Frustrating return... help!

[annayarbrough]

Hey all!

Been getting a couple of slightly ambiguous returns recently and this was one of them:

https://soundcloud.com/annayarbrough/stardust (listing below).

This was the feedback:
"I like what I heard but I didn't hear the slick grooves and minimal modern sounding instrumentation needed to create the chilltronic sound this listing was after."

This one has me a little stumped—I almost didn't submit it because I thought it sounded too minimal!
Not totally sure about the "slick grooves" comment, either... some of the a las didn't even have percussion, so I'm not even sure it's referencing the drums.
As for instrumentation, I completely based this on the a las (mostly the second and third examples).

So, question for you chilltronica experts—what works, what doesn't? What would you do differently to make this viable?

Thanks for your help!



Y171210EC

ELECTRONIC CHILL INSTRUMENTALS (AKA Chilltronica) are needed by a globally distributed Music Library. They’re searching for Instrumentals in all Tempos that would fit well in the general stylistic ballpark of these references: Blank & Jones - Interstellar (Marc George Remix): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUfNPg1 ... e=youtu.be “Football Head” by Flamingosis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hJKhiew2O0 Blank & Jones present Chilltronica No.2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP_st0Y ... e=youtu.be Give them well-crafted Instrumentals (full length, not Cues!) that use current sounding electronic elements, slick grooves, and contemporary sounds to create a chill, laidback sound and vibe. Your submissions should have a unique beat with cool, minimal melodies that set a groovy, atmospheric mood. Please make sure your production sounds slick and polished, not dated or stiff. All submissions should be at least 2 minutes long. Non-faded endings will work best for this pitch. Please do not copy the referenced music in any way, shape, or form. Use it only as a general guide for tempo, texture, tone, and vibe. Broadcast Quality is needed (Great sounding home recordings are fine). This Library offers an EXCLUSIVE, 50/50 split. You’ll get 50% of any sync fees and 100% of the Writer’s share. They’ll get 50% of the sync fee and 100% of the Publisher’s share. You must own or control your Master and Composition to submit to this pitch. Please submit as many Instrumentals as you’d like online or per CD. All submissions will be screened on a yes/no basis – Short critiques only. Submissions must be received no later than 11:59PM (PST), on Sunday, December 10th , 2017. TAXI #Y171210EC

[Len911]

Anna, your piece was primarily an electric piano and drums, in contrast the examples had more ambient and atmospheric elements and non-typical percussive components. I'm not really into electronic chill or chilltronica,lol, but I would think synthesizers are probably a piece of the puzzle? I think regular chill has more acoustic instruments like laid back guitar, violins, soft sax, etc. But i love the Rhodes, it's probably one of the first electric vs electronic,lol, ambient type instruments, maybe not as current and contemporary, and more classic.

[cosmicdolphin]

So, question for you chilltronica experts—what works, what doesn't? What would you do differently to make this viable?
[/color]

It's tough because the description of the listing and the reference tracks seem a little ambiguous to me too.

Reading the Listing again after listening to all the tracks, these points stand out to me:-

Use current sounding electronic elements - I don't think you did ..I hear electric piano and maybe a bell like sound near the end

Slick grooves - Your beat is fairly straight, the Flamingosis track has a hip Hop / Funky /Jazzy type loop and the Interstellar one has that percussion groove that weaves in and all bets are off for Chilltronica No.2. Also it's not just drums and percussion , there are pulsing instruments too that help define the groove.

Create a chill, laidback sound and vibe - I think you did that but it comes across more as a lounge track. I also feel that Stardust is lacking texture for this brief..the reference tracks have atmosphere and depth..they have big ambient textures way in the background, subtle percussion or little electronic parts that drift in and out. Remember I mentioned about OTT to you before ? I think I hear it or something like it on one of the tracks ..just for shits & giggles try strapping it across your whole mix of this and hear what it does. Reverbs and delays can help here too.

