composing/orchestrating quickly in Logic - what do you use?

[evanbrass]

Hey guys, I wanna get into composing orchestral arrangements

 

I'm trying to find a good setup focused on quick composing/ editing -

 

I don't need the instruments to sound amazing, but what plugins/virtual instruments to you guys use that are conducive to quickly getting out ideas and arranging parts.

 

What about just using GM midi tracks for getting the ideas down and arranged? and then after the song is finished, replacing with better sounding instruments.

 

for example, if I wanna quickly get a timpani part down, I can easily select a track and record it, or suddenly i hear a harp, or a harpsichord, or glockenspiel, or trumpet, etc. etc. etc.

[ski]

Replacing parts rarely works. And that's usually because of differences in velocity response of different plugins. Other factors include difference in attack time from (say) one string sound to another.

[evanbrass]

yeah, I understand that, I'm talking more about re-playing the parts rather than replacing them.

 

I heard of a guy that did the music to the new doctor who series (don't know if it's still running) and he would use only piano to arrange the songs and the parts, and then he'd go in later and replace the tracks with the instrument he had in mind.

 

I guess I'm just trying to think of, what's the best way to set up a session, to just create parts quickly. For example, I have LA Scoring Strings, and I think it sounds amazing, but I find myself spending a lot of time loading up all the parts, (Stacatto Strings, Pizzicato strings, Legato strings) for every section, and that's a lot of memory being used. And they sound great, but that's just the strings, I don't have an amazing Horns section, and It's not like I'm gonna load up Ivory for my piano as well-

 

All those plugins sound great, but they are not very helpful for sketching out ideas and arranging quickly. sometimes, by the time I get all the strings that I want loaded in, the idea is gone.

 

THat's why I was thinking, maybe GM midi, because it has so many instruments, and they aren't CPU heavy. Or is anyone using patches in logic that are their favorite for sketching out orchestral ideas?

 

long post, sorry - on a tour bus in sweden, and it's 6am - time to go to bed

[shivermetimbers]

"... In Elizabeth Swados' Listening Out Loud, she explains how a composer must know the full capabilities of each instrument and how they must complement each other, not compete. She gives an example of how in an earlier composition of hers, she had the tuba above the piccolo. This would clearly drown the piccolo out, thus giving it no purpose in the composition. Each instrument chosen to be in a piece must have a reason for being there that adds to what the composer is trying to convey within the work."

[Rev. Juda Sleaze]

What about the orchestral template?