No one was home here Saturday night so I had plenty of time to experiment in the studio. So after six hours on Saturday night and three more today and Escape to Virtual Reality is what I ended up with.

Technical stuff: This started in Band-in-a-Box as style Float1, then it was imported to Sonar and morphed into what you hear here.

Let me know what you think.

Hi Mario,

Every time I listen to one of your works, I think to myself, "I don't know if it can get any better than this". Then you write something new and you raise the bar even higher. "Escape to Virtual Reality" has done it yet again. This is an excellent work, very emotive. At around 2'13" the flute sound seemed, for one instant, slightly louder than the background music warranted. But that was only ONE note and MY ears (one needs to keep a perspective on these things)!

I thoroughly enjoyed your composition, arrangement, performance and mix

All the best,
Noel

Very cool Mario. I love this kind of music. Parts of this are worthy of a film score. Very nice indeed. Two observations I have-

- The first guitar licks timing is off a bit. This should be tightened up.

- All guitars need to be mixed a bit more out front, with some verb or maybe even delay- maybe both. There's plenty of room to have fun with ambient effects on the guitar tracks and it may help to get them in the same space as the rest of the track.

That's it. Hell of a nice job!

Dan

Thanx Noel and Dan for listening, for the kind reviews and the constructive criticism.

Noel – I will check that flute note out. Thanx for pointing that out to me.

Dan – I’ll check those guitar-timing licks out. I’ll experiment with the guitar effects. I didn’t want the guitar parts to becoming overpowering but maybe I put them to far back.

I’ll take all the comments from here and Kara-Moon and see what the consensus is.

Thanx again.

Mario, that was a real treat, thanks! You have an enviable knack of coming with very original pieces.
I love the percussion, and adore the Ennio Morricone "The Mission"-type choir patch! Where did those come from? I also like the way the piece breaks out at 1:37.
Changes? Yes, push the guitars up in the mix a little, especially the acoustic that comes in at 1:04 which I think would sound striking if it came in very prominently in the mix for the few bars it's there.

John

Yep, heard the timing-issues and I agree on bringing up the guitars....

But man, every time you go to your studio you crank out another great song! Loved it. '
Good job.

Thanx John for your comments. The choir patch comes with the Kontakt 4. That is the only reason I upgraded. Kontakt’s AET morphing mode is fantastic. That is what is used here; the choir morphs through the vowels!

Thanx Mike for the very kind words.

As per my forum friends I have corrected some of the version 1’s problems with Version 2 . I have re-recorded the first lead guitar part to correct a timing problem, increased the lead and acoustic guitar parts volume, added a touch of reverb to the acoustic guitar part and calmed down some of the Ocarina parts.

I’ll let you decide which version you like the best.

Mario,

Yep version 2 tightened it up to where it needed to be - you stuff always takes me to a good place - I have not always been a "country and western" guy.

Another one that should be in a cinema sound track.

Great job !!

Thanx Powderman for the very kind words.

Mario! You just keep cranking tunes out. I loved the song (version 2 issues were corrected). The layers are wonderful and so soothing. Great job, super arrangement, and quality mix. Keep up the great work
Marty

Mario,

Really liked this one, this is a solid arrangement and the choir patch may be the best I have ever heard.

As Russ would say . . good on ya!

Later,

Marty, thanx for the very kind words, I appreciate them very much.

Danny, thanx! I agree about the choir patch. That is the only reason I upgraded Kontakt.