Surf Rejection

[johnclavin]

My "Lonely City" was rejected for mechanical drums.

SURF and HOT ROD -style INSTRUMENTALS influenced by Duane Eddy, The Ventures, Dick Dale, Davie Allen, Link Wray, The Chantays, etc. sought by a label that's putting together an internationally distributed compilation album. A retro-production style is preferable. They want the recordings to sound and feel as authentic to the above-mentioned artists as possible. Please do not submit if you are using a drum machine, or a drummer that sounds like a drum machine. Raw demo recordings are acceptable, as long as the performances have character. Please submit one to three instrumentals online or per CD. All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI and must be received no later than Thursday, January 21, 2010. See Instrumental section for full details.
TAXI #S100121SU

I would think that a good lyrical melody with a verse and chorus (that my song has) would be more important than mechanical sounding drums if they want a new, surf style, pop instrumental song. They did mention Duane Eddy and The Ventures.

[davewalton]

My "Lonely City" was rejected for mechanical drums.

SURF and HOT ROD -style INSTRUMENTALS influenced by Duane Eddy, The Ventures, Dick Dale, Davie Allen, Link Wray, The Chantays, etc. sought by a label that's putting together an internationally distributed compilation album. A retro-production style is preferable. They want the recordings to sound and feel as authentic to the above-mentioned artists as possible. Please do not submit if you are using a drum machine, or a drummer that sounds like a drum machine. Raw demo recordings are acceptable, as long as the performances have character. Please submit one to three instrumentals online or per CD. All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI and must be received no later than Thursday, January 21, 2010. See Instrumental section for full details.
TAXI #S100121SU

I would think that a good lyrical melody with a verse and chorus (that my song has) would be more important than mechanical sounding drums if they want a new, surf style, pop instrumental song. They did mention Duane Eddy and The Ventures.

Remember this is for a compilation album so they need "ready to go" recordings (which would be put on the compliation album as-is... not re-recorded). Anything that has to be fixed or has any flaws (especially their specifically worded caution against anything mechanical drum-wise) couldn't be used or rather to say that other tracks that didn't have those issues would be what they'd be considering. One thing to always remember... never expect them (whoever "they" are) to "look past" certain problem areas.

Hope that helps...

Dave

[ckbarlow]

John, I know the returns sting. And your melody is good. But I'll tell you that on mine, I spent, geez, maybe 3x as long programming the drums as I did writing and recording the guitar parts -- and trust me, it's not because I'm some phenomenal guitarist, just serviceable. It's because if they say "no drum-machine-like drums," I'm going to work my rear off on the drums.

I also changed strategy -- exactly as Dave indicated -- when I re-read the listing and realized it was a "real song" opportunity as opposed to a film/TV backdrop. In that situation, you have to bring it. It has to essentially be radio-ready. I actually scrapped the tune I'd been working on and started over from scratch.

I'm no expert, but in case it's helpful information: I used EZ Drummer, and I'll send you the MIDI file of the drum part if you think it might be helpful. I made each phrase of each section subtly different than the same phrase elsewhere in the song, without exception. Alternate samples of the same drum, velocity differences... I did whatever I could to bring it to life.

I'm a beginner compared to a lot of other folks who do really killer rock drum parts. Big Blue Barry uses Superior Drummer (I think), which is the next step up from EZ Drummer, and his rock drums always sound fantastic.

Everything Dave said is spot on. And veterans like Dave will also tell you to move on to the next track, and make every one better than the last one. If we can do this, you can too.

[johnclavin]

Thanks for the helpful comments and congratulations to the people that made it with this listing.
I usually use ProTools Strike for drumming, but for this project I bought surf drumming audio tracks from a guy that records real drums. I thought they would be OK being real drums, but I guess I should have edited them using a more organic style.

[cardell]

Sorry to hear this John.

...I'll tell you that on mine, I spent, geez, maybe 3x as long programming the drums as I did writing and recording the guitar parts -- and trust me, it's not because I'm some phenomenal guitarist, just serviceable. It's because if they say "no drum-machine-like drums," I'm going to work my rear off on the drums.

I did exactly the same thing. I used the Addictive Drums Retro Pack. I even put a ritard at the end to try and make it sound more authentic.

Stuart