I have had a second listen to your track, Dave: there is nothing wrong with it.
Please note that this is only my opinion:
Clarinet and Piano are performed perfectly, only from time to time the Violin sounds a bit less credible, only here and there, it is definitely well performed overall.
1) I normally stay away from solo strings, they are the most difficult thing to render.
2) Particularly if your compositional skills exceed your production skills please be patient with solo string renditions.
3) Please listen to this: Guy Bacos - Solo Violin, with this sample library (which you already own) you can do anything that you might do with Joshua Bell, or with David Oistrakh. 😇
4) Reverb always contributes to realism, I would personally bring the clarinet and the violin a bit more towards the center and just a bit closer to the listener.......I would also try to experiment with different IRs comparing your track to other recordings of similar music. Again this is just a matter of personal preference but I would try a smaller and/or brighter stage.
Please don't be discouraged and keep up the good work! 😊
Hi Francesco,
Thanks so much for taking the time both to listen and to offer such helpful and constructive feedback. Yes, it seems that with reference to #3 above, Guy Bacos has the Midas touch with regard to his use of VSL. I noticed articulations though that I don't even have (only have the standard library, not the extended) nor do I use Vienna Suite. That said, obviously, his expertise is light years beyond my own, and quite frankly, listening to his music only discourages me as I feel I won't get to that level of production finesse in this lifetime.
As for #4, thank you for these suggestions. We'll definitely play around with things and see if we can't "heighten the realism." That said, I am also inclined to (gasp!) consider adding other non-VSL libraries to my instrument list, for the reasons you cited above.
Cheers!
Dave