For the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Professional Orchestration: A Practical Handbook by composer Joseph Wagner, we’ve been doing a major overhaul of the book including having composer friends of mine orchestrating eleven bars from a piece by Chabrier called Bourree Fantasque. Besides myself, two other composers have gotten their examples in: Billy Martin [...]

Briefly, Project SAM’s Symphobia 1.1 update is good one since it not only fixes stuff, but adds new content along with the new Kontakt 2.2.5 player. Note that the 2.2.5 player works with Kontakt 3 and Kontakt 3.5 but does not work with Kontakt 2.  I saw reports that 2.2.5 was having issues in both [...]

We noted that John Williams uses the C-Trumpet in his scores. One of the best references available on the C-Trumpet is from the Vienna Academy at the Vienna Symphonic Library web site. Read. Learn. And hear demos under PLAYING TECHNIQUES. The Vienna Academy is a great resource so be sure to bookmark it.

Reading the preliminary test results from other composers on the Kontakt 3.5 update beta that’s just been released suggests that the Mac Pro Nehalem is now the dominant music computer with the oft wished request of being able to do it all on one system, pretty much here. The new 64-bit Kontakt 3.5, in standalone [...]

This is the opening voicing in John Williams’ Liberty Fanfare (which you can download from iTunes): Trumpets – Trombones + French horns. The “formula” reads that the trumpets are doubled an octave below by Trombones and French horns. Musically, the D triad is in root position doubled down an octave. The top stave is assigned [...]

See why composer John Debney’s web site is so effective.

There’s a good reason you want 7200RPM drives in your laptop.

Bloat is one of the reasons why there are so many tech support issues on both the Mac and the PC. Here’s why.

EastWest Gypsy is worth your consideration because in one library you have one of the finest collections of guitars I’ve run across not to mention a superb solo violin that has thousands of uses beyond Gypsy music.