Investigate My Investigative Cue

[davideaston]

Hello Taxi Fam, I am one year into my Taxi membership and of yet have not had the opp to be very active here on the forum, but am trying to remedy that.

I've had a few forwards but a lot more returns, and frustratingly there's often just one little thing I needed to address in an otherwise "acceptable" submission. I am wondering if anyone wants to "pre-Screen" this cue I came up with for the "PULSING INVESTIGATIVE TENSION INSTRUMENTALS" and let me know if it seems on the mark, falls short or just needs to be tightened up. Here is a link to my cue

https://s.disco.ac/mjaslrzjlomb

and here is the Taxi Listing: https://www.taxi.com/industry#listing-S230329LS

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PULSING INVESTIGATIVE TENSION INSTRUMENTALS are needed by a top-notch Production Music Library that's landed tons of placements in TV Shows, Films, and Commercials.

NOTE: This Library is BRAND NEW to requesting music from TAXI, so this is a great opportunity to create a new relationship for you and your music with an award-winning Company!

This Library is searching for suspenseful Instrumentals in the general stylistic ballpark of the following references:

"3.3_5-vengeancep4ct.sib" by Mac Quayle

"Investigation (Connor)" by Nima Fakhrara

"Technically, Missing" by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

"Leave It or Take It" by Bleeding Fingers

"Race to the Finish" by Kenneth E. Belcher

Please send them well-composed Instrumental Cues that evoke a suspenseful, tension-filled vibe and feel that is oozing with dark, moody energy that could work well for a variety of investigative scenes in TV shows and Films. Your submissions should have engaging motifs, pulsing rhythms, and solid arrangements centered around a central motif with layers, forward motion, dynamics, and interest. Your instrumentation can range from Orchestral-based to Electronic to a Hybrid-style approach and should fall in the general wheelhouse of the references. Whichever approach you choose to take, please be sure your production is polished and any virtual sounds or samples you use are high-quality and state-of-the-art. If you have tracks that could enhance, complement, and create an overall uneasy tone and mood, send them in!

All submissions should be about 90 seconds to 3 minutes long, give or take. Clean beginnings and Non-Faded, buttoned endings are required so that no extra editing work is needed on the client’s side to make the piece work in a project. Please do NOT copy the referenced artists or songs in any way, shape, or form. Use them as a general guide for tempo, tone, and overall vibe. Do NOT submit any material with unauthorized samples of any other artists’ music, sounds, or any other form of media. Broadcast Quality is needed.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This client will need alternative mixes, shortened versions (60, 30, and 15 seconds), and STEMs, but not yet! ALL YOU NEED TO SEND RIGHT NOW ARE FULL VERSIONS. Please have the alternative versions on-hand and ready to send at a moment's notice if the client contacts you. If the company DOES contact you, they will ask that your alternative mixes, shortened versions, and STEMs are delivered to them as 24 bit, 48 000 Hz, 2-channel stereo WAV files. But again, for your initial submission to TAXI, all you need to submit are full-versions as MP3's, like every other submission.

CRITICAL FYI: The 60, 30, and 15-second versions need to be very precise! When creating music for commercials, the 60, 30, and 15-second versions actually need to end at :59.5, :29.5, and :14.5 seconds – including reverb tails and instrument ring outs. TV and radio stations use computers to switch from one commercial to another on VERY precise schedules, so if your reverb tails or instrument ring outs exceed :59.5, :29.5, and :14.5 seconds, your music will not work, and cannot be used.

This company offers an EXCLUSIVE deal, so the material you submit for this request CANNOT be signed with other publishers or catalogs. This Music Library gets 100% of the Publisher’s share, and you’ll keep 100% of the Writer’s share. The sync fees are split with 50% going to a sub-publisher and the other 50% will be split between you and the Library. You must own or control your Master and Copyright. Please submit as many Instrumentals as you’d like, online or per CD. All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI. Submissions must be received no later than 11:59 PM (PDT) on Wednesday, March 29th, 2023. TAXI # S230329LS

[TommyHaddox]

I like it a lot. I'm kinda new so, I'm not savvy on the criteria as of yet. The only thing that got my attention was the reverse whips past the 1:40 mark seemed a little more abundant than necessary.
I do wish you the best of luck.

