Feedback on ANTHEMIC, RHYTHMICALLY Driven INSTRUMENTALS

[ilikered]

Hey folks, I find these somewhat difficult to nail down and get forwarded but wanted to try again. I've got a rough mix going, and here's the request:

ANTHEMIC, RHYTHMICALLY Driven INSTRUMENTALS are needed by a very active and fast-growing Music Licensing Company that specializes in music for big TV Commercials.

They’re searching for Mid-to-Up-Tempo Instrumentals in the general ballpark of (but not limited to) the following examples they gave us:

INFINITI Employee of the Month (starts at 0:08)

INFINITI The New QX80 World Premiere

Please submit well-composed, anthemic Instrumentals that would work well for TV Commercials. Your submissions should be current-sounding, with pro-level productions and driving beats. Your submissions can be primarily percussive, or you can include other instrumentation – just be sure your Instrumentals are rhythmically appealing and the energy is on par with the references.

Your Instrumentals can be anywhere from 60 seconds to 3+ minutes in length; however, 2:30 to 3:00 is ideal, per the client. Non-Faded, Buttoned/Stinger endings will work best for this request. Do NOT copy the referenced examples in any way, shape, or form. Use only as a general guide for tempo, tone, and overall vibe. Broadcast Quality is needed.

This company offers a NON-EXCLUSIVE, 50/50 split. You’ll split all upfront sync fees 50/50. You'll get 100% of the Writer's share. The Publisher will get 100% of the Publisher’s share. You’ll keep 100% of the original copyright. You must own or control your Masters and Copyright to submit for this pitch. Please submit as many Instrumentals as you’d like, online or per CD. All submissions will be screened by TAXI. Submissions must be received no later than 11:59 PM (PDT) on Monday, March 9th, 2020. TAXI Dispatch # D200309AN

Here's the track:

https://soundcloud.com/vikas-pawa/brass-ring


Let me know what you think? Worth submitting? This is a rough mix so I'm more concerned about getting what the request is asking for,

thanks again for listening,

-Vikas

[ilikered]

I'm assuming that no feedback means this is perfect and I should submit it, right? Anyone here have one of these forwarded and can give me some insight?
Due today, let me know if I should save my $5!?

Thanks again,


-Vikas

[ttully]

Hey Vikas,

This must be a Dispatch listing.... I don't see it and can't hear the examples.

BUT...Your track is FANTASTIC!

Tim

[SamGreene]

Nice work, it is sounding awesome.

Based on this video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukdWR_Mr-ho

The overall vibe of the reference is a little more groovy where yours is straight ahead rock. Listing seems to be ok with that. Your guitar riff seems to be basically the same thing all the way through. Ab, Bb, Db. Could move to F and progress back to Ab to take it somewhere else for a bit? Reference has that ascending section after the drop/hit as an example. Otherwise it sticks to the same underlying chords I think.

Some other random ideas....

Instead of just a drum beat intro, spice it up a bit more? Call and response between drums/bass, reversed guitar, some sound design?

The snare hits at :21 - you could replace that with silence and a bass drop/whoosh sound. Same at 1:19, that could build up with some more synths, reverse cymbals to make it explode when the guitars come in.

The middle part with the muted guitar chunks seems like it needs something more.

[ilikered]

hey thanks guys, I really appreciate it. I enjoy writing this kind of stuff but rarely get anything forwarded because it's hard to hit the target.
Tim, thanks so much, I was happy to submit it the way it is but since I have a little time, Sam, I will definitely try and get those sound design elements in there, I hear exactly what you're talking about. I'm not gonna work on the chord changes because I want to move the track forward rhythmically rather than harmonically, but I know the second half from the middle section needs a little tightening and some bells and whistles. I read somewhere else on this forum that production is more important than anything else so I'm gonna try and keep that in mind (even though I am no fan of swishes and swooshes. Can we all agree that we've heard them ENOUGH?!!)

-Vikas

[ilikered]

Well it got forwarded, just. Still got comments about more development and too much repetition so you were right Sam. Not sure how to do that on a percussion cue that's suppose to stay in the background. If it was up to me, there'd be layers and layers of drums and a couple of changes but no one would ever use it because it would be too busy!

[mwb2]

Sounds great to me, not surprised it got forwarded.

For the repetition thing, I did notice that some of the repetitions (like four snare 16th note fills) are at exactly the same velocity, so humanizing some of that stuff might make it feel less repetitive even if it isn't. I remember watching an EDM production vid once where a guy put the subtlest automated LPF on the hats pulsing each bar just so that the constant stream of 16ths didn't grate the ear.

Another thing I've recently started trying (because I heard it in a lot of forwarded cues) was adding little punctuations (even just one-shots) every 2 or even 4 bars, just so that it doesn't feel like it's always 1-bar cycles that are repeating.

Last thing I noticed from one guy who gets forwarded cues all the time was that nothing was ever repeated the same way twice. Even the second half of a melody, not the whole thing, might get doubled in another instrument, but very very subtly, so it basically sounds the same (i.e. not too many ideas) but also sounds 'fresh'. It's something I've been trying to work with since I noticed it.

Drums sounds great - what are they?

Cheers,
Mike

[ilikered]

The drums are EZ Drummer, I think that's one of the rock kits.
And yes, I try not to do too much cut and paste, I think that's good advice from the other member, I'm going to keep that in mind and try and play things through more. Sometimes it just takes forever to learn the part you just made up!

[SamGreene]

Congrats! Just saw it on the forwards blog. Sounds excellent - guitars are top notch. What's your 'signal chain' on those?

I ended up recreating the reference track as I thought it was pretty sweet - kind of a black keys meets NIN. Rebuilt most of the track. Ended up having to use drums out 4 different Kontakt kits to recreate the sound. Then I bought some new samples from iwantthatsound.com - the organic pack. Quite a few stomps and booms that work in this context. You can throw in a stomp or boom every other measure start.

[ilikered]

So it's direct (from my strat or Gibson) into a focusrite saffire, nothing too fancy. And generally I'll use Guitar Rig 5, or the amps that comes with Plugin Alliance which are made by softube I think. Those are the most realistic and sound fantastic but they are hard to mix down, they take too much space I think. And I have the line 6 helix amp plugin as well which I just started trying out. This song was definitely the NI Guitar Rig, which is like $200 or something and you get a ton of sounds.

Do we get to hear the recreation?!