Thanks everybody for the compliments. It's very encouraging that you find time to listen and comment.
William, glad that I hit you on your "dearest" one. [:)] Your enthusiasm is contagious, you know?... I think I enjoy my own mockup much more after reading your post [:)] It suddenly sounds better... no further EQ, no more mic-reverb-panning tests, "no nothing" else needed [;)] It's always sweet when somebody appreciates what you're doing, so thank you very, very much.
Clamnectar, it's fun that you mentioned the tempo. I listened to the author's own recording and I thought the same [^o)], so I decided to "betray" the composer and speed my version a little up. Anyway, I think this music is so solid, and psycologically intense that it tolerates both this and this extremes. Trying a faster, cleaner version that may suit your like will be a good exercise for me. I'll post it later.
Errikos, glad that you also hear a little of the sordino sound... but it's all EQ. I haven't tried the "sord." samples yet, but I wanted this to sound similar in case I need to mix the "senza sord." with the "sord." patches to add some punch on the accents.
To answer your PS... I need to go a little personal. I don't feel very confortable doing it, but I think it's worth it because I frankly sympathize with you after reading this. In fact, I think I edited that post at least 4 or 5 times, Errikos [:S]... in less than half an hour!! I'm sure it's a record here [:)] It happened this way: first, my wife (who played the flute in my first tracks) was enjoying your comments and read my original post, looked at me ironically, and said "you always tell me that you feel like a worm at the feet of the masters... how can a worm really have a problem with chimps?". Then, I got a call: my father was in the hospital (heart problems, 3rd surgery in the last year; I spent the whole week at the hospital and he's recovering well and fast now, btw.) How I connected this two apparently unrelated events is hard to explain, but it was very significant for me... and made me change that post almost compulsively until I finally deleted all about the "zoo". I also didn't want to turn my first post into the "planet of the chimps", and end up doing a bad copy of Goldsmith's style for my students [:P]. It was not long ago that I was fighting the same war against what you call "chimps", both the academic-avant-garde ones and the chugga-chugga ones, Errikos, and I sometimes felt very frustrated. Then life visited me in the form of illness and death, two severe but highly efficient masters. In their presence, I found no time to write music... but I realized I had also no time for fighting. When they finished their teachings and left, I discovered I had time for music, but not for fighting. Life is short. Let's everybody do what they want to do; I guess every composer is trying to write the best music they can, or to use music to achieve academic renown, earn a lot of money... whatever, you name it. Everybody must fulfill their desires. Still, when I read something like the post you wrote, I feel I understand you extremely well. I understand your rage, for it's not a trivial fight. It's our capacity to appreciate and value the immense richness of the heritage that the great masters left us what's in play here. We are loosing it, very quickly, and it's sad. Now, I just want you to understand I will fight from now on with the weapons of my music, not my words. So, the last part of my post was finally deleted... and it's well so. Hope you understand.
Again, many thanks to you all.