9 Common Orchestral Composing Mistakes (And How To Fix Them)

[@KevinKuschel]

Get your orchestral composing starter kit: www.becomeaprocomposer.com/starter-kit

[@cesmcmyth]

Hey Kevin. totally 100% accurate list. but I would say this is not for beginners. this is for non-musical people trying to make music.. come on

[@KevinKuschel]

@@cesmcmyth What is a beginner?

[@Lamberilio]

Indeed, overcomplicating is a very common tendency to fall into. Sometimes it's just the good simple things that are missing

[@Kadejones01]

Great advice, Kevin. I still hear experienced composers forget to let wood and brass players breath. I think they're sometimes too used to playing awesome synths and piano.

[@5ammy13]

Hey Kevin, great tips for beginners. I think an important tip for beginners you missed would be how to handle reverb and how to make Samples from different libraries sit together in the same room. Early on in my music caterer my tracks sounded so weird and muddy, and finding the secret to correct reverb immediately made my music sound infinitely better.

[@neilingle794]

I've only recently discovered your channel. Great advice, and I like that you avoid belittling people with different agendas (e.g. you say it's ok if someone (not me) wants to reuse loops, even though there are better ways). These common mistakes are easy to understand - in the way that everyone knows them already, but really needs to be told / reminded, and your before and after sketches are so clear. Well done!

[@KevinKuschel]

thank you!

[@gatorsaw3315]

I will take this advice and never do this again. Great stuff

[@tutengenezemuziki]

been BINGE watching this channel for 3 days....Awesome content

[@tregdemedia]

I really appreciate you bringing all these tips into one video. These are all things I've sort of picked up here and there across composer KZbin, but it's nice to be reminded of all of them in one place. My biggest issues are rigid timing and mixing!

[@KevinKuschel]

Glad to hear!

[@jenssieckmann]

Thanks Kevin, That's a nice lineup of composing mistakes. Hm, although, they are not only composing mistakes (like reverb). Dynamics, velocity, lack of articlulations and overcomplicating are my favorites. Nevertheless I would have mentioned a few other mistakes that are more important to me than rigid timing, reverb, no breathing pauses and ignoring mixing. There are for example strucuring motifs, themes, phrases, chord progressions, chord voicing (depending on instruments). There's surely room for a whole playlist of mistakes.

[@King.Mark.]

reslove and add the last note on the brass ,it hurt 😂 9:57

[@gilbo9576]

Thanks for the video ! I manage to escape most of them but I'm full in the 3rd one ! I even LIKED your overcomplicated example... 😅

[@MadHawkMoody]

Hey, thanks for this list! This seriously helps! Also, in regards to loops, I never actually use them because they sound so.... uhhhh... fake? I personally enjoy having control over my own original rhythm!

[@jmmm2703]

Thanks, great tips! I often struggle getting the dynamics right, or ignore them altogether...

[@NachtPiano]

Brb saturation, TDR nova EQ, and Fresh Air. They’re amazing and free use them.

[@NieR6991]

I really love the way you explain things so clearly! I can also listen to you all day haha SO happy to have found your channel

[@phuphu3129]

Looks like Kevin "Terminator" Kuschel ;) great stuff

[@mikemccormick1624]

Brilliant and very informative. Thanks for a great video!

[@devagarwal2222]

really need help with how to unlock dynamic scoring thanks

[@BenBerkenboschMusic]

99% of the time you can edit the dynamics with CC01 / the modwheel. There's some libraries out there that don't have this recorded, often free ones, or solo strings, but the majority of sample libraries has these dynamics recorded.

[@jlbpiano2673]

Du ziehst zurzeit echt durch mit den Videos, dicken Respekt👍

[@Emily_M81]

I was a former wind player thankfully, so that one doesn't catch me lol. Thanks for sharing

[@BenBerkenboschMusic]

Eyyyy you added the Jacob Collier 30/31 polyrhythm hahaha. Great video Kevin!! I think this video is immensely valuable for beginner composers 🔥

[@KevinKuschel]

My head's still spinning 😵‍💫

[@BenBerkenboschMusic]

@@KevinKuschel after 500 tries trying to do the 30/31 polyrhythm, mine is still spinning as well

[@glynnhodgesmusic3140]

Thank you Kevin. I have just subscribed to your channel. Some really great tips in this video. As an intermediate composer some channels are very difficult to follow and are complicated. You present clearly and very well. You mention mixing and mastering, have you an easy to comprehend video for this? Again, most channels are very difficult to follow on this subject. I am sure you would be much better. Thank you again.

[@joegrint6280]

Excellent advice - thanks!

[@luquesxannial2286]

Awesome stuff kevin! Thanks for the tips ❤

[@johnhill762]

Great video, great advice

[@javierestevez9680]

Great Kevin!

[@StefanoMaccarelli]

Great Video and True mistakes !

[@Roknix]

Very good Video :). I often find myself writing the melody with only one articulation. Do you often use expression maps? How do you handle different latencies in different articulations?

[@stepitup23]

awesome video

[@CraigRodmellMusic]

In my opinion, one thing that takes away greatly from realism is using a scoring program for the sounds instead of a DAW. Myself, I do the composition using BBCSO Core in my DAW, and THEN I do the score in MuseScore. Or else, if I'm doing something for which the score already exists, I use that as the basis for what I do in my DAW.

[@LidkaKAA]

I love your channel, very useful advice

[@KevinKuschel]

Glad you like it!!

[@marcus_ohreallyus]

Good stuff

[@MBynum]

As far as mic placement, should all my strings instruments have the same mic settings if I'm not doing solo lines? Example: tree mic at -5db and outriggers at 0db.

[@JohnnyADi]

I just bought pacific and the new strikeforce 2. I am now waiting for Vista 2 and pacific brass. Might buy a VSL piano vst or another drum vst like damage 2 or truestrike. Bad VSTs or improperly used, doesn't sound as good for things like classical or neoclassical.

[@Streamkiller1]

Hi! Thank you for your lessons! Can you tell how to make it on cubase? ( mistake 5 ) How can i pick few midi keys and change them with different styles? i mean just like you did. Thank you!

[@KevinKuschel]

Check out Expression Maps

[@javierestevez9680]

Mistake 2 its a banger of ostinato hahaha

[@gainsbourg66]

Using female choral samples in sustained unnaturally high range

[@KevinKuschel]

AaaaaaAAAaAaaaAAahhh OoooOoOOoohhhhhhhhhh

[@jimmito823]

Hi man. Blessings. How much ram and specs is you system to work with this large film scoring templates in SO? Thanks. I am working on that.

[@KevinKuschel]

I am now at 128GB of RAM on a Ryzen 5900. 64Gb will also get you a very long way, though.

[@SonicSoorcery]

There is someone who make a video about kaboom anyone know his channel name?

[@gooscomposer]

I saw a video of a concert flautist, and she showed a technique, where woodwind player is storing some of the air in their cheeks to make this infinite breath

[@sibe9613]

You probably mean circular breathing, which is also used when playing didgeridoos and zurnas, for example. This technique is possible with several woodwind and brass instruments. By the way: glass blowers also use circular breathing.

[@gooscomposer]

@@sibe9613 Yeah, I meant that. Thanks for correction

[@user-xz5mh2ev2e]

10:48

[@sirtom3011]

Hmm…the humanization doesn’t sound human