SONG FEEDBACK WANTED

[MelleMelCreations]

Hello all first time poster here new member since December. Anyways lets get right to it. So I have been making some instrumentals, and initially was getting feedback about arc, dynamics, etc. well lately I think I've worked through that and now what I've received is slightly confusing So I'm hoping that someone could give me some insight. I'm not trying to say "this song should have made it to the FWD list." I'm just trying to make my music better. So here's the latest song that I think had the best feedback overall.

Here's the meat of the brief:
EMOTIONALLY UPLIFTING ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTAL CUES
Please submit Orchestral Instrumental Cues with uplifting positivity all the way through! Your submissions should have optimistic and hopeful motifs, and dynamic arrangements with plenty of forward motion and interest throughout. It's notable that company made a point to tell us that references don't become epic or grand in scale, so please pay attention to that. Orchestral instrumentation that's in the general stylistic ballpark of the references will work best. Please make sure that any virtual instruments or samples you use are high-quality, very realistic, and genre-appropriate.

Quoting the Client: "The music is uplifting, but it is not epic. Do not include any sound design elements such as whooshes, hits or risers, etc. This is purely orchestral music, but may include choir. The emotion is positive, optimistic, hopeful, uplifting, encouraging, etc."

Here's what I submitted
https://www.taxi.com/members/s9Pe6OoNQn ... w-strummin
on my profile its the song titled "Strummin" in case the link doesn't work
https://www.taxi.com/members/mmcreations

Here's the feedback I received:
What I like most about this song
I like the melody and instrumentation.

I think you could improve this song by
I think we could work more on having a more dynamic arrangement and making sure that our samples are high quality.

I returned or forwarded this song because
Samples could be higher quality.

I used SPITFIRE BBC Orchestra (Free) for all the instrumentations.

What I'm looking for from this post is some detailed direction. For the high quality, could they be referring to:
1. The bitrate of the song, that I need to use a higher bitrate, and that's causing the song to sound of lower quality when they listen to it?
2. The sounds of the instrumentation in the VST itself? If that's the case what VSTs do you recommend for me to upgrade to?
3. Does it not sound like an orchestra in terms of like over elongated notes that an orchestra wouldn't play?
4. Could the mastering be better and its degrading the quality of the sound?

Overall, I'm just trying to get better at what I'm creating. So any help would be great.

P.S. on my profile "Flutie" was another one with similar feedback , just in case someone wanted to give me feedback on that one too.
What I like most about this song
This has some potential.

I think you could improve this song by
We could have a fuller sound for this by layer our instruments and comparing this to other existing tracks. Comparing will give you a better sense on how it should sound. We can try to get it as close to an actual orchestra.

I returned or forwarded this song because
Orchestra sound has room for improvement.

[AlanHall]

Some of the VI patches need extra love: MIDI CCs (continuous controls) such as Expression or Mod Wheel are used to great effect to give the melodic lines a needed ebb and flow, phrasing that makes a sequence of notes into a musical phrase. Right now the tracks sound "too MIDI" to be broadcast quality.

The track 'flutie' was very nice until the violin patch entered at :30. At that point the sound of the patch killed the "suspension of disbelief" and I knew I wasn't listening to an actual chamber ensemble anymore.
Hope this helps.

[MelleMelCreations]

Some of the VI patches need extra love: MIDI CCs (continuous controls) such as Expression or Mod Wheel are used to great effect to give the melodic lines a needed ebb and flow, phrasing that makes a sequence of notes into a musical phrase. Right now the tracks sound "too MIDI" to be broadcast quality.

The track 'flutie' was very nice until the violin patch entered at :30. At that point the sound of the patch killed the "suspension of disbelief" and I knew I wasn't listening to an actual chamber ensemble anymore.
Hope this helps.

Yes that helps I appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule. So to clarify the sound ITSELF wasn't the issue, it was the way it was "played" it wasn't believable? like too abrupt sounding to be considered real in your head. That's the QUALITY it is speaking of.

Thank you again.

[cosmicdolphin]

For the high quality, ( what ) could they be referring to?

They mean how realistic the orchrestral samples sound which is more often down to how you play them and use the articulatios and expressive controllers to breathe life in to them. Even an older / more limited orchestral sample library can sound great in the right hands.

In general learn good orchestration and how to wring to the most expression from the sample libraries you have before looking into whether to get something better. There is nothing wrong with the free BBC Discover, it's just more limited it's scope of instruments , mic positions, articulations etc over the top of the range version. The base sound is the same.

[MelleMelCreations]

For the high quality, ( what ) could they be referring to?

They mean how realistic the orchestral samples sound which is more often down to how you play them and use the articulations and expressive controllers to breathe life in to them. Even an older / more limited orchestral sample library can sound great in the right hands.

In general learn good orchestration and how to wring to the most expression from the sample libraries you have before looking into whether to get something better. There is nothing wrong with the free BBC Discover, it's just more limited it's scope of instruments , mic positions, articulations etc. over the top of the range version. The base sound is the same.

Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time out to reply to my post. I just finished another one, and I made note to listen to the articulations and realism of the instrument. and if I questioned it even a little bit I redid it until I felt like it was realistic from WWAAYY back in the day when I was in wind orchestra lol.

[hollandnelson]

Hi - You were in the Taxi TV chat yesterday and I wanted to get back with you about helping our friend Marion get to the Road Rally and through her Taxi friends we can also help with her hotel. I know she wants to attend and I will help is you or another Taxi member will set up a GoFundMe or something similar. I don't navigate the Forum very well, but you can reach me directly at hollandnelsonmusic@gmail.com. Thank you!

[donnamichelle]

that was a well thought out piece - i loved the subtle drama that evoked adventure. I could totally hear me doing a spoken word piece to it - i was even freestyling with it. Nice job!