Music

Home Recording Studio 101: How To Create Orchestral Sounds Using MIDI

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Sep 2, 2022 • 4 min read

Are you a fan of any TV shows that feature orchestral underscore? While it can have a majestic effect on comedies and dramas alike, there’s a secret to it: unless the show has a big budget, that “orchestral” score was probably all created on someone’s personal computer.

This is not to say that you aren’t hearing real instruments on those orchestral soundtracks. You are—but chances are they were recorded as sound samples for a software library, and somewhere in a personal studio, a composer is manipulating those samples using MIDI.