Corporate/Business Instrumental forward!

[stansongman]

I thought I'd share this forward. It's my first "written for TAXI listing" submission like this that's been forwarded. the critiquer said the production/engineering was kind of "grainy", so I'm going to pay a buddy of mine who's a pro engineer to remix the whole thing for me (and help me learn about mixing these things myself going forward).Here's the track:http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... =trueWhich brings me to a question. I'd hate to lose out on this if it's a simple matter of a re-mix. Has anyone been contacted from a forward with a request to improve the mix/etc.? Or, can I contact the company proactively (before I hear from them)? Generally I would not unless they called first, but I was curious what your experiences were in this situation.

[ibanez468]

Hey stan,So that's how a corporate/business instrumental is supposed to sound, huh? Good concept! Nice work stan, and congrats on the forward! BTW, the more experienced members here'll be able to answer your questions.ibanez468

[mikebarresi]

Hey... i really like your track, congrats on the foward!

[mazz]

Hi Stan,Nice track. I'm not sure what the screener meant by "grainy" but I think a re-mix would only serve to enhance this piece, whether you get offered a deal or not. This piece is very submittable going forward so I wouldn't sweat whether you get contacted or not from this forward.All the elements are there, the mix just sounds busy at times. To my ears, the melody needs to stand out a bit more but not by turning it up but by turning some of the accompaniment instruments down. For instance, the strings are doing accented eight notes during the melody and in my experience (I use this type of pattern myself) those type of parts will add propulsion to a track even when every note isn't heard clearly.A few of the parts sound a bit late to me and this could be because some of the legato samples "speak" a bit late. In other words, if the instrument was solo'ed, the attack would be clearly heard, but in a mix, you don't hear the sound until it's had time to develop and by that time it's rhythmically late. It's a common issue and easily solved by bumping the MIDI tracks forward by a few ticks. The actual amount will vary based on the instrument and the tempo of the piece. If the instrument is consistently late and it's already been bounced to an audio track, then you can usually fix it by just moving the whole track a bit forward in time.Very nice piece. Good idea to have your friend mix it while you sit next to him and soak up the knowledge!Congrats on the forward.MazzPS: I've not heard of someone being contacted to re-mix a piece, although it certainly could happen. These companies get tons of material and if it's not "ready to wear" in their opinion, they've got plenty of others to choose from. This is not meant to disparage your piece at all, I'd just do what you're going to do to re-mix it and keep it in the catalog for further submissions.

[stansongman]

Hey Mazz, thanks for the feedback, you've given me some great ideas. That was my first attempt using VSL, since then I've gotten a lot better about tweaking the articulations and the midi to get it to sound right when I print it to audio. I'm definitely going to go back and revisit this piece as well.