I'll bet you can't guess why this song was returned.

[dano]

I just wanted to make sure everyone here understands that I love taxi in general, and i have gotten much valuable feedback from many screeners..
has to be said.

still nobody has guessed what's wrong with my track.

anyway - seth - yeah - the most useful thing about tracking screeners is that I've found a way to weigh each one's opinion - screeners who let more otherwise unsuccessful tracks through more of the time have less valuable opinions, those who keep otherwise very successful tracks out AND keep most tracks out are potentially too harsh.
those who filter the tracks that, on average, get filtered - and who also OK the tracks which are generally OKd I value as having the best ears.

As far as predicting what any given screener will like, it's only useful for my catalog now, since I've only tracked my submissions.
I'm thinking of creating a runtime solution at some point and marketing it to other taxi members, maybe ask laskow if he'd do it for a commission!- but that's more of a time investment that I have right now, and I'd have to get bored of making music first...

[k o star]

Awesome sounding piece Dano!
I speak Chinese but am not at all offended.. LOL!

My only guess would be the vocal being too upfront in the mix?

All the best with this though.. Great stuff!

KO

[rld]

The only thing that sticks out to me is the vocals and bass have a sort of saturation/pre amp grunge to them.
Not sure that would be a negative, but I had to pick something...

[Casey H]

The only thing I can think of the vocal is a little out front and harsh. But I don't know jack about the genre and that could very well be very appropriate for it.

Or maybe the screener noted, "Book 'em Dano", meaning it was a forward and that got interpreted as a return.

I think it's better to contact Taxi quickly after you get a return notice if you feel that strongly about it. You can do that in parallel to soliciting opinions here. Although they rarely overturn a decision, if it happens, it's best is if it's right away and hopefully before they send out a CD with forwarded tracks. If it were my track, I wouldn't want it going out as an afterthought.

Best of luck! Just keep making great music as you've been!

Casey

[dano]

Wow three guesses for the vocals being too upfront?

Here's the review:

"The vocals felt overpowered by the instrumental backing. This could have been a mix issue but the result is that the piece lacked a cohesive emotional center. Otherwise, this track would have been perfect for this listing."

Thanks everyone!

[Casey H]

Wow three guesses for the vocals being too upfront?

Here's the review:

"The vocals felt overpowered by the instrumental backing. This could have been a mix issue but the result is that the piece lacked a cohesive emotional center. Otherwise, this track would have been perfect for this listing."

Thanks everyone!

I'm not hearing that. It could be more that there is a lot going on in the instrumental backing, making it too busy. The screener noted that as a vocal issue but if that's the case it's not because of the vocal (in my not so educated opinion here).

Another day, another listing...

Best,
Casey

[matto]

Dan,

I listened to this track in my office (on computer speakers) without reading any comments other than your very first post. The mix sounded very unbalanced on my computer speakers...like everything is piled into the midrange...very harsh and peaky.
I was surprised by this and went on to listen on my studio setup. Sounds the same to me here...the vocal is quite harsh, it sounds almost distorted, and almost everything in the mix sounds like it has its midrange boosted. As a result the insruments do crowd the vocal's range, which is what i think the screener heard.

NOW...I'm sure there are authentic flamenco recordings that have this "lo fi" and midrangy sound to them. But I can certainly understand why the screener would've returned this. From my experience (and as someone who also does a ton of world music)I can say that my more discerning production music clients would have asked for a remix on this song...

Obviously the song itself is great, although for production music applications I would edit out the bass solo...

If this was my song, I would remix it because I believe you'd get a lot more placements with a more polished mix.

Just my 2c...

matto

[dano]

thanks for the tips matto -One of the vocal lines does, intentionally, have distortion to make it sound harsher (the main line of the chorus) there's a certain desirable grittiness in flamenco singing I was going for there.
I guess I'll look into the compression levels on the mids in general.. i sure wish you'd piped up before I gave it away though...
by the way , that's not meant to be a bass solo, but a dancer's feet solo... the bass was an afterthought. foot and bass solo I guess.
good idea to take that section out for production music purposes. I guess I'll re-tool this one for the libraries. fwiw it was never intended to be a library song- it was instead a song composed for a specific flamenco show that we decided to record, potentially to promote the show.
so, really it was about as authentic as I get, and listing wanted "authentic" so...
blah blah blah
have a great night everyone. thanks for your responses
Dan

[joecox]

The track is awesome. Especially the guitar work. Great stuff.
My guess is that the screener found the vocals a little harsh and sometimes no quite in tune.
Personally, I would say that it has more authenticity without autotune.
Reality is that everyone (including TAXI screening) is used to nearly perfectly tuned lead and background vocals. Ughh.
But, again, it is a VERY cool track!