I don't understand why my song was returned

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srollins44
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I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by srollins44 » Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:42 pm

The listing was: NSTRUMENTAL CUES that sound like they would have been used in a 1960’s era TV commercial are needed by the Music Supervisor of an upcoming Feature Film. He’s hunting for believable, Ad-friendly, Mid-to-Up-Tempo Instrumental Cues that are fun, lively, and emotionally upbeat. Please listen to following compilation of 1960’s commercials to get an idea of the general sound he needs: Television Commercials from the 1960’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZcDNGyAnFg Quoting the Music Supervisor: “This will be source music for a TV commercial [playing in the background,] and should be between 30 to 60 seconds in length, with a button ending. Instrumental Cues should be catchy, and convincingly work in a 1960’s era TV ad.” Your Cues should have a vintage sound that’s inviting, fun, bouncy, or soothing, as long as it’s melodically, rhythmically, and instrumentally consistent with Advertising Music of that 1960’s era. Buttoned endings are needed. Please avoid anything that’s modern sounding, stiff or obviously MIDI-driven. The estimated license fee for this pitch is $1,000 to $2,000, depending on the ultimate placement. This is a Direct-to-Music Supervisor pitch, so you'll keep 100% of your Master and Publishing rights, plus you'll also get 100% of the sync fee and any applicable performance royalties. You must own or control 100% of the Master and Copyright to pitch for this opportunity. Broadcast Quality is needed (great sounding home records are fine). All Songs will be screened on a Yes/No basis by a person handpicked by the Music Supervisor! No full critiques. Please submit 1-3 Instrumental Cues online or by CD no later than Saturday, January 31st, 2015 by 2pm (PST). TAXI #U150131TV


screeners comment:
Though I can totally dig the "Tequila" sorta vibe, the production is not as slick and polished as the director would like. This is a little rough around the edges, which would work for the right spot, but not these television commercials we're re-creating.
Reasons not Forwarded: recording


I created my song as vintage and believable (their words) as I could. What did I do wrong here? I thought the listing said they wanted a vintage sound? so I recorded it with a vintage mic to make it sound authentic.

name of song is "uncle bobs pudding shack" you can check it out on my taxi webpage, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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Re: I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by jonnybutter » Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:17 am

Awesome track. Very funny and very authentic.

I can't say for sure why it was returned of course, but my guess is that it would be the little bridge - it got fairly out of time with itself.

My tracks were returned too ('too obviously MIDI driven').

I think this was a very high bar, and/or they had something very specific in mind, which they would know when the heard.

Great comments from the screener, I notice - above and beyond what s/he had to do.

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Re: I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by andygabrys » Wed Mar 11, 2015 7:35 am

great track.

as jbutter says, its sort of hard to tell as its a pretty wide stylistic area.

the only thing I heard: the unfiltered reverb on the sax (plate or spring?) meant that the sax's growl bounced around every time you hit certain notes. If you had maybe taken some of that resonance with subtractive eq out of the sax and low passed the reverb so it wasn't so noticeable it might have made the difference. if that is why it was returned. Some of the other tunes that were forwarded had a little more "syrup and saccharine" sound with smooth strings etc.

This music was probably going to run behind a bunch of dialogue as the brief spec'd source music. So you have to imagine what your mix would sound like filtered / eq'd to make it sound like it was coming out of a small speaker of a tv or radio. Maybe even try that - throw an eq on and cut out 100 hz and below and 12 kHz and above or something similar.

great track though! you on live sax? killer.

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Re: I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by larrymagee » Wed Mar 11, 2015 2:34 pm

Nice job on the cue. I think that they could have used better example songs for what they were really looking for. I submitted a cue that I thought was spot on to that commercial, too, that got rejected -
https://soundcloud.com/larrymagee/beach ... ort-tv-cue

The screener said "this does actually sound true to the time. Unfortunately it's not the slick and highly polished Madison Avenue sound the director has referenced." (my thoughts were "neither is the example song") - I guess that's how it goes sometimes.

But I'm happy 'cause this one was forwarded, but I almost didn't submit it because I thought it wasn't as good - https://soundcloud.com/larrymagee/fresh ... ort-tv-cue

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Re: I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by funsongs » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:05 pm

agree - fun track; lots of cool.
Peter Rahill - aka "funsongs"
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Re: I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by srollins44 » Wed Mar 11, 2015 7:55 pm

jonnybutter- thanks again for listening and thanks for the comments

andygabrys- im not sure which reverb i used, ill give your suggestions a shot, thanks again, and yes I played the saxophone on that recording, as well as the other instruments minus the drums which was midi based.

larrymagee- thanks for listening, I agree, they should have used better example songs! your cue was spot on to what I heard on the youtube clip. Is that a sax sample or a real sax on your tune?, sounds great! congrats on the forward!

funsongs - thanks!

Thanks for reply's, great feedback from everyone, I appreciate everyone taking the time to listen to my tune and writing back some good reasons as to what was not right about the song.



My conclusion is that it seems to me that it was stylistically not the correct fit for what they were looking for. But the confusing part is that it was returned due to the "recording quality" and not the actual style of the song itself. The youtube reference clip also had 2 surf rock sounding songs with a sax lead which makes this return even more fustrating. I wish they did a better job with the reference songs they gave us- (omitting any songs that were sylistically not what they wanted) and also specified what they meant by "vintage sound". I took that literally and tried to recreate broadcast quality from that time period.

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Re: I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by jonnybutter » Thu Mar 12, 2015 5:13 am

But the confusing part is that it was returned due to the "recording quality" and not the actual style of the song itself.
I think this listing illustrates the big difference between a Taxi screener and someone working directly for a film (assuming that's the case!). It's the screener's job to not only forward or return, but to help members out by letting them know why. We all complain about this process occasionally, but it's generally very useful, and can be very different from what you would get from someone whose job it is just to make a decision, period.

My pieces were returned because although they were OK stylistically, they were 'obviously MIDI driven', But I have now heard others which were forwarded which are at least as 'obviously MIDI driven' as mine. The bottom line is that the person from the film just didn't like the tracks they returned, and that's it. I would guess that it's not their normal job to articulate a reason - a gut response will do. Doesn't mean they are wrong, just that they might not have the time or habit to zero in on why.

I can live with that. Makes me value the regular taxi screener a bit more - not a particularly easy job.

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Re: I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by srollins44 » Fri Mar 13, 2015 7:05 am

I agree with you 100% jonny, the movie screener most likely didn't articulate the actual reason for the return which lead to my confusion.

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Re: I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by niallyboy » Sun Mar 15, 2015 5:13 pm

Hi Rollins and Larry,

I feel both your tunes that were returned were indeed stylistically correct, but both had a similarity that could have been the reason they weren't forwarded: too much "vintage" sound. I thought you hit the genre on the head, but per the screener, too much of a good thing. Larry, your tune that was forwarded had less of that, and more hi-fi. That said, the Yakkety Sax vibe was pretty spot for the listing, and great end stinger, Rollins!

I went with the 60's Latin jazz vibe, and mine got forwarded: Venetian Holiday, on my Taxi page.

Close call,

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Re: I don't understand why my song was returned

Post by larrymagee » Mon Mar 16, 2015 8:26 pm

congrats on the forward, Naillyboy. I think I told you that song was too jazzy for the listing. Glad you didn't listen to me and sent it in.

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