Composing / Arranging / Songwriting

Success in the library music world is partly about who you know — so get out there and get to know people!

Familiarity with a few common articulations is the key to successful MIDI string arranging.

How can you ensure that your library music hits the spot? What better way to find out than to ask the people who buy it!

Adding strings to an arrangement is a great way to inject motion into your music.

Blockbuster video game Horizon Zero Dawn took six years to make, and required its three composers to invent an entirely new sound world.

Successful library music writers are efficient, productive and reliable as well as musical — all skills you can develop too.

Our major new series explains how to harness the power of today’s virtual orchestral instruments.

We saw last month that library music can provide composers with a good income. This month, we explain how that income is generated.

Production music is rarely glamorous, but it can be very lucrative. In the first of a major new series, we explain how to get your foot in the door.

Cult TV series Stranger Things has become essential viewing — and essential listening. We talk to the previously unknown composers behind its hit soundtrack.

Peter Zinovieff has been described as Britain’s Bob Moog. A renowned composer from the mid ‘60s to the present day, he was also one of the founders of EMS who produced seminal synthesizers such as the VCS3 and the Synthi AKS, as used by Brian Eno, Pink Floyd and the Chemical Brothers.

John Carpenter is not only a cult movie-maker, but also a pioneering electronic composer. John, his son Cody and collaborators Alan Howarth and Daniel Davies explain how it’s all possible.

Just what should you expect when engaging a professional arranger or orchestrator to work on your own production? We find out from some of the best in the business...

Rhythm is a multi-sample playback interface with an eight–step sequencer and five–channel mixer. It is the brainchild of games developer Gil Carmel...

We conclude our series with an overview of arrangement techniques and a peep into the world of big-band brass.

A simple, catchy tune with a funky rhythm may be all you need to create a highly commercial horn hook — but harmony is also an essential ingredient in brass arrangements.