Virtual Instrument and DAW Control 101 (Roadmaps Vol. 2)

Learn how to use your DAW, create and manage templates, understand, and control virtual instruments. (Content taken from "How to Compose with MIDI and Virtual Instruments")

Buy Now for $127

This course is part of my "Composer Roadmaps" Series, which are courses that focus on the beginner-to-intermediate end of the skill spectrum. As the term "roadmaps" suggests, these broad-in-focus courses are meant to help you move quickly to the next point in your composing journey.

New to music creation software?

The software tools we have access to today (even the introductory ones), and what can be done with them, is... pretty incredible. But it you're new to this world it can be a bit of a mind-bending process to get familiar with the fundamentals of these tools, especially when the functions that you need to know the most can easily get lost in a sea of a billion software features that, while cool, may not be relevant to you today.

So I created this material to serve those composers who are trying to wade through the software overwhelm and discover the basic aspects of controlling a DAW, templates, and controlling and understanding virtual instruments.

In This Practical Course For Beginners You Will Learn:

Universal basics common to all DAWs, like
- Recording and editing MIDI
- track routing
- FX usage
- How to build, manage, and balance a template

Common ways of controlling Virtual Instrument Sample Libraries
- velocty
- CC
- Automation
- Keyswitches

How to understand and use different common articulation types:
- Sustains + long articulations
- Legatos
- Short Articulations (note attacks, etc)
- FX patches

Misc. other Concepts and Techniques
- Handing Phrasing with samples
- Loops and time-stretching
- Tempo Track
- The Grid
- Approaches to Quantizing
- Etc.

Included in This Course:

8 (Over 3 Hours Total) of Practical Video Instruction and Demonstration (lifetime access)
Extensive course notes
MIDI files for personal Study
Access to Private Forte Composer Academy Facebook Community Support group
Resource List for Further Learning

1 - Welcome and About This Course

Preview

2 - Getting to Know Your DAW

3 - How to Build a Template

4 - Managing Large Templates

5 - Balancing Orchestral Instruments in a Template

BONUS - Cool Cubase-Specific Features for Template Building + Management

6 - Controlling Virtual Instruments (Part 1)

7 - Controlling Virtual Instruments (Part 2)

Preview

8 - Course Conclusion and Next Steps

Additional Files

Hillsdale Western STUDY MIDI.zip

Hillsdale Theme STUDY MIDI.zip

Approaching Darkness STUDY MIDI.zip

21 Tips for Bringing MIDI to Life (PDF)

Resource List for Further Learning

Preview

Are ya thirsty for more?

The material for this course was taken from my larger, 15-hour-long "How to Compose with MIDI and Virtual Instruments" course that I first released in 2019 (and since updated with newer information to be relevant to today). That course goes into more depth on software use, composition, and production.

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