Home Free - Orchestral "rock" type thing

[Alphaflux]

Hi guys n gals, I am working on something new and I have about two minutes of pretty much finalised material, but I am still missing content to go before the slow bridge/interlude. I'm having difficulty keeping the momentum of the opening sequence at the mo so I need to sink some more hours into it after some away time.

In the meantime I was wondering what people think of the piece so far and the levels/mix as it stands currently. I think it's all sitting quite nicely albeit a little quiet, but the curse of the headphones may be misleading me...

 

[Stratomaster]

Sounds pretty good to me, reminds me of Jean luc Ponty a bit. I can't tell if there's a dissonance in the way the chords work together but there's a buildup of midrange frequencies, when it kicks in, like the keyboard sounds too loud. The violin part seems to be the lead instrument but it's kind of buried behind the mid-rangey keys and the drums which seem a bit generic. Cool composition, I could see it accompanying something visual. Is this all keyboard based?

 

[Crazy Luke]

Yea, I +1 Strat's comments re: mid-range heavy for about half of the instrumentation on this. I would first get rid of any unnecessary low frequency stuff that's going on with things like strings by using a high-pass filter, then using an eq dip that will attenuate the brassy-ness as well. Also, the weakest link here is the drum vst, which sounds too programed for this genre. I you could get some better drums that are performed better, and sound more real, that would help support this song.

 

[Alphaflux]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I have finally got home and made some changes, it's all very minor but I think it works a little better now. Added some sidechain compression to give the kit some more pop on the kicks and re-eqed every track to tidy up unwanted frequencies. Is it still far too midrange heavy? The first time the main violin lead comes in it is intentionally a bit buried but it should take center stage on the outro more. I probably need to fine tune the violin as it is slightly off, that may be the dissonance you hear.

As for the kit, yes it is a massive weak link but it is getting there in comparison to my previous attempts! It's the snare that bugs me the most, I think I need some better samples but until then I have re-eq'd the kit piece by piece.

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any go to kontakt libraries for kits? I am using Studio Drummer by NI (I think it is by them anyway) and it often feels rather flat :/

 

[Stratomaster]

For sure sounds less cluttered in the first section, I can hear those nice flute and violin parts. Have you tried adding some roomy verb to the drums? The other instruments seem to have ambience but the drums sound dry...might make it all gel together. Anyways, nice remix!

 

[TripleM]

My only comment beyond what you've already got is the first section seems pretty chaotic. Everything is trying to be the center of attention. There is a lead violin, lead flute, lead drums, lead bass. If you know what I mean.