Hey  Been lurking on here for a while now and thought I'd make an account and post here. I'm practicing making some almost ambient orchestral music for a fantasy game (none in particular) and would like love to hear what you guys think of it. I've been making electronic music for years but have been shifting towards the orchestral sides lately. Thanks

I would study the Elder Scroll soundtracks. They're a perfect example and similar to what you're going for but they give a bit more variety and momentum to their tracks. Whereas your track features a lot of long tones, no percussion and almost every articulation used is legato (connected). 

The other thing to consider is making your arrangement and instrumentation evolve over the course of the piece. I do like how you bookend the song with the harp and the fading in/fading out strings. Experiment with various CC data and see what your virtual instruments react to so your piece can have more life. 

I hope that helps!

Thanks a lot I really appreciate it! The Elder Scrolls soundtrack is what inspired me there are such beautiful songs. I updated it a bit

Very nice composition. It sounds a bit unclear to me and I can't hear every instrument so well. I would suggest using EQ to cut off the low-end of instruments that don't need it to control some of the muddiness in the track. I would also check for panning, as some instruments are too mono while others upset the stereo balance.

If you take listen to most of the Elder Scrolls' soundtrack, Jeremy Soule will usually divide his instruments into three categories, Foreground, Middleground, and Background. The foreground is reserved for only a couple of instruments, usually the melody. The middleground contains the countermelodies and perhaps percussion. The background are instruments you don't really notice, but make a difference when they are removed.

Take apart your instruments in this way and structure them accordingly by adjusting volume and reverb/EQ. Right now, the song doesn't really have any stand-out moments due to this problem.

Even so, I really like your arrangement and compositional skills on the piece. With just a little more strengthening on the mixing side, you'll have a great-sounding song for your portfolio.

Hi Matt, listened to both of the versions of the song. I liked the sound of the strings better in the version 1 and the harp sound in version 2. I also think a bit of some rythmic element would help the song to keep the momentum or develop it. Maybe not necessarily big drums, but maybe a simple string ostenato, wouldn't need to be full volume either. Or maybe make a hybrid with digital bass under all the strings your have there. Overall I quite like the piece. It is calming and sets the "fantasy,,,exploration" tone nicely.