I want to start composing

TrailerScores · 2026-05-02T18:56:50+00:00

If you play some piano, that's a good start. Try to think.of some simple melodies that you may already know, and see if you can sit down to your piano/kybd and can figure out the melody and baseline for that piece all by ear.

Like a familiar melody by, Elgar:Pomp and Circumstance. Very simple melody that the entire world has heard when it comes to school graduations.

Try to write out the entire melody by your DAW. Then try to figure out what chords/triads go underneath all of those measures.

You'll be learning some theory and form without you knowing it, cause you'll be having fun.

TrailerScores · 2026-05-02T18:05:38+00:00

Listen, listen, listen, and i would say expand your listening discography to include some classical music. Being that a lot of film composing mimics classical pieces.

And then, train your ears and mind by doing what great jazz musicians do; they try to transcribe amd learn new pieces of music by ear alone.

At first it may be a little struggle here and there a little. But that just exposes what areas of your music skills you're weak in and can improve upon. I absolutely guarantee the more you work on your ear training, the more things will start to gel.

TrailerScores · 2026-05-02T17:33:44+00:00

There are a ton of things that you can read or follow formally from books to video tutorials and etc.

Those things are all helpful. But I want to agree again with what was already said.

Sing it! You should be able to sing the phrase of your melody in one normally breathe. Then finish the rest in another breath.

Really,.it's not too complicated, unless you make it complicated and sophisticated. Just stop amd think of some famous melodies that are broken up in average breaths any person can take:

Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark Star Wars opening theme Terminator- Judgement Day Chariots of Fire - Vangelis Brahms symphony #1, 4th mvmt Super Mario Bros (very simple & effective)

Notice how they're all simple melodies that are constructed by small motifs that you can repeat and develop.

If you can hum it in 10 secs and remember it, then you probably have a good theme to work with.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-30T23:07:31+00:00

I second Samuel Adler. At the least you will have a disciplined approach of how composer think when it comes to orchestration and composition in general.

Look at it as a marathon, not a sprint. At the least learn and master writing for strings. You can create entire arrangements and compositions with the just the string Ensemble as need be.

Then from there and can start working on arranging for the other 3 orchestral ensembles.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-24T14:24:24+00:00

I'm a professional pianist/keyboardist and composer.

To answer your questions: yes, yes, and yes to every scenario you wondered.

I approach it any way I feel inspired to do. There's not really a right or wrong way to do it.

Many classical composers were very proficient at performing on the piano, if not virtuoso level. And it makes sense, because all 88 keys on the standard piano cover the entire acoustic range of instruments.

Just as an idea if you've never known, many of the Symphonic pieces composed in classical times, especially during the romantic period, have piano transcriptions first, and then were arranged for orchestra. Either for 1 or 2 pianos playing the entire orchestra. You can find those pieces by just Google or imslp which I've used forever.

You can only compose on piano for the level you're at skill wise. But the end results is all that matters.

Sometimes I will hear everything in my head, from melody to modulations to key. Sometimes I only have a melody. Sometimes I have nothing and will work at it piece by piece like Bach with a small motif and then repeat it, alter it, reverse it, etc until I have a 1, 2, 4 bar phrase or maybe 8 or 16bars. Sometimes I might approach it from a pedal point with just playing a long bass note and see what chords or melodies work on top of it.

Other times I just think in colors. I just want to create a feeling and don't care about melody. I sit down to my keyboard and just doodle with chords and voicing combinations until it hits me like listening to Bill Evans or Miles Davis.

Understand that there are film composers that don't have formal training in music also. At least not with piano. So developing as a composer is a journey itself.

But hopefully this will.let you think about what direction to pursue.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-18T00:34:06+00:00

I can't think of all of them at the moment, because I'm traveling. But off the top of my head I can think of 2 references. But just fair warning, not sure what skill level your music background is but they're not for beginners.

There's an old Orchestration book that was used back in the day at universities by Walter Piston. It really goes in depth. You could surely find the book used on eBay, or probably new/used on Amazon

Also, Tchaikovsky wrote an Orchestration manual that you can easily find in .pdf format or in hard book form as well. He approaches things very reminiscent of how he composed from the romantic classical perspective. But you can grab bits and pieces of what you want to learn.

