3 easiest ways to improve your song: Get reviewed!

[wignelson]

Aug 15, 2008, 9:28am, frodo wrote:Aug 15, 2008, 4:57am, wignelson wrote:Hi Frodo,I'm considering submitting this tune for TV/FilmPlease tell me if it will fly in it's present state if I cut the intro down to get the vocals in quicker.Thanks for your time, Wighttp://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_id=159032&stream=trueHi Wig, Since you asked a spesific question, I guess you're not looking for the '3 easiest ways to improve your song'.I can't say if it will fly with a shorter intro, however, - it was a bit long.For a radio-type song, you'd probably look into cutting 3/4 of it, leaving about 10 sec or so.For film/tv they will probably start it where they like, however, there might be a couple of music supervisors that would skip the rest and go to the next song if not the vocal was in at 20 secs...- until next timefrodoThanks for the response, Frodo. I'll probably shorten the intro to about 10 seconds.I am interested in improving the song. Do you have 3 suggestions for me, now that the question of the intro is settled?Wig

[frodo]

Aug 15, 2008, 11:12am, wignelson wrote:Aug 15, 2008, 9:28am, frodo wrote:Hi Wig, Since you asked a spesific question, I guess you're not looking for the '3 easiest ways to improve your song'.I can't say if it will fly with a shorter intro, however, - it was a bit long.For a radio-type song, you'd probably look into cutting 3/4 of it, leaving about 10 sec or so.For film/tv they will probably start it where they like, however, there might be a couple of music supervisors that would skip the rest and go to the next song if not the vocal was in at 20 secs...- until next timefrodoThanks for the response, Frodo. I'll probably shorten the intro to about 10 seconds.I am interested in improving the song. Do you have 3 suggestions for me, now that the question of the intro is settled?WigHi Wig,Here's the three easiest areas to look into, for improving the song, in my view:1. There is two kicks/'loops with kick' that collide somehow. It should be possible to make them more 'in the pocket'.2. Mix it again with a clearer focus on letting the vocal 'be the king', move away some of the other instruments, with a combination of panning, volume and tightening up, - as it is now, they are competing a little with the vocal, making the song feel a little bit 'cluttered'.Let the vocal have it's space.3. It sounds a little bit strange with the big difference in reverb on the vocal and the solo-flute, maybe putting the flute into the same space as the vocal could help bring it more together and natural.- until next timefrodo

[wignelson]

Aug 18, 2008, 11:38am, frodo wrote:Aug 15, 2008, 11:12am, wignelson wrote:Thanks for the response, Frodo. I'll probably shorten the intro to about 10 seconds.I am interested in improving the song. Do you have 3 suggestions for me, now that the question of the intro is settled?WigHi Wig,Here's the three easiest areas to look into, for improving the song, in my view:1. There is two kicks/'loops with kick' that collide somehow. It should be possible to make them more 'in the pocket'.2. Mix it again with a clearer focus on letting the vocal 'be the king', move away some of the other instruments, with a combination of panning, volume and tightening up, - as it is now, they are competing a little with the vocal, making the song feel a little bit 'cluttered'.Let the vocal have it's space.3. It sounds a little bit strange with the big difference in reverb on the vocal and the solo-flute, maybe putting the flute into the same space as the vocal could help bring it more together and natural.- until next timefrodoThank you, Frodo. All good advice, IMO. I will address those issues when I re-record the song soon.Wig

[frodo]

Well, – so what do you all think of this experiment?What about you who have had a song reviewed; Bill, Cameron, SteveAltonian,(xxx), Jay-man, heinsite, Steve, Jeff, mojobone, geoffrey, and Wig– what do you think, did the suggestions give you something that was useful for you?As most can easily see, it is difficult to review in a way that both take into account the idea of 'telling it the way you see it' and saying something that can be useful, and – saying it in a none offensive way.As the focus on this thread was to say the three easiest ways to improve a song, I said what I thought would make the biggest difference with the least of effort.I didn't in this thread go into melodies and lyrics, simply because in my view – none of the songs I heard would be easily improved by changing a little on the melody or changing a word or two.I have co-written two top-ten hits – that is – real official country sales chart top-10 (two hits in Norway, on VG-lista top-10, way back in 1994 and 1995, both songs going to number 6), and I surely am very focused on text and melody when I write, so it's not a matter of me just being thinking of sound, production and mixing all the time.Here however, I didn't see where I could have mentioned anything that could easily be picked up and used to improve a song in any substantial way.So, how did I do?If you have any suggestion for how to improve my way of giving reviews, I welcome you to write it here.Although, try to be nice, will 'ya? And, what about this thread, - if it was useful, maybe someone else would like to take over the stick and carry on doing the same for someone else? Or maybe this could be a thread where – instead of one person giving his/her opinion on the three easiest ways of improving a song – it was more of a community thing?What do you think?- until next timefrodo

[wignelson]

Well, Frodo, I aways welcome reviews from lay persons as well as professionals. Obviously, I think the professionals carry more weight, but I'm not sure that they should.The bottom line is the listener. Perhaps a lay person's opinion would be a valuable asset as well.Not sure how we could get non-musician listeners to chime in here anyway, so I guess I'm just blowing smoke. Or smoking something. But, forgive me, I digress. To get back to your original question as to what I thought of the thread, I think it was very useful.I think most of the posters thanked you for your efforts.You pointed out to me that my song had a double kick that was a distraction. (I'm paraphrasing here) That was remarkable IMO.I wrote and produced the song and played all the parts and that one went right by me. Of course there is a double kick. Why couldn't I hear it. It was the elephant in the room, so to speak.I was concentrating on other things.I think this thread, or one like it, should continue.Thank you again for your attention to my song. You are a smart man and you'll always have my ears when you speak.I haven't heard any of your work, but as I inferred at the top, that may not be a pertinent issue for a reviewer.Simon Cowell of American Idol is self-admittedly tone deaf and couldn't play an instrument or sing anything to save his life.But apparently he can tell when someone else can.I would be willing to take the baton for a round of this if anyone wants any advice from me. But as a newbie here I doubt that will be the case.Thanks again for your input and suggestion to continue the thread.Wig