Is This Appropriate?

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fjmurray
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Is This Appropriate?

Post by fjmurray » Tue Apr 13, 2021 2:25 pm

I've been a member of Taxi off and on for a long time. I have a truckload of returns, a bucket of forwards, and one deal, but I've never encountered anything like Listener #416's most recent comments (Nov 2020) . In their return critique of 3 songs I submitted, they criticized them all for not having a "live feel" among other things (fair enough), and then they had this: "I think all 3 of these tunes had potential if you printed charts, handed them to real musicians, counted off the tune, and pressed record. " Aside from the implied insult in the phrase "real musicians", this is not usable advice in the middle of a pandemic, and it's not an economically feasible way to produce Taxi submissions, ever. So I requested a full review of all 3 to try to get more usable feedback. I was hoping for second opinions, but #416 did one of the reviews as well. (368's reviews of the other two were excellent). Yes, 416 had some useful stuff in there too, but then they decided to double down on their previously implied insult, making it explicit: "If you're not a real musician, why are you playing all the parts?" What?!?! (expletive deleted). What do they mean by "real musician", what makes them think they're entitled to bestow or deny that title, and what do they think they know about me? Let's keep the comments to the work at hand and the condescension to a minimum, please. Or is this appropriate?
The 3 songs are here, :
https://soundcloud.com/user-808509065/in-the-bag-again
https://soundcloud.com/user-808509065/so-you-said
https://soundcloud.com/user-808509065/some-funk

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Telefunkin
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Re: Is This Appropriate?

Post by Telefunkin » Wed Apr 14, 2021 12:48 am

Hi Fred, just a few thoughts and opinions.

I like your tracks, and enjoyed the funk style. The feedback seems very poorly expressed, and the fact that you've only just posted about it some 5 months later suggests that its eating away at you. I can understand that.

On listening, I sense a bit of midi stiffness, particularly in the first of the three tracks. As you know, funk is all about 'feel' and midi stiffness doesn't go well with the genre, so I suspect that's the source of the screener's comments.

Perhaps the feedback would have been more palatable had the screener said 'live' musicians rather than 'real' musicians (and I reckon that's what they really meant). Also, its entirely possible for a set of players who've never met to contribute to the same track from home, pandemic or not. Lots of us do that very frequently, and the economics work in your favour.

Maybe with that bit of perspective you might be willing to cut the screener a bit of slack on some of their feedback.

However, you could always contact the head screener about your experiences and register you disapproval. It won't change the outcome or take back the comments, but it might prevent the same thing happening again to you or to others.

Keep funkin! :)
Last edited by Telefunkin on Thu Apr 15, 2021 1:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Graham (UK). Still composing a little faster than decomposing, and 100% HI.

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cosmicdolphin
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Re: Is This Appropriate?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Apr 14, 2021 2:54 am

Well of course ANY piece is going to sound better if played live by a group of decent live musicians :lol:

But that's just not practical or viable financially most of the time for Library Music. I agree that In The Bag is a tad midi/stiff and whilst I think it could be better it's no worse than stuff I've heard in Libraries and I agree with Graham if you replace the words " real musicians " with " live musicians " the feedback would maybe feel more palatable.

I think on the whole the music is in the ballpark of what's accepted into Libraries. I'm not sure what you're using to make your tracks but I did an Album of Funky type Pop recently for a Library. Not one instrument was a " real musician " so I had to pull a few tricks out the bag to maintain some sort of vibe and not have them too ' In The Box ' sounding. I think a lot of it was finding live percussion loops to add that helped a lot and also I pushed and pulled things around by very small amounts and some of the brass were live samples that I chopped up and shifted around. I guess with Pop you can get away with more though.


Mark

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