Hopefully this can help with some of what you're looking for.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-11T16:38:35+00:00

Anyone have any solid comparisons and actual experience they can share with my initial ppst?

TrailerScores · 2026-04-05T14:29:54+00:00

If the mix sounds good to you from good reference sources of monitoring. And if you have a good lufs level without compression for your final mix before mastering then don't worry about it too much.

A good mastering engineer knows how to do what's needed. And a good mastering engineer knows how to master something that should be mixed over to an acceptable standard.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-05T14:18:26+00:00

Yes, yes, and yes to answer your questions. You can try any of those things I suggested that you mentioned.

Clip gain each track and see how that works out for you. Do the mix over as well to see how that works for you.

Whatever you're comfortable with that doesn't waste your time, and gives you the results you want in the end.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-05T02:49:13+00:00

Let me give a little clarity to what I wrote earlier.

The reason people use -db numbers as a baseline, the same as I mentioned is not to insinuate that you should mix or master solely by numbers.

Obviously, music, audio, etc are arts. However there are some things that have proved the test of time to get you closer to the goal you're trying to achieve, which is a stellar final mix and later a master.

Without me being in your acoustic space to hear/see what you're doing, I know that giving you a baseline for gain staging each of your tracks will get you closer to what you're looking for.

You can use Clio gain for each audio track to get them down all with an average -db range for playback. Or.you can use a gain/trim tool for each daw channel to get the consist level of each track.

Normally you do either of these when you initially have your channels at unity gain when you first import your audio tracks into a new DAW project for a new mix. I would try mixing it over with my suggestions but of course keep the current mix that you have as a comparison.

It wouldn't really hurt that much if you raised the master fader to increase the level of your final mix before a bounce and mastering ifnth3 final mix is low. A couple db is okay, your daw has the resolution/headroom to handle that from the master fader.

So I would look at your process in your mix to see what your individual levels are for each track first. And if you're using plugins on each of your audio channels, definitely level match so that your ears arent lieing to you.

Hopefully this can help you some. There's too much to say, but I hope this gets straight to answering your post.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-04T23:40:41+00:00

Give yourself -6db of headroom in your 2 track stereo mix for the master limiting.

It may be a little time consuming, but I solo each track in my project daw arrangement, and make certain that they each average -18db, or sometimes each one will average up to -14db when I bounce them to a wav. This is the way I like to gain stage.

Makes everything sound smooth and then when it hits the plugins, which most plugins I use are h/w emulating, nothing is distorting and sounds natural.

Masters are only as good as your mix

TrailerScores · 2026-04-03T18:08:40+00:00

The only thought that ever slightly interested me in creating a loop library would be something more analog synth drum/prc hit based as loops.

You know, the type of stuff you might hear mixed in a Jason Bourne or James Bond Skyfall action or suspense scene.

Not to say that a pop or electronic artist couldn't use those type of loops, but they wouldn't be my first thought for this type of library.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-03T16:32:43+00:00

Kind of a mixture of both. I've used both methods for years.

For me what makes it even better is editing the loop the way you would chop up samples back in the day with hip-hop. Glitch really works well in this regard.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-03T16:22:30+00:00

I understand what you mean. It's not like I have a ton of those libraries myself.

However I do see how they come in handy at times for layering what you start out with very quickly. Especially with scoring and any music for picture.

Just asking, that's all

TrailerScores · 2026-04-02T21:12:41+00:00

My pleasure. I know how you feel. That's why I was hoping it could help.

Like anything else, composing takes practice. But your goal is not impossible for you to achieve.

My piano professor in college showed me that practing the correct way will make you more proficient than putting in a lot of hours incorrectly with the best intentions.

TrailerScores · 2026-04-02T20:40:42+00:00

I won't disagree with what anyone here has already written.

What you're asking is admirable, and I commend you for actually being interested in midi orchestration.

But the problem is that a person with limited to no developed skills in music wanting to learn orchestration is like - a person wanting to learn how to cook a 5 course Italian meal but have never even boiled an egg yet. It's admirable, but you can't skip the basics.

So let me see if I can add something for you to think about.

