The Forest Awakens: The flutes and strings seem to be a great way to instantly capture the forest vibe, as holds true in this piece. Right from the beginning, I felt transported to a peaceful woodland scene in the morning time with deer and birds visible in the distance (the flutes were the birds and the cello was the large stag). I particularly loved the part at 1:43 when the brass enter and take the melody, making it feel confident and heroic. This piece flows dynamically and orchestration-wise very well as if progressing through a day in the forest and also through the depth and story of the forest. The transition to lower register melody and support make the atmosphere seem darker which gives the auditory illusion of twilight going into night time for the next piece. Very nicely done!
What the Forest Holds at Night: The repeat of what we ended with the first piece is a great transition. The big brass chords have a really powerful tone that does a great job foreshadowing the danger lurking nearby, but the pizzicato strings make me think that we may still be safe for now… I like the march-like quality you introduce with the percussion. The militarized sound gives a sense of power to whatever it is that the forest is holding at night! The overall feeling I get from this piece I would say is one of suspenseful and foreboding, but not actively dangerous or thrilling. Having had my share of issues trying to get a midi snare to sound realistic, one of the biggest pieces of advice that I learned is to alternate the velocity of the midi. A realistic snare pattern like this would likely have one hand that is dominant over the other. It also would probably crescendo through the string of 16th notes. When using a march-like sound, it sometimes sounds more realistic to use two snares and pan them left and right and quantize them at 80-90% so there is slight variation between them. Not sure if this is helpful, but maybe it will be to somebody who reads this! Anyway, these pieces are really great as a pair. Great work and thank you for sharing!