My new soundtrack. Need criticism, please!

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https://soundcloud.com/user5999551/epic-world

I need some constructive criticism, feedback and pros and cons.

Beautiful... No "constructive criticism" to offer, however. It is exquisite.

Indeed. The only thing I can suggest is to see if you can make it sound more realistic... Maybe that's not possible without spending a lot of money though, I wouldn't know...

Also, Tourdion started playing after this was finished and that was cool too.

nice.

Tourdion is not part of the piece. It is because Soundcloud "recommends" that piece to be played, when visiting my channel.
I don't know why. It must be my most popular track, for whatever reason...

Making it more realistic is very hard, because of the VSTs I use.
I don't want to spend several hundreds of maybe thousands, more realistic VSTs. They also take up a lot of disk space,
and the most expensive ones requires a seperate USB dongle/key. I want to keep it to the more simple.

I have no intentions of becoming a professional, that is why I only go for the VST's that can be bought instantly, and don't take up much disk space.

How do I make my music more popular (more listeners)?

You could try putting it on youtube.

Did so already...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PuYIABIdEQ

If you find the answer to that, please let me know!! !

Actually, if you were to ask me for advice on making something more popular, I'd say include as many relevant tags as you can and maybe even a few fringe ones, post on music-related forums (like here, but also gearslutz, internet radio sites, etc.,), and get word to everyone you know on Facebook.

And that's just the start. This isn't my greatest strength, and I'm looking to improve in that area in the next year. So my next advice would be to find someone who is good at this kind of thing either walk you through it or do it for you (helps if you have a little money, too).

If none of that works, the next thing I can say is take a reality check. It's not popular because, well, people simply just don't like it.

So what you want to do is switch off any emotional attachment you have to your work. Make the music, put it out there, and see what happens. Make another track, rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat FREQUENTLY. What you'll find is that the more work you put out there, the more likely you'll put something out there that more people will be drawn to. Once you find something that works in terms of popularity, capitalize on it and just do THAT for a while.

My problem right now is I just need some cash, so I'm not terribly worried about mass marketing much past any audience I might have within a 100 mile radius. Once I can generate some income and can buy a little time to do a LOT more work the way I want to, I want to see if I can put together a "focus group" to see what tracks are most likely to make it with a broader audience. People who are professional songwriters/producers with big labels have to pitch their music to their own labels just like the little guys, and I know a few big names who say they STILL get rejections from their own people. They accept that because neither they nor the people they work with/for want to release crap. Therefore, the more material you HAVE to release, the more rejections you're going to get, BUT the more likelihood you'll get more acceptances. My goal is to start a focus group consisting of "average-joe" friends of mine (non-professionals) who'll evaluate my work in terms of what THEY like, and they'll be instructed to be honest and not to spare my feelings. Only what I can get the highest ratings for with a small group (a dozen or so people) will be what I release on a commercial recording.

In terms of getting material out there and making it popular, you're going to need a lot of help. Working with friends to try to predict what's going to make it with larger audiences is a big step in the right direction.

OK…listened to your track.

Short answer: I like it.

Slightly longer answer: I don't have a problem with your orchestral sounds at all…cheap VST orchestra stuff works well the simpler you keep everything, so your scoring here reflects an economical use of your sounds. The problem, though, isn't with the sounds themselves, but with the envelopes. The sound gets choppy at inopportune moments, when this is a predominantly legato piece. I don't know what software you're using, but I'd recommend a longer release time if you're able to adjust that. It also sounds like maybe you need more polyphony, and I'm wondering if it's possible you're getting some voice dropouts? Increase the number of voices used in your software if it will allow you to do that. Also add a little reverb. Where you have some space between phrases, ESPECIALLY in your strings, it ends up sounding very clinical. You need at least 500 ms, I'd prefer 1 s, of reverb time to let your instruments breathe a little better.

You MUST put some percussion in there. It doesn't have to be a lot, and I can tell you're going for a more chorale-like sound or style, but it's very deadpan without percussion. Reason being you're punctuating your strings with a more ethnic flute sound, which without any more complementary ethnicity sounds lonely. You need to wake it up…just a little bit. At the least get some timpani and maybe a bodhran in there, at the MOST maybe a little sus. cymbal and concert toms. I'm NOT hearing snare drum in this, so don't do that. But give my other suggestion some thought.

Otherwise…quite nice!