Latin Instrumental

[mladendomic]

Hi all, I just submitted "When Sun Goes Down" from my Taxi page to this Taxi listing:

CONTEMPORARY LATIN INSTRUMENTALS in the stylistic range of Mana, Marc Anthony, Juanes, etc., are needed by a Music Publishing Company that's currently pitching to a popular, new TV show. They're in desperate need of Latin Instrumentals that incorporate a good amount of Traditional Latin influence, in a contemporary way. They're NOT looking for straight up Latin Pop for this one, so please keep your J-Lo and Pitbull inspired instrumentals on the shelf. Please be sure your original Mid-to-Up Tempo instrumentals keep adding interest and don't stay too linear. This company offers an exclusive, two-year deal. The company splits the sync fee 50/50 with you. They'll keep 100% of the publishing, and you'll keep 100% of the writer's share. You must own or control 100% of your master and composition rights to submit to this pitch. Broadcast Quality is needed (great sounding home recordings are fine). Please submit one to three instrumentals online or per CD. All submissions will be screened on a Yes/No basis - No full critiques. Submissions must be received no later than Thursday, November 7, 2013.
TAXI # Y131107LI

I know it's far from even 'good', but never mind. I need to hear what your ears say, because mine are def. What is your diagnose? What is the most 'wrong thing' in this piece?

Thank you all !

[SteveJCurtis]

Zdravo Mladen.
I enjoyed the laid back quality of the track, and it and it has a very "summery" feel to it which I like.
The listing does say "Please be sure your original Mid-to-Up Tempo instrumentals keep adding interest and don't stay too linear."
So I wonder if this one might be a little too laid back for the listing?
Just my own thoughts and I wish you success.
Best regards
Steve

[mladendomic]

Steve,

I see you are somehow familiar with my part of the world, so zdravo to you, too!

I am aware this submission is a totally miss.
Well, this theme came to me a year ago, and I tried to figure out which genre it should belong since. Whenever I come back to it, I can not make guitar sound happy; it's always sad and dark, although the rest of the band is quite active and busy.

The second thing I have trouble with is of technical natue: can somebody help me understand what sound I should strive to on this one. What are the rules of the genre here? I was hoping to succesfully copy Mark Anthony's sound, but it didn't work.

Thank you all.

[SteveJCurtis]

Dobro Vece Mladen.
I spent April to November from 1987 to 89 in Rabac, Istria.
It's a long time ago but I have wonderful memories from that time.
I learned to speak a little Hrvatski but think I have forgotton most of it now.

The classical guitar sound on the track seems in the right ballpark to me. It seems to have some of the necessary phrasing ( although, please understand I know very very little of the Latin genre ).
Maybe a big bodied Jazz guitar sound would work better for the electric part?
What guitar did you use? Sorry I can't be of mire help with the genre overall.

Hvala,
Steve

[AntonioV]

I think Steve is right: it's a bit laid back and maybe a bit too linear for this listing. When I heard the guitar change around 2:15-2:20 I was hoping it would take the piece somewhere else because it sounded really good but it just fell back into the same groove. I think if you did more stuff like that little change and make it a more dynamic in places, it would be a great, rather than good, track. Your guitar work is excellent but I don't think in line with the type of guitar work you would find in any of the referenced artists. Having said that, it may still work for this listing, who knows?? I had trouble interpreting it as well but here's how I read it based on the 3 referenced artists:
- Mana, except for a handful of songs, their stuff is basically straight rock the way you would hear on American or British radio but with Spanish lyrics.
- Marc Anthony has two distinctive sounds depending on the album, either straight New York contemporary salsa or Latin Pop. The listing specifically said no Latin Pop so I'm guessing that was to say, pay attention to the salsa side of Marc Anthony.
- Juanes, kind of a mixture of the two above, guitar based rock but less heavy than Maná and lots of percussion and traditional rhythmic aspects as in the Marc Anthony salsa recordings.
So I tried to stay more on the Juanes side of things for this listing but adding more heavy rock influences to get more of the Maná sound. I think your track falls more between Marc Anthony's latin influenced pop and Juanes but maybe with less of a traditional influence than most Juanes tracks have. In that sense, I think your track sounds a bit too "canned" i.e. anyone who uses EzDrummer can tell the drum grooves came straight out of there. Maybe add a bit of variety to that. Of course, while it may not exactly fit this listing, I think it would be a good track for other purposes. As they say: write, submit, repeat. If it's not forwarded, keep it in your back pocket. There was a listing not too long ago looking for more general latin instrumentals that I think this track would have been perfect for. I think this listing may be looking for something more specific.
But then again, I could have misinterpreted the listing, sometimes it's hard to tell what they mean by contemporary and to really get an idea of what they want based on 3 referenced artists that are extremely different. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Hope that helps,

Antonio

[andygabrys]

yep - reading between the lines of the listings, they were looking for traditional elements in a modern production and mix style.

i.e. clave feel and melodic congruency and Latin percussion.

as was pointed out about - its an instrumental track - so there are a limited number of things that can put it in "latin" vs. some other vibe.

as Antonio pointed out, that pretty much means Mac Anthony or Juanes, and likely only the ones that have those elements I mentioned.

but I am constantly surprised.......

[MusicComposer]

Very nice track Mladen.

I'm relatively new on the forum so I'm not sure what they mean when they say: "not too linear"

You should definitely keep working on this track.
I can visualize a track like this as background to a Spanish or Hispanic soap opera.
I can also visualize this as a backing track in a movie with the hero driving a sports car on the French Riviera or somewhere in South America.

Again, nice track.

[niallyboy]

Excellent time feel on the guitar-- you play passionately. This should sit really well underneath most anything.

Good luck with this,

[mladendomic]

I thank you all for your opinions and suggestions, and, of course thank you for your compliments.

True, I felt that the melody line sounds flabbily. The melody line is 80% improvised and not at all finished. I was watching not to overload the melody.

The content of the song is motionless, drums are linear and there's nothing that stands out; no "toys" sounds, no surprises. I am thinking of adding more different instruments, but not sure which and where.

Antonio, when deciding how to connect pieces for this listing, I listened to several Marc Anthony songs. And they all seemed pretty linear in some way to me: straight drums and bass, not much instrument changes, pretty predictable. Those were those "latin pop" you mentioned. Well, I have much to learn yet.

Thank you all for your help.

[AntonioV]

Right! I think the reason for including the no Latin Pop part on the listing was to keep you away from that stuff. I think Marc Anthony is a great singer but I am unable to listen to his Latin Pop stuff, it's just not my cup of tea. It's very cookie-cutter and, as you said, pretty linear. Unfortunately even some of his latest salsa recordings have fallen into that as well. Juanes, by comparison, is always throwing new little details into his recordings, that's an artist that has really been successful in blending commercial/contemporary music with traditional elements; and he's a great guitar player too.