Any ideas on this song?

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MJLeeman
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Any ideas on this song?

Post by MJLeeman » Sun Jan 16, 2022 3:34 am

I got back into music about a year and a half ago, bought a DAW and started experimenting. I joined TAXI in February last year and I have tried to write in a variety of genres. My intention is that I will never stop being willing to learn. In coming up with this song, which I have not written in response to a particular listing, I have tried to incorporate previous advice in this forum and from TAXI screeners regarding songwriting and production. So all comments geared towards helping me to improve would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the track:-

https://www.taxi.com/members/nwRU7pygQr ... won-t-jump

Cheers
Michael Leeman

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gitanosoy
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Re: Any ideas on this song?

Post by gitanosoy » Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:49 am

I would bring the drum level up, it is pretty low in the mix...that's all for now.

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melodea
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Re: Any ideas on this song?

Post by melodea » Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:58 am

Hi Michael

Great, that you decided to jump back into music production.

Your song has IMHO some issues I would like to address.
- Sounds: the sounds are not up to date and sound rather cheap
- Mix: the mixing issue has been addressed, drums are too soft and the overall blend is not leveled out enough
- Production: The arrangement has no ear candies, transitions, things that make the listener go "ooh, that's different". It sounds more like a rough preproduction

I'm not criticizing the composition here.

My suggestion to you is to definitely try to COPY as many songs as possible from the top 40 list. Listen to every detail from the sounds to the arrangement, transitions, form, mix, and so on.
That's how you learn the most and stand a chance to hit the high bar of the screeners from Taxi which represents the standards from the industry.

good luck

Cheers Chris
[glow][/glow]Melodea a.k.a. Chris Moser

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Re: Any ideas on this song?

Post by MJLeeman » Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:32 am

Thank you very much, Melodea, for your suggestions and to Gitanosoy regarding the drums balance . I readily admit that to date I have not listened very much at all to contemporary top 40 music since I rekindled my interest in creating music. In that sense, I am walking before I start to run, and I intend to address that issue this year. When I have listened to contemporary music to date, I have tended to assess chord patterns, melody, lyrics etc. rather than production issues which for me seem to have become the initial bar over which a songwriter must jump, regardless of the underlying musical / lyrical value of a song. And, of course, that is perfectly okay, in the sense that those would appear to be the current rules, though I might say that comments regarding dated sounds are often vague and usually don't refer to specifics. However, I would point out that the advice which I have received to date on this forum is much appreciated. In the case of the current song under discussion, if someone said that the sounds which I have used remind them of a 1980's DX7 pre-set, and no one for example uses bell-like keyboard sounds in the 2020s, then I would regard that as a specific pointer and I would know that I had learned something. Further on that issue, in the current track, I was experimenting with trying to place some of the accompaniment wide and back in the mix and the tonal quality probably suffered as a result, leading to the assessment of poor quality. In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away and maybe will need to collaborate in the future on matters of modern sounds and production.

I am grateful for the comments to date. Thank you.

Cheers
Michael Leeman

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Re: Any ideas on this song?

Post by myk247365 » Thu Jan 20, 2022 8:07 pm

Michael,

I think melodea explained the issues well. I wanted to mention the vocals are good. Did you use a vocoder or did you use multiple takes of the same vocalist? Sometimes the latter works better than the former. You might also consider adding another vocalist with the multiple-takes techniques to vary the timbre of the harmony vocals. Otherwise, you get a very synthy sound that is easily washed out in the reverb.

Hope this helps,

Michael

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Re: Any ideas on this song?

Post by MJLeeman » Sun Jan 23, 2022 5:36 am

Thanks for your comments and question, Michael.

I hired a singer remotely to sing the lead and backing vocals in accordance with my instructions. She then recorded and provided dry, clean and well-organised stems of these parts which I then processed and incorporated into my mix. Your comment regarding having some or all of the backing vocals done by another singer is a handy suggestion which I might pursue in another similar style of song which I am currently working on. Thank you for that.

Cheers
Michael Leeman

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Re: Any ideas on this song?

Post by MJLeeman » Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:43 am

Here's an update of the track after having received feedback on this forum. Thanks very much for the advice received to date. Any further comments would be gratefully received.

https://www.taxi.com/members/nwRU7pygQr ... mp_revised

Cheers
Michael Leeman

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Re: Any ideas on this song?

Post by johnnyrowing » Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:07 am

Nice job being open to and applying the feedback. The revised version is an immediately obvious improvement. Like those background vox better for sure. Better mastering too.

Thanks for sharing with the board.

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Re: Any ideas on this song?

Post by feaker66 » Wed Jan 26, 2022 5:56 am

Sweet voice you have. A great fit for kid's tv shows etc. Keep at it
Thankfully, while growing old is compulsory, growing up remains optional!

https://soundcloud.com/feaker66

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... dID=883613

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Re: Any ideas on this song?

Post by jefflaplante » Fri Jan 28, 2022 4:35 pm

The revised version is so much better. Nice job!
Highly recommend investing in some more modern sounds. (Omnisphere, Output, Kontakt, Splice, etc...)

Jeff

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