Hi all,
Thank you very much for your kind and useful feedback!
@DJ: You're right about the slight compression issues, and unfortunately for me, SoundCloud's encoding does me no favours in masking it (the WAV is noticeably cleaner). If I do another pass, I'll leave a bit more headroom and see if I can lose those moments of compression burning. Beyond the technical, the fact that the music made you feel something is the best compliment I could hope to receive, so I really appreciate you listening and saying so!
@Nonamer: There is certainly a lot going on in the cue, that's for sure. Thematically, I had enough material to have it be double the length, but I was considering that even at 6 minutes it's stretching the attention span of many potential listeners, so the fact that it covers that ground at a fairly brisk pace was intentional — the notion being that people will be continually 'surprised' by the directions it goes in, and delighted to stay and listen to the end. There may have been a smarter compromise between the two extremes though, I've no doubt. I really appreciate the feedback either way.
As for how I did this in Logic, it was pretty straight-forward: lots and lots of sample libraries and a ton of RAM! We'd be here all day if I started listing everything, but the usual suspects make an appearance: EWQLSO, ProjectSAM, CineSamples, 8dio, VSL, etc. for orchestral stuff and Diva, Omnisphere, and Massive for the electronics. Happy to answer more specifically if you need.
@Jordan: Glad you enjoyed! I'm not sure I follow with what part of the beginning is sounding muddy to you (because I'm quite happy with the sound of the opening), but it may be my ears playing tricks so feel free to point out what area is giving you issues!
Thanks again for all your thoughts, everyone!