# I wrote a waltz for my daughter



## adrien

Hi everyone, hope you are all looking forward to having a break over the festive season.

I wrote a waltz for my daughter (she's 7). Hope you enjoy it. Any feedback welcome. Yes, bass line is probably weak again. It's a simple waltz, my goal was for it to be carefree and innocent.






Cheers

Adrien


----------



## Captainnumber36

I like it very much!


----------



## Guest

adrien said:


> Hi everyone, hope you are all looking forward to having a break over the festive season.
> 
> I wrote a waltz for my daughter (she's 7). Hope you enjoy it. Any feedback welcome. Yes, bass line is probably weak again. It's a simple waltz, my goal was for it to be carefree and innocent.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Adrien


Very enjoyable. One could easily dance to that and I hope your daughter does so !! 
May I ask if you made the score with Sibelius or Finale (or other)?


----------



## adrien

Captainnumber36 said:


> I like it very much!


thanks! I'm glad you like it


----------



## adrien

TalkingHead said:


> Very enjoyable. One could easily dance to that and I hope your daughter does so !!
> May I ask if you made the score with Sibelius or Finale (or other)?


thanks! She starts ballet again next year so maybe she will get to dance to it. I think at the moment she is just a bit embarrassed, but I think she likes it.

I use Sibelius and NotePerformer. And Fabfilter Pro-R for reverb.


----------



## Paul T McGraw

Nicely done. Well orchestrated.


----------



## gprengel

How lovely! And what as a great spacious sound! I also use NotePerformer, but I never heard of Fabfilter Pro-R for reverb before ... Thank you, I will check this out too ...

Gerd


----------



## adrien

Paul T McGraw said:


> Nicely done. Well orchestrated.


Thanks Paul, I'm glad you liked it!


----------



## adrien

gprengel said:


> How lovely! And what as a great spacious sound! I also use NotePerformer, but I never heard of Fabfilter Pro-R for reverb before ... Thank you, I will check this out too ...
> 
> Gerd


Thanks Gerd, yes I first got the idea of using an after-market reverb from someone else on one of the FB composer groups, they were using a top-end reverb plugin that costs a large amount of money (Altiverb). I went for a cheaper option with the FabFilter, which still gets very good reviews.


----------



## gprengel

Dear Adrian,
how do you combine Fafilter with NotePerformer/Sibelius? Do you use it directly out of Sibelius as a plugin? Or do you create wav-Files with Sibelius for each instrument and load these then into Fabfilter?

LG Gerd


----------



## adrien

Hi Gerd

There are a few steps.

1. Get Sibelius to even find Fabfilter. Depending on where the VST gets installed you may need to add the VST folder to Sibelius in the Audio Engine Options once you choose Play setup.

2. Hook Fabfilter to the processing chain. This is in the Effects tab in Play setup.

Play setup is the dialog that shows (called Playback Devices) when you go to the play section on the ribbon, and click the little square next to the word setup on the left.

I would suggest creating a new Configuration, for me it's NotePerformer + Fabfilter. So you can switch back and forth.

Once it's listed as an effect, you can edit the parameters.

Note that the reverb config is stored per Play configuration, not per Sib file, so every time I alter reverb settings, I go back into the Play setup, and re-save the configuration. You can access the reverb config from the mixer - it shows as an effect on the master fader.


----------



## gprengel

Dear Adrian, I could install the Fabfilter and now I am experiementing with it... 
May I ask you: Do you use it differentiating between instrument groups (woodwinds and brass with more distance?) or do you use it as a whole for your "orchestra" ? What settings do you use for Distance, Space and Mix?
Thank you! 
Gerd


----------



## adrien

Hi Gerd

I just use it on the master fader, for the whole mix. 

My settings: 

Brightness: 73.25%
Character: 20%
Distance: 36%
Space: 2.40s
Decay Rate: 100%
Stereo Width: 85%
Mix: 55%

there's also EQ on the actual reverb signal - boosting lows and highs.


----------



## gprengel

Dear Adrien,
I thank you for your settings. This was very helpful for me and really did improve the sound of my symphony! I adopted your settings for all of my wind/brass instruments (being more in the back of the orchestra) but not for the strings. For the strings it works well for your waltzes but not so much for my works which are more in Vienna classical style .

Gerd


----------



## adrien

Hi everyone. I wrote another piece for my daughter. I figured the waltz alone was too short to be programmed so I would make it part of a suite.

Here's a small march I wrote to go along with it. I imagine her walking around the garden on a sunny day picking flowers.






Hope you enjoy


----------



## neofite

Hello Adrien,

These are both delightful. Obviously you have an in-depth knowledge of music composition, including melody creation, harmony, instrumentation, counterpoint, etc. Just curious, but how did you develop these skills, and are you a professional composer?

Cheers!


----------



## Rogerx

adrien said:


> Hi everyone. I wrote another piece for my daughter. I figured the waltz alone was too short to be programmed so I would make it part of a suite.
> 
> Here's a small march I wrote to go along with it. I imagine her walking around the garden on a sunny day picking flowers.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hope you enjoy


Sounds good, hope she will enjoy it. :angel:


----------



## adrien

neofite said:


> Hello Adrien,
> 
> These are both delightful. Obviously you have an in-depth knowledge of music composition, including melody creation, harmony, instrumentation, counterpoint, etc. Just curious, but how did you develop these skills, and are you a professional composer?
> 
> Cheers!


Thanks very much! Actually I am a bit of a newbie to composing, I started in mid 2018 so coming up to only 2 years. I never studied composing, or orchestration or anything although I am having ad-hoc lessons now when I can get them and when I'm working on something I feel I need help with.

I started with doing arrangements / condensing for string orchestra of big orchestral stuff, esp ballet music from Tchaikovsky, Khachaturian, and other stuff from Shostakovich, Ravel and some British light orchestral stuff. That gave me a pretty good insight into how those amazing composers constructed those works I studied. I did that for about 2 years. Then I fell into doing my own stuff and haven't done any more arranging since then.

I have had a few paid composing commissions but I wouldn't call myself a composer yet. Many on these forums have had many many years experience and quite some critical success. I fear my stuff will always be considered anachronistic or derivative because I like strong recognisable melodies and harmony and simplicity. But I mainly do it for myself. I'm not trying to push any boundaries in experimental stuff.


----------



## adrien

Rogerx said:


> Sounds good, hope she will enjoy it. :angel:


Thanks. I think she mostly is a bit embarrassed I write things for her


----------



## adrien

Hi everyone

I rounded that suite off with a Galop. It's just meant to be a bit of fun. Hope you enjoy

Cheers

Adrien

So this is the suite in full. Not sure if this should be the order, or the reverse should

http://www.sundayclub.com/adrien/galop.mp3
http://www.sundayclub.com/adrien/Picking_flowers.mp3
http://www.sundayclub.com/adrien/lucy_waltz.mp3


----------



## mikeh375

Very nice Adrien, you have a melodic gift. There is also a nice feel for scoring too. all this is remarkable given you are quite new to composing. As I'm writing, youtube has gone on to play your Waltz no9 which I think I like even better.
The Galop is great fun and Picking flowers quite charming too. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we've found our modern day Strauss.


----------



## adrien

mikeh375 said:


> Very nice Adrien, you have a melodic gift. There is also a nice feel for scoring too. all this is remarkable given you are quite new to composing. As I'm writing, youtube has gone on to play your Waltz no9 which I think I like even better.
> The Galop is great fun and Picking flowers quite charming too. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we've found our modern day Strauss.


Crikey, that's very flattering!

Thank you for your very kind comment.


----------

