Nice writing on this piece from the jump. Functional harmony, good structure and pacing.

Those strings are a little ... wonky though. I would recommend Synful Orchestra strings and/or free version of Pocket Blakus for believable articulations. The attacks on Halion are fine for long tones and swells, but for runs as you have them, not quite genuine sounding. Hear the attacks and releases against each other? How they sound almost like a keyboard? Stringed instruments all have a sharp, breathy attack, especially bowed strings. You can hear the horse hair or synth fibers catch the string before they start to vibrate. Some artists use this to great effect.

I've taken a moment to look up Mari Kimura, just to make sure this is who I'm thinking of -- indeed she is. What you hear when the bow first catches the string is a split second (milleseconds) of "subharmonics," overtones, "undertones," etc., before the strings start singing. Mari uses them in her music quite frequently, and I figured it might be an opportunity to hear what I'm talking here. String Theatre features a short demonstration, and as she continues to play, note the slight scraping sound with each attack and release, occasionally through a sustain. Halion is wonderful, but it sounds so sterile to my ear by comparison.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed this piece. Very nostalgic. Modulations in all the right places. Shave off some low end from the reverb, cut a bit of a shorter release on 'em, and give those strings a little more breath in the 16k-18k range, and that'd be the icing on the cake. Very nice work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!