Alan Silvestri, Scoring a Blockbuster, Part 1: From Cubase to Dorico | Artist

American composer Alan Silvestri has scored some of the most iconic Hollywood films, with two each Academy Award (Oscar) and Golden Globe nominations, three Grammy awards, three Saturn awards and two Emmys to his name. In this video he describes his scoring workflow - starting with loading the film into Cubase and composing the music to play in time with the picture. From there he begins scoring in Cubase, adding different instrument parts to complete the basic arrangement in the timeline, and then exports that to do the main scoring in Dorico. If you want to score a blockbuster movie, or think you have the talent to be nominated for Best Song for a Motion Picture, learning from Alan Silvestri’s scoring process will certainly help.
Song: Helicarrier composed by Alan Silvestri
We hope you find this video entertaining and useful. If you like what you see, please leave a comment and tell us what you think. Thank you.
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[@andreievkalupniek5717]

Great! Now we just need more integration with Cubase. We should't need to export midi to bring it into Dorico. I want to be able to open Cubase, press a "Send to Dorico" button and see all my selected Midi instruments open in Dorico. I want to Edit notes in Dorico and press "Send to Cubase" and have them update automatically.

[@savagesauron4147]

Kinda like switching the Cubase Score Editor with Dorico. Maybe as an add-on. That'd be great!

[@samsanity9674]

protools has "send to Sibelius" now

[@dynamicalan]

It has been my experienced with other DAW's that importing large amounts of tracks and/or clips that things can get messed up and less at a time is better.

[@oibruv3889]

@Jericho Wayne lol ok jericho

[@magnuslervikmusic]

Damn I would LOVE some tutorials on how Alan orchestrates in Cubase. Junkie XL style. I've been an exclusive Cubase user for 20 years+. Cubase 10 is the best!!

[@MorisoniProductions]

Great to see Silvestri's techniques. THANK YOU!!

[@haliefaith35]

Avengers Endgame made me want to become a film composer and now I'm in college and use Dorico :) this is cool

[@IroLidorikioti]

I find it very interesting to listen to the workflow of such a prominent film composer. So much inspiration! Great idea Dorico!

[@jonathanparham]

always good to hear an A list composer workflow. good to hear how Dorico and Cubase work for him

[@doomboogie315]

This is fantastic. Thank you so much for uploading this.

[@ishagshafeeg]

Brilliant! Enjoyed listening to him.

[@AnalogueDear]

what a legend

[@scottglasgowmusic]

Love it!

[@MarcoDiStefano79]

Amazing, this is what I was looking for! thanks for sharing

[@King_Colombia_Inc]

I *ADORE* ALAN SILVESTRI. :D

[@Arktid]

Great person! And it is obvious when seeing his great sequences of working!

[@mmumambientsounds-timers]

Predator, the best soundtrack ever!

[@Fwuzeem]

Not made with Cubase obviously

[@MrSamuelivey]

Really like this guy. Legend.

[@sukarnavikram3629]

This man made the theme for Avengers, Thank you

[@gabrield.cstoica1832]

For my is one of the best Composer scoring movie

[@ArturoAlbero]

I do love his approach, it resonates very much with how I want to work. Thanks for this great video, is a gold mine :)

[@erik9817]

Me too! Now all I need is afford Dorico.

[@tempus_fugit7366]

I find this fascinating because Alan began as an old school scoring composer. Which means you write and score with a full orchestra to a projected film. This method was the only way for over a hundred years to score a movie. It was tedious and could take months to complete. Not surprisingly with the digital age, technology has made this task easier by far. I'm very impressed to see someone like Alan embrace the available technology.

[@ayhantekinorkestrasvetekin3799]

Super

[@nachiketjambhekar9982]

An absolute genius

[@EareelOfficial]

The intro and outro music is from Age of Ultron (Outlook)

[@soundyg7441]

Wow, I would’ve never thought Silvestri basically writes music the same way I do lol. How life-affirming! I am curious how he gets those automation nodes from his midi tracks into dorico. Does he need to re-insert them into the score by hand?

[@AbstractBravado]

Dope

[@paulsmith634]

And that's how you get those meter changes in "Even for you" from Infinity War!

