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MINI-course

Introduction to Writing for Orchestra

With Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Discover

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Media Composition

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Join Emmy-nominated composer Guy Michelmore to get up and running with Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Discover and start making orchestral music. Learn how the orchestra is organised, how to use samples effectively — including articulations, legato, templates, and performance samples — and how to build upon what you already know about making music.

Whether you use Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live, or another DAW, this fun mini-course offers tutorials, templates, downloadable tracks, mini-projects, and more.

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COURSE BREAKDOWN

module 1

Installation and Setup

Get past that initial setup process by accessing your Spitfire Audio library and installing Native Access for the Kontakt Player. Learn where to install your samples for easy access within your chosen DAW. Don't worry if this seems daunting; it's a relatively straightforward process.

module 2

Introducing The Orchestra

The orchestra – hundred musicians playing dozens of instruments – can feel overwhelming. But it doesn't have to be. This section focuses on understanding the instrument families (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion), their typical roles within the ensemble, and how that relates to SSO Discover, before looking at how to get the best sounds out of this orchestra in your DAW.

module 3

Introducing Sampled Orchestration

When first making orchestral music, it's easy to underutilise your DAW and get in a tangle. This module aims to simplify things, focussing on the tools that are crucial for creating realistic sounding mockups, how to switch articulations and techniques, the benefits of working with a template, and what a good workflow looks like.

module 4

WRITING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

Now we bring it all together. We'll be giving you plenty of mini-tasks to get you up and running with your first composing project, so here's where you turn your new skills into a workflow that enables strong theme writing and fluid progress, not constant technical challenges.

Learn from an Emmy-nominated composer

Guy Michelmore is a multi award-winning film, games, and television composer whose clients include Marvel, Disney, Dreamworks, Lionsgate, and dozens of major TV networks around the world. He has been nominated for an Emmy Award for his score to the series Nature on PBS.

He is best known for his work with Marvel on eight animated feature films including Ultimate Avengers and Thor, as well as hundreds of episodes of television including Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Iron Man: Armoured Adventures, Hulk and many more.

His unique and accessible style has made him a popular YouTuber with almost 400,000 subscribers.

"I love Guy's approach to teaching. It feels like you're in the studio with him."

TrustPilot review

"These courses are the best medicine for writer's block ever."

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"It's incredible how much my compositions have improved."

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INTERACTIVE VIDEO

A COURSE THAT’S PERSONALISED TO YOU

DAW School is packed with interactive videos, personalising the course to the level you are starting at, and where you want to get to.

They are also a great way to check what you’ve learned from a module, and suggesting any areas you might want to revisit before you move on.

DOWNLOADABLES AND INTERACTIVE FEATURES

TEMPLATES FOR LOGIC, CUBASE AND ABLETON

Write orchestral music more easily in your chosen DAW. Download Guy's SSO Discover template for Logic Pro 11, Cubase (14 and above), and Ableton Live (12.2 above).

FULL COMPOSITIONS TO EXPLORE

Load up his finished piece in Logic Pro, Cubase, or Ableton Live to explore his compositional techniques and sampled orchestration, including all continuous controller data.

MINI-PROJECT: PRACTICE WRITING A STRING THEME

Download a backing track for your DAW so you can write a string theme over the top. We call this a MinusONE project, where we remove one element from a finished piece so you can focus on developing one skill at a time.

MOTIF GENERATOR AND AUDIO MIXER

There are interactive widgets in this course that suggest a motif to get you started – to avoid the fear of the blank page – and to help you understand what each orchestral instrument brings to an arrangement.

Completely free – forever

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