I feel your pain. People are going to suggest various technical solutions which will probably make your life even more complicated. You need to simplify - rather than trying to create some massive universal template which will bog you down creatively at every turn, write your music using as few instruments as possible, and stick to basic articulations like sus and stacc. When the music is written, expand the template to include the fancy stuff.

You can write music for strings using a single patch like 425 App-Strings sustain, and separate the parts out for violins, violas etc. later. Start out with solo instruments (trumpet / trombone / tuba, French Horn, flute / clari / oboe / bassoon) and substitute ensembles later if it helps. Don't be afraid to play chords on a solo instrument, it's quicker than programming three separate parts! Add harp and timpani if necessary. One patch each, just to get your juices flowing.

If the sus articulation sounds too languid on a particular instrument, add a stacc. layer in an empty slot, or create a simple sus / stacc switch. Substitute legato for sus later, when you've written the melodies. Keep it simple! You can always work on the arrangement details and sound later, but you need to produce some *music* first.

Life is short.

Although I am not a "high-powered" user like some of the more accomplished composers that frequent this forum, I would still nonetheless echo what DG has said.  When writing a piece of music, write the piece, and don't worry about articulations or anything else.  You might want to consider working in a notation program using the stock sounds of that program - when writing, the actual sound, IMO, is not that important.

Once the piece is completed, then translate it to a sequencer and begin the editing process.  Depending on how you think/work, if you do use keyswitches to change articulations, setting those on an additional staff line for each part in the notation program could also be of use - but this does take time, and assumes that you are not playing the parts into the sequencer yourself.

When working with articulations - and this is especially true with the full libraries - it can get very detailed and complicated, and is not something to deal with when composing.

I take DG's point, but some people prefer to hear their composition as it takes shape rather than write it all out on paper first. Dstorfer said, "I used to make a ton of music on a hardward sequencer with a 24 character LCD screen. And I was great at it." That being the case, he should have no problem working with Cubase or Logic, regardless of what version he has. A good notation program may or may not help in this case - what say you, Mr. Dstorfer?

Is there is a compatility between GM and VSL, I never heard of that !

 I definitely agree with the general line of the comments above.

I think it is important to separate the compositional process from the technical process of rendering the sounds. It is tempting to want to hear things as they progress but I would keep this to a minimum with some basic sounds.

I work on pieces with pencil and ms paper and Sibelius and only when I fairly satisfied do I move to a  midi export to Cubase and samples.

Of course you can still edit the music as you go along but composing and rendering sounds are very different art forms.

I think a lot of your frustration comes from mixing the two.

Best

Kanon

>I certainly admire those who can just compose with notation or paper or just on piano, but I don't think I can do that.

No problem, you should stick to the method that works for you. It doesn't matter how you get there as long as some music comes out in the end! Personally I compose the same way as you do, by improvising, consolidating then sequencing the results. I too have had moments when the sheer complexity of my MIDI set-up has started to be counter-productive, and when that happens I just go back to basics and work with a very simple template. Stick to your guns and don't feel you need to compete technically - at the end of the day the samples are just tools to help you achieve your creative aims, not an obstacle that you have to overcome. Good luck with your musical endeavours!

I spend a good bit of time setting up the orchestration first. I enjoy it, a lot. I'm going for a sound first. I don't have a single overarching template. the template might be based on a previous one and as far as a Cubase template it's just a matter of opening that prior project and repopulating it.

While I did compose via notation for years, I don't at all today. As far as detail in articulations, and I do make very convincing solo work, I input the lines with a good legato where available and as things occur to me I pencil them [keyswitches, CC11...] in in the key editor. I don't have a preconception in a score type of form to satisfy, I improvise lines and the idea of the right articulation is of a piece with the creation, but directly with the sound.

Over the time I've had tools such as VSL, I've grown with them. I think the preconception of everything ready to go rather than just start with the idea and THEN flesh it out and make it 'big' is the biggest obstacle you've put up for yourself here.

that's some belief, because you don't enjoy this work very much, 'one' must not have the expectation for realism... which I actually achieve in every work.

you need to get out more, you'd be surprised what people can do with some work, particularly if they enjoy that work more than anything in the world.

What's so great about realism anyway? You can make fabulous music with orchestral samples without attempting to closely mimic the sound of real players.

The orchestral music begins with writing good arrangement, you can do this on paper or record it using piano. Once you have this sketch, you must know a lot about orchestration so you are able to put right voices to right instruments. If you dont know how to compose, arrange and orchestrate, it doesnt matter if you have all articulations and best of the best sound banks - you simply dont know what to do So listen to music a lot of orchestral music, study orchestral scores, practice harmony.....etc. etc.

If you know enough about theory and you have practice in writing music {not sequencing} your workflow should be easy. After I record musical phrases I am listening to those phrases and record all controllers I want {xfade, expression, etc.} sometimes one by one sometimes simoutaneously two or more at once {sure you need fader controler with more than one fader for this}. Keyswitches are made in realitme and sometimes by entering. As you can see there is no tutorial for this, because every instrumentation every phrase needs different approach.

But firstly you must have clear idea of sound in your mind and then you just reproduce it into sequencer. VSL and other banks are not holy grails, you must have extraordinary musical knowledge to create extraordinary compositons. VSL is just simply best orchestral tool to accomplish your musical ideas in orchestration world.

One good advice that helped me - try to recreate some scores that wrote masters {Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev, Ravel, etc. etc.} You will be surprised what you can learn from it....

thats my toughts....