[@MiketheNerdRanger]

Havent actually given Cubase much thought until now, when I'm learning you can compose in it.

[@dorico]

It's 50% off if you fancy it: new.steinberg.net/cubase/celebrate/

[@homeofcreation]

Boy I'd love see those macros

[@pshimmons]

fascinating insight! Now we need full integration - you know... where there isn't a Cubase and also a Dorico - it is just one app!

[@Turtleddj]

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

[@user-xw4tn7xi5v]

Great and informative video! However a better integration between Cubase and Dorico would make his life (and ours also) much easier.

[@dorico]

Integration means many different things to different people, but it is on our radar, yes.

[@user-xw4tn7xi5v]

@@dorico thank you!

[@iceomistar4302]

It makes me wonder just how happy Jerry Goldsmith would have been to have all this new software and technology to compose with, if only he had lived another 10 years, I'm sure he would have played around with all the modern tech and synths.

[@AsesorMusical]

Amazing. Maybe Nuendo for reconforming?

[@AsesorMusical]

Also Nuendo 10 features an automatic video cut detector

[@alananibal10]

When Dorico will have a pen function so real composers like this guy can do all at once? Then it would be more than Perfect!

[@dorico]

That's not always the best or quickest way of working. Hand-writing isn't as accurate as using a keyboard (for live MIDI input or as shortcuts), but is sometimes a nice option. Maybe we'll add it in the future, but for now you can use something like StaffPad and then import in to Dorico as a MusicXML file.

[@jackaguirre8576]

I'm excited to see Adam Silvestri speak about his workflow but I honestly wish I had any idea what he was saying XD. I only use Dorico, I don't really understand what Cubase does and how helpful it may be.

[@dorico]

Cubase is a 'digital audio workstation' so it allows you to record MIDI and audio. The basic differece is that from Dorico you primarily output sheet music, but from Cubase you primarily output an audio file e.g. a beautifully mixed track for an album, or film - or in Alan's case an audio version of what the orchestra will sound like.

[@erik9817]

Great! However Cubase does have a sheet view as well, but we don't talk about that. :p

[@erik9817]

That's it, I'm wishing for Dorico Pro for my birthday. Or maybe Zbrush...

[@Reverdoc]

Hi... as I don't know Cubase, can someone tells me what is the notation software he is using ? Is it two separate programs or both are included in Cubase... I can't seem to find how to produce tant kind of score in Sonar... Thank you...

[@ThePeaterBeater]

Reverdoc hi! the notation software featured in this video is dorico, a new product released by steinberg! cubase does have a built-in notation view, however this can be hard to use, especially with engravings and such. dorico is a program fully built to create professional-level notated scores

[@StefanGraz]

Any chance to improve the exchange of musical material between Dorico Pro and Logic Pro X?

[@dorico]

We do have some ideas to start with on the MIDI front (coming from Logic), or are you using MusicXML?

[@cesmcmyth]

Whaaaat? He has Nektar Panorama P6? Why +Nektar doesn't abuse this as a brand ambassador? I didn't think pros would use these kinda midi keyboards

[@HansolJang]

Me too. I wish Dorico & Cubase to marry someday.

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

this is Logic Pro

[@flashgamer1275]

What Symphony Orchestra was used to record? London?

[@flashgamer1275]

@@taykitrleevitt4314 I searched for hours and couldn't find a single source saying what orchestra was used.

[@flashgamer1275]

@@taykitrleevitt4314 Which is why I came to a scoring video asking, since he is literally sitting in a recording hall. Try googling "how to neck oneself"

[@acquiesce100]

How did he do all this in the 1980s with Back To The Future and Predator for example.

[@itznoxy7193]

He wrote by hand. Same way every composer wrote before computers.

[@Fangornmmc]

What he talks about at 5:52 (having no picture lock) is probably one of the worst things to have happened to film music. How can any composer, even one of the skill of Silvestri, be expected to deliver truly great music that stands on its own when the puzzle pieces are constantly being moved around?

