Your favorite MIDI orchestration tip

The one I belove (in completion of piano roll randomizing tools) to get a human touch is a slight but constant variation in tempo. For instance, in a 90bpm piece, the tempo varies between 87-92.

Play it in live.

Also to trick the ear that the music is quieter, use smaller sections such as horn a2 for "quieter moments" and larger sections such as horn a6 for louder ones.

Don't copy and paste, especially if you are layering instruments

controller data, controller data, controller data.....then MORE controller data

e

In addition to all of the above:

Don't take note lengths too literally. Instead, listen to how the recorded samples actually behave.

Verb verb verb, verb is the word.

A sustained tone should always be either rising or descending in volume. The rare exception being a deliberately held chord such as in a loud or soft brass chord where the idea is that it should sustain at a particular volume. A whole note in the strings at 60 bpm should rise/sustain/fall. The main consideration is the speed of rise and fall natural to whatever instrument, which changes in context and should be studied by listening to the real thing (if realism is your goal.)

We seem to forget it takes a professional musicians at least 10 years before getting that sweet sound. I think people working with samples should invest much more time listening to what makes a nice phrasing, what are the combination of elements that gives it this sound, decompose it, study it, imitate it, experiment, refine your listening, there are no short cuts, it's an "art".

I realize that the question is about midi orchestration, but even so:

The primary task is orchestration followed by refinement using midi, not the other way around. It’s easy to work on a 200+ track template and completely lose the primary focus: orchestration with an eye on instrumentation first, then refine, layer, and program using midi automation.

I think we are all guilty of adding more instruments/sections than what is needed. This not only has the potential of making the mix extremely muddy but it can also drown the musical idea that you are trying to get across. So to put it simply, use only the instruments need to express your musical idea, the rest are just getting in the way.

To me, the most important thing is to balance the volumes of the individual sections...a lot of mockups I hear are good performance-wise, but incorrect volumes make it sound very unrealistic. Woodwinds are way too loud in a lot of templates that I hear especially.

Very often when winds are just there for adding texture...for example the beginning of the star wars main theme when the winds are playing trills at ~10 seconds, you CAN hear them playing when you are listening for them, but it's not obvious. As soon something like this is really noticeable in your mix it is very obvious that it's just a mockup.

So I trained this by mocking up a few short passages of those "you don't really hear it, but when it's not there, something is missing - things", and it helped me a lot improving my balance.

I think it was Hans Zimmer who said (probable paraphrase) "there's no such thing as an orchestra at your fingertips". You can strive toward as good an approximation as you can, and that's the best you can hope for (and try not to rely too much on the fact that most non musicians don't have the easiest time telling the difference).

It will never be a live symphony orchestra; believing you can achieve that kind of edgy, gigantic sound can be a fool's game, and can negatively impact what you're doing.

Anyhow, that's my take on that quote.

I came up with a new one, quite recently...I sit quietly, then remember that hey! Andrew Blaney is still way better than me, so I find something else. Doesn't matter where, just find it cause he is going to keep getting better and I will never program like his last SF demo...

...and could 50 violins do 223 bars of constant col legno at 145bpm?

Respect the instruments you are emulating. Listen to what they do, where they usually sit, how they work etc.

All this has been already been communicated more elegantly by those above.

Dave Connor said:

A sustained tone should always be either rising or descending in volume. The rare exception being a deliberately held chord such as in a loud or soft brass chord where the idea is that it should sustain at a particular volume.

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I'll second this. The shape of a sustained tone makes a huge difference. When musicians hold a note, it is rarely static. It is always going somewhere, though sometimes that motion may be quite subtle. I like to use a breath controller for expression/volume to create shape because I find it quick and intuitive. It also allows me to create a more complex shape without worrying about microscopic detail.

This shape is also quite important in the cutoff of a note. Does it stop suddenly? Does it dovetail under another voice's entrance? Does it build to this cutoff? Does it taper down to a low level, hold there, and then imperceptibly disappear? Does it sound like a consonant or a vowel if you were to sing it?

I still have some old choir samples in my library that began their life on an S-760. Occasionally I use them because they are simple patches I can quickly shape to make them sound believable. They don't work for everything, but in certain situations they are the perfect answer. I've had people accuse me of overdubbing live choir simply because the notes move in ways people expect from singers.

I like to nudge things forward or back depending on the desired feel.
Works great on bass parts
Also- I like to move all snares and kicks in opposite directions (kick ahead, snare back or vis versa))
works well on hats too
Very effective.

k

Adding to the point mentioned above, a big turning point for my compositions was when I really started to pay attention to variation in the tempo track. In the right context adding a dip or increase in tempo at the end of a phrase can completely change a piece.

Karmarghh said:

Adding to the point mentioned above, a big turning point for my compositions was when I really started to pay attention to variation in the tempo track. In the right context adding a dip or increase in tempo at the end of a phrase can completely change a piece.

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I really wish my DAW would let me automate the tempo map, but no such luck.

1. "Playing it in live" is good but, IMO, over rated. Yes some humanization is nice but it doesn't transform notes into music. For that you need phrasing - think like the musicians - when would you breathe? how would you break bows? Where is the phrase "going"? Sing it if you're not sure (hurray for soundproofed studios...)

2. You don't hear all the instruments at ff. Exactly like @Assa said! Orchestrating real scores into MIDI can be very educational. Realistically in a tutti, you mainly hear brass and percussion and the rest becomes textural.

3. Line up your transients! Bounce them to audio if you're not sure. Every developer seems to have a different philosophy about exactly what "attack" means.