Real orchestras??

[Facade]

where do you think i could find a real orchestra to play something i wrote? i don't have money so free would be preferred
wait maybe we should all learn a bunch of instruments and we could have our own orchestra
that would be awesome

[Dr_Dissonance]

For free? Nowhere...orchestras have a tough time in this day and age as it is, so they're not going to play something for free! They also have tight schedules, so they contact you for performances, rather than you contact them...
You could try high school orchestras, but they usually have different instrumentation and tend to butcher most pieces!
Best to stick with the sampled stuff...

[Mundius]

You could try high school orchestras, but they usually have different instrumentation and tend to butcher most pieces!

This was very true on Remembrance Day (where nothing is allowed to go wrong). The entire brass section was off-key, they did a horrible attempt at a remix of a few songs (literally, I can do far better in 10 minutes), and the last song, which was just one trumpet... it was THE WORST BUTCHERING OF A SONG.

[Versilaryan]

The high school orchestras that don't butcher songs tend to be incredibly busy, too, so it really is best to stick to samples.

Also, the problem with us all picking up instruments and making an orchestra is that we'd all suck (well, most of us that don't have prior orchestral experience). Then, the people writing the music needs to work extra hard on making sure all the parts are easy and that restricts things a lot. I can't speak for other instrument groups, but brass especially, you have to pay /really/ close attention to range because beginner brass ranges suck so hard. (Seriously, my first year on trumpet, my range was one octave. It took me three years to expand that another octave and a half, and it's basically just stayed there since. >.>)