Truly Impreesive
this is a great track. did you use RA for the ethnic instruments? It's got a great world sound with many mixed styles and thats what I really like about this piece.. Are thoes tamburas you use for the plucked instrument? It sounds like it, but I doubt it because I dont know where else the Japanese instruments come in. To me, it actually brings out an African vibe. I really think its the melodies and choice of percussion that does it. The track reminds me of a young boy of African descent sitting in his small porch under a scorching desert sun, and he sees a mirage in the distance, and tries to chase after it. He discovers that the mirage was actually reality, and recieves the gift- a chasm of gold to bring back to his friends and family that are in poverty back in Africa.
As for the composition itself- it completely rocks! Love the percussion (what instrument do you use here?) in the start, and the crescendoing tremoloed strings with well constructed melodies, (my favorite part is at 00:33-0:35, those few notes are freakin beautiful) and the flute plays gracefully backed by a relaxing yet adventurous chord progression. I like how the flute bends and has some trills-how do you bend with external VSTs in FL studio btw- I cant figure out how to do that as the slide tool doesnt work. You packed an amazing bout of energy and emotion for it being a short track. The boomy, reverbed bass drum in the more active parts works great to give it a bit of a serious feel, and I dig the shaker velocities to make them sound very authentic.
I do have a suggestion for the track however. While the main percussion rhtyhm works extremely well with the main themes, I think you could have incorporated one more different pattern right after the tribal vocal sample, as it pretty remains the same throughout-or doesnt have an big enough change. not that I find it repetive tho, because it carries such an interesting rhythm. Maybe some crescendoing triplets in transitions, some louder slaps, etc. Just remembering your other song with the log drums (sorry, I cant recall the name :( ) leads me to ask for more variation :D anyways, I hate to give suggestions when youre miles better than me, I do feel like I'm stretching to find fault-the track is truly great as it is!
Also, your instrument spacing is absolutely magnificent, I'm so jealous of your professional mixing skill. I especially like where the percussion you start with is placed, as it sounds as if a drummer was right in front of me. I think my the stringed instrument could use a touch of more decay (or maybe even delay) tho on the reverb to give it a more distant sound like something is far away in reach-but thats just me.
anyways, great song as expected Maestro, you did a great job with this one! sorry if my review was a bit disorganized..