Unconvincing flute/piccolo parts (orchestral)

[Lying Pink]

Hey all. Currently doing some work on an orchestral track and I've run into a bit of a problem. There's a section of the piece where it builds to a loud section with the old orchestral percs, low strings combo (with some other bits of woodwind and brass in the mix too). I added some flute and pic stabs which I really want to cut through the low-end and add a bit of drama and momentum to this section, but at the moment they sound a little... soggy.
Here's the section: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ba0hb71dionbu21/fluteysection.mp3
I'm aware there are numerous other problems with the mix, the biggest being that the lows and mids aren't EQ'd and the volume balance is a little off (I just stuck a limiter on the project file to render it really) - I'm also aware that fixing these problems will probably improve the way the flutes/pics sound in the mix. But -- bearing in mind that I don't have the money to be spending on better quality orchestral sample libraries right now -- has anyone got any suggestions for improving this? Considering recording the pic part myself and overlaying it, but I haven't played the piccolo in a number of years - I'm a bit out of practice.

[itroitnyah]

They sound fine to me, try mixing them properly with everything else and see if it sounds any better. Although I'm using a $100 set of headphones, so it may be very well possible that it sounds good to me because of the quality that my headphones are, lol.

[Lying Pink]

Ha, fair enough! Maybe I've just been working on it for so long that I'm hearing faults that aren't there. I'll polish up the mix a little more and see how it sounds. Thanks for the input!

[JSynth]

What you are hearing is probably caused by midi limitations. I wouldn't worry about it too much, it doesn't sound bad.

[Lavender_Harmony]

It sounds very recessed, and I think the major problem is that it's completely dry. Have you tried putting some reverb on it, just to flesh out the sound? You would never come across a sample that dry, even when recorded in a studio, because of the nature of the instrument, it will always reverberate around a room and the mic will pick that up.

[Dr_Dissonance]

Yeah, what Lav said. Sounds very very dry. Piccolos leave that faint ringing in your ear after each note and there's none of that there!

[Lying Pink]

Thanks a lot for the advice! I added some room reverb to the woodwind samples in that section, changed the volume a little and it sounds considerably better. Now there's nothing left for me to procrastinate with, and I have to finish arranging the piece! Oh... oh actually I don't know how I feel about that.
In any case, thanks again for the tips.