Since its initial release in 1997, Paul Gilreath’s The Guide to MIDI Orchestration has been the premiere text on creating realistic emulations of a symphony orchestra using samplers and computer recording techniques. Recent years have seen huge advances in sampling technology. Likewise, the demands put on the MIDI composer to produce extremely realistic orchestral textures have never been higher. Now in its 3rd edition, The Guide to MIDI Orchestration explains how to merge this ever-expanding technology with the artistry of orchestration to produce the most lifelike recordings possible.

Detailed information on each instrument’s timbre, range and uses is included. Specific orchestration techniques are discussed, including how to use the various instruments for accompaniment and melody, how to approach an orchestration from the ground up and how to achieve balance and interest within the orchestration. Gilreath then shifts gears and translates these elements into the MIDI and sampling environment, providing a clear and precise approach that will allow the reader to employ the necessary techniques with assurance. Chapters on studio setup and requirements, effects processing and plug-in considerations, DAW choices and mixing guidelines highlight the text. Detailed reviews and recommendations of orchestral libraries are included. Insightful interviews with mastering engineers Bob Katz and Bob Ludwig provide useful, real-world knowledge that can be implemented in your work on a daily basis. Interviews with library developers Eric Persing, Doug Rogers, Gary Garritan and Herb Tucmadl (among others) give the reader a look into various aspects of the orchestral library development process as well as a glimpse of the future of the industry.

The book is written for composers, arrangers and MIDI musicians of all levels and will be helpful to game composers, film and television composers, traditional orchestral composers, teachers, instructors and the serious hobbyist. The Guide to MIDI Orchestration is a one-of-a-kind text that provides the information necessary to help composers who demand the best achieve successful and realistic MIDI orchestrations.

Author Bio

Paul Gilreath is a composer and author living in Atlanta, Georgia. His music career has taken him from one side of the United States to the other and back again. In 1983, he earned his Bachelor of Music in composition from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, after which, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue film composition studies at the University of Southern California. During his four-year stay in L.A., he scored the music for five feature films, three of which were for full orchestra. He also composed music for several television shows, feature film trailers and commercials. Although traveling up a seemingly successful path, he longed for the simpler life he had known in the South. He left L.A. in 1987 at the age of 25 and returned to Georgia. Over the next decade, Gilreath continued writing commercially in Atlanta and was often called on to produce orchestral scores for various projects, including television shows and national advertisements. In the mid-1990s, as budgets tightened and sampling technology grew, he translated his talents at real orchestration into this new technology.