An Autoethnography on Film Composition Practice: Integrating Virtual Instruments and the Live Performance Realisation within the DAW

The research presented here is to establish realism and authenticity within my professional and creative practice in the recording studio and investigate how to create a sense of liveness and realism with the integration of virtual instruments and live performance through hyperorchestration. It represents an autoethnographic investigation into the challenges of composing the most naturalistic, emotionally compelling film scores, with liveness, realism and performance using computer technology and to examine how my process is mediated by ideas, intentions and technology. The commentary details how I brought realism to my scores, acknowledging the complexities of orchestration in conjunction with live and MIDI performance to produce natural sounding performances within the Digital Audio Workstation.