Soundtrack Offering- 1st timer

[andyriggle]

Just thought I'd post a link to a soundtrack main title I wrote for review. It's called "The Wanderer- main title." Just had a lesson today, and the prof. had serious issues with the panning. So I know it needs work yet. But thought I'd post it anyway . Feel free to poke around on my page. Also wouldn't mind opinions on the piano solo "Transformations." It's waaay down at the bottom of my song list.Thanks kindly for your time,Andyhttp://www.soundclick.com/pro/view/01/default. ... tent=music

[gitarrero]

hi there,well, I'm really not a specialist for classical stuff, so this is just a very spontaneous feedback..;)I liked some parts and could have imagine a lonely wanderer on a empthy street. What iritated me where some breaks that weren't expected in that way, also when the string arragement comes back into the fast piano-arpeggio part - there it sounds like two underscores, it doesn't really fit...as I said, I'm not an expert in that style.cheers,Martin

[davewalton]

Hey Andy,I agree with the Prof on the panning. It sounds like the players are panned to the extreme left and extreme right.It's a nice piece. I might suggest a couple of things to think about. One is make sure that the feel and tone of the piece stays consistant throughout. If you're scoring to video then a piece of music might do all kinds of things, but a music supervisor placing a pre-existing track of music into a TV show or film has to know that the rest of the piece is going to have the same feel and tone as the first 30 seconds or so. I'm thinking of the piano stuff from 1:07 to 1:09 as an example of the song changing gears in mid-stream.Another would be to consider fading the endings of some of your phrases. Some of them seem to stop too abruptly. Other phrases could benefit from some added expression.It needs a little work on the details but a nice piece overall. Dave

[andyriggle]

Thanks for the feedback- always appreciate your comments!Andy

[andyriggle]

Dave, forgot to ask- are you a Taxi subscriber? And if so, did you get any of your composing jobs through Taxi's "industry lists?"Andy

[davewalton]

Quote:Dave, forgot to ask- are you a Taxi subscriber? And if so, did you get any of your composing jobs through Taxi's "industry lists?"AndyYes, and yes. I picked up a deal through Taxi in late May that placed me into a company that manages composers on behalf of Harpo Productions. In short, I'm writing music for The Oprah Winfrey Show and various Oprah specials. I also have some music in a Taxi-forwarded music library that's starting to get some airplay on television.However, what's more important (I think) is the "story behind the story".I came to Taxi in 2004 after a long period away from music (I'm 49). I used the Taxi critiques to help me "modernize" and improve my music. There aren't too many "looking for a composer" listings that come through Taxi. On my own, outside of Taxi, I started finding some deals for scoring low-budget independent films and gained some experience through that process. All along the way I continued to submit music to Taxi so I was getting good experience on one front while I was improving my craft through the Taxi critiques on another front. Three years later the stars and planets aligned themselves and everything came together through one little Dispatch listing.Of course I never would have gotten the Oprah deal if it wasn't for Taxi. But, I probably wouldn't have been considered if I hadn't picked up a good deal of experience through these other projects I found on my own. When it came time to do the Oprah thing, I was more than comfortable with the whole process as I had done it many many times over for these other things. I'm very glad that Oprah wasn't my first project. I recommend Taxi for the music submission/critique process, mostly as a tool to improve your music. It'll help elsewhere and overall. Deals here, like anywhere, are hard to get because there is a lot of competition. But the opportunities do exist, they're not made up or overblown for the sake of marketing.Hope that helps, Dave

[andyriggle]

Thanks. I'm just starting, and am trying to decide whether it's all worth it. Was happy to do the indie soundtrack, and I'm using it as a learning tool to get better as well. I was amazed that I got 3 weeks to write an hour of cues- can hardly remember writing some of em. With that "transformations" piece, I mentioned above, I took like 4 months on and got the score perfect. So when you submit your songs, you getta critique for like $5/song. Then you do whatever to fix it and pay $5 again to see how you fared? Or is there some dialogue in the process, like you can ask the reviewer questions? Then, say, Harpo likes your work. You're basically using that song as a resume piece, and will compose something new for them- right? And as you get jobs, you just submit your best work for prospects to view, rather than throwing gobs of material out there...

[davewalton]

Quote:So when you submit your songs, you getta critique for like $5/song. Then you do whatever to fix it and pay $5 again to see how you fared? Or is there some dialogue in the process, like you can ask the reviewer questions? Then, say, Harpo likes your work. You're basically using that song as a resume piece, and will compose something new for them- right? And as you get jobs, you just submit your best work for prospects to view, rather than throwing gobs of material out there...Exploring the main Taxi site (www.Taxi.com) will answer most of your questions. Basically we pay an annual fee to belong to Taxi. As a member we can then submit music to the bi-monthly listings that Taxi runs on behalf of their clients:http://www.taxi.com/industry.php?Listings-index-boxWe pay $5.00 for each song submitted (max of 3 songs per listing). Taxi screens the music on behalf of the client that ran the listing and Taxi forwards the "cream of the crop" from the music that was submitted. Client is happy because they're getting quality pre-screened music. Musicians are either happy or unhappy depending on if they got fowarded or not. Once music has been forwarded, Taxi is out of the loop. The companies running the listings are usually getting music and/or musicians from many different sources, Taxi being just one of them. Like any regular situation, if the listing company wants to do business with the musician, use their music or whatever, they contact us directly and any "deals" are between us and them. Taxi's role is strictly as a source of quality, screened music and/or musicians for the client and, as a result, a source of opportunities for us. Kind of a middle-man in a sense.Concerning critiques, the listings will say if a critique is not provided (Yes/No only). Otherwise a critique is provided for each song submitted regardless of if the song(s) are forwarded or returned. Each listing (3 songs max) is a one-shot deal so you don't get two or more tries at the same listing. You can submit the same song to many listings. Improving a song through the critiques and then submitting that song to new listings obviously is a big improvement over doing nothing or not knowing what to do. Personally, I only tweaked a few songs. Mostly I used the info in the critiques to write new (hopefully better) songs. Either way is good... improvement is improvement.Poke around the Taxi site, look at the listings, and hang around the forum. Good luck,Dave

[kevinmathie]

Hey andyriggle,I can't really comment on how your music compares to other commercial music -- since I'm a newcomer here myself -- but I do have to say fantastic job on Transformations! I think it's a very cool piece. Love the harmony.Do you mind me asking, what are you using for your string and brass sounds on the other numbers?

[andyriggle]

I used the patches from my Yamaha motif ES8 keyboard /workstation. I do alot of theater pit orchestra work, and alot of the sounds are really pretty good. Especially for live stuff. When I write, I use finale with the Yamaha voices. Then I save the midi, open it with Sonar and tweak. Which I need to get better at. I'm not crazy about messing with verb, EQ and effects . And I guess my panning skills aren't too good just yet. Thanks, Dave for the info. Am going to try to spend a little time getting some decent stuff and join up .Take care,Andy