Critique me: ELECTRONICA/DRUM-N-BASS INSTRUMENTALS

[nickfever]

ELECTRONICA/DRUM -N- BASS INSTRUMENTALS are once again needed urgently by an LA-based Music Publisher who has signed and placed numerous TAXI writers/songs. He has an ongoing supply deal with a major network and is currently looking for tracks for an extremely popular celebrity news series. We recently ran this listing in Dispatch (D080404EL) and he didn’t find the material he needs from that batch. He’s requested that we run this again, searching for a more “classic” Drum & Bass sound - fast electro percussion drum blurts (machine gun) and fat (analog sounding) bass. He only wants INSTRUMENTALS for this listing. The mood of the pieces should cover a range, but the tracks most like to be placed are the “Newzie” (think DnB version of the 10 O’Clock News) and Hollywood Premier (horns, gala). All songs should be uptempo, without exception - around 170 bpm. The material should sound contemporary and fresh, not dated. Your tracks should be in the 20 sec. to 1:00 range - but full length tracks are OK too (up to about 4 minutes). Make sure you own 100% of your song’s rights. This company offers non-exclusive deals and splits all royalties 50/50 with the writer. Broadcast quality needed [great sounding home recordings are OK]. Please submit one to three songs online or per CD. All submissions will be screened on a YES/NO BASIS ONLY - NO CRITIQUES FROM TAXI - and must be received no later than Noon PST on Thursday, May 1, 2008. TAXI #D080501EL2 submissions, 2 returnshttp://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_id=1257 ... stream=1If anyone can tell me how to improve I would appreciate it!NickAny forwards?

[mazz]

Hi Nick,Good pieces overall. The stream came through lo-fi so it's kind of hard to tell a lot but a few things stuck out:The horns on the first piece sound kind of synthy and maybe not ultra contemporary. The ending on this one could have been more exciting and had more of a build up to it. Think about how the news networks go in and out of their newscasts, usually with a big flourish.The second one kind of peters out, it also doesn't have a distinctive ending. Again, watch some TV and pay attention to the transitions into and out of the newscasts.I believe that there's a choice on your TAXImusic hosting page that lets you choose high quality streaming. Choose that, because your stuff will sound better and be easier to critique.Cheers,Mazz

[nickfever]

Thanks Mazz!I had my streaming set to hi, and it plays as "hi" when I click the link... so I don't know what the issue is with that. I'm not sure what to do...Any advice on where to get some good horns?I was thinking either MOTU Symphonic or EWQL Silver.I have a G4 Dual 867 OS 10.3.9 with 1.25 gigs of RAM.Thanks again,Nick

[mazz]

It must be on my end, I just tried Chuck's pieces and it came through low-fi there as well. I'll check my iTunes settings to see if I've got it set wrong there.I'm not very familiar with MOTU symphonic or Silver. Remember you'll probably need a good reverb if you get Silver as it doesn't have the hall reverb release trails that Gold has. IMO that's a huge selling point for the Gold and above libraries from EW. They take a bit more toll on the CPU but the sound is very very good. Not trying to get you to spend more cash but just to think ahead. I think MOTU has a built in reverb, I have the Ethno instrument and I think the Symphonic instrument runs on the same VI engine.Cheers!Mazz

[nickfever]

They stream hi-fi on my PC, but lo-fi on my mac.I actually wante the EWQL composers bundle, but I don't think it will run on my mac. I believe gold will, but I'm not sure how much drain it will put on my CPU and RAM. I figure if I'm getting the gold I might as well spend a few hundred extra to get the bundle.... I wonder if you have the option to upgrade from gold to the bundle? I will look into that.I do have a powercore firewire. The reverbs on that may be nice.I would actually love to get a new mac too, but first I'd like to make a monetary return/get a deal using the mac I have.Yes, symphomic has a built in convolution reverb. How do you like ethno?