No critiques from Taxi - tally

[devin]

I understand the dispatch listings don't offer a critique, due to time pressure.The regular listings also have a fair number of "no critiques from Taxi" in capitol letters as well (actually, 52 listings will not give back a critique right now...where 57 other listings will this month....ya, it's a slow Thursday night for me so I counted )I can imagine a couple of reasons for this set-up:#1. The actual client will be previewing the material, and isn't going to fill in the scorecard and comments.#2. The genre is kinda new (such as the Nintendo Wii series? Someone with more experience can correct me here if this stuff comes around alot). In the case where the genre isn't well represented by the screener population, perhaps the critique isn't offered (example: just forwarding some stuff because it sounds really cool, without being able to dissect what wasn't cool about other stuff).Does anyone else have any thoughts on the matter? I'm still submitting to both types...and I just accept the fact that I'll miss the reasons why I'm missing the target for any submission to a listing that is "yes/no" only.

[dankityd]

#1 has got to be the predominant reason.And honestly, I'm beginning to care less and less about critiques. Maybe some people can chime in on this one, but I have been seeing (amongst my own submissions and others that I'm privy to) a trend towards more and more vagueness, and less usage of musical vocabulary and specific musician-oriented guidance.In other words, a lot of general 'industry speak' like "music needs to support the vocal" or some such useless comment instead of something specific that uses language that is meaningful to a musician and can be directly applied.I used to see more about such and such a chord (even using roman numerals) or bar X of section Y. Specific comments about lyrics and nitty gritty analysis of themes and what not.Now it's always "the music should support the vocal" and other self-evident things that you could probably say about every song ever written.I suppose this could be a submission volume problem with popular listings. Or a problem of not wanting to waste time critiquing a song that shows little potential. And in that case I can see someone raising the argument that this is why we have the option of the custom critique. But while the custom critiques address the specifics, they are not usually as brutally harsh as a regular listing. I've seen songs come out of the custom critique with fairly good remarks, only to get shredded in a competitive listing.Of course this is all based on my experience and that of a small group of writers. I'd love to hear what everyone else has to say....

[geo]

May 22, 2008, 6:54pm, dankityd wrote:#1 has got to be the predominant reason.I agree there.Quote:Maybe some people can chime in on this one, but I have been seeing (amongst my own submissions and others that I'm privy to) a trend towards more and more vagueness, and less usage of musical vocabulary and specific musician-oriented guidance.In other words, a lot of general 'industry speak' like "music needs to support the vocal" or some such useless comment instead of something specific that uses language that is meaningful to a musician and can be directly applied.I used to see more about such and such a chord (even using roman numerals) or bar X of section Y. Specific comments about lyrics and nitty gritty analysis of themes and what not.Now it's always "the music should support the vocal" and other self-evident things that you could probably say about every song ever written.I suppose this could be a submission volume problem with popular listings. Or a problem of not wanting to waste time critiquing a song that shows little potential. And in that case I can see someone raising the argument that this is why we have the option of the custom critique. But while the custom critiques address the specifics, they are not usually as brutally harsh as a regular listing. I've seen songs come out of the custom critique with fairly good remarks, only to get shredded in a competitive listing.Of course this is all based on my experience and that of a small group of writers. I'd love to hear what everyone else has to say....I have no experience with the customs but I agree with the assessment of the regular critiques, or at least my last one.... didn't dispute the return but the critique was useless (I have to find "my voice") nothing useful (though he did explain at length the purpose of a break was to give a feel change in the song... which was good cause I was unsure). Gave Taxi a call (email actually), they were nice as always, defended the critique (even though I had examples of far more in-depth critiques for 2 of the songs from last year). I didn't push it cause it wasn't a big deal other than I was planning to use the critique in upcoming rewrites. I don't like the "NO CRITIQUE" ones but mostly cause I'm still trying to get into groove with submitting, being on target and all, so if I'm not, I want to know where I gotta improve.Got another sub in now.... hoping it was just a so-so screener and not a trend, I liked getting specific suggestions..... Geo

[hummingbird]

this was just discussed on another thread - http://taxi.proboards27.com/index.cgi?a ... Personally, in 4 years and hundreds of submissions, while I've had many returns that I emotionally disagreed with, when I was able to detach from my work and look objectively at the feedback, I always found value in it. Sometimes the feedback is text heavy and other times it's just a sentence or two, but I still learn from it.If I received a critique I felt was too general or "so so" then I would be calling customer service.

[devin]

Thanks for the thread pointer Vikki...that other thread was so recent I'm embarrassed I missed it. Thanks for the posts everyone...I'm still learnin'

[davekershaw]

May 22, 2008, 6:11pm, devin wrote:Does anyone else have any thoughts on the matter? I'm still submitting to both types....Yeah, I'm giving the "no critiques" a break until my music's improved, and I feel it's got more of a chance. I need those critiques.There was also another good thread on this recently, which suggested at least some kind of feedback, instead of nothing at all.Dave.

[dankityd]

May 22, 2008, 8:19pm, hummingbird wrote:this was just discussed on another thread - http://taxi.proboards27.com/index.cgi?a ... Personally, in 4 years and hundreds of submissions, while I've had many returns that I emotionally disagreed with, when I was able to detach from my work and look objectively at the feedback, I always found value in it. Sometimes the feedback is text heavy and other times it's just a sentence or two, but I still learn from it.If I received a critique I felt was too general or "so so" then I would be calling customer service.I hear you, but I'm not even talking about disagreements. In some of these cases it's not even my tune, it's another member's submission that I've read. So I don't have any attachment at all. And I can look very objectively and say "a monkey could have written this critique from a page of stock phrases that came off the desk of some non-musician executive."Here's some direct quotes from a review someone sent me to look at"Melody could be a little bit more memorable for this modern pop listing and the supporting parts could lend the vocal and melody a bit more support.""Use more dynamics throughout this song and add more depth in your part-writing - give the vocal more support and the music more energy."Now that's just useless as far as I'm concerned. You could say this about any song. Here's another review from the same material that is good because it has specifics. I wish I saw these more:"You could start the chorus with more of a musical "bang" (e.g. drum fill and beat earlier) plus you could add a higher harmony to the part to make clearer that we have entered the chorus. Right now it sounds a little like an extension of the chorus, there is no real dynamic or melodic shift."Bottom line: I'd rather get critiqued by a musician than someone in the industry who can only tell me that it's not working and can't explain why.

[aimusic]

Yeah there should be a tick box likeKeep tryingORGet a new hobby...Just kidding...

[dankityd]

OK here's my solution:Industry types who can't talk nuts and bolts musical vocabulary and say concrete things in critiques should be the ones doing the yes/no listings. Musically savvy people should be doing the critiques.

[hummingbird]

For info on screening & screener training, read:Taxi Land - Dave - Part ITaxi Land - Dave - Part 2Taxi Land - Dave - Part 3Taxi Land - Screener Queries - HoraceLinks on this thread in FAQs:http://taxi.proboards27.com/index.cgi?b ... hread=2141