This is my attempt at a waltz inspired by Toru Takemitsu's score for The Face of Another. I'm hesitant to call it original, since it's chock full of rhythmic and harmonic clichés from romantic period waltzes, not to mention the obvious influence from Takemitsu's work, as well as VSL masters like Guy Bacos and Saxer's wonderful Dimension String demo. So it might be better just to consider it an exercise, trying to emulate work that I admire.
I tried to simulate a midsized string orchestra by layering Dimension Strings with LASS. For better or for worse, I couldn't have achieved the resulting sound with either library alone, and I personally like how the libraries blend.
I struggled with how much reverb to use, and ended up using the absolute minimum I could get away with without exposing my sloppy playing/programming too much. I was going for the sort of raw, intimate sound I've heard in the Takemitsu recordings, though I'm not particularly satisfied with the result.
This was the first time I've tried writing something without using any notation whatsoever. I usually do everything in Sibelius, but this time I played in all of the parts manually in Cubase. I haven't quite embraced the piano roll as a substitute for score notation, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I do like how much control Cubase provides with regard to midi editing, which is quite a hassle in Sibelius.
I always appreciate any feedback or suggestions. Thank you for listening!
