Great replies guys! I’m reading and learning 
Keep it up!
Does anyone uses an external HDD connected with usb 3.0 for storing their sample libraries? I’ve heard it can be beneficial.
CyberwaveOrchestra saidI use several external HDD's to store all my sample libraries since they are so darn expensive and huge to download such as HZ Percussion (80 GB) for example. My internal HDD's are crammed with the libraries and storing backup's is so vitally important to me! :)Does anyone uses an external HDD connected with usb 3.0 for storing their sample libraries? I’ve heard it can be beneficial.
Hey, Cyberwawe, here are my 5 cents.
SSD hard drive is a must! since most libraries nowadays are getting bigger and bigger and more RAM consuming, as well as CPU.
I’ve had huge luck when I started composing. I made a demo of three tracks and got accepted by some trailer agencies (even though now when I hear those songs again…hmmm not to the best of my potential, but that’s encouraging, it means I’m growing as an artist and learning new stuff, that’s the fun part.)
Also, I think I’m one of the few composers that actually don’t have a template where you just open your DAW and you already have your go to libraries loaded. It’s because I never really know what I will use or sometimes what will I even compose. Start playing some random keys, oh this sounds nice, let’s make something of it.
But, yeah, over the past few years since I’ve been heavily composing, it got really easier to compose tracks for me since now I know what are my strengths and weaknesses. So here’s the advice:
Make your strengths really highlighted, camouflage your weakness
Somebody touched the mixing orchestral songs and someone already answered: Know your libraries from A to Z and when you really know them, EQ-ing them and all those “fun” stuff will be much easier.
If you already have a good mix, you may not need to do it even that much.
Because, good mix is everything.
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well basically any mainstream daw can do the job, its like a car. different brand, different quirks, but it will get you where you are going
i use piano roll, had a 88 keyboard, bud sadly, i used 10% of what it can do
for inspiration, you can drop a track, and just write along with it
at first, try to mimic what is going on (brass hits, cinematic percussion, choirs etc)
later add something that is yours to it, keep adding, more and more, and delete the other track
what you are left with is might surprise you… or you might get left with a crappy version of the other track 
atm i dont think i have any epic tracks uploaded here yet, but… they are coming
VioDance saidfor inspiration, you can drop a track, and just write along with it
at first, try to mimic what is going on (brass hits, cinematic percussion, choirs etc)
later add something that is yours to it, keep adding, more and more, and delete the other trackwhat you are left with is might surprise you… or you might get left with a crappy version of the other track
That’s an interesting concept also good for setting up a template
I pretty much just begin writing music on the piano with chords/harmonies/melody once you have something going it is quite easy to take that music and orchestrate it. This is traditionally how orchestration has been done over the past few hundred years - guys like Williams still work this way I’m fairly certain. Sometimes it’s fun to just screw around on a template with all your instruments and produce something, but my best orchestral stuff is just “orchestrated” piano music.
Piano roll will yield no “soul,” realistic orchestration requires some midi and most importantly velocity data. An orchestra will almost always be “mixed” the same way - yes there are slight variations but you will always have your violins on the left, your cellos on the right, your brass farther back, ect. so on and so forth, anything else will just sound weird for a true “orchestral sound.”
Most of the newer libraries are pre-mixed and pre-reverbed so they already sound somewhat good so adding more reverb will accomplish nothing save for muddying up the sound. Important to mix libraries, or to at least have a few different libraries, because after awhile you will want 4 different horn voices, two different violin sections (possibly with divid), ect.
Understanding orchestration is probably infinitely more important than things like mixing and eq-not that these things aren’t important, but without the right tonal combinations you will get a very dry and dull sounding orchestral sound.
So on AudioJungle you are probably not aiming for a really accurate orchestral sound anyway, you probably want it to sound bigger and less realistic than a real orchestra, with a lot less reverb - this is more of a commercial sound these days and is probably more what people want to hear.
CyberwaveOrchestra saidDoes anyone uses an external HDD connected with usb 3.0 for storing their sample libraries? I’ve heard it can be beneficial.
I use this buffalo drive that came with the East/West CCC2 Pro collection:
http://www.buffalotech.com/products/desktop-hard-drives/drivestation/drivestation-ddr
It works beautifully-- I’ve been very impressed with the “SSD-level performance” that it claims. Excellent product for fast reads in particular.
adammonroe saidI pretty much just begin writing music on the piano with chords/harmonies/melody once you have something going it is quite easy to take that music and orchestrate it. This is traditionally how orchestration has been done over the past few hundred years - guys like Williams still work this way I’m fairly certain. Sometimes it’s fun to just screw around on a template with all your instruments and produce something, but my best orchestral stuff is just “orchestrated” piano music.
I know there were a group of composers back in the 1800’s who would just sit around playing other composer’s music on the piano for study (so kind of backwards to what you are saying)–I think Korsakov was in that group, but I can’t remember.
