@vibrato said:
I am no expert on orchestral music and have never worked with one.
You really don't have to be an expert on orchestral music to get it to sound good. I already explained that did I not?
There's concert music - like modern composers that simply write for the concert hall going back to Mozart for instance. And then there's the filmscore writers who write to flicks.
There's an enormous amount of BS talked about 'being' in an orchestral setting when recording. There's sometimes a fear element mostly with musicians (writers) who can't read music and suddenly feel they should have had formal training. This is all rubbish because what happens is - you write something, and instead of VSL on the computer playing it - or synthesizers playing it - suddenly a whole group of people are playing it on orchestral instruments. Much more exiting than fearful I would say and something to look forward to.
Having said that - I never feel intimidated by anything. Orchestras like to get the work because they get paid money. That is why they play in an orchestra for the most part. If I felt an orchestra member was taking the piss - I would simply beat the crap out of them and tell them to take the piss again anytime they felt the need. Doesn't happen.
You may want to try doing an orchestral piece with VSL and replacing simply one instrument with a live player for instance and work your way in slowly. Let's be honest - there's no difference to you playing a real piano on a track to 12 violin players, apart from the space and the aggro making them all tea.