Instrumentation?

[DBarnett]

Howdy,
My cowriters and I submitted this back in Dec

ORIGINAL CHRISTMAS SOUL INSTRUMENTALS are needed by a U.K. Music Licensing Company with GREAT Worldwide Distribution and lots of awesome placements in Film and TV!

This Company is searching for Mid-to-Up-Tempo Instrumentals in the general stylistic wheelhouse of the following references:

"Let's Get It Together This Christmas" by The Harvey Averne Band

"What Christmas Means to Me" by Cee Lo Green

"Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday" by William Bell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xk7WQvfUFs

Although the references have vocals, please submit Instrumentals only for this request.

Please submit well-produced Soul Instrumentals that could get listeners in the holiday spirit! Your submissions should have memorable motifs, great rhythms, and classic Soul instrumentation featuring Christmas-y accents like jingle bells, tubular bells, etc. Your pieces can have a retro, old-school Soul feel to them, but be sure that your production and any virtual instruments or samples you use are high-quality and sound fresh – nothing lo-fi will work for this request.

Here is the critique comments:
I think you could improve this song by
The instrumentation could have more of an authentic sound instead of a virtual library production sound.
Song instrument sounds or samples sound dated or of a lower quality
Recording/Mix needs improvement
Could have a better developmental "arc"

What sounds "virtual" to you?
I just want make this a viable cue/instrumental so if you could point out what I'm not hearing please
Thank you!

[funsongs]

Weird - the link works, and takes me to the track on your TAXI page - but hitting the 'play' arrow does nothing.
I reckon I can find it on your Soundcloud page... to listen again, and compare ears to the critique.


EDIT: so... having done so... only into the first minute: my guess would be the horns/sax may be the most 'obvious' suspect.
Whether or not the old trick of adding at least one LIVE horn (Ian Smith at airgigs.com for example SAX MAN) would fix the virtual thing,
tough to say. Especially if the screener did NOT specify WHICH instruments BUGGED him/her.

Good luck on improving your composition up to 'real' specs.
HTH.

[DBarnett]

Weird - the link works, and takes me to the track on your TAXI page - but hitting the 'play' arrow does nothing.
I reckon I can find it on your Soundcloud page... to listen again, and compare ears to the critique.


EDIT: so... having done so... only into the first minute: my guess would be the horns/sax may be the most 'obvious' suspect.
Whether or not the old trick of adding at least one LIVE horn (Ian Smith at airgigs.com for example SAX MAN) would fix the virtual thing,
tough to say. Especially if the screener did NOT specify WHICH instruments BUGGED him/her.

Good luck on improving your composition up to 'real' specs.
HTH.

Hey Peter,
The sax is "Real" played by a live player (as far as I know, was told)

[funsongs]

Weird - the link works, and takes me to the track on your TAXI page - but hitting the 'play' arrow does nothing.
I reckon I can find it on your Soundcloud page... to listen again, and compare ears to the critique.


EDIT: so... having done so... only into the first minute: my guess would be the horns/sax may be the most 'obvious' suspect.
Whether or not the old trick of adding at least one LIVE horn (Ian Smith at airgigs.com for example SAX MAN) would fix the virtual thing,
tough to say. Especially if the screener did NOT specify WHICH instruments BUGGED him/her.

Good luck on improving your composition up to 'real' specs.
HTH.

Hey Peter,
The sax is "Real" played by a live player (as far as I know, was told)

oops... really? Well, then - better call your sax player up... tell 'im to have a few drinks, unbutton his collar, relax a bit...
and "TAKE 2!!"

[DBarnett]

Weird - the link works, and takes me to the track on your TAXI page - but hitting the 'play' arrow does nothing.
I reckon I can find it on your Soundcloud page... to listen again, and compare ears to the critique.


EDIT: so... having done so... only into the first minute: my guess would be the horns/sax may be the most 'obvious' suspect.
Whether or not the old trick of adding at least one LIVE horn (Ian Smith at airgigs.com for example SAX MAN) would fix the virtual thing,
tough to say. Especially if the screener did NOT specify WHICH instruments BUGGED him/her.

