Mellow Guitar Cue

[AlasdairEaston]

Hi all. I'm having a crack at the listing below. I've got a "nearly done" mix on my profile page called Mellow Guitar Cue 1 (I'll come up with a better title!). You can find it here: https://www.taxi.com/members/alasdaireaston

I'd welcome any opinions and feedback, thanks.

Cheers,
Alasdair.


LIGHT, MELLOW ROCK INSTRUMENTAL CUES are needed by an EXCLUSIVE Music Library that's connected with many TV Production Companies and Showrunners!

IMPORTANT NOTE: This company is brand new to requesting music from TAXI's members, so chances are you don’t have any material in their catalog yet! This is a great opportunity to create a new outlet for your music and begin a new relationship with an awesome company!

This Library is looking for a bunch of Mid-to-Up-Tempo Instrumental Cues in the general stylistic ballpark of the following references we got directly from them:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cqhj4zgptgm60 ... t.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3pu6opf8gelu ... t.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lrtk6d3kjobz3 ... t.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q4ddvfdzlbiou ... 4.mp3?dl=0

Please submit top-notch Instrumental Cues with a light, mellow sound and feel. Your submissions should feature Electric and/or Acoustic Guitar and light Percussion. Some Piano or light Electronic elements could be a nice touch, as well (have we said the word "light" enough?) Craft your Cues around a singular motif and mood, and layer instrumentation in and out as they progress to create a sense of dynamics and forward movement. Please be sure that your production and any software sounds and samples you use are fresh and high-quality.

All submissions should be at least 90 seconds long, and can run up to 2 minutes (a little bit longer is fine). Well-crafted, buttoned/stinger endings are required – do NOT submit anything with faded endings. Do NOT copy the referenced tracks in any way, shape, or form. Use them only as a general guide for tempo, tone, and overall vibe. Broadcast Quality is needed.

[careymoore615]

very nice. definitely has a vibe and feel similar to the reference tracks in the listing.

[johnnyrowing]

Alasdair,
Just 2 cents . . . be wise . . . and ignore me, unless you agree. I'm offering feedback because I see the listing closes soon. And if I'd asked the board, I'd love to get some feedback from anyone. Do unto others and all that . . .

Overall Volume
I wonder if you can master the overall volume up a bit?
And perhaps do some volume riding to have the first "pre-edit" point portion of your work up just a bit to be a bit more even with the 2nd half.
I know you want the song to grow . . . but adding the instruments and layers will probably naturally add the feeling of growth even if the volumes are a bit more even.


Forward Momentum - Developmental Arc
This is one that seems to be a pretty common comment in lots of the shares regarding screening comments on cues. Can you do any more to let the development of the cue be more distinct? I don't remember the exact rule . . . but I think CosmicDolphin shared that he doesn't allow 2 bars to happen without something "new" happening.

Perhaps in your current version there could be more work done on developing the percussion elements a bit more slowly or systematically? Or, do you have some other ideas on keeping that arc developing?


Closing
With that said, it feels like it fits the tone. It is certainly mellow and guitar driven. I think it is really peaceful and beautiful.

I hope that helps.
Johnny

[DrDanny]

Hi Johnny,

I will throw my two cents in as well. I really liked it - I am full of opinions in general and had a hard time finding any necessary improvements. Instrumentation is nice, rhythm is catchy. Quite honestly I think it does not need much improvement - though I actually agree with the previous reviewer. You might want to add a maximizer (mine has a light rock setting) to the overall mix to give it a little more punch and fill up some headroom without making it sound overbearing. I agree with the developmental arc comment - the thing that caught me was the second phrase was too close to the first. If you do something between the first and second phrases a little (not a lot) different or extra that would fix it (add percussion, change a few notes, etc.) On the mix itself, you might want to flip the guitar parts L/R, the left ear EQ seemed to blend with piano a little too much. The final thing, again optional, you might want to rework the ending to not be so abrupt...give the listener a clue the ending is coming and spend a couple more seconds finishing the song.

Good luck!

Danny

[AlanHall]

I like it. Very much.
That said, I have a couple opinionated comments to offer. First, I was totally expecting the main guitar groove to be replaced by 'something else' after the breakdown at :45 seconds. Such a great place for a countermelody to take the spotlight, a shame if its wasted. The when the guitar groove comes back in near the end, it'll be fresh again. Second, the tag ending shouldn't sound like an apology. I get that you were giving us a 'surprise' ending, but consider that an editor may want to chop the piece at nearly any point and tack the ending on. Make the final chord louder, if not "bigger". JM2C

[Cameloide]

Nice tune. I like the meat of it. I think you could still improve the feel/groove of it by getting the guitar a little more in the pocket. Seems like it's slightly ahead in a general sense. Zoom in and check the transients to see how they're lining up with the drums, you might could slide the whole gtr track back a little, or just move the spots that are most ahead.

[AlasdairEaston]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. It's valuable and really interesting hearing honest opinions from fresh ears. I'm a bit short of time so I think I'll need to focus efforts on just one or two areas, and I think priority number 1 is the ending. The listing emphasises that they need things light ("have we said the word 'light' enough?") so I didn't want to go too bombastic there and finish with anything too forceful, but perhaps I've gone too far the other way.

A couple of people have mentioned mastering, loudness and levels. It's a good point that I'm slightly conflicted about. There's no mastering at all on this file and I've made sure to not run the mix bus too hot. I'm still very inexperienced in this production music world and unsure what the concensus is on this. I've heard that many libraries will want to do their own mastering. Should I:
1. master the track with some tasteful mix bus compression and limiting to take it up to commercially competitive levels?
2. just push the mix level up to use any unused headroom?
3. leave it as-is to keep options open for any subsequent choices by the library?

The individual stems *are* currently lightly compressed (compressor on the drum bus, light compression on the guitars and piano, etc) to keep things within reasonable bounds.

In any case I'm pretty sure that I'd like my full mix to be simply a summation of the stems, so any mastering compression, EQ and limiting would be done within each stem. That way a new remix at stem level should work without worrying about any altered responses from mix bus dynamics processing. Any insights or experience from anyone on this?

In the meantime though, thanks again for the comments. Every day's a school day indeed.
Cheers,
Alasdair.