Taxi.com Should I?

Songwriting, songwriters, etc

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coachdebra
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Re: Taxi.com Should I?

Post by coachdebra » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:13 am

I agree with what everyone else has said and I thought I'd add this:

In my opinion, if you pay the fee and think of it as the Road Rally admission fee, it's hugely worth every penny.

Some listings will give you feedback and some don't. I think that's specified in the listings, but I'm not a musician so others will be better able to answer that question.

Either way you go - welcome to the Forums.

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Re: Taxi.com Should I?

Post by mojobone » Fri Feb 10, 2012 8:44 pm

joshhowatt wrote:Wow! Thanks everyone for all this feedback.

@Len - I am COMPLETELY open to revisions and whatnot. These songs I've recorded myself in my home studio, so adjustments really aren't all that difficult as far as rerecording. My main concern is that I clearly do not have the production chops that the pros do, and if that's what I'm up against I'm a little intimidated, to be honest. I'm also curious where I can find these videos and "live" shows.

@Mojo - I sincerely thank you for the advice. I agree, I think I was hiding behind the reverb somewhat. My mic is absolute crap, and granted my voice might be decent enough (thanks for the compliments), but I certainly don't think it's radio or studio recording quality. Thanks for the encouragement; as daunting as those numbers sound, it's still a pick me up. :)

@thesongcabinet - thanks for the advice. Let me ask you: so when submitting, does Taxi provide feedback to the artist if it doesn't get forwarded on? If so, how detailed is this advice? I think that alone could be worth the price

@cardell - Thanks Stuart. :) Under which forum category can I post my stuff for listening/critique?

@kitchensinkmusic - Thanks for the advice!!

@ dave - Thanks Dave. Yes, I was assuming that the stuff that gets the most forwards is most likely the stuff that sounds the most polished. I'm thinking I'm going to save a bit and take the dive. I really appreciate the comparison, and YES I TOTALLY can hear the difference. I think my sample was from SampleTank; it gets the point across but that's about it. What do you guys suggest if I were to "upgrade?" Or would I be better in the long run having things produced by a demo house?

In the end...thanks everyone for the feedback. It really means a lot. Can I ask if any of you have had any level of succes through Taxi? What does it pay (I'm sure it varies, but would love to hear success stories), how is the payment/credits divvied up, what would you say is your "success rate" as far as submissions and whatnot? Thanks again.
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You're welcome. :D

If the others don't mind, I'll answer a few of those questions; Taxi does provide feedback to those who are not forwarded; it's part of the service, what you pay for; sadly, not all Taxi opportunities include this perk. Sometimes, a listing party provides their own screener, in which case, no critiques will be forthcoming, but in that event, your music will be heard by a person authorized to make a decision, however limited, which is a jump up from not being notified of anything at all that's happening with your music, which is usually the case. ;)

I hope this doesn't seem unnecessarily cruel, but that's been my experience, so far. Good luck! :D
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Re: Taxi.com Should I?

Post by cardell » Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:43 pm

mojobone wrote:
joshhowatt wrote:".... my voice might be decent enough (thanks for the compliments), but I certainly don't think it's radio or studio recording quality.
Not what I said; your voice is perfectly legit, it's mainly the vocal performance, and to some extent, the vocal treatment that could be improved, in my opinion.
Yes, I thought the exact same thing. :)
joshhowatt wrote:@cardell - Thanks Stuart. :) Under which forum category can I post my stuff for listening/critique?
Here: http://forums.taxi.com/peer-to-peer-f20.html ;)

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Re: Taxi.com Should I?

Post by CHuckmott » Sat Jun 09, 2012 8:00 am

i'm not into plugging stuff, particularly not irrelevant stuff, I don't work for these guys and have no vested interested in suggesting it. That said, I believe the MultiPlatinum Pro Tools, particularly the John MErchant Mixing Video, is worth the return in your production skills.

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Re: Taxi.com Should I?

Post by CHuckmott » Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:51 pm

Reading this post n it's entirety, I joined and pua a lot of time in the last year into getting the production stuff up to snuff, spending 15 20 hours or so a week and running a lot of stuff through Peer to Peer. DOn't know that I would have gotten there in that short a period if I hadn't joined. One of the better decisions I've made was to join.

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Re: Taxi.com Should I?

Post by HowardBHC » Wed Dec 04, 2013 9:03 pm

Network in the forum and watch taxi tv. free but priceless information. Give and get advice from peers and be open to constructive feedback. Attend the road rally. Better your craft every day. Study the listings and evaluate the results on both forwards and returns. Be open, active and ready for every chance you get - submit.

.82 cents a day for a 1 year membership..The 299 price tag doesn't really seem that much if you commit, jump in and regularly participate. I have spent a lot more on things I got a lot less out of.

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Re: Taxi.com Should I?

Post by Skatzsinger » Sat Feb 15, 2014 11:39 am

Wow, this is such a great forum, I've learned loads from reading through these replies.

As a newbie I can't offer much advice, except listen to the advice above. I've joined Taxi after a few weeks of reading the forum and all the info on Taxi.com, which basically says if you persist and you're open to criticism and improving and learning, it's worth it.

I'm lucky to have teamed up with a fellow singer songwriter who's been producing in his own studio for years now. He learned from helping out in someone else's studio, and when he wasn't there he read magazines about recording. He took advice and spent years building up his studio with the plug ins he liked and the industry liked, but most of all he stayed up night after night and kept getting better at it, and there's absolutely no substitute for putting in the effort and persisting.

I listened to the second song on your list (I think it was called 'Say It') and I really like it. The others' advice about vocal effects is good, there are some great effect plug ins around now that don't sound over the top or obvious. If you think your voice needs more reverb, then look at the performance. You've got a good voice and it's expressive. Continue to improve on it.

Good luck with it. I joined knowing that there's little chance of me getting to the Rally, I've only just moved from the UK to Ireland so I can't afford to fly to the States, but I still think it will be worth it. I'll just have to take advice on the Forums and through feedback, then get to a rally when I've earned enough from everything else I do.
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http://www.taxi.com/skatz

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Re: Taxi.com Should I?

Post by CHuckmott » Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:59 am

If you look at the big picture then is worth doing. If you are doing sheerly with the expectation that you are going to submit and expect tons of forwards, is a gamble. Again, some may not like me saying so here, but if you are counting on the forwards, trying submitting to libraries on your own. If your stuff is getting completely rejected "out there" remember Taxi's standards are generally higher then the libraries they serve. However, if you look at it as a networking opportunity, and a chance to grow and learn, to me this is where the largest benefits are. I certainly thought I came a long way on almost 2 years by participating in forums , yes, watching Taxi TV, although I have to say I find some of the Taxi TV repetitive if you can generalize what you learn from episodes to other genres, etc. I dabbled in recording from like 2004 - 2007, and I don't think, even though I studied, that I saw the huge leaps in progress that I did after I joined Taxi for a couple years. My 2 cents.

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Re: Taxi.com Should I?

Post by JamesCarvalho » Tue Feb 18, 2014 10:20 pm

since i joined i've been writing alot more.
its really not that much money for what you get
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