With the advancement of computer music, many composers and orchestrators quit (or never used) notation to orchestrate. Instead, they orchestrate directly on the DAW using sample libraries.

Sample libraries provide us with immediate feedback on what we play. For example, if you want a melody played by the violins I one octave above violins II, you can load a patch of high strings in octaves and get the sound of violins I and II in that way.

This new way to orchestrate has been used by the immense majority of composers of the latest generations. It is the easiest and seems to be the fastest way to get your music done. However, it creates many misconceptions about orchestration and music production workflow.

It would take many articles to thoroughly discuss the benefits of writing full scores. Such a meaningful method change has to be discussed in music classes, but unfortunately, very few teachers are willing to or unaware of its importance.

The modern orchestration classes and tutorials focus more on tweaking sample libraries than the actual orchestration mechanisms. They attract many thousands of composers every day and create a lot of misconceptions. The result is an overall sameness of orchestration and style, especially on trailer and film music.

Pondering about this problem, I created a series of videos that sneak-peak my upcoming orchestration course.

Symphonic Approaches is a series of free tutorials covering advanced orchestration. If you follow the series, I guarantee that you will never see orchestration in the same way again.

In the first episode, let's look at how to orchestrate a low synth pulsation.