What makes this not broadcast quality?

[lucis]

Hi,

if you've enjoyed some success with forwards and singings from your pitches would you be so kind to take the time to share your opinion about why this is not "broadcast quality" ?

thanks and good luck with your work.

Lucis Starling


https://soundcloud.com/lucis-starling/alchemy

[themichaelscott]

Just some thoughts...

Maybe it's just because it's streaming, but the quality sounds like something I would have downloaded illegally back in the Napster days. The drums especially. I feel like the track is missing the glue that tightens it up and brings it all together. Even though it's supposed to be a spacy feeling song, I think it needs to be tightened up. Is there any form of mastering done to the track? Also, the bottom end seems to be missing, but then again I'm often too heavy on the bass so take that for what it's worth.

Mainly, for me, that static, lo-fi streaming sound seems to be to prevalent on several instruments.

Michael

[andygabrys]

little loose with the cymbals / hi-hat on the L side vs. the insistent hi-hat pattern on the R - especially in the little break after 2:00 to 2:18 or so. There are a lot of little production things like this that I would tighten up. Also are you intending this to sound like a band? If so the hi-hats on L and R would be pretty impossible to play by one drummer. You could have two drummers on the tune, but I think most people are going to assume 1 and listen from that standpoint.

Agree with themichaelscott - seems like the mix could use some work to make everything seem more cohesive and hear everything. When I listen really quiet (now about 3:44) all I hear are some guitars and the R hi-hat and the L side cymbals and LOTS of vocals. No bass, no drum kit except for the hi-hats and cymbals.

to me:

broadcast quality = a tune that you could put in a playlist of tunes off a TV program or commercials and you would hear the tune being close to the same in terms of compositional ideas, performance / tightness, programming, mix quality, and impact, regardless of whether you are monitoring on speakers or headphones, and regardless of the listening level (hint: unbalanced mixes are easy to spot if you drop your monitoring level way down to where you can hear yourself breathing over the music. It also reduces negative impact of having an untreated room)

Does this fall into the category for you?

[lucis]

Hi and a big thank you for your feed back Michael and especially you Andy.

Well i guess I better fire my drummer for showing off on the hi hats...of course i joke as my drummer is my index fingers.
It's still hard for me when my best piece still doesn't make the short list. Now after a conversation with Ronan Chris Murphy and these comments I can hear that in my effort to capture an 'etherial sound' to reflect my lyrical theme, my use of reverb blurred the tones of my instruments (which is what reverbs are supposed to do !..and push them back into the soundscape) ...but this also gave an 80's Joy Division/ Chamelions quality to my snare & kick samples..not the clarity and punch of Nirvana & Fu Fighters i was going for. And because i haven't 'drummed' it into my workflow to continuously A/B between the reference sound I am aiming at and the sound I am producing, I let my songwriter's ears dominate my production engineer's ears. I have to get into a mindset that i work for my songwriter or that i am his boss. and my job is not to slap myself on the back muttering 'genius man, sheer genius!" but to deliver the best /right sound for the project and song!! ...when will i learn?

(In the case of a TAXI listing, even when I become the master of this issue with sonix... it's always about sound-a-likes and being careful not to push one's creativity and originality beyond 15% of the benchmark.)

As for Napster, from what I read in Ahmet Ertegun's biography the RIAA shot down the 18 years old student Shawn Fanning's Napster, which was a forerunner and messenger of what was to come in the 21 century distrubution and point of sale e-Commerce revolution, not because its product was lo-fi, but because between June 1999 and December 1999 and over the 3 years it took to close it down, Napster allowed college students to download 2.5 billion individual songs for which the RIAA recieved no royalty payments. Forgetting the lesson from the myth of King Canute, when he tried to hold back the tides, they sued Mr. Fanning and his technology instead of adopting the usual strategy of the Major Record Label's wealthy owners and shareholders in Music industry which is to BUY into and ultimately BUY OUT for LARGE numbers, the founder owners of indie labels which have managed to generate hits and are 'taking money out of their mouths' and diluting their market share. Now-a-days we have the new model as seen in YouTube, Blogs and personal Websites, as they present another effective and relatively very inexpensive path to Global DIstribution and Point of sale for successful independent artists and labels but only IF ...and, it's a big if, and ONCE the artist has written THE right song and produced it in the right way...like Gotye's 'Someone I Used to Know'. Then roalyties will flow from Radio and Broadcasting and well as the fact that the download mechanicals of 0.79 cents will acheive large enough multipliers that will then total / add up to a month or two or even a year or more rent or mortgage repayments.

And here I am in my pink fantasies then 'pop' a TAXI screener bursts my dream bubble and shows me just how far my best piece to date still is from delivering that as reality for me ! ...then i come down with a bump and post a comment to this forum.

Well I'll go make those suggested changes, fire that drummer, keep it straight and simple....remove the reverbs, change the snare and kick sample and redo the vox....and keep on keeping on !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r0_NsG6pcU

good luck with your own work Andy and Michael.

Lucis.

[HectorRContreras]

Yes ! I could work out your TAXI Link. Here it is :
http://www.taximusic.com/hosting/home.p ... s_Starling

Listening to : "Alchemy" Oh I see, the Sound is a wee bit far at first ... then the Vocalist comes and it is really good. Sounds a Contemporary Song from Britain. It has many original/different Musical ideas as far the Sound is concerned. The Percussion for instance is unusual.
Ok; the misunderstanding is about the word "quality". Because it is definitively a Song with a lot of quality. Quality in the Composition and in the Conception. And in the Performance. I like it !
It is just unfamiliar and infrequent. The Sound is not clear or neat or conventional. The Sound is not near us. The Sound has a life of its own.
It is an excellent Musical Composition for Concerts, or for one of those original Modern short Films. Or one of those unique Animation/Creation.

Perhaps the Listing could not take it because the different Percussion Sounds (which I like personally) would have been in the way, so to speak.

Do you see what I mean ? It is not enough plain or simple. But it is a very interesting Composition however. One that should not go in a drawer.