My Song and My Instrumental

[moorishblue26]

Dear All,

I am newbie here, and want to showcase my work. Please have a look and share your feedbacks.


TRICKLE OF LOVE - THIS ONE IS A WESTERN CLASSICAL NUMBER - LARGE CANVAS FEEL
https://soundcloud.com/user-430058464-5 ... 0cD39OnYGK

RAINBOW IN HER EYES
https://soundcloud.com/user-430058464-5 ... ZHPY5mpaHW

This one is a solo of mine. RAINBOW IN HER EYES.

The song goes like this

There's a rainbow
in your eyes
and I thought that
rainbows would come out
somewhere up in the deep blue.
evening skies

Tomorrows knocking
todays on its toe
your'e there in me
no matter where I go
i heard from someone wise
that life is short
So I too wanna fly
before I die
but only in the rainbow
in your eyes

I am a published poet on Amazon, and I can write on any subject. So I am open to collab on Lyrics Writing, as that's the easiest thing to do. The link to my book on Amazon is here
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095XCCV58

Love to all,

Hope you all like it!
Happy Sunday
Moorish Blue

[Zaychi]

Hey Blue,

these are nice tries, but they are WAY off the mark for what is required in this place. Remember that TAXI is only the second station in the food chain of commercial music (dedicated composers being the first), and that you're pitching here for big TV, movie, and advertising productions. In their current form, these tracks would have trouble getting past the screeners at stock music libraries, which are somewhere around the 5th station (like, for wedding video's and business promotion).

Of the four classical music components (melody, harmony, rythm, and sound) the last one is by FAR the most important ingredient for the screeners. You can write a brilliant piece of music, which would have gone along with the greatest composers in the sheet music era, but you won't stand a chance here if you don't make it SOUND right. That's also the hardest part, and it takes YEARS to master it. If you want to learn that, you have to be resilient, spend thousands of hours on it, and be prepared for a seemingly never-ending string of disappointments (mainly, getting rejected even when you're sure your last song was the BEST thing you EVER produced). Consensus on this forum is that it takes five years minimum for anyone who is also having a day job and this is their primary secondary time drain.

OK, on to what's wrong with these tracks:

- This is a very common problem for many people starting out here: the songs sound "dated". Many of us are in our forties and fifties, and our formative years are long ago; we still think the best music EVER was produced decades ago, and we hardly bother listening to modern stuff. Yet music has moved on since then, and it IS recognizable - the Rainbow song for example smells strongly of seventies influences. This can't really be quantified (like, "do this and that and solve it"), the only way to do this is immerse yourself in current music. Basically, whenever you are able to listen to music at all, don't put on those old Pink Floyd records, but play a "recent hits" stream on spotify instead.

- When not playing live instruments and substituting them with MIDI, don't just think "I need a cello" and grab the one that came with your DAW. The quality of the instrument samples is vital to a natural and covincing sound. You need to find a convincing virtual instrument for EACH of the main instruments you want to use in your productions - a piano one, a strings one, an amp one, etc etc. Some of the free ones out there are actually good enough to use; and for some you'll need to invest in buying them. Read up on dedicated forums and websites (like the "gear" section here, but many better places on the net are available as well).

- And even when you got those "good" instruments, you need to learn HOW to use them. For example, hardly any "violin" you hear in a top song will be a single sample; they're usually layered sounds from several libraries playing exactly the same notes. Watch youtube video's and other "how to's" on the instruments you want to use, as well as general production stuff.

Then some specifics for the "Rainbow" song:

- Cut down on the reverb; use it only very subtly. Many people try to hide inherent flaws in the actual tracks by using reverb, but it never works. Try to find the borderline to use no more reverb than where the casual listener thinks "Hey there's reverb on this".

- The way you're moving the vox around makes a listener seasick. Rule of thumb, a vox is right in the centre and stays there; when you want to create stereo effects, double them or record harmonic background vocals, but be sure that everything you move to the left has some kind of "compensation" on the right. Same goes for any lead melody instrument in an instrumental track. You can only get away with panning whole instruments to either side for secondary instruments.

- Be conscious about equalization. Play around with it for every track in your song, even if you then decide to leave it exactly where it was in the first place. It might have cured the horrible harsh sound of the whistle.

- You're going into the "red" on several places and instruments, leading to audable signal distortion. Avoid it at all times!

- The vocal is pitchy. Most vox tracks use pitch correction these days; I recommend to look into software like Melodyne if you want to produce vox songs. And yes, it is absolutely possible to use it more subtly than some of the main pop artists currently do. Only the top 1% of singers can afford to not use it at all.

- Two chords repeated for three minutes? Really?

- Don't confuse poetry with lyrics! You say you're published on Amazon; that means people download your poems and read them. For a song, you will be LISTENED to, which is something completely different. For example, 90% of song lyrics use rhyme, and there are very good reasons for that; was it really a conscious choice to not use it here?

[feaker66]

Mr Z gave you a very time consuming accurate review. That is huge plus to a newbie. I usually can find a positive to accent, but this track is very poor I'm afraid. The truth bites. You have to ask yourself does my song grab one's attention right away and keep it throughout? good luck

[moorishblue26]

Wow Zaychi,

Its valuable feedback that you have given, I agree, to what you say. Points taken, i want to learn Audio Engg and Sound Mastering, can u recommend a good school for the same?????



Regards
Moorish Blue

[Zaychi]

Hey Blue,

I'm only about a year and a half ahead of you; when I did my first submissions here they were very similar to yours in terms of production quality. Just go to my soundcloud page and check out "In Your Eyes" which was my first submission here (and I'm a bit ashamed of now); then check out the recent ones (which are STILL getting rejected here btw) and you can get some idea of the progression you can expect.

I didn't use any schools, but watched a lot of youtube video's on subjects I was interested in at some point of my learning process. You need to find your own favorites; just use generic search terms and see if the guys that come up have a story for you that you can learn something from, then subscribe to the ones you like.

Good luck on your journey!

Jur.

[NMN]

Hi moorishblue, I am a newbie here but I will have to agree with most of the feedback given to you so far. I think you have some decent structural ideas to start from though. There are a lot mixing issues going on to start with. I hear lots of distortion in the second song especially. There are timing issues as well with some of the instruments.

When I view mobile app advertisements, they usually have some sort of background music playing. If cleaned up a bit, the first track might qualify for something like that but I am not sure if any of the TAXI listings are typically looking for that sort of track.

Best of luck!

[moorishblue26]

Dear NMN,

Many thanks for the feedback. Will work on my skills

Regards
Blue

[BradGray]

Hey Moorish!

It's great that your putting the music out there. This forum is very good in giving you honest feedback, and the main thing is to learn to be objective about your music. With regards to sound engineering school, there are many great online resources that will cover much of what you need. Here's a few I quite enjoy:

Spectre Sound Studios
While it's a metal music production channel, Glenn has tons of great videos from engineering, to equipment and more. Entertaining, but perhaps don't crank this one if you have young kids in the room. =)

Produce Like A Pro
Similar to the other channel, no specific genre, but more professional and some stellar interviews.

Rick Beato
Engineering, Production, Music Theory, Interviews

These channels are a great place to start.

Good luck!
Brad

[moorishblue26]

Hey Brad thats awesome,

Will surely refer the links.

Regards
Atul