Upon The Wind

[Silh]

Looking for some feedback/suggestions on a little piece I've been working on for a friend of mine. Nothing terribly fancy, just a rearrangement for mostly winds of a theme he wrote. Started with an ancient decades-old notation program which I'm just too used to to give up, but otherwise most of the work afterwards done in Reaper. All instruments are from GPO and GWI.

http://cot.freeshell.org/UponTheWind-Test3.mp3
(Uploaded it to Soundcloud, but their compression really messes the audio up)

Original arrangement: http://soundcloud.com/silh/windtreader

Note that I know little to nothing about mastering, so any tips on that would be helpful. Pretty much just fiddled around with stuff until I found something that didn't sound worse than previous attempts... :P

(Oh yeah, regarding the ending, giving him the option to loop it if he decides he wants that...)

[Plowking]

Wow that sounds great.

Reminds me of medievel castles and folk singers in a tavern. That would very well suit any fantasy roleplaying game.

All the instruments sound very well balanced too, I can't comment on any issues with the mix, it sounds fantastic to me.

Well done.
Graham

[rbowser-]

Matt, I love this! You've done an excellent job with both the arrangement and the recording. I know you're looking for tips on improving things - none are coming up for me. I enjoyed it so much, critical brain checked out - and I love when that happens.

You described a method of mixing that describes what a lot of us do, "...Pretty much just fiddled around with stuff until I found something that didn't sound worse than previous attempts..." That's great! hehehe - That's really what it gets down to, because mixing is an art. The basic principles of using EQ are easy enough (#1--make sure bass frequencies don't build up and muddy your mix) but there's no absolute science to it. What EQing decisions need to be made are completely dictated by the project.

And so forth. You did more than fine - Your friend just Has to be pretty pleased with what you've done with this.

Randy

[jaynkate01]

I agree with plowking. This does have a medieval flare to it. Your friend wrote an enjoyable theme and your arrangement is nice to listen to. Thanks for posting.
-Jay

[DPDAN]

Very nice Matt!

Dan

[Silh]

Well, I guess it's good to know I'm doing something right! Thanks for the comments guys, glad to hear you liked it.

[DelCarry]

NIce job on this Matt! NIce composition - solid. Love the Marimba(?) and winds mix/combination. The oboe(?) sounded good too - at least I think it was an oboe as it was mostly with other instruments. One time someone listened to one of my pieces with piano and violin (only) and they commented that they really liked the saxophone! ooops!

Del