Good luck on improving your composition up to 'real' specs.
HTH.

Hey Peter,
The sax is "Real" played by a live player (as far as I know, was told)

oops... really? Well, then - better call your sax player up... tell 'im to have a few drinks, unbutton his collar, relax a bit...
and "TAKE 2!!"

Right!?? I would like to see if others agree with your impression of the Sax sounds, which I do give you credit for your ears
I did ask for a relisten from the HS and he said the Horns were what he felt was the problem....hmmm

[funsongs]

Well - while the band's at it... y'all could stand to sip a few... let the whole track "ride in the saddle" a bit more loose & friendly.
Maybe go back to the LIVE drum track - so it feels more relaxed; less stiff & quantized.
HTH.
"Whiskey for my men, and beer for my horses!!"

[VanderBoegh]

Sounds pretty dang tasty to my ears, Dave. Those horns are so tight though, it's like Peter said.... give 'em all a shot (or two) of whiskey and have 'em loosen up a bit. Add a few rips to the starts of notes, and falls to the ends. These guys are so tight right now that they could be the Tower of Power horn section, haha. Normally that's a good thing though, so I wouldn't stress it much.

Perhaps my biggest issue with this - and this is a nitpick - is that the horn lines don't have much counterpoint to them. Everybody is playing the exact same thing, at the exact same time. Sure, there are harmony notes which make it sound nice, but how about a trombone line playing while the trumpets are sustaining? Or having that sax hit a high note and hold it over the top of the other brass doing a moving line? Stuff like that would bring more vibrancy to the composition itself.

But still, sounds like a winner to me, so I wouldn't stress it too much. Christmas comes around every year, so there's still opportunity for this track.

~~Matt

[AlanHall]

Dave, I remember this track from before, really an awesome piece! The only thing that sounds even a little "off" to me is the part(s) where the tubular bells (orchestral chimes for the classical crowd) come in behind the band. There are enough non-harmonic partials that I get a little case of the willies. But that's not what the screener was writing about.

All the other suggestions are gold for getting the live performers to sound like they're living it up a bit more. But if you have all those tracks in the can, maybe putting the drums and horns in a bigger space; or maybe hit 'em with a little saturation, something to take the edge off the beautiful, bright sheen that is the mark of close-mic'd library sounds...?

[DBarnett]

Sounds pretty dang tasty to my ears, Dave. Those horns are so tight though, it's like Peter said.... give 'em all a shot (or two) of whiskey and have 'em loosen up a bit. Add a few rips to the starts of notes, and falls to the ends. These guys are so tight right now that they could be the Tower of Power horn section, haha. Normally that's a good thing though, so I wouldn't stress it much.

Perhaps my biggest issue with this - and this is a nitpick - is that the horn lines don't have much counterpoint to them. Everybody is playing the exact same thing, at the exact same time. Sure, there are harmony notes which make it sound nice, but how about a trombone line playing while the trumpets are sustaining? Or having that sax hit a high note and hold it over the top of the other brass doing a moving line? Stuff like that would bring more vibrancy to the composition itself.

But still, sounds like a winner to me, so I wouldn't stress it too much. Christmas comes around every year, so there's still opportunity for this track.

~~Matt

Great points Matt, thanks buddy, I really appreciate your input and I can take this to the "Band" and say "here's what I was trying to say, only better"

[DBarnett]

Dave, I remember this track from before, really an awesome piece! The only thing that sounds even a little "off" to me is the part(s) where the tubular bells (orchestral chimes for the classical crowd) come in behind the band. There are enough non-harmonic partials that I get a little case of the willies. But that's not what the screener was writing about.

All the other suggestions are gold for getting the live performers to sound like they're living it up a bit more. But if you have all those tracks in the can, maybe putting the drums and horns in a bigger space; or maybe hit 'em with a little saturation, something to take the edge off the beautiful, bright sheen that is the mark of close-mic'd library sounds...?

Hey Alan, good to hear from my friend!
I agree, I have thought from the first time I heard the final that is was too bright, I'm going to take a stab at the mix and go back to what Peter is referring to, the drum track we got from a WFH
Thanks Brother