Dramatic Instrumentals

[jamkern]

----Anything that sounds less than 100% authentic live instruments playing extremely well-composed underscore music mixed & mastered to broadcast quality wouldn't get forwarded for this listing--- I'm not trying to start any arguements here, but this listing did not mention "authentic live instruments"--in fact, the forwards I heard had contemporary-synthy undertones all over ( NO disrespect -great tunes guys!!!!!) I posted my returns because it was requested-- I try to keep my posts funny and light...Bottom line- I do a lot of work with many music supervisors and I get a lot of airplay AND It's a rare occasion that I get a forward. I still think Taxi is the absolute BEST way for up and coming musicians to have a chance at their music being heard--I'm just on a really long roll of returns.... I'll try to get in touch with Sebastian in the new year AND hopefully I'll be singing a different tune when I start getting through the screeners! Just one persons story, please don't trip happy holidays and best of luck to all!!!!jamkern

[jamkern]

Hummingbird--- If you got a free minute, could you check out my 1st track "starkwell" (posted above)?I'm curious if you really think it's "free lunch" material....I love contsructive criticism and i aint scared ( I think)... Anyway, i'm not tryin to be sassy...just trying to use the forum as an opportunity to better my music, success and self. AND, I have to give you major props on being so active in this forum (you must type with more than 2 fingers!! thanks-jamkern

[mazz]

Quote:Hummingbird--- If you got a free minute, could you check out my 1st track "starkwell" (posted above)?I'm curious if you really think it's "free lunch" material....I love contsructive criticism and i aint scared ( I think)... Anyway, i'm not tryin to be sassy...just trying to use the forum as an opportunity to better my music, success and self. AND, I have to give you major props on being so active in this forum (you must type with more than 2 fingers!! thanks-jamkernI don't think there's anything to critique about your track. It's a very strong track. Who knows what they were looking for exactly that your track didn't present. Did it lack the "low level of tension" (whatever that means! )? Mine was at a similar tempo but the orchestration was a little darker than yours. Maybe that was it. Chuck's was pretty sparse in places compared to both of ours. Probably not that since mine got forwarded too. Maybe your string line was too melodic for what they were looking for. Maybe it was.......... Well, we could go on and on second guessing the screeners.Keep pitching those pieces. I can see why they've been licensed for TV usage already.Mazz

[hummingbird]

I listened to the returned tracks and the forwarded tracks and wrote a nice long paragraph... and hit 'post' & got an error message, and lost all my cool thoughts. Ouch. I was trying to say the same thing as Mazz -- the returned tracks ARE good, but I think may not be "low key" enough. (PS - the free lunch thing was meant to be a general joke, nothing directed at anyone. I do have a sense of humour . No really )

[crs7string]

Twilsbach,Your track is very cool. I think this may be a situation where trying to read between the lines was needed.There was a reference in the listing to the show "House" Fortunately, that's one of the shows that is in fairly regular rotation. The listing asked for vibes, but upon listening to "House" I discovered a lot of the backround music seemed to be marimba, which to me is even more "subdued" that vibes.I also noticed that the music flowed but not with a definite pulse or driving drum track.BTW I've learned the value of research.from Matto. (I'm not taking credit for an original idea on watching "House") I did a calliope track a while back that was returned and I asked for feedback here on the Forum. Part of the feedback was to check out some calliope music. Almost immediately another listing for calliope music came up. Armed with my research, I did a new track that was forwarded. ( for some reason circus/calliope music shows up related to sports TV programming????)I think your track could be a forward for a different listing. I have also found that a return allows one to buy time to live with a track and hopefully objectively and constructively tweak the track and improve it to increase the chances of a forward and placement.I have a relationship with a library that started with a track that was returned twice before it was forwarded. I did what I just described to improve the track.Chuck

[jamkern]

thanks for the replys!! time to put my gripes to rest, fire up Stylus and tune my banjo!! peeeeece--jamkern

[twilsbach]

Thanks for that, ChuckAnd yeah, this is how I'm looking at a lot of these listings--impetus to write and a general direction for a track. If it gets forwarded and place, even better, but I know I've got a solid track here that I can make better and while I continue to create and tweak I'll be building my library of songs so that when the inevitable forward and relationship is built, I'll have plenty of quality stuff to send to the music supervisor when they ask if I have more.And JamKern I'm with you...I'm off to work on my HOT AC pitch and a ultra-hip alt-chic-rock bouncy bus song. Whatever that means.Peace out y'all. Quote:Twilsbach,Your track is very cool. I think this may be a situation where trying to read between the lines was needed.There was a reference in the listing to the show "House" Fortunately, that's one of the shows that is in fairly regular rotation. The listing asked for vibes, but upon listening to "House" I discovered a lot of the backround music seemed to be marimba, which to me is even more "subdued" that vibes.I also noticed that the music flowed but not with a definite pulse or driving drum track.BTW I've learned the value of research.from Matto. (I'm not taking credit for an original idea on watching "House") I did a calliope track a while back that was returned and I asked for feedback here on the Forum. Part of the feedback was to check out some calliope music. Almost immediately another listing for calliope music came up. Armed with my research, I did a new track that was forwarded. ( for some reason circus/calliope music shows up related to sports TV programming????)I think your track could be a forward for a different listing. I have also found that a return allows one to buy time to live with a track and hopefully objectively and constructively tweak the track and improve it to increase the chances of a forward and placement.I have a relationship with a library that started with a track that was returned twice before it was forwarded. I did what I just described to improve the track.Chuck

[anne]

Congratulations Chuck!

[jude3]

Quote: That means Taxi has no leeway in screening, that they will forward only the best composed & produced instrumentals for this opportunity. If that is the case then none of them should have been forwarded.If we wanted to we could all pick those compositions apart.I don't hear any diference in the forwards and the returns. A composer like Mazz ought not be returned at all on something like this. He clearly knows what he is doing.There has to be info that Taxi did not give us, or the music supervisor screened them.And yes, congratulations to all who got through.

[jude3]

One more thing.One thing that got me angry was the dispatch listing that went out with this one.It asked for backing music ala 60 minutes and 48 hours.I studied for two days the backing music in both of those programs.Guess what?60 minutes does not use one stitch of backing music in the 6 episodes I looked at!!!48 hours uses very sparse tracks. Somehthing any body could do on just about any synth.My complaint has always been that taxi does not give you enough info for in the listing. I think there has to be a better way for them to communicate.Certainly none of the screeners ever checked those shows for music content.