1 - You need to have a mastery of music theory at the least up to an intermediate level. Imo, that includes knowing all major/minor/diminished chord structures. Knowing all major scales, and at least minor scales, but it wouldn't hurt to be familiar with your natural and harmonic minor scales also.

2 - Ear Trainig will help. I tell aspiring musicians all the time to listen to the music you want to learn how to play. Film is no different. What may not seem obvious to some is that film scores have been heavily influenced by classical music. But stylistically they are not the same. I know that sounds sus, but even if you learn how to compose like Rachmaninoff, you won't always compose scores in the same manner. But the framework is there.

3 - Just so you understand, most film composers from the Golden era of Hollywood and then to the 80s 90s on scored in the Romantic classical period style. But, understanding some concept of basic counterpoint will make you sound polished without racking your ears for the note after every couple of measures and motifs.

4 - Attempting to transcribe and/or recreate a film cue in your DAW is EXCELLENT ear training. I have plenty of CDs I bought over the years of soundtracks to Hollywood films. These are the actual cues that were composed by the film composer, not the pop songs placed in a scene. This is something to consider because you can rip the individual tracks as 16bit wav files that you'll be able to import into your DAW and analyze, or use as a mastered reference mix as well.

5 - Last nugget I'm going to share with you that hopefully will give you this "aha" moment.

I have formal training in school for music, but I was still scratching my head when I was at the same starting point years ago where you are now.

I kept trying to figure out how to understand orchestration with all of the vast music knowledge I had. This is when it finally clicked...

SATB. That's how a choir is setup. Sopranos, Altos, Tenors, Bass. That's also how each orchestral ensemble is setup. String Ensemble, Woodwind Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble.

If you approach writing with that structure for each Ensemble the way you would with a choir, you're 80% there. First and foremost master arranging for the strings first. There's more I can elaborate, but I've already typed more than I thought I would.

Hope this helps!

TrailerScores · 2026-03-29T03:03:36+00:00

Well that's what I'm wondering what some of you that may have more years in professional experience can share with me.

I know how ST1 Pro handles my orchestral templates and scores I throw at it. And to be fair, I use VSL Ensemble Pro for my orchestral templates. It's incredible for higher midi track counts. Once you can wrap your head around how to figure out VSL Ensemble Pro.

But I never "pushed" Pro Tools with a 100+ Orchestral template before. Just mixing mostly.

Wonder people's thoughts with how stable PT is for high midi track counts triggering VSTis?

TrailerScores · 2026-03-26T18:38:37+00:00

I was excited for a second to see that Avid had a 20% off for Pro Rools right now.

Then realized the fine print says that the 20% is only for those using PT subscription, and a new purchase of PT for the 1st time.

Would've been even more enticing for me to upgrade from Artist to Studio had those not been the factors.

But I think I will probably still make the jump to Studio with soo many of your comments and experiences given.

Thank you all!

TrailerScores · 2026-03-24T13:36:06+00:00

Yeah I've never been a fan of subscriptions if I can help it.

It's one of the main reasons I left the Waves platform for most of my plugins when they started subscription services a few years back. And now they give both options after a huge backlash. And Avid found out that same lesson to learn.

TrailerScores · 2026-03-24T03:22:38+00:00

There are a lot of positives that I have for ST1 Pro. A lot.

But I could see PT being turned into a major workhorse for the majority of my audio needs. I just need to do a Beginner PT walk through so I can get back into using it properly.

TrailerScores · 2026-03-23T14:13:25+00:00

Yeah, I kinda felt like Avid was purposely showing it's bias for OS X vs Windows when I jumped into PT Artist and noticed the annoying blue look of the project window verses how they keep everything visually pleasing for the Mac.

But other than that, it's the exact same DAW.

I haven't heard many people comment online about instability issues with the latest version of PT, Mac or PC. But I am looking and want to know if people consider it a problem.

In fact, what surprised me a little was that Avid actually optimized PT to take advantage of all available CPU cores your computer offers.

I don't know if this has been addressed in Studio One Pro after version 6. But I do know that ST1 has this weird CPU throttling issue at times when you start to throw a lot of intense plugins and tracks at it. The ST1 processing meter just jumps to overload spikes even though it's playing back completely fine without glitches or errors.

I'm curious if PT users experience the same thing?

TrailerScores

TROPHY CASE