A revised version of Deep Winter is ready for critique:
I included a double bass ensemble, widely interspersed through the piece to enhance the lower frequency aspect of the arrangement, as well as treated the deep synth pad with increased velocity/volume and more parts. The synthetic music box was replaced with harp samples, which I think deals with the shrillness and dissonance of the former (about which I had doubts from the beginning, actually.) And I replaced synthetic wind sfx with real free samples.
In the effort to variate the piece more, I made some some arrangement alterations: The original 1:47-1:54 was replaced with a slightly longer section featuring lower tones and a variation of the 2:04-2:20 segment; the original 2:45-3:00 backing part was replaced with a faster, higher part that persists until 3:14 (this was an attempt to reduce the population of the ostinato that was prevalent in the last two minutes of the song, since I like the motif but want to keep it from dominating the piece as it has); and the extra echoes on the backing violins were removed from 3:32 onward, hopefully treating the decay issue in the end.
Gentle attempts were made to treat homogeneity of intensity and volume, as well trying to add more humanization of note velocities. As an amateur at the task, though, I’m opting to wait for in-depth efforts against mechanical playing until I’m confident in the arrangement. I hope you enjoy this new version!