certain mixing guys can trash your band if you let them have too much influence within a working band on the road ,I don`t mean sound wise but they can poison a good working vibe because of their opinions of what sounds good and can influence weak minded members causing fall outs and then the inevitable . and the closely related studio versions can be the same ,they think they re in charge ,I must stress that not all are like this ,some are great and you would love them to be part of whatever you do ,just remember what came first, the chicken or the takeaway sandwich.
Very first thing I’ll say is that the left side at the intro is very bare. The chords either aren’t scored for string section properly or the panning/levels aren’t correct so the balance between left, center and right isn’t there. I think the intro goes on for too long, I’d have liked it either half the length or the introduction of a steady rhythmic instrument, even something subtle like egg shakers or something. The violin part at like 3:40, you should try to write some small, non-instrusive parts for the other string sub-sections throughout to give it some variation and harmonic interest and it’s some practice for string writing. 
2:00 - From an orchestration perspective; for balance I think it’d be better to have the 2nd violins playing the pizz parts either in unison, octaves, sixths or and the solo violin from the 1st violins meaning it’d be just left of center.
Mixing and stuff, idk really. Listening on earphones plugged into my soundcard since that’s all I have functional right now lol. The levels seem to sound balanced, but the strings could really do with some better expression editing, you know like rises and falls in dynamics.
The bassline is definitely more interesting, although not quite there overall. Improving is what we’re all aiming for so as long as you’re learning new things then good going. 
Some sort of stereo doubling on the timpani? It immediately sounds odd to me because I’m used to the timpanist(s) being in the same spot but I guess it doesn’t sound bad, just odd for personally. I didn’t like the triangle hits, they’re too loud and unusual for the style with strings.
I can’t even be bothered to respond to that driftpunch tool anymore, I just click report instead. Obvious troll is obvious.
thanks for your critiques jonathan…need to aquire some patience to do what you do with the orchestral stuff…agreed it would make the song much better and listening again the intro is too long…if I ever catch up with the songs I want to get done I may revisit it, cheers, Kevin
Hah yeah, I have too many pieces I keep say that I’m gonna go back and improve. Just gotta shrug and let them go I guess. Although given that this one is current I’d say just experiment, improvise with the string parts one-by-one and you will learn things gradually.
maybe I need to stop using Omni for strings and use Miroslav because Miroslav puts all the instruments in the correct place…so next time…
Or just have a quick listen to any orchestra concert on Youtube and match the sub-sections of the strings panning to what sounds matched.
Hi Kevin,
beautiful voice as always. I agree with Jonathan that the intro is too long. And there’s some silence at the end of every musical line, because the orchestral hits and voice have nearly the same timing. Maybe find something to subtle fill the gaps.
Yeah…totally agree, can’t go back though…too many songs, so little time, such a pathetic producer…cheers, Kevin
After I read these comments, I went back and listened again, to see if I missed something. I still really dig the bass track. I think the recording is pretty lo-fi, but I’m guessing that this is yet another mp3 lo bit-rate thing. I also still hear a lot of junk in the vocal track – a weird warble and grungy quality.
I can’t say it’s a bad song. A bit repetitive, yes. It reminds me of a Pulp song from back when, can’t recall which record. I recognize that Omni patch – “Cathedral Strings,” right? I use that one a lot, too 