Advanced Virtual Orchestra Realism

Expert-level mockup, virtual orchestration, performance, and production techniques from Benjamin Botkin to make your sample-library-created music more believable and emotionally compelling than ever.

Buy now for $277 (Goes back to $397 on Dec 1)

Message me after purchase to receive two single-use 15% OFF coupons, each of which can be used on any individual Orchestral Tools product/bundle, and can stack with other OT offers and discounts.

Course Bundle Contents

$157

Bringing Virtual Orchestra Music to Life Vol 1: Expression, Dynamics, and Performance

Course
21 Lessons

A course on advanced techniques for applying timeless principles of musical expression to virtual instrument-created music in a DAW/MIDI environment.

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$157

Bringing Virtual Orchestra Music to Life Vol 2: Sample Library and Articulation Wizardry

Course
21 Lessons

An advanced course on how to use common (and uncommon) sample library patches and articulations like a pro.

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A Solution to Dull and Inexpressive Sounding Mockups

The two most common weaknesses that I hear in mockups/VO music are:

a- Inexpressive and Dynamically FLAT Performances/programming
b- Not using the rights patch/articulations for the job

I created this course series (Bringing Virtual Orchestra Music to Life) to tackle these issues with detailed instruction for the intermediate-to-advanced composer.

Volume One (Expression, Dynamics, and Performance) tackles the first problem. In creating this course I went to both my roots as a classical piano student (was gonna say classical pianist but that is a bit of a stretch if I'm honest) and my 18+ years of experience working with sampled instruments to craft both a bootcamp in musicality AND a practical, technical guide on applying these timeless principles of expression to modern computer tools.

Volume Two (Sample Library and Articulation Wizardry) tackles the second by walking you through the common musical jobs/functions that your instrumental parts need to perform, and which sample library or patch types are best for those tasks. I also walk you through the primary articulation types in orchestral music, their traditional purposes, and how they are uniquely expressed, packaged, and controlled in virtual instruments.

But together, I believe these two products present a really robust and detailed bootcamp on increasing the lifelikeness of VO music, so a bundle of the two was asking to be made.

Virtual Orchestra Music Can Sound Like This!

About your Instructor

I (Benjamin Botkin) grew up in a home saturated with orchestral music. I lived and breathed that stuff. My interest in music and composition specifically exploded in my teens via piano lessons, and after a brief foray into piano performance found myself neck deep in the world of DAWs/MIDI/Virtual Instruments and media composing.

That was 2005. Since then I've had the opportunity to compose for several films and documentaries (co-winning a HMMA for "The Modern Man"), videogames (NCSOFT, SANDBOX, SQUARE ENIX projects), and work for a handful of sample library developers as a demo composer (ORCHESTRAL TOOLS, EMBERTONE).

What's Covered:

The Course Content in This Bundle weights in at 40 Lessons and nearly 12 hours of detailed instruction that covers:

How to approach DAW-based composition/production in a more authentic + musical way
Principles of musical expression and how these apply to VI tools
How to perform/program the most common dynamic shapes with both longs and shorts
How to plan and sculp dynamic phrases (dynamics applied!)
Macro-level tempo fluctuations (mapping accelerando, ritardando, bird's eyes, etc)
Detailed breakdowns of live instrument performances
Micro-level tempo fluctuations + humanization techniques (quantizing, feathering, tempo rubato, etc)
How to use vibrato with virtual instruments
Misc performance tips
Leveling up your ear/musical instincts
Exercises to level up your programming skills and make them sound more musical
Overview of common Orchestral Articulations and their traditional uses
What long articulations are for, and when to use them (Legato, sus, trem, special, etc)
What short articulations are for, and when to use them (spicc, stacc, pizz, portato, marcato, etc)
What Special and FX articulations are for, and then to use them (runs, trills, performance patches, etc)
The basic articulation/sample elements that you ACTUALLY need to write great music
Understanding the Anatomy of a Note (attacks, sustains, transitions, releases)
How to inventory and audition your own sample libraries to get the most out of what you already have, and what you need to get (or don't need to get!)
How to articulate a complex line with multiple articulation types
How to articulate common tasks (bass, melody, sustained texture, motion textures, transitions, etc)
And more!

What People are Saying

"Techniques were clearly described and demonstrated, just as I hoped for. It's exactly the foundation I was looking for and it's already making me approach my MIDI writing in a more clear, structured and efficient way."

Martín Giordano

"It’s fantastic! It goes into the level of detail and nuance that I feel many courses on this subject are missing. I’ve been a musician my whole life and studied music at a conservatory, but I feel like I’m learning all sorts of new things!"

Troy Lucia

This course is part of my "Composer Blueprints" range, which are courses that focus on the intermediate-to-advanced end of the skill spectrum. As the term "blueprints" suggests, these deep-dive courses are meant to teach detailed musical techniques and processes.

Who is This Course Bundle For?

Bringing Virtual Orchestra Music to Life is intended to serve composers at the intermediate-to-advanced end of the skills spectrum--specifically, composers who are already set up with decent music creation tools and have at least a moderate amount of musical composition/production ability but really want to take the musicality and life-like believability of their virtual orchestra-produced tracks to the next level.

This could include the following:

Media composers (working or aspiring) who didn't have much musical education or experience prior to jumping into music production (strong of tech, weak on music education/musicianship)
Composers possessing a strong sense of musicality and performance with organic instruments but are lacking familiarity with VI tools and how they behave musically (strong on music education/musicianship, weak on tech)
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