Any Advice Out Here?

[SALT]

Hello Everyone

I have been a member here for 3 years and had a few forwards. Actually have a couple out right now that I have not heard anything back on and it is KILLING ME to say the least.
I am just very uncertain of what I want to do in the future considering I feel a bit bogged down.
I am looking for some feedback on the songs I have uploaded here. I am not an instrumental performer but more like a singer songwriter that tries to write, play, sing, produce my own demo work for possible placement or even possible performance if considered good enough.
Just does not seem like a lot of possibilities via Taxi for the style of music that I write.
What I would love is for some of the long time Taxi members to give some of my material a listen and let me know what they think about the continued use of this service. Do you think I am on the right path? Do you think my recording quality is on target? Do you have any advice to better my material or should I refrain from this tool and move onto something more suitable.
All input is greatly appreciated and WELCOME for sure.
Thanks,
Kevin
www.getsaltmusic.com
www.facebook.com/soundsbysalt
www.reverbnation.com/soundbysalt

[rpittelman]

Hey Kevin

I haven't had a chance to give a listen your stuff yet but I think that you will get a better response if you posted this in the Peer to Peer section. I'll try to give your stuff a listen when I'm not at work

-Robbie

[SALT]

This is kinda funny man. I was just typing a reply to your new post as well haha. Thanks so much for the response and input. I am new to this stuff really and trying to learn the ropes. Been a member a while but never used the forums much.

Respect,
Kevin M.
SALT

[rpittelman]

This forum is great for a few reasons in my opinion...

1 - You get to hear the music that other people are doing
2 - You get honest feedback from other musicians about your music. Its much quicker than waiting for a screener and then you can even have a dialogue back and forth about it
3 - Hearing the music that got forwarded for particular listings (I think that this is one of the best features. It really helps to show you how to imterpret listings better once you hear what they selected)
4 - the humor?

Ok, maybe that last reason isn't really that valuable. I'm honestly shocked that more Taxi members don't take advantage of this place

[rpittelman]

Hey Kevin

Ok, so I finally had a chance to take a listen to some of your stuff. Overall there is some nice stuff there, good work.

With regards to your questions about your music and Taxi and what to do, here are some of my thoughts...

As far as the songs in their current state I think that "Too Much Month" has the best likely hood of being able to be used in a TV or film setting. I'm not sure what your goals are exactly so its a little hard for me to offer specific advice with out knowing that. I'm going to make the assumption that your goal is to get film and TV placements. Of course so many of us would love to just be artists but as we know that's a difficult goal to bring to reality. So I'm going to assume that you want to get your music used and start to generate some income and buzz for your band that way. So with that in mind....

I think that your vocals are very strong. One of the strongest elements. However, there are times when I don't feel like they really fit the style or sound of the rest of the music. Your vocals are very powerful. Almost too powerful for some of the songs. I could hear you singing stuff in the Nickelback genre. Even though the vocals are very strong they need some studio tweaking. Are you using any pitch correction software? There are certainly places where the vocals are a little out of tune. I know that we all say we hate autotune and plug ins like it but the reality of commercial music nowadays is spot on pitch perfect vocals. This is what is expected by music supervisors and editors. If your vocals are a little "out" in places it makes your production not sound "professional" enough. You don't want the T-Pain effect in your vocals but you do want them to be spot on pitch perfect. Which, fortunately for those of us who cannot sing perfectly in tune all of the time (like myself) these plugs are wonderful.

As far as production quality is concerned, how are you recording your acoustic guitar? Is that the feed from the acoustic piezo pickup or is that a mic? I hate to say this but it doesn't sound good. This was one of the biggest problems that I hear in your production quality. If I was a Taxi screener it might be one of the reasons why I wouldn't forward a track. Again, it doesn't sound like "commercial" quality. What kind of acoustic guitar is it? There are some fairly decent inexpensive mics that you can pick up that should be able to give you a better sound. The problem that I have with the sound is that it doesn't really sound like an acoustic guitar. Since its such a prominent instrument in many of your tracks it takes away from the finished product. Also it sounds like the signal might be overloading a bit in places causing some distortion or perhaps there is a little too much compression being put on the track? On your track "Waiting" which I think could have really good usage potential in Film or TV with a little tweaking, the timing was a little off in the beginning. This was a bit too noticeable since the song is so sparse in the beginning. Personally I wasn't crazy about the echo/delay on the acoustic. I think if you were to put just a straight reverb on it you would get a better spacial sound.

At times I also felt like the snare sound was a bit too muffled in the midrange.

As far as usability in a film/TV setting is concerned form a compositional stand point you have to realize that typically the tracks that are used are ones that create a certain feeling or emotion. Not that your songs have to do this but if you desire to get songs used in TV or Film having them "feel" like a certain, easily describable emotion will really help. If a song is too difficult to describe the emotion that it creates or if that emotion is different in different parts of the song than it becomes a difficult song for music supervisors and editors to use.

Anyway, please don't take any of my comments harshly. I'm simply trying to offer some input from what I hear that I think could assist you in getting your music potentially used.

