Frustrated From Texas

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Marty
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Frustrated From Texas

Post by Marty » Thu Mar 25, 2021 10:24 am

First let me say that without Taxi my music would be not be doing anying. By discovering Taxi I have found a way to get my music out there into the hands of Music Supervisors and Libraries. Michael, from what I’ve seen seems to be a very genuine and honest guy and enough endorsements from composers make me believe a living can be made through Taxi from selling original music. I am primarily a jazz musician with a particular love for traditional Bossa Nova. Having said that I’m having some frustrations.

Back in November I submitted three tunes for up-beat light hearted Bossa Nova songs. In English or Portuguese or both. They need to sound like they are being played by real musicians. One of my tunes had dead space at the end which I missed, so that one failed before it got off the ground. Feedback for the the second one said it needed more of a live feel and vocal diction needs a more Brazilian feel, oh okay, so we need to sing with a Brazilian accent? That wasn’t mentioned in the listing. Also it needs to be authentic sounding Bossa Nova. I thought that’s what I did (sparse rhythm, snare and brushes and clave, sophisticated chord progressions). On the third one feedback said needs more authentic Brazilian feel and live instrumentation. I used two midi instruments on all three. A kick drum and clave, everything else was real and live. On every song the screener has ticked the sounds or samples sound dated or of lower quality. Okay it’s not what was required, chalk it up to experience. I always go to the forwards blog to see what was forwarded and see what I did wrong. Four were forwarded. Three had simple pop music progressions one was obviously the melody from Luiz Bonfa’s “Samba De Orpheu” with different lyrics. None were sung with a Brazilian accent although one used English and Portuguese. All of them sounded modern and would not fit on the playlist with the example Astrid Gilberto singing Big Bom. It’s disappointing not to be forwarded but doubly so sometimes when you see what was. It makes me go back and read the listing again and scratch my head.

So this month, Original Brazilian Instrumental cues need. Stick to classic genres like Bossa Nova or Samba says the ad. Of the four examples one is a classic Roberto Menescal from the 60’s, Luiz Bonfa playing Manha de Carnaval (just two guitars on that track) and a coupe of newer Brazilian recordings one very folky by Teresa Cristina and one by Jorge Aragao that starts folky and turns into a samba. The last two have quite a lot of percussion and to me don’t sound particularly Brazilian but kind of a generic Latin sound.


I submitted six tunes. Two were just guitar like the Luiz Bonfa example. Feedback on them said they need more of a Brazilian feel and more percussion. The Luiz Bonfa example doesn’t sound particularly Brazilian and has no percussion. On every tune the feedback said I needed a more Brazilian approach, more percussion, more layers. All were returned. There were two tunes that were forwarded and both sounded like they were on the Teresa Cristina, Jorge Aragao side of things. Neither sounds particularly Brazilian but the chord progressions and percussion make them sound kind of generically latin. There was very little percussion on the Roberto Menescal example (Snare and bruises) and indeed listen to any classic Bossa Nova recordings and you will hear very little percussion usually snare and clave.

So Just a few days ago I have five light acoustic instrumental cues returned. The feed back on all of them (and I paraphrase) is that they need more instruments especially bass. There is bass on all tracks and on two tracks parts of the bass are in 10ths so essentially two bass lines.

Okay. So this is the same Screener on all three. I have no confidence in getting any music past this screener. It seems they lack the knowledge of the elements of Bossa Nova and what is worse, mistake real instruments for Midi ones, Snare and brushes for shaker and can’t hear the bass. I presume they did not know Luiz Bonfa’s theme from “Samba De Orpheu” and allowed that to be forwarded with different words (Is that even legal?) I will be the first one to admit I have a long way to go with learning the craft of recording but I don’t think the tracks are bad enough to not hear the bass.

Anyway that wasn’t meant to be a rant. And I am not saying that any of my music was good enough to get through and should have been forwarded. It confuses me that what is asked for in the listing is often not what is forwarded. It seems the listing and the example are also often at odds. It is incredibly frustrating after producing music to have it returned for strange reasons. I’ve seen several instances where Taxi tell the members to read the listing and read it again. Well maybe the screeners should do the same. It is also incredibly frustrating to have no reply to the screener. Of these three submissions I could really use some specific feedback so I can improve them for next time. What I’m feeling is that Bossa Nova is not really what its required but a generic latin flavor that would be at home in “Narcos”. Maybe Taxi needs to screen the screeners occasionally. Anyway, back to the drawing board.

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cosmicdolphin
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Re: Frustrated From Texas

Post by cosmicdolphin » Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:33 am

Yeah it's tough and sometimes very frustrating

The only thing you have to go on are the tracks they did forward, and then you have no way of knowing if the library even liked them. Maybe the Library thinks the same as you and the Screener is off...or maybe you didn't interpret the brief in the right way.

