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The Guide To MIDI Orchestration Book

Since its initial release in 1997, Paul Gilreathâ€™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 instrumentâ€™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.

We are pleased to be able to offer you the 3rd edition of Paul Gilreath’s book and feel confident that you will find it enjoyable to read and full of helpful information. The Guide to MIDI Orchestration is the first and only book written to help musicians create extremely realistic compositions when using samples and MIDI.

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.

The book is a hardback comprehensive text comprising over 700 pages that progresses from an overview of orchestral history to in-depth discussions of each section of the orchestra. Printed in colour throughout.

Book details:

Introduction to the Orchestra;
Completee information on the string, woodwind, brass, percussion, harp and piano sections;
orchestration Basics, introduction to sequencing;
Sequencing techniques for strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, harp and piano, creating tempo changes;
Effects plug-Ins, software samplers, using sampled voices, the mix process;
Interviews, achieving specific moods, Broken Pony Studios;
Introduction to orchestral libraries, piano libraries
Appendix: Instrument Ranges, EQ Graphic, Resources;

User Level: Beginer, Intermediate, Advanced
Author: Paul Gilreath, Jim Aikin, Omar Torres (Editor)
Paperback: 703 pages
Publisher: Musicworks Atlanta; 3rd edition

About the author:
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.

Gilreath continues to compose commercially, scoring regional and national projects. He is often called on to help beta-test new orchestral sampling products and has been used in an advisory capacity for several new library productions.

Read three sample chapters from this book here: http://www.musicworks-atlanta.com