[@eirik_myhr]

A very unfortunate trend, and one of the downsides of the flexibility we are faced with in this day and age. Luckily here in Norway the picture is USUALLY locked once sound post production starts. It must be a nightmare when this is not the case...

[@nandoflorestan]

Yeaaahhh... No. Switching between 2 programs all the time to create the same music is a nightmare. What we want is for Dorico to be able to create good mockups, then we'll be happy.

[@eirik_myhr]

If that's the way you want to work, you might want to check out Note Performer 3, which you can use with Dorico for surprisingly good mock-up-quality playback.

[@nandoflorestan]

@@eirik_myhr sorry, I am looking for much better quality and flexibility in programming the performance.

[@eirik_myhr]

@@nandoflorestan Well that's why you still need a sequencer like Cubase, Logic or Studio One. I dream of a day when these two worlds might be a more unified experience too, but that's not the case right now. We would need a revolution in how these programs think for that to happen. For now, creating a realistic sounding mockup with sample libraries and creating precise notation is not the same task. Even though it would be great if it was.

[@nandoflorestan]

@@eirik_myhr It is just a small matter of programming. Not at all impossible, as you say. Check out Presonus Notion for a notation package that's gotten half way there.

[@eirik_myhr]

@@nandoflorestan "Quality and flexibility in programming" is what you do in a sequencer program when you create mockups. Notation programs are all about getting the notation correct, but the sound you get when you playback from a notation program is of course a 100% flat performance, because you have programmed notation, not performance. To get a performance, or something with character, you often need to play something that is NOT equal to the notation, that is not 100% mathematically correct or precise. These are almost diametrically opposite goals. This is the reason why we still need both the sequencer and the notation software. In the meantime we have stuff like NotePerformer, which at least brings the two a bit closer together by interpreting the sounds from the notation program better than previous alternatives. Some day we may get there, but it won't happen now. Have to work now - have a nice day :)

[@DidierMartini]

"We hope you find this video entertaining and useful. If you like what you see, please leave a comment and tell us what you think" Dear Steinberg, can you actually please activate or make working a CC (close caption) track, so the ones who doesn't speak english well enough or hearing disabled person can find this video entertaining and useful ! thank you ! A fan of alan silvestri since ... wow d*** i'm old :(

[@davidcesar2044]

Is it confirmed that he used Dorico with Avengers? Because if he did...I would buy this in a heartbeat.

[@dorico]

Hello, yes, that is the whole point of this video... You should watch part 2 ;) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXKxXoWFi7GNsLM

[@Leotique]

End Game

[@samuelmarzo722]

Yess

[@jeffescanto]

ok, so all what he said was fun and super intelligent and interesting..... but, WHAT!?

[@filmscorefreak]

The modern never-ending editing process is part of what has killed movies, and the scores greatly suffer. It's practically turned filmscoring into a borderline nightmare.

[@jordanalexander]

It's obviously difficult to critique someone who is at the top of the game... but this sounds REALLY inefficient. I was under the impression that Dorico would have all the DAW features needed to edit a score but also a performance/mockup.

[@dorico]

There is a lot you can do in Dorico, and we're still working hard, but in some cases where you want to add e.g. multiple audio tracks you'll still need a DAW.

[@MartinStolzMusic]

Sorry, but where is any demonstration.... Nice talks, but there is no practical overview at all. In the end just bla, bla, bla.... No need to change to dorico at all...

[@dorico]

No, we didn't get Alan to show his exact process in these videos, but we are considering a video series showing the features he was talking about so that we can answer specific questions.

[@AndreasvanHaren]

@@dorico That would be great. I am especially interested in that macro he uses in Cubase. What does he mean lighting the region up and expanding it? (selecting a region of tracks?) and brings up the automation (opening the automation lanes?). What is the macro doing specifically here?

[@TB1M1]

Alan Silvestri is a great composer, but the recent Marvel films captain america etc are incredibly boring to listen to there is almost no counterpoint. If you want to know what a good action score is listen to the "hijacking" scene in Air Force One.

[@rohanalias9053]

Thanks for the useless info

[@ikky2375]

@@rohanalias9053 lol

[@AlbertKimMusic]

His hands are starting to tremor, makes me sad