I hope this helps

-Robbie

[SALT]

To Harshly???/ Not at all my friend. You honestly have NO IDEA how much I appreciate every single thing you wrote and said. Much of it I already noticed myself My issues are time, money and education. If you only heard how far the recordings have come since 2 years ago lol... I am using a mic at times on the guitar and other times the piezo pick up. Production is via Cubase and that has been the biggest monster for me to learn. I do have a guy helping me out that is learing as well but far more technical than I am.
I am certainly going to create a talking points outline to discuss with my buddies in my studio that are helping me out with all of this and try to work on each individual item you pointed out.
Trust me I never forget who offers me help in any kind of way and I will not forget YOU. This was all very good information and suggestions and I hopefully will be able to grow from them.
I hope you do not mind but I will probably message you with my next upload to see if you think I am on the right track with the improvement and growth process.
I wish you all the best with your journey Robbie!

Respect,
Kevin M

[rpittelman]

Absolutely, no problem

Acting as an engineer is an entirely different skill set then writing or composing yet it is just as important when trying to make money with our music.

Honing my engineering skills has been a long road as well but I've learned a heck of a lot over the past 4 years. As I've learned more my engineering ears have gotten better. I can hear things now that I never noticed before. It is supper important to listen to a lot of commercially produced music with your engineer/producer hat on and to also spend time listening to this music on what ever system you use for your own music.

Start to pay attention to individual elements in a tune. For example, I mentioned that your snare sound was a bit muddy in the mid range. Find a song that has the sound and feel that you are going for and then try to pick out the snare sound. Really listen to it. What sort of reverb does it have? Try to imagine the space its in. Is it big? Is it small? Does the reverb cut off after a second? Try to distinguish the snare from the reverb. This is how I taught myself a lot. I did this with each element. A common mistake made by inexperienced engineers is to get a really great sound on one instrument that only sounds realy great by itself. You may have this killer guitar sound when the guitar is by itself but when it is combined in the entire mix it might not sound good anymore. The reverse of this is also true. A guitar that sounds great in a mix may very sound too thin when soloed from the rest of the tracks

I very recently had the opportunity to produce a track for a new Tyler Perry film. They had the rights to a Barbara Striesand/Barry Gibb song from 1980 called "Guilty" but they did not have the rights to the master recording. I had to produce an instrumental track that sounded as close to the original as possible. I had never tried to do this sort of thing before. It was waaaaay harder than I thought it was going to be. Its one thing to just learn every note to a part. Its an entirely different thing to make it sound the same as another recording. The original track had 3 guitar parts, a bass and drum part, a keyboard part and some sort of string/synth part. Ultimately the music supervisor liked the track that I produced and as far as I know it was used in the film. I don't know if the film has been released yet or not. Doing this sound a like project was a great learning experience from an engineering perspective. I know that when I was in college the MP&E majors had to do sound a like recordings. Now I understand why.

Keep at it my friend

- Robbie

[SALT]

Yes I understand exactly what you are saying. I think one of my biggest hurdles is that I have no college education nor any musical education at all. All self taught and for a lowely construction worker it has proved to be a true test for me. With three kiddos, a wife, and a life on the road in hotels working all over the country it takes every spare second of teaching myself and relying on WONDERFUL folks like yourself to offer up advice. Giving me an education I cannot afford to pay for and mean with time and money. They are both a price that has to be paid.

I am going to do exactly what you said. I have actually already started. Picked out some of my favorite songs and really listening in close to the production and individual sound. Gonna work by but off to get better. I have decided that I am going to make it at this. No matter what I have to do. Thanks for being a part of my support team Robbie. Cannot thank you enough for the input Sir.

Respectfully Yours,
Kevin M

[rpittelman]

Anytime

Trust me I understand the time thing. I've got a full time day job, 3 kids and a wife who has MS. Sometimes having all of these other commitments forces us to focus better. Although I have an education from a compositional stand point the engineering side for me has been self taught.

Keep it up. The process and the desire is what keeps me sane a lot of the time

- Robbie

[RonKujawa]

I only had a chance to listen to Waiting and Too Much Month. At least on Waiting, I agree with Robbie that your voice over powers the arrangement. You have a good, cool sounding voice. It just seems a little much for that particular song. Too Much Month is a fun listen and clever idea. Your voice fits in more on this one. I'd like to hear a little more crunchy, overdrive guitar on that one. Both mixes are okay, but could use some sweetening. Voice seemed a little too far out front and very clean.

I've only been a TAXI member for a little over a year, so I don't feel qualified to give advice on whether it's for you or not. My main goal with TAXI right now is to improve as a writer and producer, including creating music with a more universal appeal than I have in the past. As I improve in these areas, I aim to make connections with music users, primarily for film/TV. It seems most of the TAXI success stories are in the area of film/TV. I got more of an artist vibe from your stuff, but I'm no expert.

There are two pieces of advice I will offer whether you remain a member or not.

1. Be active in the forums. Give feedback as well as seek it. Hang out and get to know people.

2. Watch TAXI TV on ustream.tv every single week. Watch an old episode if they go on hiatus. There is so much valuable information just watching a single episode I'm surprised it's not a member only service. Now that I think about it, same goes for the forum.

Good luck whatever you decide!

Ron