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I was playing this on my little computer speakers here at work and a co-worker came by and asked me what album that song was from and that it was really nice. I thought that was cool, way to go! I enjoyed the song as well. Some of it reminded me a bit of Peter Gabriel.From what I could discern on my computer speakers, you got the strings in just right, they lay in back of the vocal in a nice way. I didn't care for the amout of reverb on the lead vocal and the answer vocal was mixed a bit hot for my taste.As for matching ambiences, for the style you're doing here, it may not be necessary to have the band and vocals sound like they're in the same room as the strings, if that's what you're attempting to do. In pop music, going back to the Beatles (and maybe before), strings have been generally added as an overdub and the overall vibe is created in the mix, so it's a wide open field as far as ambience is concerned. Of course, Sinatra and his ilk always recorded in the room with the orchestra but that's a different style of pop music, of course.Form wise: I think your little interlude between verses is twice as long as it needs to be.Overall, I think you're on the right track with adding the orchestral sounds to your palette. Keep up the good work, looking forward to hearing more.Mazz

This is a mix of Pop ballad, worldmusic and classical with a little Enya touch to it. The strings behind there in the start needs a little work it´s like they are triggered a little of it´s getting a little "square" if one can say so in English. What works best are the more "quiet" parts but then again they work so super good. This is a wonderfull song I just love it but there is pretty much going on in parts of it. I´d focus on what´s needed only and let the song be in focus not the music. Thanks man this was a very good listen.Göran

Mixing orchestra and pop can be tricky, depending on how complex your orchestration is. When I recorded African Gospel Rhythms' "Project Maine" http://www.rhapsody.com/africangospelrh ... ojectmaine we included several songs with orchestra. I tended to make the orchestra fairly prominent in the mix (I'm an orchestra guy) and found the main problem to be making sure the 'band' instruments and the orchestral instruments didn't invade each others' space, meaning frequencies.Your mix sounds great, but to my ears the orchestra could be more in the foreground. Dr.E