Free (beginner) masterclass: realistic orchestral mockups

I love writing orchestral music for film and videos. Spending hours in my DAW (Logic Pro X) to create realistic orchestral mockups. A challenging adventure that gives me so much joy and satisfaction!

But I also know that it takes time and a lot of effort for starting composers (or composers not familiar yet with this kind of genre) to get the hang of it. How great is it then to look over the shoulders of someone who is one step ahead of you. And is willing to share his knowledge and experiences.

That's exactly what I intend to do with this free masterclass. Reaching out to help you getting better in creating realistic orchestral mockups, orchestration and writing orchestral music for film and video in general.

Showing you how I made this track, how I did the panning, balancing, EQ-ing etc. Which libraries. How I mixed and mastered it. Sharing the project files (midi mockup) so you can rebuild the music track in your own DAW for either further learning.

I'll post a video every week on Thursday on my Youtube channel.

Feel free to join. In this first video you can pick up the project files and prepare yourself for the upcoming videos. On my channel you'll also find the music track which we're gonna rebuild: Show Opener.

After a great start of the FREE masterclass ‘How to create a realistic orchestral mockup’, the responses last week were massive! Lots of people joined, downloaded the project files and follow me along during the upcoming weeks while we rebuild my original composition Show Opener.

I released a new weekly video of this masterclass (always on Thursday) and made a new project file available to download. We’re building up an orchestral template first.

If you haven’t joined yet, feel free to do. You’re welcome to participate!

Cya next week!

Will any of this help me get to the point of writing a symphony? I have never really had in interest in film composition, but writing a symphony has always interested me.

During this masterclass we dissect one of my tracks called 'Show Opener'. The projects files which are available for free can give you some ideas about composition, orchestration etc.. But that is something different than writing an entire symphony. It's more about the basics and principles and how to use sample libraries to get a realistic sounding orchestral mockup.

But you can follow the videos as long as you think it is interesting for you. Or just pick certain videos based on their topics and your interests. By the way, last video was about balancing the orchestral instruments in your template. Crucial to get a good sounding realistic orchestra.

The video of week 4 is live now! In this one I talk about EQ-ing (cleaning up your orchestral instruments). And of course I share with you an updated project file in which you can find my EQ settings. Next week I'll cover the concept of dealy and how to use this to get a tight sounding orchestra.

We’re already at week number 5! This video is about 'How to get a tight sounding orchestra'. A topic that many of you were waiting for. Cause when you do this right, you will be able to get that PRO orchestral sound that we all want. Just by simply using the delay functionality in your DAW to get that spot on timing of all your orchestral instruments.
Next week I’ll cover the microphone settings and how to get a good sounding microphone balance.

In this video we get a little bit personal. The microphone balance (settings) is a matter of taste. Some people like the big stage sound with lush strings and ambience. While others love the intimate much more dryer sound of a small room. In my opinion there's no wrong or right, it's a matter of what fits your composition the best.

By the way, you can still download all the project files (midi-mockup, libraries list, orchestral template) and start rebuilding the orchestral music track in your own DAW.

A good orchestral composition with bad orchestration choices will never give you the great result you had in mind. So you need to learn some basic skills of orchestration. That means you have to read some stuff (I highly recommend The Principles of Orchestration by Rimsky Korsakov), analyse film scores and learn to transcribe. In this video I'll address my orchestration choices which I made while writing the orchestral music track Show Opener. Hopefully they are worthy to you.

With todays video we start a new chapter of the FREE masterclass Realistic Orchestral Mockups: Mixing! I will discuss my philosophy on the concept of mixing, exporting midi and importing audio and three plugins that I almost always use on my master bus: Voxengo Span, iZotope Insight and iZotope Ozone Imager.

How to mix strings in a realistic orchestral mockup? That is the question that I'll answer in this video. I'll show you my workflow, the plugins that I use and why and how I use them. Hopefully this will give you some guidance when mixing your own orchestral mockups.

How to mix woodwinds, brass, percussion and the piano and harp in a realistic orchestral mockup? That is the question that I'll answer in this video. I'll show you my workflow, the plugins that I use and why and how I use them. Hopefully this will give you some guidance when mixing your own orchestral mockups.

How do you actually know that all the adjustments that you did during mixing, made the track sound better? We need some objectivity on this matter, cause we can't always trust our ears. The brain is a complex psychological thing which can trick us. We need to protect ourselves 🙂

In this video I show you two simple tricks to get that little bit more objectivity in our mixes. We're gonna use two kinds of reference tracks for that.

https://youtu.be/eH3nD1SDXQI

After watching this video you'll be able to finalise your version of the orchestral music track Show Opener. And I'm really curious about your version! Share it with me before the 1st of December through Google Drive or Dropbox and I'll add it to the showcase I will create. So we can all listen to the different versions! How cool is that 🙂

https://youtu.be/QRtobab6XzE