Too MIDI?

[VanderBoegh]

Hey Tralf, I just read through everyone's comments and listened to your track. I'd have to agree with everything Cruciform said. Sounds like the players are bored while performing (I'm a trumpet player, and have played in many boring musicals, and when you're bored it comes across in the performance).

Sounds like real strings to me though. Not once did I say, "Aha! That's MIDI!". But the screener's comment isn't a reflection on Taxi, if the actual listing party him/herself did the actual screening. In that case, I've found that music supes aren't as good as giving feedback as Taxi screeners, since it's really not their job... they just have an inkling of what will or won't work for the project they're on. Often, they don't know how to express that in written form.

No matter. Keep working and writing more. If you've got a live string quartet at your disposal, you're leaps and bounds ahead of many of us MIDI players!

~~Matt

[shoodBworkin]

Oh, the travails of the anonymous screener screening for the anonymous supervisor screening for the anonymous listing party . . .

[PeterD]

tralfamadore,

I really liked it! Even if some interpret "boredom", I would call it more sentimental or melancholic (just like the supe asked for in the listing). A fine line for sure ... Maybe it's something else. Too much enthusiasm in a piece like this would potentially sound "off."

In any event, it sounded 100% authentic to me and perhaps perfect for a more specific scene. Maybe the supe was overwhelmed with all the styles they received that they only selected the best ones they heard?

I think it's easy to spend a lot of time (after the fact) trying to uncover the thought process of the supe during the 9 minutes they spent listening to each submission. Trying to be fair, In this case, I think it's more about them and not a screener.

Again, The Queen's Study has a great mood, well-recorded, and overall - VERY NICE to my ears.

[funsongs]

tralfamadore,
I really liked it! Even if some interpret "boredom", I would call it more sentimental or melancholic (just like the supe asked for in the listing). A fine line for sure ... Maybe it's something else. Too much enthusiasm in a piece like this would potentially sound "off."

Indeed, Mr. D... neither can I recall the last time I was excited about feeling melancholy.
Sorry to bore you with my rePete visit.

[Len911]

fwiw, I didn't hear any synths for sure, or odd midi instructions being played out. If it had samples, then there were some really nice "sampled phrases". I think it was maybe returned more for style, because the title of the piece and the accompanying photo of the Queen suggested to me it was a castle parlour piece and I was convinced after listening. Because it was well played, if you'd have titled it differently I most probably would have agreed! Sold me!

[funsongs]

...and the accompanying photo of the Queen...

... ... well, gee... there's your problem... aint no par-tay goin' on in there...!

[niallyboy]

Let us not try to rationalize/interpret/enable what was an apparent incorrect call by the screener. If the screener felt the performance was blasé, then the screener should have said so, and not call it something it wasn't. I would suggest, though, Tralf, that this be a pm issue with Taxi for clarification.

[AndyAtTaxi]

An email correspondence with another member about a similar issue to the OP started me thinking about this again. I haven't had the chance to really weigh in with my own thoughts, but in the interests of stoking what I, at least, think is a fascinating topic I have a couple of questions:


What are the characteristics of a recording that _definitively_ allow you to know that it is 'real' rather than programmed?

If a recording lacked those characteristics, and instead displayed those that were commonly associated with MIDI tracks; stiff and stilted performance; unrealistic balance, positioning and perspective; simplistic or unnatural arrangement/orchestration; would this indicate that it was _definitively_ programmed?

I'm genuinely interested in your opinions - I'm hoping you good folks are going to give me a good edjamacatin' .


Andy

[andygabrys]

for me......real vs. programmed is in the actual sound of the samples / recording.

for example with virtual drums, they are recorded in some of the best rooms. It often sounds pristine.

vs. a live kit might be recorded in somebodies basement and it takes on some of the sound of the basement.

in both cases you can have crap performance / programming and it can sound like junk.

if you spend enough time with virtual instruments and real instruments doing similar kinds of things, the differences are more apparent.

I wouldn't expect that a music supervisor or screener who isn't also a composer working with those same materials would necessarily have that distinction dialed. Actually I believe it should not even be an issue. I would expect that they would say "not right for this listing". That's enough. The live quartets posted at the top of this thread sounded fine to me - but they felt more melancholy and impressionistic or expressionistic, not bright like the Beethoven Quartet #1.

I also wouldn't expect that they would say something sounded "too MIDI" (which is a ridiculous term anyways - MIDI by itself isn't square and stiff - its just a communication protocol, its the programming and sample choice that is). Look at the hoopla that has raised. We have gotten more worried about whether something is real or programmed rather than whether the actual piece fit the brief.

Obviously there is some wiggle in what gets through for a particular listing - in this case one of the forwards that everyone has heard already used a non-conventional instrumentation for a "quartet". The piece is in G, and a contra-bass is hear very resolutely playing the low G bass. So that's not even a Quartet is it? Where is the Cello? Is it a Quintet? Does it matter anyways as the piece itself was a bullseye for the brief?

In this case, it looks like "something similar to a quartet, either real or programmed, that has a convincing performance and is in style bright like Beethoven's Quartet 1" is closer to the actual brief.

Just thinking out loud and for discussion sake.

[denalihighway]

Interesting thread...

...ummm, that's about it from me

I would agree though, whether its a mistake or not, there is blatant error in the feedback/critique. That's pretty clear. And that deserves to be addressed.