP3s covering a majority of the book's examples plus the movement the example is included in, the Professional Mentor workbook creating a convenient home study approach, Strings Position handbook, and through the courtesy of the Vienna Symphonic Library and Jay Bacal, 13 MP3s and MIDI files teaching MIDI mock-up skills for each individual instrument.

3. The Professional Orchestration Platinum Learning Package contains the same as above plus an additional 78 tracks of DRM-free MP3s making up an average 20-minute concert for the main orchestral instruments plus harp and percussion.

Our choice of DRM-free MP3s enables the student to listen whenever and wherever on any computer or MP3 player, plus to import the file into the sequencer for MIDI mock-up purposes.

4. The Naxos Music Library has been replaced by the DRM-free MP3s from eClassical.com so that students can download the music rather than just have it streaming.

Detailed brochures and sample PDF downloads are available at the Truespec site.

SUPPLEMENTAL RECOMMENDED TEXTS
I generally recommend Orchestration by Forsyth for historical background and deeper information on many older instruments that are now being replicated by Vienna and other libraries.

The Blatter book is also an excellent supplement.

Also not as well known is the online Instrumentation section on the Vienna web site.

Also feel free to check out the online library at the Alexander site:
http://alexanderpublishing.com/library

Thank you for your questions.

Peter Alexander

Thank you Peter, I will order soon........

Charles