Haha, now that’s teasing! 
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Might have a go at this - thinking of trying to do it in a totally different style/genre although its totally above my skill set and available libraries etc. It just depends on how much time I have as working full time at moment and working on a few other tracks as well. Some great melodies and composing to go at though. Scares the hell out of me to even start but hopefully might end up with something
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Yeah go for it Phil, I can promise you that doing covers is way more beneficial for learning and improving as a composer than simply doing original music. 
So far I’ve just done half of the piano reduction. This way I get to harmonise everything and block the sections out before I commit 
perhaps that’s a route you could try?
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Piano reductions, or what I sometimes use (sketch reductions with just a couple of tracks), is amazing for getting the arrangement and flow of the track out first!
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Totally agree man! I don’t start a track without having a “scratch track” I have made these days. Takes all of the worry from orchestration away. ;D
I may make a YouTube video about this one day. Will be uploading a video in the next day or so with a walk through of my “so simple it doesn’t need a walkthrough” plugin 
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I just can never seem to utilize this method, which is probably why it takes forever + a day to orchestrate. I almost always ‘hear’ a melody/theme in my head with specific instrumentation, and modern technology lets me work from there, so I just dive in head first😅 Using a piano reduction just doesn’t inspire me because, well, I’d be changing those parts to different instruments anyway, right? Wish I could get better at it.
That being said, I have my intro written out and have the idea for the overall direction, so hopefully I can finish it in time.
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Well to be honest I don’t always do this either. For simple ‘pop’ tracks in whatever style there is less need for it. But for bigger arrangements I feel it is worth it.
I guess I see it as being an architect first that creates the blue print for the building. Because it will be more effective compared to all ‘trial and error’ the builder would run into without a blue print.
I definitely see the value in doing piano reductions and then orchestrating it out, I’m just no good at it. If I hear a melody in the horns, for example, I want to put it down that way and orchestrate from there, so I don’t lose the general idea or feeling I have in my head.
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You don’t have to “limit yourself” to a piano reductions Matt. In fact, I prefer sketching with a few more tracks myself!
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Mike,
I tried to upload my composition for the Jurassic Park Cover Contest, but it will only allow me to upload graphics files (jpeg, png, etc.) I did not know how else to upload my mp3. Can you give me instructions to help me with this?
Thanks,
Jen Simon
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Hey Jen, thr algorhyrhm doesn’t like straight files. So there are a number of ways you can get around it.
You can upload it to your sound cloud account and just copy and paste your link.
You can make a little picture video and upload it to YouTube and share a link the same way.
Or you can save it to your one drive and share the one drive link that you can create by right clicking on the file once it is uploaded.
I hope this helps. I’m currently finishing mine. Put far too much time into this considering I have other projects on the go
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Hello Jen, I would love to hear your entry!
Regarding your question: like Geoff said, the forum platform does not support files in that direct way. The way to do it is upload to your SoundCloud or YouTube channel, then add the link in your post.
Since when do we not all put far far much time into anything. Artist perfectionism, the everlasting curse we all share! 
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Ahaha very true. The last few I was really good though and put 3 hours into each, which was exactly the time I had spare.
I told myself I’d do the same with this, which is why I was planning on doing a hybrid piece… so that I didn’t have to put a lot of time into automating they orchestra.
Well it’s an orchestral piece now so, yeah… lots of time automating this one hehe!
Hopefully will be uploading later!
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Geoffrey,
Great advice! Thank you. I will use one of those options to upload onto the site!
Have a great day 
Jen
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Mike,
Thank you for suggestions about how to upload to the site. I will try one of those options.
I’m looking forward to listening to all the entries for the contest!
Have a great day.
Jen
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No problem Jen, im very excited to hear your piece
Hi! Thank you for this community and I really enjoyed listening to every piece. Good job, everyone!
I hope to participate tomorrow (competition ends 23.59 tomorrow CEST, swedish time)? 
after finishing Mikes course in composing for strings (on Udemy). So inspiring! Thank you for your great courses, Mike!
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Hello and welcome Anna,
I see this is your first post, so I assume you just joined the community, and I’m so glad you did!
Yes, you are correct about the end time, even though technically I will collect all entries in a poll on July 1st just because it is easier for me than in the middle of the night haha. The winner will be decided by YOU (the members) so we can happily avoid the crazy drama storm that the Spitfire Audio scoring competition turned into.
I’m looking forward to your entry Anna. And thank you for your kind words regarding my courses, I’m so glad they inspired you as a music composer!
Sincerely
Mike
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