Your submissions should have a unique beat..Nope..was pretty standard..if you had used a funk or old skool hip hop loop it would have worked better..I don't think that sidestick in your beat is helping either

Please make sure your production sounds slick and polished, not dated or stiff ...I think it does sound kinda stiff, not in a bad way but just not right for this listing. The drums are not loose enough and then obviously you played to those drums..had you started out with a groovier loop to play along to I think you would have nailed it no problem.

On balance then, different drums/groove..more textural arrangement...more atmospheric use of FX and ambience

I did one a few months ago that was along similar lines for a Library...looking back I don't think I ever used it to submit to Taxi and it's in an Exclusive Library now but you can have a listen here.

https://soundcloud.com/cosmicdolphin/ch ... ed/s-Uka7R

Hope that helps ! ( hit me up for the remix if you want ! )

Mark

[Casey H]

Hi Anna
I think Mark covered it well above. My first reaction after just reading the words "slick groves" was your piece is more light and fluffy. Listen to Mark here.

See you in around 11 months!

Best,
Casey

[annayarbrough]

Thanks folks! Suuuuper helpful.
Seems that one of the mistakes I made was selecting too specifically in terms of instrumentaion—picking out individual things I heard in the a las, instead of viewing it in a more general sense.
I hear what you're saying on the 'unique beat' too—I actually thought I was going to get a return on it for that reason. Surprised the screener didn't mention it, but perhaps that was a factor in the 'slick groove' comments.
So interesting on the E piano too... I hadn't even considered the fact that it would be viewed as classic (rather than timeless... haha). Perhaps it's the combination of its use with other instrumentation that makes it more current in the examples.

Anyhow, thanks again! Think I'll actually rework this into a lounge-type piece for use in something else... seems it may fit better.

[funsongs]

Not my wheelhouse either - but just comparing yours to the first two ref tracks, in those, the percussive instruments sound like anything OTHER than typical acoustic or programmed drum sounds; like, in yours, the hi-hat stood out to me as 'too ordinary', if that makes sense. Good advice by others, so it seems.

[ecurb]

Hi Anna,

Lovely piece, and thank you for sharing. I can't claim to be an expert on this genre - as proven by the fact that I submitted a couple to this listing also and got knocked back with pretty similar feedback to yours. That said, for my 2 cents - the side stick snare did stick out as sounding bare and a bit out of place to my ears. And while E. piano sounds do seem to get used sometimes in this kind of music, the ones I've heard tend to be much more reverb soaked and ethereal than yours.

I do want to add my own thanks to Mark, as I think a lot of the stuff he pointed out when reviewing your work applies to mine also!

Cheers
Bruce.

[Len911]

Tip! Maybe?

I am unfamiliar with most contemporary genres, words like chill, chilltronica, house, trap... I'm clueless. Something that may help is searching on a large loop site, like Big Fish or Producer's Loops etc. The demos for the loops usually contain all the instruments
contained on the loop and give you an overall snapshot, if you listen to several loop packages of what a genre sounds like. For example, the listing is asking for chilltronica, or electronic chill, and I found one of many loops, this one happened to be called "Chilled Electronica".
http://www.bigfishaudio.com/detail.html ... ill:530667

The examples in the listing of course are the first priority, but the loops seem to give a further degree of explanation, I would think if the loop makers misplaced their genre or the elements of their genre, they probably wouldn't sell many loops by placing folk guitar strums under heavy metal thrash guitar.

I've noticed while listening to loops, mainly looking for certain instruments or phrases there seem to be many listed under chill or house, and when I've listened to peer to peer songs and asks if it's chill, it's like I can tell right away if it's similar to the chill loops I've listened to or not. Anyway, maybe it's helpful, maybe it isn't.

[cosmicdolphin]

Hi Anna,

I do want to add my own thanks to Mark, as I think a lot of the stuff he pointed out when reviewing your work applies to mine also!

Thanks Bruce

[RocWatson]

Hello Anna, I want to +1 what Len said. I resisted buying any sample packs for a long time, thinking that it was "cheating" and not original to myself. Well, I finally did purchase some packs from Producers Loops and I am glad I did. They gave me great insight into what instrumentation and drum sounds to use for different genres. My forward rate has increased exponentially. Peace and happy holidays