[cosmicdolphin]

I think it's pretty good ( I've had a bunch of this type of stuff on TV ) and it's in possible forward terriotory for me.

Couple of thoughts :-

Piano sounds a little vanilla and forward in the mix. I'd like to hear more of a sound design aspect to it and have sit back more in the soundscape so it's not so close to the listener.

The piano motif just repeats , I'd like to hear it play a slightly different iteration on that 4th repeat at 24s ( and subsequently when you re-use it ) ..keep the same phrasing but go somewhere else with a note of two otherwsie it sounds too repetitive

With the synth bass part I think you could do more and animate it further with some filter automation or similar

At 32s we lose momentum, this is partly due to the low end of the track dropping out and it's almost like a different cue for a while - I think you need to carry the bass part on so we dont feel like we've jumped to another cue and it carries on in a similar vein to what we've heard previously.

You could introduce the Arp at 32s more gently as well, maybe put a HPF over it a gradually reveal the high end of the arp using automation so it fades in gradually

At 1.02 you miss a chance to have an edit point

From 1.04 it starts getting a bit same-y - try a couple of yips from my cheat sheet for avoiding repetitive-ness https://pdfhost.io/v/LBOwk0xbh_Cosmics_ ... eetpdf.pdf

At 1:34 I would have some sort of hit/thud to make a definitive edit point

Sound FX at 1.36 is too loud

The section from 1:37 sounds like it would work bett in the middle of the cue from 32s instead of what you have now and the end of the cue should be your main section 1.04 - 1.34

Needs a more defined ending. Im's not there is enough interest to maintain the 135s run time - it says 90s minimum so there might be a tighter edit that hols the interest better.

Hope that helps,

Mark

[davideaston]

I like it a lot. I'm kinda new so, I'm not savvy on the criteria as of yet. The only thing that got my attention was the reverse whips past the 1:40 mark seemed a little more abundant than necessary.
I do wish you the best of luck.

Thanks Tommy!

[davideaston]

I think it's pretty good ( I've had a bunch of this type of stuff on TV ) and it's in possible forward terriotory for me.

Couple of thoughts :-

Piano sounds a little vanilla and forward in the mix. I'd like to hear more of a sound design aspect to it and have sit back more in the soundscape so it's not so close to the listener.

The piano motif just repeats , I'd like to hear it play a slightly different iteration on that 4th repeat at 24s ( and subsequently when you re-use it ) ..keep the same phrasing but go somewhere else with a note of two otherwsie it sounds too repetitive

With the synth bass part I think you could do more and animate it further with some filter automation or similar

At 32s we lose momentum, this is partly due to the low end of the track dropping out and it's almost like a different cue for a while - I think you need to carry the bass part on so we dont feel like we've jumped to another cue and it carries on in a similar vein to what we've heard previously.

You could introduce the Arp at 32s more gently as well, maybe put a HPF over it a gradually reveal the high end of the arp using automation so it fades in gradually

At 1.02 you miss a chance to have an edit point

From 1.04 it starts getting a bit same-y - try a couple of yips from my cheat sheet for avoiding repetitive-ness https://pdfhost.io/v/LBOwk0xbh_Cosmics_ ... eetpdf.pdf

At 1:34 I would have some sort of hit/thud to make a definitive edit point

Sound FX at 1.36 is too loud

The section from 1:37 sounds like it would work bett in the middle of the cue from 32s instead of what you have now and the end of the cue should be your main section 1.04 - 1.34

Needs a more defined ending. Im's not there is enough interest to maintain the 135s run time - it says 90s minimum so there might be a tighter edit that hols the interest better.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Thanks for the very detailed feedback!! Those are good suggestions... I was especially wondering about the bass dropping out...my thinking was that it gave an editor a more sparse section to work with but I definitely get where you are coming from. I have a few days to implement some changes...Thanks again!

[nicorivers]

Cool cue! I think Mark is right on with all his feedback.

I'm also relatively new to this, but if you did want to provide a part that has less low end, you could try rearranging bringing in that full bass later or maybe at first with an HPF on it so it the full low end isn't present, bring in the arp first and create a nice build throughout the entire track. One thing I've picked up on is typically cues will gain momentum and build throughout until the end (obviously there may be an edit point or two along the way).

Good luck!