Anyway, the piano has been a standard foundation for composition and analysis of music for a long time. Even though I started playing guitar earlier than piano, I still find I get my best compositional ideas come from the piano. You have every note within your reach, whereas with the guitar and other instruments, you have to do a lot of moving around.and fiddling to do certain notes (at least if you want to get to certain octaves) and it’s harder to play as many notes at one time.
I really like writing using orchestral instruments. While I don’t usually write exceedingly epic sounding tracks, I do use orchestral instruments in a lot of my tracks.
For strings and woodwinds I use 8Dio’s Adagio and Claire series, respectively. For brass and percussion I use Cinesamples Cinebrass Core and Pro, and Cineperc Core and Pro. These libraries cover most of my orchestral needs. For harp, believe it or not, I’ve found that the stock harp that comes with Kontakt 5 is beautiful. It’s a more classical sounding one though. For an ethnic flavor I use Impact Soundworks’ Plectra Series Highland Harps. They make great libraries!
As for my setup: I use Sonar X3 Producer as my DAW, I have an ASUS i7 laptop with 12GB of RAM and a 750GB SSD/HDD hybrid drive, my samples are stored on an external 2TB hard drive (I wish I could afford to upgrade to SSD…maybe some day).
I use an M-Audio MIDI controller and a PreSonus Audiobox USB for my audio interface (nothing fancy).
I don’t know if any of that helps you or not, but if you’re still making some decisions on libraries to purchase, I wholly recommend checking out Cinesamples, 8Dio, and Impact Soundworks.
Happy composing!
ChrisPorterMusic saidFor brass and percussion I use Cinesamples Cinebrass Core and Pro, and Cineperc Core and Pro.
Chris, do you find the Cinebrass samples to be lacking in anything? I’ve been needing to look into some good brass samples. Would you recommend that library?
Thanks!
I use Symphobia 1 for pretty much all my orchestral samples - I’ve found it to be an excellent sounding library. One thing I try to do to get things sounding musical is automate the modulation/volume during long notes. Particularly in classical orchestral music, long notes tend to change in dynamics over time, so automating the volume can help with realism.
MegMcDuffee saidChrisPorterMusic saidFor brass and percussion I use Cinesamples Cinebrass Core and Pro, and Cineperc Core and Pro.
Chris, do you find the Cinebrass samples to be lacking in anything? I’ve been needing to look into some good brass samples. Would you recommend that library?
Thanks!
MegMcDuffee,
I’ve been very satisfied with both Cinebrass and Cineperc since purchasing them about a month ago. There are a ton of great patches and useful combinations that sound really natural. The programming is really intuitive and easy to use as well. Definitely recommended!
Check out Daniel James’ review of it on Youtube if you want an indepth look before deciding.
Awesome, I’ll definitely have to read up more on them!
MegMcDuffee saidAwesome, I’ll definitely have to read up more on them!
I don’t mean for this to seem like self-promotion or anything, but if you want to hear how I’ve used both libraries, I have an original composition called “Tusks”. Just Google “Chris Porter Music Tusks” and it should be the first Youtube link that pops up. That was my very first piece using Cineperc and Cinebrass after I got them. It’s not an AudioJungle track. Just one I wrote for fun.
But, again, I highly recommend checking out Daniel James’ videos. He has a ton of sample library reviews and they’re all really great.
Very cool, I’ll definitely check out your track as well as the videos. It’s always nice to hear some reviews besides what’s written up in articles and whatnot.
In my opinion, the best brass libraries are: Cinesamples, ProjectSAM orchestral Brass, SpitFire (and VSL are also good for stacking).
I found this wonderful thread googling, even though it’s from 2014!
I’m a total novice at orchestral composition. My main ability lies in my “harmonic ear” though.
Unfortunately I cannot play the piano so I have to use the mouse.
I hear these melodies in my head with different instruments and I’m capable of transcribing them down using the Piano Roll.
Some years ago I used this method to compose some MIDI songs with Reason, using the mouse. Painful, I know, but it worked for me.
I have purchased Ableton Live 9 and I’m tempted to purchase an All-in-One library such as the Albion One.
My question is:
Is it possible automate “velocity” imput once the notes have been entered via the mouse by “replaying” them and recording automation on top of the notes while using a MIDI controller such as Korg nanoKONTROL2? ( http://www.korg.com/es/products/computergear/nanokontrol2/ )
Keep it up guys! 
Not sure about this specific midi controller because it doesn’t seem to have the modulation wheel. But in general most high quality orchestral VSTs have a control '‘dynamics’ or ‘expression’ that is controlled by the modulation wheel. And like every other knob or a wheel, it can be automated. You can change it while playing and you’ll see the ugly trajectory you used while playing, but the ugliness of this trajectory is what makes the virtual orchestral music sound natural. You could also draw this using a mouse but it would be harder to simulate a real human being playing.
This is a great video on this subject:
This is also my method… Useful, easy… first I do a bunch of imporvisations with my piano, maybe literally “destroying” the keys, and letting the emotions go… then, more calm, more relaxed… keep playing arises some good ideas with which I’m able to combine with some orchestral instruments… and it grows!
Good luck!