I Need Help understanding what I need

[Casey H]

I agree with you, Superblonde, I'd rather have a straight comment like "not pro quality" than "too pedestrian".
I'll redo the Lead Guitar with your comments in mind. Thank you for your awesome feedback!
-Stu

That sounds unfortunate, I think the screeners should be more up front, and simply say, it is amateur instrumentally and amateur production mix. Why beat around the bush saying 'pedestrian'.

And if they said a harsh word like "amateurish", there would be 200 members calling Taxi to complain about how dare a screener say that about their work!! They already have checkboxes on the review form:

Recording and Production
( ) Song instrument sounds or samples sound dated or of a lower quality
( ) Recording/Mix needs improvement
( ) Not Broadcast Quality in context of this listing

Enough with the semantics!

Casey

[superblonde]

Enough with the semantics!

Casey

Your complaint is amateurish.

[Casey H]

Enough with the semantics!

Casey

Your complaint is amateurish.

I'll give you points for the humor, def!

[Stubee]

I agree with you, Superblonde, I'd rather have a straight comment like "not pro quality" than "too pedestrian".
I'll redo the Lead Guitar with your comments in mind. Thank you for your awesome feedback!
-Stu

That sounds unfortunate, I think the screeners should be more up front, and simply say, it is amateur instrumentally and amateur production mix. Why beat around the bush saying 'pedestrian'.

And if they said a harsh word like "amateurish", there would be 200 members calling Taxi to complain about how dare a screener say that about their work!! They already have checkboxes on the review form:

Recording and Production
( ) Song instrument sounds or samples sound dated or of a lower quality
( ) Recording/Mix needs improvement
( ) Not Broadcast Quality in context of this listing

Enough with the semantics!

Casey

Casey,
You are right but the truth is not an insult if the intentions are to help us understand what quality is. I joined Taxi to get the truth.
I expect to be called amateurish until I'm not. If I just want to feel good I can always ask my girlfriend to review it.
-Stu

[Casey H]

I expect to be called amateurish until I'm not.

But don't forget Taxi has thousands of members. You may be OK with that word, but many others not. You may have no idea the volume of calls, emails, posts, etc. Taxi gets with complaints about every little thing a screener said or didn't say.

And if they called the playing "amateurish", there would be the questions, "what makes it amateurish?", "is it the timing?", "the sound quality?", "pitch/tuning?". It would go on and on forever.

There are no 100% perfect words for anything whether it's the way a listing is worded or a review. We have to take SOME responsibility to sort things out and learn.

One more thing. If you are getting a lot of returns and want more clarity on what's not working, you can invest $20 in a custom critique. You can include your specific questions and will get a VERY detailed critique with answers.

Best,
Casey

[Stubee]

I expect to be called amateurish until I'm not.

But don't forget Taxi has thousands of members. You may be OK with that word, but many others not. You may have no idea the volume of calls, emails, posts, etc. Taxi gets with complaints about every little thing a screener said or didn't say.

And if they called the playing "amateurish", there would be the questions, "what makes it amateurish?", "is it the timing?", "the sound quality?", "pitch/tuning?". It would go on and on forever.

There are no 100% perfect words for anything whether it's the way a listing is worded or a review. We have to take SOME responsibility to sort things out and learn.

One more thing. If you are getting a lot of returns and want more clarity on what's not working, you can invest $20 in a custom critique. You can include your specific questions and will get a VERY detailed critique with answers.

Best,
Casey

Casey,
There will always be complaints from people about their rejections because they think their songs are great but that shouldn't stop the screeners from giving honest feedback. Screeners should only forward music that meets very high standards. I'm not bothered by rejection. I don't take it as a personal assault. I know that the Taxi screeners know what they are doing and I respect that. This particular song has been rejected 4 times and I've already run it through the $20 custom critique. I've used all of the feedback from the rejections and the peer review to make changes.Thanks to you and the other Taxi members who have been kind enough to give me some guidance, I am almost ready to run it through the custom critique process again. My goal is not to win a grammy or even get this particular song forwarded. I only want to know how to improve my song writing, performance and recording skills. I need some more experience and help from senior Taxi members like you so I can recognize when the drums are too loud or off time or when the vocal is not up to pro standards. It might take me a couple of years for me to get there. I'm using this song as an experiment. If I can get to the point where I am being rejected only because the song didn't fit the listing, then I know I am on the right track. I know that the screeners have to have a thick skin to do their job. I think that people who don't understand the process will get frustrated with it and might not succeed. My attitude is that I'm a rookie and I'm hoping that by year 3 of my Taxi membership I might be able to understand some of this without asking for so much help. Although, I've only been a Taxi member for 8 month, I feel that
this community has got me focused in the right direction. I am excited about producing music for Taxi listings. Thanks again for your help. I did take your suggestions to heart and rewrote
some of the lyrics. I'm not sure if I have to do another rewrite but I feel that this song is getting better. Superblonde suggested that I redo the guitar solo. I agree and will work on that before submitting for a further critique.

Thank you,
Stu

[superblonde]

If you really want to nail a guitar solo, you could write it up as tab in Guitar Pro or the not-as-great-but-free guitar-tab playback programs. Then play along with the tab at various tempos. When I write guitar solos it is faster to write it up as tab and move the licks around in the tab program, play back, see how it sounds, move the licks around, etc, compared to noodling around or punch-in/punch-out. Pro guitarists and studio guitarists are able to do this on the spot, but they also practice and play for 8+ hours a day, which I don't do, so my playing is always more rusty. After nailing a guitar playalong with the solo in the tab playback with metronome, then I turn off the app and record the real thing in a DAW with feeling. Doing this could really speed up your writing/recording process.

[Stubee]

If you really want to nail a guitar solo, you could write it up as tab in Guitar Pro or the not-as-great-but-free guitar-tab playback programs. Then play along with the tab at various tempos. When I write guitar solos it is faster to write it up as tab and move the licks around in the tab program, play back, see how it sounds, move the licks around, etc, compared to noodling around or punch-in/punch-out. Pro guitarists and studio guitarists are able to do this on the spot, but they also practice and play for 8+ hours a day, which I don't do, so my playing is always more rusty. After nailing a guitar playalong with the solo in the tab playback with metronome, then I turn off the app and record the real thing in a DAW with feeling. Doing this could really speed up your writing/recording process.

I've never done that before but I do want the guitar solo to sound pro so I will check it out. My normal method is to record, rerecord and repeat until I like what it sounds like. I usually wind up with 50 takes. Thanks, Superblonde!

-Stu

[cosmicdolphin]

I'm hoping that by year 3 of my Taxi membership I might be able to understand some of this without asking for so much help. Although, I've only been a Taxi member for 8 month, I feel that this community has got me focused in the right direction.

Honestly I think you'd be better off investing the money in some training instead of re-upping the Taxi membership, whether that's a course in recording / audio production , vocal coaching, a songwriting courses or something like Soundgym for training your ears

As much as folks can help on the forum it's no replacement for direct one to one tuition with an expert. Get the foundations sorted.

[Casey H]

I'm hoping that by year 3 of my Taxi membership I might be able to understand some of this without asking for so much help. Although, I've only been a Taxi member for 8 month, I feel that this community has got me focused in the right direction.

Honestly I think you'd be better off investing the money in some training instead of re-upping the Taxi membership, whether that's a course in recording / audio production , vocal coaching, a songwriting courses or something like Soundgym for training your ears

As much as folks can help on the forum it's no replacement for direct one to one tuition with an expert. Get the foundations sorted.

And/or seek out collaborators.