The Guide To MIDI Orchestration [Hardcover]

Paul Gilreath (Author), Jim Aikin (Author), Omar Torres (Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 703 pages
• Publisher: Musicworks; 3 edition (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964670534
• ISBN-13: 978-0964670532
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.8 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,424,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MIDI Orchestration - Made REALLY Simple, April 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Guide to MIDI Orchestration (Paperback)

This book is a _must buy_ for all MIDI home studio junkies. If you've never been able to make an orchestral piece sound "just right," this book will point you in the right direction. The book covers all of the instruments in an orchestra, how to tweak the samples for maximum realism, and finally how to arrange them into a cohesive piece. Includes great advice on composition and sample libraries. Even those with minimal MIDI sequencing experience will find this an invaluable resource.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars revised opinion, November 1, 2006

By 

polly "polly" (northern california) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Guide To MIDI Orchestration (Hardcover)

When I first received this book I was disappointed by it. The first things I noticed where: 1) it does NOT provide a comprehensive introduction to orchestration (as another reviewer said); 2) almost half of the book consists of the author's opinions -- which are overwhelmingly positive -- of various softwares and sample libraries (information that is freely available on the internet and which is certain to be outdated quickly and which I don't want on my bookshelf and certainly don't want to pay for!) and 3) the book stank to high heaven when I got it, thanks to the chemicals used to print it in low quality hi-gloss color. Every time I touched it I felt like I had to wash my hands, as if they were covered in bleach or some other odious chemical.

So I contacted the publisher, asking if I could return the book. The publisher at first refused, saying that I hadn't ordered the book through them, so there was nothing he could do about it. But then I got a very nice letter from the author, offering a refund if I was dissatisfied with the book.

BUT....by then...in the midst of a film scoring project, I'd turned to the book and found it useful.
There are many little tips in this book that are helpful, inspiring, or both.
(Also, the chemical stench is starting to wear off.)
So I decided to keep it.

This book is aimed at folks who want to use software samplers to emulate orchestras in pursuit of the Hollywood sound. The author obviously has a great deal of experience and does have a number of interesting ideas about how to use software samplers to create soundtracks.

If you want/need brief introductions to the various intsruments of the traditional orchestra, that's here. If you want to write film scores but don't really want to bother with a book like Adler's guide to orchestration, this book can serve as a useful, though extremely basic, introduction to general orchestration principles.

But really, the book is focused on a specific kind of orchestration: the big Hollywood sound. As such, I find it useful, for 2 reasons: 1) there will always be clients who want that and 2) you have to know what the rules are before you can break them, and for better or worse, that 'Hollywood' sound rules the mainstream roost.


IN SUMMARY

The author is very nice, generous and knowledgeable.

The endless and endlessly glowing reviews in the book are annoying, but there are good advices to be had from this book.
There is absolutely no reason for this book to be 700 pages, or printed in glossy color. A 300 page
paperback in black and white, minus the software reviews, would be better.

It is not a detailed introduction to orchestration. Adler's orchestration book is much more thorough.

I'd prefer a book on this very specific subject -- using MIDI to imitate Hollywood orchestras -- that's half the size and half the price, but if you want to learn this material and eighty dollars doesn't seem like a lot of money to you, give it a shot. You may want to contact the publisher before ordering
re: their return policy if you have any thought that you might want to return the book, as there seems to be some confusion on their end.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful and inspiring, October 13, 2005

By 

Ruchir Shah (Edinburgh) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Guide To MIDI Orchestration (Hardcover)

This book pulls together a wide range of useful information, which is normally scattered across a range of forums. The use of colour, and in particular colour chart relating frequency ranges in descriptive terms is handy. The orchestration tips on achieving specific moods is also useful and innovative. The book does not seem to me to be crammed with information. Personally, it feels as though the book is designed to be read, rather then referred to, and this is a positive thing when most traditional orchestration books in my opinion tend to be dry and academic.