30, 60 and 90 second cuts for Dispatch

[jsaras]

Hi, I'm fairly new to Taxi, going on a year now. I noticed that many of the dispatch requests are for instrumental music arranged for 30, 60 and 90 second cuts. I wanted to ask how some of you arrange for these types of requests. I did one instrumental where I ended a phrase on a tonic with a short pause at the 30 second mark and started the next segment. For the 60 second spot I created an ending then started a higher energy phrasing for another 30 seconds and ended abrubtly at 90 seconds. Does that sound like what they are looking for perhaps???John

[matto]

If you know ahead of time that there will be 30/60 edits, you can certainly write with that in mind (btw I've never heard of 90s edits, that's not a typical promo length...the others are 10 and 15s). However, with a little bit of imagination, it's possible to make good promo edits out of almost any track, as long as you start with the original sequencer project and not the mix (audiofile).Generally, you wouldn't want your 60s or full length track to have an obvious "false ending" at 30s, that "built in edit point", so to speak, shouldn't be detectable to the average ear. Also keep in mind that the overall length of the edits should be 30/60 or whatever, so your button should be around 29/59 or perhaps a little earlier or later depending on the nature and tempo of the cue.Hope this makes sense!matto

[mazz]

I submitted a couple of promos to my publisher and they specifically asked for edit points every 15 seconds. I try to make the sections make musical sense and try to avoid big cymbal swooshes over edit points. So far this is how I've dealt with them but I haven't had any plays yet so take it with a grain of salt. As matto said, I've tried to make my buttons a second or two before the actual 30 or 60 second point to allow for ring out and editing. From what I know, 30 seconds actually means 29 seconds in TV-speak.Here's the pieces I've mentioned.http://www.johnmazzei.com/song/1(ring out goes a little over 30 seconds but probably will be faded)http://www.johnmazzei.com/song/10(A-section melody repeats for last 15 seconds with big ending)Hope this helps,Mazz

[jsaras]

Thanks, matto and mazz. I appreciate the help.I went back and got rid of cymbal crashes and echoes that carried over the 30/60 sec. marks and reposted the song as 3 cuts one after the other (30 s., 60 s., and whole song). I assume that's how it is supposed to be done. Here's the link to the song in case you'd like to hear it."Zanzibar"http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... 9&stream=1 Johno