Please listen: POSITIVE, OPTIMISTIC INSTRUMENTAL CUES

[mikehamm123]

Would love comments on the mix, writing, use of samples:

https://soundcloud.com/user-819745024/happy-song

Not sure if it has 'too much' melody...

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POSITIVE, OPTIMISTIC INSTRUMENTAL CUES are needed by a boutique Music Library with tons of credits in big Feature Films, countless TV Shows, and TV Commercials. They’re looking for Mid­to­Up Tempo Instrumental Cues that would fall within the general stylistic range of the following references The Music Library gave us:

Please submit contemporary sounding Instrumental Cues with a cheerful, optimistic, and positive feel, sound, and vibe. Your Instrumentation can be solely acoustic, or a combination of acoustic and electric instruments, as long as the overall production is solid from top to bottom. Be sure to stick with one mood and motif from beginning to end, while adding and subtracting layers of instrumentation as your Cue progresses to add dynamics and a sense of forward momentum. Any organic/acoustic instrumentation you use should sound indistinguishable from the real thing! Anything that is obviously synthetic sounding or MIDI-driven won’t work for this pitch

Quoting the Company: “You’d be smart to not include a prominent melody. Instead give it a nice motif that gives a sense of melody without fully including a melody that sounds like what a vocal part might do. Touches of melody work better for this type of instrumental.”

All submissions should be around Two-Minutes long (give or take) with non-faded, buttoned endings. Do NOT copy the referenced examples in any way, shape, or form. Use them only as a general guide for tempo, tone, and overall vibe. Broadcast Quality is needed (great sounding home recordings are fine).

[Susanstunes]

Hi there Mike,
It has a nice rolling happy vibe. Does the meter or beat stress change in the first 3rd of the track? I like that but maybe it doesn't work perfectly for tv (I've heard) for when they try to edit. But as far as the melody - I don't think its too much. These are listings I try to write and find them challenging to make interesting but not too interesting. It feels like there needs to be a B section that comes in more obvious with a gentle change to wake up our ears. It's got the lightness I think they want from the examples. Maybe the tempo could be faster just a bit to give it more forward movement in addition to the B section more obvious. Just my thoughts. Good luck!

http://www.soundcloud.com/susanhillman

[mikehamm123]

Thanks, really appreciate your listening!

It feels like there needs to be a B section that comes in more obvious with a gentle change to wake up our ears

You point to one of the biggest challenges for me--I want to write songs with flow and structure and contrasts, but as I understand these cues, they should just repeat with variations.

So maybe I should have put in an edit point and a contrasting section, but--against all instincts--I put it on a treadmill, assuming that a 10-20 second snippet may be chosen.

Ie this is not meant to be 'sat down and listened to' like a song, but is here to provide a short clip--an hors deouvre tray, not a meal.

Thoughts?

[Susanstunes]

Hi again Mike,
Did you turn this in to the listing already?

Susan

[mikehamm123]

Yup, already submitted--but would still welcome any feedback.

[mikehamm123]

OK i get the impression the screener didn't like it much

Somewhat repetitive sounding structure to this track. Electronic percussion elements aren't really driving the cue at all and really is way in the background and barely audible. As mentioned in listing, " “You’d be smart to not include a prominent melody, " whereas the piano melody in this one is so prominent and busy and does not stop throughout the cue.

So now I'm confused about song structure for these cues--the 'repeat and add/subtract layers' vs 'repetitive sounding structure'.