WOULD LIKE OPINION ABOUT "RECORDING"

[sabino]

Hi guys!

Recently my song "Our Place On The Moon" was returned for 2 reasons:

1st - "Stylistically Off Target"
2nd - "Recording".

The listing (Y110203AP) mentioned: "great sounding home recordings are fine"

I understand the first reason, but the second one.... I really don't!
Please listen to the song and give me an opinion on this.

Don't get me wrong but I would prefer opinions coming from someone with music recording/production experience.


You can listen to "Our Place On The Moon" at:
www.taxi.com/sabino
or
www.reverbation.com/sabinospace


Thank you all!

Sabino
www.taxi.com/sabino

[t4mh]

Hi Sabino!

I'll take a stab at this. First off I know nothing of the listing and so I can't speak to the TARGET of the listing. But generally these listings are for current sounding tracks. Make no mistake that "current" is equivalent to Recording, Engineering and all of those issues including composition. Generally all of those issues work to what TAXI calls Broadcast Quality. Thats why nearly every listing says BQ or GREAT home recordings are ok.

This is a good song and all of the performances are done very well. Nothing jumps out at me as a wrong note or pitchy or any of that stuff. It is a pleasant listen! Immediately, the keyboard sounds are dated and sound thin to me, the long reverb on the snare sounds really retro, none of this content sounds "current" and therefore is not Broadcast Quality for a current sounding listing. I believe the bass could sound flatter and would sit in the mix much better. I can hear no kick.

If the listing was for retro sounding tracks then your closer on the BQ aspect.

These are all problems that can be fixed! I encourage you to post your tracks in the P2P section before you submit them along with the listing that your going to submit them to. There are some great folks there that would all be glad to listen and point these things out to you on the front end. Sorry you got returned for this but keep writing and submitting.

Good Luck!

[sabino]

Hi t4mh!

Thank you very much for your opinion!

If Taxi's screeners consider retro sound as a "recording" issue I understand and accept it.

I will take your advice for next submissions.

All the best to you and your work.

Sabino
www.taxi.com/sabino

[ThirdStrand]

First of all, great song - heartfelt, captivating vocal, beautifully textured setting...really enjoyed it in a way that made it hard to listen critically, because I just wanted to come along for the story. I'd agree that, if the screener's issue is the vintage influences, it would be weird to consider that a "recording issue." I love it as it is, but I noticed that when I heard that drier, filtered loop around the 3 minute mark, and at the end, I immediately thought "cool - homage to the great, expansive mixes of a few years back, seamlessly integrated with a contemporary attitude," SO...you could always to a version with some of that earlier in the song, or build an alternate intro around it as a way to mitigate a screener's "is this too vintage" reaction. Let me say again though, being a texture junkie myself, I LOVED some of the textures you created, and would NOT want to lose them, even if you wanted to subtly update them for the sake of a listing. You get a warmth in your textures without mud that I envy and frequently struggle to capture.

That said, I'm going to assume that that's not a part of the "recording" issue and try to take a crack at it from a pure engineering standpoint, which took a couple of listens, 'cause my first reaction was the same as yours, a hearty "really?!?" Being as picky as I could, all I could come up with was...

1) The kick/bass relationship isn't quite locking up tight for me...might actually try a few different kick samples - for whatever reason, the particular "click" frequency on that one just didn't quite sit right in the song or with that really nice warm bass sound you were getting. Could be partially a mixing issue too - would be hard to tell without working on it a little.

2) Just noticed this, but I realized that I might be craving a little more breathless passion and forward drive in the LV on the first channel - maybe didn't quite match the (um, STUNNINGLY beautiful) texture and its gravitational pull toward the chorus at that point. Once again, though, that's not a recording issue.

3) Could try a vocal-up on choruses only mix? Realized I was struggling to catch the words at the ends of phrases...that's actually the biggest thing I notice.

4) Holy crap, I LOVE the second verse. Once again, not helpful. I just do.

5) Second prechorus didn't hit me the same way as the first - felt great this time.

6) Continuing to listen, the thing I think would really stick the landing on this song is just a little more tweaking on the vocal placement in the choruses - I wouldn't change a thing in the verses. Definitely craving a slightly more forward vocal there, but also might be stuff that's as subtle as a slightly more shimmery verb, whether accomplished by a different plate or whatever, or by eq-ing returns. Also, the overlap from the first to the second phrases in the chorus feels natural to me, but from the second to "our place on the moon," a little less so...I think because it doesn't actually overlap, but is also clearly sung on separate layers. Maybe that second could just delay out very subtly over the beginning of the hook, so it's clear that it's an intentional layering?

7) Boy, that's being really picky...still not sure I get the "recording" check - maybe the screener had the caffeine shakes?

Listened to a bunch of music on the forum today for inspiration to get over my slightly-discouraged writer's block over here, and this was, I believe, my favorite - thanks for sharing it, and all the best!

Matt
www.taxi.com/mattcurleemusic