What did you use for midi? A notation program? Well, anyway, for sounding more natural you have to play in your parts by hand and be more flexible with different articulations.
I like the variety in your composition. There are quite some unexpected things happening which give that piece a journey-like character. Good, I think you have a talent for bigger form. In the end things are a bit repeating and redundant. Maybe it´s wise to put in some more work after 4:25. For me it looses content there. The recapitulation of the theme is just a bit too much held back, the tension is stressed over. Maybe for a quick fix just delete 4:20 to 5:20 and let the theme from 4:46 come after the triumphe part as the real end.
I also like your orchestral variety with clear contrasts. The only thing I really would like you to correct is the overuse of the bassdrum. It still works till 1:32 or even 1: 45 but then it´s done, especially after 2:10 it´s just muddying and droning, especially when the proper reverb is applied. I think you could change then to timpani and even get a much more dramatic effect out of it. It has sharper attacks and a clearer rhythm.
Around 3:30 remember that wind players have to breathe. Other than that it´s the most beautiful part, I think.

@Another User said:

Around 3:30 remember that wind players have to breathe.

Nah..........hehe, I'll change that too.

Ok. As of now, I am working on a revision. Thanks a lot for the help so far! I'll let you know when its up! [[:)]]

Ok, it's updated. I stripped some parts, and played around with the reverb a bit.

Let me know if it's better.

www.angelfire.com/music6/sm-music/TheBattle.mp3

It´s very good, Omega. It´s a proof of your musicality and your ear. And the form really works now, too. And you listen to comments. Congrats! You shouldn´t have a problem getting accepted at a music school. If they don´t accept you you know that wasn´t the right school. Choose your school with care, talk with the teachers first and visit their lectures. If you find the right school your music will improve dramatically. And of course your production, too. (there´s a lot of room for improvement actually, but don´t care for now. In your stage it´s not important. It will just distract you.) It is important for you to work with musicians of flesh and blood, to visit orchestral rehearsels, to study music history etc. A place at a good music school is the right place for you.
Good luck and take care!
Bests,
- Mathis

(And keep us updated!)

Successfully downloaded it without angelfire problems, and enjoyed listening to the newer version. Best of luck in music school. It is certainly a strong, musical recording -- but remember that people evaluating you at the best music schools will be trying to move through many applicants quickly, and looking at paper is much faster than listening to complete works. So take some care with the score preparation, too!

What mathis says is very, very true, that having living musicians around you is important, so a school where there are good instrumentalists, and lots of them, is worth finding.

Gugliemo made a very relevant point. The score is *extremely* important for music schools. They will want to know exactly why you wrote this in that way and why you chose this for that and so on. I think this is correct. There is so much music written down so bad. And as a composer it is your job to be very precise in what you determine as the desired result.

Thanks a lot guys! Your comments really help. I was just wondering, I was looking at Berklee School of Music in downtown Boston. What do you guys think of that school?

If you're in the eastern USA, you might also look at Eastman (if you can manage to get in). Others great options would certainly include New England Conservatory, Curtis and in NYC, Julliard and maybe Manhattan School of Music. If you're looking for a "film scoring" school, bear in mind that, with most of the industry in Los Angeles, USC and UCLA are solid on craft but also offer contemporary resources like Berklee with the added bonus of industry contacts (and better weather).

hey, do you know that the real orchestra mic are all on different position ? your recording seems pretty machine because it is seems recording at equal distance, especially on string and woodwind section, becareful on the reverb that you are putting on, EACH INSTRUMENT HAVE IT'S OWN REVERB!!!
brass also have a problem on reverb, it seems 2cm close to me, which is not a good mixing by the way, try to take a look on orchestration book to determine how much reverb to putting on each instrument, see you ...

Yeah, I've looked at Eastman. I like it there, however it seems to be more focused on performance than anything.

@Another User said:

EACH INSTRUMENT HAVE IT'S OWN REVERB!!!

Yeah, each instrument should have its own reverb. But when you add multiple reverbs on a 1.3 ghz and 512 mb, your computer will shut down automatically from the CPU usage lol. So I didnt have a choice in that song. As for mics, I dont have gigapulse. Yes, it does sound "machine" like, but that's my computers fault. I'm limited as of now until I can upgrade. Where would I be able to find an orchestration book, Ikthomas? Thanks for the help.

very popular book call "instrumentation and orchestration", but any orchestration book should tell you the exact position of each instrument, also, if you are on low resource computer, try to seperate to record , for example, you got 12instrument, try to record 4 each time ( just mute the rest of track ), then using cooledit pro or soundforge to mix them together, so that reverb could be run on low resource computer if you record them seperately , good luck.

Alright, I'll have to play around with it. Thanks Ikthomas.