My first time spent with Taxi was a couple years back and I just rejoined. The conversation ended up into this, so I felt I should post it here incase anyone would gain anything from it... if not oh well. It will not be the first wasted/lame thread ever. hehe
thesongcabinet wrote:
Hi Rob,
I think it's like the better the available sample libraries get, the higher the bar for submissions, in general.. But, if you can get on MTV without great samples, and have upgraded now, there's no say what you can accomplish!
Yea, I am sure the bar is rising but it's not unabtainable with low budgets still. It's just really important to have as clean as recordings that are needed depending on the genre. The Hard Rock/Metal song that MTV used is a bit dirty. But that's that style right? For the most part anyway. However, the samples that I had that were poor-ish where violins, horns etc... coupled with my synthy style of playing them it did not spell success LOL.
FUNNY thing... I submitted a song once, I used a REAL violin with a piano and a sampled flute it was returned basically saying this in the critique. I SWEAR, THIS IS NO BS, I copied/pasted from the critique...
"Dark melody and the live flute playing ( i think it's
live) are highlights here..your style is on target for
this tv / film background application.. fluid melody
and accessible sense of development..,
yet work on overall ' theme', as a way of having your
music stand out in this competitive genre..
While they can use simple pieces,, even textured,
' beds', without a distinctive motif, the more striking
the signature, the better your chances.. think of
the most iconic music from famous films., tv shows..
they're based on very recognizable melodic ideas,
performances"
"the string sounds could be more ' authentic',,
try to update your sound pallet.... compare to
other soundtracks for direction.. these music libraries
are selective and specifically avoid overly ' synthetic'
sounds.. strings, drums, etc"
Now the way I screwed the pooch on this was, I put delay on the violin THEN I played samples behind it to give it, what I thought would be, a more realistic standing in the mix. The flute, when I played it on my MIDI controler I was INTO IT, I played it to the point where in my mind I believed I was playing the flute. I then EQ'd slightly, added a bit of verb and BAM, I fooled the screener. A for effort there I suppose.
This was a BIG learning experience for me!!! I realized that I should have given the song more of a "lead guitar" (I am a guitarist at heart, it's what I do best) mentality with the instruments I was playing. At points in the song have one instrument take the lead.. EVEN WHEN I think it is not needed. That was the learning moment.. even when I think it is not needed. The other thing I learned was.. Delay + real violin with poorly played (played like a synth sound) samples = You SUCK HAHAHA
Sorry if I put this in a thread it shouldn't be in but it just seemed like the right moment to go into detail about one of my experiences with Taxi and their critiques..
YOU CAN FOOL THE SCREENERS sometimes (but even then he said "I think" so he knew to be skeptical), but they still know when something isn't up to par.
Final thing that was said...
"good direction for background music, yet no really
definitive , indelible melodic signature or individual performance
emerge for this music library listing,, keep writing,
your music is expressive, ..
(practice playing your tracks along with film scenes..
see how the music works with the film.. )"
I think everyone can learn a little something from this, even without hearing the song.
Rob
