Russian Folk Instrumentals, S200118RS

[vbakh]

Hi.
This is my first submission to Taxi. I'd very appreciate your feedback and critique.
https://soundcloud.com/vbakh/russian-do ... ce/s-1Pdnt

Thanks in advance,
Vlad

P.S. BTW (and not to be confused), "Russian Winter" reference below sounds more like Balkans / Central European music to me than Russian. Russian folk music doesn't use many of the chord sequences, melodies, intervals, bass lines as in that clip.
The other two are genuine Russian though

RUSSIAN FOLK INSTRUMENTALS and/or INSTRUMENTAL CUES are needed by a busy Music Library with a very long list of killer placements in Hit TV Shows!
They’re searching for Mid-to-Up-Tempo Instrumentals or Cues that fall within the general stylistic ballpark of the following references:

Russian Folk Music - Kalinka (balalaika)
Russian Folk - Russian Winter
Russian Folk - Troika(balalaika)

Please send in original, well-composed Instrumentals/Instrumentals Cues in a traditional Russian style. Your Instrumentals/Cues should fit well under dialogue while quickly establishing a location and mood. Instrumentation can range from Solo Instrumentals to ensembles of various sizes; just be sure your arrangements, instrumentation, and melodies sound accurate to the region.
TAXI Tip: If you're using Virtual Instruments or samples, the closer they sound to the real deal, the better!
Your submissions should be at least 2 minutes in length – a little bit longer is fine. Non-Faded, Buttoned/Stinger endings will work best for this request. Broadcast Quality is needed.

[eeoo]

I know nothing about Russian folk music but I suspect you track will sound too obviously midi for this listing as per this:

TAXI Tip: If you're using Virtual Instruments or samples, the closer they sound to the real deal, the better!

Nice composition but to my ear needs to sound more organic.

[vbakh]

Eeoo, thanks a lot for feedback.

I used sampled instruments only. They are quite expensive and, and to my ear, quite high quality too . Do you have any recommendations or links to the information / "best practices" about how to make sampled instruments sound more natural?

Another question I have is whether it's ok to have high-speed and single-instrument solo parts in TV music. My concern is that they can distract from a dialogue, but I am not sure about that.

Thanks again,
Vlad

[eeoo]

I'm not a midi guy, I mostly record real instruments into a mic so probably not the best source for this kind of thing. But, I suspect playing with velocities so that each note is not the same volume and intensity as well as messing with the timing with things like groove templates or even manually moving notes around so they're not SO on the beat could help you get some of the way there. Also things like ambiance (reverb, delay) and distortion can add some life like qualities. No matter how good a sample sounds what gives a track life is the way it's played and the little imperfections are what give it a human feel. Hopefully someone with more midi experience can chime in.

[vbakh]

Ok, got it. So, It's (mostly) not the sound of the plugins themselves, but MIDI-like (aka too mechanical/quantized) performance/technique used.

Thanks a lot for feedback, I'll do my best to fix it.
Regards,
Vlad