Feedback On Song Return Due To “Muddy” Production

[ThomasGoodlunas]

Hi Folks,

The screener liked my track but returned it due to the production. I would appreciate your ears regarding tips to get it to acceptance level, thank you in advance!

SUBMITTED TRACK: https://s.disco.ac/rlpdwxnkmrky

SCREENER CRITIQUE: https://www.taxi.com/my/submissions/20445683/critique

TAXI BRIEF: Lots of BLUES ROCK INSTRUMENTAL CUES are needed by a prolific Music Library with international distribution that's landing thousands of cool placements in TV shows around the globe. This Library is searching for Mid-to-Up-Tempo Instrumental Cues that could be found on a playlist with these references:
"You Sure Drive A Hard Bargain" by Joe Bonamassa
"No Lovin" by The Black Keys
"Oh! That Bitches Brew" by Philip Sayce

Although the references have vocals, please submit Instrumental Cues only for this pitch.
Quoting the Library: "Strong guitar work is a big plus."
Please submit top-notch original Blues Rock Instrumental Cues brimming with raw energy all the way through! Your submissions should have memorable melodies, rockin' rhythms, catchy choruses, and excellent musicianship. Instrumentation that blends Blues with Rock elements and is in the general stylistic ballpark of the references will work best for this pitch. Live instrumentation is recommended, but if you choose to use any virtual instruments or samples, be sure that they're high-quality.
All submissions should clock in around 2 minutes, give or take. Non-Faded, Button/Stinger endings will work best for this request. Do NOT submit any material with unauthorized samples of any other artists’ music, sounds, or any other form of media. Broadcast Quality is needed.
REALLY IMPORTANT: Do NOT submit anything with third-party loops, even if they are royalty-free.
IMPORTANT: This Client will need your Instrumental Cues' stems (the individual tracks for each instrument/sample), but not yet! All you need to submit for now are the Full Instrumental Cues, but please have the stems on-hand and ready to send at a moment’s notice if you get a call or email from the Company.
TAXI Tip: This Company is interested in working with artists, writers, and composers with previous experience with production music libraries, who will be in it for the long haul, and are willing to do multiple Songs with them (like a 4-6 Song EP or full Album). That said, we recommend submitting (at least) 2-3 Instrumental Cues per submission so they can get a good feel for your material.
This company offers an EXCLUSIVE deal (in perpetuity), so please be sure the Instrumental Cues you pitch for this request are NOT already signed with any other Companies or Catalogs. Sync fees will be split 50/50 with the Company. You'll get 100% of the Writer's share, and the Publisher will get 100% of the Publisher's share. You must own or control your Master and Copyright to submit. Please submit as many Instrumental Cues as you'd like, online or per CD. All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI. Submissions must be received no later than 11:59 PM (PST) on Thursday, January 11th, 2024. TAXI # S240111BR

[funsongs]

To these old-guy ears, what sounds 'muddy' seems to be your choice of 'distortion'/'fuzz' on the guitar work.
In an odd way - it's kinda contradictory to say: "Clean up the distortion" - but I'm thinking that's the issue.
Maybe experiment with some other 'dirty sounds', and clean it up.

Your mileage may vary.
Hope that helps.

[VanderBoegh]

"Muddy" usually refers to an excess of bottom-end, while losing the high-end sparkle and crunch. I'm thinking you could solve this with your track by:

1) Lowering the volume of the bass guitar overall.
2) Removing some low-end out of the guitars and bumping up the mid & high range frequencies.
3) Add some more sparkle to the high-end EQ spectrum with the addition of a tambourine.

Those three easy things oughtta help considerably as a starting point!

~~Matt

[ThomasGoodlunas]

To these old-guy ears, what sounds 'muddy' seems to be your choice of 'distortion'/'fuzz' on the guitar work.
In an odd way - it's kinda contradictory to say: "Clean up the distortion" - but I'm thinking that's the issue.
Maybe experiment with some other 'dirty sounds', and clean it up.

Your mileage may vary.
Hope that helps.

Thank you Peter, I appreciate your suggestion! I'll try out some other sounds to hear how they sit in the mix.

[ThomasGoodlunas]

"Muddy" usually refers to an excess of bottom-end, while losing the high-end sparkle and crunch. I'm thinking you could solve this with your track by:

1) Lowering the volume of the bass guitar overall.
2) Removing some low-end out of the guitars and bumping up the mid & high range frequencies.
3) Add some more sparkle to the high-end EQ spectrum with the addition of a tambourine.

Those three easy things oughtta help considerably as a starting point!

~~Matt

Thank you Matt for defining “muddy” and the specific points for correcting it. A tambourine does come in on the B sections but is really quite low. I’ll make the low end edits you recommend and work on the tambourine to get that sparkle throughout. I appreciate it!

[Telefunkin]

Hi, there does seem to be a lot of low-end energy in your track. Things that can help include identify this and where its happening include checking with Izotope's Tonal Balance plugin...
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/ton ... rol-2.html
and also comparing with reference tracks using either the Metric AB plugin...
https://www.adptraudio.com/metric-ab
or using the Reference plugin...
https://www.masteringthemix.com/products/reference
These tools and checks are very useful under any circumstances but especially if you can't trust your monitoring. Also note that trying to 'correct' the final mix with EQ is not the best way of curing the problem. As Matt said, its better to re-balance the instruments occupying the low end, and you might also improve their separation by reducing the amount of overlapping frequencies (with care).

[Paulie]

Fun track, nice playing. To me it's the drums that bring the mud. The snare sounds like it's under a towel, and I can't really hear the cymbals. That snare needs to pop/crack. Open up an EQ on each track and make sure that your individual instruments have their own space in the frequenct spectrum. Kick and Bass will conflict, the guitar has a lot of low end that might be conflicting with the kick and bass, and the top end of the track is not really there for me. I think the music is great, just gotta work on the EQ.