First time posting about a kickback

[jnmorrison]

Usually these "returned" critiques don't bother me so much but this one kinda hurts.
Since Rockabilly is my main genre these days...I totally disagree with the screener on this one.
This is 100% in the "general stylisic wheelhouse" of the a la's listed...

Listing was:
U160114RC
ROCKABILLY INSTRUMENTAL CUES are needed for several Non-Exclusive, $2,500, Direct-to-Supervisor placements in a brand new TV Series. They’re looking for toe-tappin’ Mid-to-Up-Tempo Instrumental Cues in the general stylistic wheelhouse of bands like Reverend Horton Heat, The Hillbilly Moon Explosion, The Meteors, etc., etc., etc. Take a careful listen to the references below to get in the general wheelhouse of what they need: “The Devil’s Chasin’ Me” by Reverend Horton Heat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrbi3yOkYiU “Maniac Lover” by The Hillbilly Moon Explosion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNK82OS-5zo “Psycho for Your Love” by The Meteors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7-ctQ_mMnw Although the references have vocals, please submit instrumentals only for this pitch. Please give them rockin’ Instrumental Cues that have a believable, gritty, Rockabilly vibe, with authentic Rock band instrumentation. Your submissions should have super cool guitar riffs, prominent stand-up bass lines, and a drumbeat that really digs deep! Build your submissions around a catchy guitar lick, while adding a subtracting various instruments to keep your submissions from sounding too repetitive. Imagine your submissions used to capture the feeling of the open road, or the freewheeling vibe of a road trip with friends. That’s what they’re looking for! Your Submissions should be 2 to 3 minutes long and have buttoned/stinger endings. Do NOT copy or rip off the referenced artists or songs in any way, shape, or form. Use them only as a general guide for tempo, tone, and style. Broadcast Quality is needed (great sounding home recordings are fine). These will be Non-Exclusive, $2,500, Direct-to-Supervisor placements, and you’ll keep 100% ownership of your copyright and master recordings. All submissions will be screened on a Yes/No basis by a TAXI A&R person handpicked by the Music Supervisor. No full critiques. Please submit 1-3 Cues online or per CD, no later than 11:59PM (PDT), on Thursday, January 14th, 2016. TAXI #U160114RC

Track I submitted was is on my taxi page:
"Rockabilly Roundup".

Here's the reason for the return: "Recording"
And Screener 325 had this to say:
"The audio levels here are too low for this listing. The track sounds a bit dull and under powered due to the low level mix."

Only thing I can think is that they wanted more gritty guitars, panned in stereo to be a "freight train" type sound...
I honestly thought they were TOO loud...
Maybe his earphones were set too low while he listened, because honestly it's a nice hot mix on my end...approaching parity at nearly every point.

totally, totally stumped on this one.

=(

[Paulie]

Sounds like you nailed the style to me, excellent authentic playing on this. It sounds plenty hot in my headphones right now... the only thing that concerns me about the mix is that the bass sounds a little muddy/boomy at times... it rings a bit. But, that could be typical of the genre (I'm not an expert). I defer to the rock ability pros, but I think its a great sounding track.

I've had a handful of returns that really stung... I'm learning to let them slide, you can't please everyone all the time. Keep this track for future use!

Paulie

[jnmorrison]

Sounds like you nailed the style to me, excellent authentic playing on this. It sounds plenty hot in my headphones right now... the only thing that concerns me about the mix is that the bass sounds a little muddy/boomy at times... it rings a bit. But, that could be typical of the genre (I'm not an expert). I defer to the rock ability pros, but I think its a great sounding track.

I've had a handful of returns that really stung... I'm learning to let them slide, you can't please everyone all the time. Keep this track for future use!

Paulie

Exactly. I've sent an email off to the powers that be...and we'll see.
I'm not holding my breath.
Honestly - if they had said something like "great track but the bass is too boomy for use" -I could have understood that...but just "it's too quiet" seems like BS to me.

On the "boomy" note - It's hard to record stand-up bass.
We recorded this with a straight peizo pickup from the bridge of the bass into a DI then into the board...there is also a pickup built into the fingerboard to capture the "clicks", and a mic on the bass speaker... but we didn't realize until after the session was done and we'd left the studio that the file that contained the clicks was corrupt...
Thus making it a little hard to mix the bass as well as I would have liked...
Again - if THAT were the issue I would have understood.
But by all my knowledge of the genre - this track FITS.