Customer Reviews

The Guide To MIDI Orchestration

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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various softwares and sample libraries (information that is freely available on the internet and which is certain to be outdated quickly and which I don't want on my bookshelf and certainly don't want to pay for!)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.

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.

People who are using electronic instruments to emulate orchestras should read this book, since it has a lot of information. But be warned that the writing is inept, there are misspellings, nonstandard capitalization and punctuation, and just plain wrong words. Any editor could have fixed these problems, but the book is apparently a one-person effort.

I had the second edition of this book, which came out in 1997. At the time, it was a good book. The 3rd edition, which is a huge hardcover 715 pager is a huge step beyond the previous edition. I can't help but think about the huge amount of time it must of taken to assemble all of this information. I'm comfortable with MIDI orchestration and I still received so much information from this book! For the novice, there is a ton of information that I don't think you could find even if you subscribed to every major trade magazine around. I found this book to be extremely helpful and well worth the money. Way to go Paul!

I am a music professor in NYC. I find Paul's book to be one of the most helpful and insightful books I've ever read and used. It is filled with pages of helpful information. My students and I are at two different places in our "professional" world, yet we both benefit from the book. There is enough basic set up and MIDI primer info to satisfy their needs (and my MIDI course) while the orchestration information is great for intermediate to advanced individuals, so I also use this book for my introduction to orchestration class. The real power of this book is this: It explains in a methodical manner the way to make your electronic orchestrations sound very real. Period. I have found no other book that does this. This is the second semester I've used the book for my courses and my students love it. This is a fine book deserving of serious consideration for anyone who composes for orchestra with MIDI.

Amazon has this insanely over priced. You can order it NEW for about $70 from places like sweetwater or audiomidi.

Guide to MIDI Orchestration is one of the best investments that I have ever made in my music career. I write symphonic music as well as some commercial works (to pay the bills). Both of these ventures require me to put together MIDI representations of orchestra on a regular basis. Anyone who has done this knows how difficult it is to consistently produce a great product, even if the music is great! GTMO shows how to do this, from start to finish, in a detailed way, that is not overwhelming because it is so methodically presented. I'm an experienced orchestrator and I soon found out that being able to write for orchestra and being able to produce a real sounding MIDI piece for orchestra are two totally different things. Gilreath's book has helped me to produce pieces that sound exceptionally realistic. I recommend this book to anyone doing MIDI orchestra work including classical composers, commercial composers and or course the guys doing games and film.

This is an excellent book book in many ways, and a bit weak in others. On the excellent side, this book provides documented recognition for one of the growing facts of composition: no matter whether we compose punk or "classical" music, most of us have become adept at creating increasingly realistic mock-ups (and occasionally finished products) based on the computer-based sequences that we use. I became hooked on this manner of orchestrating a few years ago when Finale began to include some Garritan samples with their new upgrades. Suddenly the little General MIDI CDs of my latest scores sounded much better when I showed up for my composition lessons, and I gained a better sense of articulation and phrasing. This book recognizes that orchestrating with sequencers and samples is a new method of orchestration that combines the European tradition with the skills of audio production and digital synthesis. Morph something often enough and it becomes its own thing.

As for the down side, I'm not all that bugged by the sloppy editing and the quickly out-of-date info. In my opinion, the inclusion of a section on "traditional" orchestration is unnecessary and limiting. Why bother with a section on orchestration when the subject has been done so many times before? A really interesting question is, how do orchestrations based on samples sound different from something played live? Samples sound unique, so in addition to the art of trying to make a sample-based orchestration sound like a live recording, shouldn't we also be concerned with how we can make them sound different? I liked the bit about the difference in sound quality between first and second violins. Why not also factor in odd instrumental combinations, or unusual uses of effects?

I guess my main complaint is that, more often than not, when an author begins to talk about orchestration they are only referring to the European tradition and very little else. While the first 93 pages of this book are dedicated to the standard instruments of a European orchestra, only a couple of pages are dedicated to "ethnic" percussion later in the book. Frankly, I think this is appalling, though I suppose I should be used to it by now. The truly fascinating thing about sample-based composition is that one person can create convincing parts for uillean pipes, djembe, kora, gamelan, distorted electric guitar, etc. without the logistical concerns of needing to find someone who owns the instrument and plays it well enough. In addition, since orchestras are not available to most composers and are usually fairly conservative in their preferences, sample-based orchestration is just about the only place we can hear all of these instruments and their respective musical styles combined with the sound of an orchestra. Even if the author is open to a wide variety of sounds and textures and approaches to playing and composing music, this first section of the book kills it for me. There is a lot of excellent information that I can only get from a long-time professional, but the way that orchestration is defined in this book is too limiting for my taste.

This is an excellent book and compulsory reading for anyone, at any level, who wants to compose, arrange and produce big orchestral scores for TV, movies, or is just generally interested in the subject matter. The author is highly knowledgeable and experienced, as a musician as well as a composer and orchestrator, and it is obvious that he knows well what he is talking about when he describes in detail the various characteristics of orchestral instruments. Creating a beautiful and naturally sounding instrumentation is no easy feat (I am talking from experience) and knowing what the "real thing" sounds like, and understanding physical limitations of real instruments, is essential. One area I would like to see covered in more detail, whether in a fourth edition or in the upcoming "user area" on the author's website (www.musicworks-atlanta.com) is a more indepth coverage of Sibelius 5. Sibelius 5 now also supports virtual instruments which makes it an absolute killer (in my personal opinion) in combination with high end libraries such as Eastwest's Symphonic Orchestra.

Note for readers of this review: the forementioned "user area" (expected to be up sometime in May according to the web site) will provide updates on the material covered in the book. This should alleviate some of the concerns of other reviewers to the effect that the information on MIDI orchestra and the various libaries available, is quickly outdated.