Do you hear any developmental arc or textural changes in this reference?

[BrianSteel]

It wants me to log into TAXI, i.e. not public. I am a little confused: Song = melody + vocal, but I thought this was about a drone, i.e. a minimalist instrumental with no vocal?

I see you're a member, So I'm sure you can log in if that what Taxi is asking you to do. I'm using the terminology that Taxi uses where the track is posted to allow others to listen to the track, i.e. "public". I took it to mean available to members and not the general public. Have you ever made one of your tracks "public" on Taxi? You would know what I meant had you done so. I used the term "song" in a colloquial manner as I figured I'm speaking to members here and not addressing a library representative pitching my cue. It's an instrumental cue. Hope that helps you out with the information you require in order to proceed with the requested task. Thanks.

[irthlingz]

BTW, on the link issue, if you have a link with "/my/artist/songs/" in it, that's only going to work for you, no one else.

Code: Select all

https://www.taxi.com/my/artist/songs/jDrbHKuHTKGlHpcP2kKZDg-portal-of-dread

You get a link that works for others by clicking the "link" icon at the lower left below the player:



This type of link will have "/members/" in it like this:

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https://www.taxi.com/members/E2BuvMraQvKmrRWerdXcjg-brian-steel/songs/jDrbHKuHTKGlHpcP2kKZDg-portal-of-dread

[irthlingz]

Also, the listing -- like most every listing -- says to use the refs "only as a general guide for tempo, tone, texture, and overall vibe." Do we take that to mean that we should not use the refs as a guide to structure, which would include developmental arc?

===
Michael

[cosmicdolphin]

Do we take that to mean that we should not use the refs as a guide to structure, which would include developmental arc?

No, I would say use the listing text and your own knowledge of cue structure to make the developmental arc. Most cues need to take you on a journey rather than just loop around as discussed here

topic146048.html

[BrianSteel]

BTW, on the link issue, if you have a link with "/my/artist/songs/" in it, that's only going to work for you, no one else.

Code: Select all

https://www.taxi.com/my/artist/songs/jDrbHKuHTKGlHpcP2kKZDg-portal-of-dread

You get a link that works for others by clicking the "link" icon at the lower left below the player:



This type of link will have "/members/" in it like this:

Code: Select all

https://www.taxi.com/members/E2BuvMraQvKmrRWerdXcjg-brian-steel/songs/jDrbHKuHTKGlHpcP2kKZDg-portal-of-dread

I did that already. I posted a second link in this thread. I will edit my first post so there is no confusion.
Here is the link using the link chain icon again. Thanks.

https://www.taxi.com/members/E2BuvMraQv ... l-of-dread

[BrianSteel]

deleted post

[BrianSteel]

deleted post.

[BrianSteel]

Also, the listing -- like most every listing -- says to use the refs "only as a general guide for tempo, tone, texture, and overall vibe." Do we take that to mean that we should not use the refs as a guide to structure, which would include developmental arc?

===
Michael

My observation is that Taxi recycles the same old reference tracks for nearly every single brief that has the same heading eg. analog synth drone or whatever. If the reference tracks are not a reliable source of what the library is looking for, then Taxi should put more work into their posting of reference tracks. To add to this, many reference tracks are Youtube videos of the show with the music playing in the background sometimes for less than a minute. I believe we deserve better if we are to produce what Taxi and the libraries are looking for. If the reference track doesn't contain the developmental arc that Taxi is seeking, ie through their screener, then give a gosh darn reference track that has a developmental arc they're looking for and take the guess work out of it. As we all know from reading the forum here & watching Taxi TV, guess work is a recipe for failure. I believe my membership bucks and the $5 screening fee are worth the effort.

As to the argument that it goes without saying that we should consciously work towards the goal of making sure that there is a development arc, I would say that the weight applied towards a perceptible developmental arc is genre-specific. When Taxi wants to emphasize that there should be a developmental arc, they explicitly state so in the brief, as you will come across in their Trailer briefs for example. For this particular drone brief, there was no mention of making sure there is a clearly perceived developmental arc. Yes, it's Taxi 101 but I fulfilled all the requests for the brief as stated in the brief. The reference track has little to no developmental arc. 1 + 1 = Please send them well-produced Drone Instrumental Cues that evoke an overall unsettling moody vibe and feel. Your submissions should have state-of-the-art synths, minimal melodic movement, and stick to a singular idea throughout to keep your Cues cohesive. Incorporating some extra instrumentation (like sparse percussion, pulsing bass notes or pads, muted, cinematic sound design elements, etc.) could work to add a subtle sense of forward motion, but please be sure not to over do it! Less is more for these types of Instrumental Cues. Please be sure your productions are polished, and any and all virtual sounds you use are high-quality and cutting edge = my cue. As the purpose of this post was originally to get feedback on my cue, I would appreciate it someone could give it a listen now that the issue of a working link and song vs cue has been resolved. Thanks. Whew!

[Telefunkin]

I think your track has development. To me it has a 'thick' texture, whereas the ref tracks are all less intense so they feel more open and spacious, starting more gently and developing in subtle ways. I don't know whether that's enough to justify a return but it seems that the screener heard differences. Its a decent track though so it'll find a home.

[cosmicdolphin]

There's definitely more obvious changes apprarent in the ref track - if you skip through them yours sounds like more or less the same bed all the way through at any given point with a few new things on top as it goes, but if you skip through the Reznor track there are more apperent differences, things drop out , there's more melody , there's a new synth that's quite prominent from 1:15 then it's gone again and a new lower synth takes it's place etc. it weaves things in and out more.

I don't think there's anything especially wrong with your track, like Graham says it's thicker and less spacious than the Reznor track which makes it a bit less unique to my ears. Remember that the Reznor/Ross stuff is scored to picture which probably makes it easier but if you've watched or read any production intereviews about their music they use a lot of anogue gear and weird/unique instruments which helps give it an edge as well.

I have around a dozen different types of drone cues in various libraries, some of which were Taxi Forwards back in the day. According to my spreadsheet none of them has ever been used for anything over the past 8yrs so I would hesitate to put too much focus on producing a lot of them as they don't really seem to get used that much outside of score.

Conversely I've had a lot more success with other styles of tension tracks. Two of my biggest earners are electronic style tension beds which are a bit more musical and steer away from being drone like whilst stilling lean into that Reznor Ross style. This one for example has been on at least a dozen TV shows in different countries https://on.soundcloud.com/thaBC

Mark