I wouldn't have a clue about that style of music personally but I would suggest going to some of the big Library catalogues that you can access online and have a listen to what they already have and A/B it with yours and the forwarded tracks.

Mark

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Re: Frustrated From Texas

Post by Telefunkin » Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:45 am

You could always have a chat with the Head screener. ML has said many times that she is really good, so it might help you understand what the issues are. As you say, its possible that the style is OK but perhaps the quality isn't, but in that case the feedback perhaps could have been clearer and more helpful. A discussion with Taxi might not get your tracks forwarded this time but if it clears things up for you then its all good.
Graham (UK). Still composing a little faster than decomposing, and 100% HI.

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Re: Frustrated From Texas

Post by gitanosoy » Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:26 pm

Hi Marty,
I feel your frustration. I also got my Bossa nova instrumental retuned for not sounding live. I wrote to the head screener, they are always encouraging us to do so if you have a concern. I posted once only in the LISTING review section to learn and get more feedback from other members along with the screeners critique which I totally agreed with on my HIP-HOP track. In this case I don't agree as I have been playing this genre LATIN for the last 30 years live and sessions and know it really well.

I responded with:
"Thank you for your response. As you can hear there are other percussion instruments that accent shots before the edit point like what usually a percussionist would play in a live setting and also the shakers come in later. As for the drums in Bossa Nova music drummer of this style they keep a simple beat on the rim of their snare just like I have so again from years of experience playing this genre and with many different drummers I have to agree that yes it is a loop ( the playing on the rim of the snare) and so are the others tracks that got forwarded but it also should be just that and not play busy parts on the drums, Samba is different."

It is good to voice your opinion regardless of the out come and learn to let it go and write another one.

Marty
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Re: Frustrated From Texas

Post by Marty » Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:40 pm

Thanks guys, how do you contact the head screener? I have no clue. As far as I can tell in the listing for the Bossa Nova instrumentals it doesn't say must sound live, but should sound like real musicians. That's two different things isn't it? I got that feedback as well.

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Re: Frustrated From Texas

Post by gitanosoy » Thu Mar 25, 2021 1:12 pm

Marty wrote:
Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:40 pm
Thanks guys, how do you contact the head screener? I have no clue. As far as I can tell in the listing for the Bossa Nova instrumentals it doesn't say must sound live, but should sound like real musicians. That's two different things isn't it? I got that feedback as well.
Just go through you profile and contact them and they will direct the message to the head screener.

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Re: Frustrated From Texas

Post by Cameloide » Sat Mar 27, 2021 12:28 pm

Without hearing any of your stuff or what was forwarded for the brief I can't really weigh in on this specific case, but I am often left scratching my head at some of the stuff that gets through when I do look at the forwards blog. But having grown up in Brazil, I will say that I have heard many Brazilians comment on how difficult it seems for Americans (or foreigners) to get the feel of Brazilian music, and usually they were referring to top notch musicians in their respective fields, so don't take it too harshly. I play & recorded with a kind of world music band (all Americans), where we drew on Brazilian music, reggae, jazz, etc... I submitted a couple of our tunes to a similar brief when we 1st joined taxi even though I had a feeling they weren't traditional enough and both got returned for that very reason.

After about a half year, we started being more selective with the submissions, only submitting to ones that we specifically wrote to the brief, or ones that we felt were really on target with the listing, genre, production value, etc. and our forward rate improved a good bit. I would also suggest not submitting a bunch of different songs to the same brief. Just submit your strongest one (or two) and if you get a forward and the library wants to sign it you'll already have songs ready to send them without having to go through taxi and the pay the extra $5 for each.

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Re: Frustrated From Texas

Post by DesireInspires » Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:53 am

Collaborate with other songwriters to get your music into the hands of companies. There are a lot of great songwriters here on Taxi and in other places that you should be working with. Don’t do it all alone!

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Re: Frustrated From Texas

Post by KayBur » Thu Apr 01, 2021 7:59 am

DesireInspires wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:53 am
Collaborate with other songwriters to get your music into the hands of companies. There are a lot of great songwriters here on Taxi and in other places that you should be working with. Don’t do it all alone!
What is the likelihood of finding people on the form like this who want to create a musical group? If we are talking about cooperation, then it is logical that there may be a need to play music together.

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Re: Frustrated From Texas

Post by DesireInspires » Thu Apr 01, 2021 8:33 am

KayBur wrote:
Thu Apr 01, 2021 7:59 am
DesireInspires wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:53 am
Collaborate with other songwriters to get your music into the hands of companies. There are a lot of great songwriters here on Taxi and in other places that you should be working with. Don’t do it all alone!
What is the likelihood of finding people on the form like this who want to create a musical group? If we are talking about cooperation, then it is logical that there may be a need to play music together.
It’s pretty easy. Ask around!

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