New TAXI Member - Thoughts On My First Song?

[andrewsummersmusic]

Hello everyone!

First and foremost it is great to be here with all of you in this community. There are a lot of talented people in this group and I am thankful to be a new member with all of you! I am excited to start writing some new music for the open listings. I've got my first track which as an instrumental that I edited to a trailer-style piece a little less than 2 minutes in length. First time doing this so any I am not sure if it is EDM, a trailer, a cue...?

I am new to composing music for film and TV but no stranger to playing music (guitar, singer as main instruments). Any constructive feedback on the track for y'all would be well received.

Thank you all!

https://www.taxi.com/my/artist/songs/1e ... -and-venom

p.s. - Please let me know if the link does not work

[Phuovine]

Hi Andrew! I got a 404 error from your link. Did you remember to make the track public?

Another Taxi noob here, btw.

[RealPickle]

Yep, make sure both the track and your profile in general are marked public.

Also, if there's a specific listing you had in mind for the track it's helpful to copy/paste it into your post so we can compare your track with what the listing is asking for. You'll get much more specific, useful feedback that way.

If it's not for a specific listing we can still chime in, but understand that in this world, a good 68.6% of the value of the track is how well it fits a specific genre/listing/vibe/etc that someone is looking for.

[andrewsummersmusic]

Thank you guys for giving it a try and letting me know the link is broken. I went back and made sure the song and my profile are both public so not sure what is happening. I posted a newlink below.

TAXI:
https://www.taxi.com/my/artist/songs/1e ... -and-venom

SOUNDCLOUD:
https://soundcloud.com/andrew-summers-m ... -and-venom

I was looking at this for a few of the following listings: TAXI # S250517HU, TAXI # S250511DN.

This is my first attempt at a "trailer-style" cue, or any cue for that matter, and after listening to some of the reference tracks I know I am missing a lot of the impacts and drops. I'm used to writing songs and this is definitely different but I love it and I want to improve and learn. If you have any thoughts on the mix itself or ideas on what genre this might be that would be amazing! I am grateful for any feedback and time spent listening to this song.

Thank you so much!

p.s. - My public profile link is: https://www.taxi.com/members/andrew_summers_music and this is the only song on the profile if the above links do not work

[telefunkin]

Hi,
Your first Taxi link still doesn't work (log out of your account and try it), but the other links do work.

As suggested above, it always helps people help you if you copy/paste your target listing plus the reference track links when seeking feedback, otherwise we can only make general comments but can't say how well your track fits the listing (the most important thing). Have a look at other posts seeking feedback and you'll soon how useful it is (and you could also post your comments).

My general comments then - I wouldn't call it a song, and its not quite an instrumental because there's no lead instrument(s) playing what would otherwise have been the lead vocal line. Therefore, I'd say its a cue. IMHO the sound is very good, and its a nice rhythm track with interesting sounds. Some of the synths get a bit overpowering as the track progresses, and their sounds comes across as a bit retro but will hopefully avoid the screener's most common comment - "dated". As for genre, it doesn't fit my idea of typical trailer style (usually 3 act and each act grows in dynamics and impact, often a hybrid of big orchestration with modern synth sounds) but without the listing and ref tracks I could be entirely wrong. To me it sounds like investigative light tension and would be a better fit for that type of listing..

I think its a great start, but suggest another listen to the ref tracks for your intended target listing to make sure your track sits comfortably alongside them, otherwise it will be a certain return. Better still, copy/paste the listing for some more focused feedback.

[Phuovine]

Hard to say where this track would fit without knowing the context or listing. Trailers are something I don't know much about anyway (still a noob) and your track doesn't quite fit the specifications of a cue. I think the sounds and the mix are mostly good but there's some build-up in the lower mids especially in the middle section. Maybe from a reverb? And the timpani hits jumped out a bit.

I would suggest you to watch a ton of Taxi TV and Matt's Music Minute videos from Youtube. I've learned a lot that way. Actually I don't even watch them, I just listen while driving to work or while doing something easy and repetitive on a computer. Anyway, welcome aboard!

[RealPickle]

Yep, Taxi link still busted but the Soundcloud works.

This is well produced overall--it sounds well mixed, etc. I could see some of the synths being considered dated but I didn't notice that necessarily.

This is emphatically *not* a trailer-style track in any way. It doesn't have any of the sound design, FX, big cinematic hits/swells/drums etc that you'd expect to hear from a trailer.

It is a pretty solid tension track, although it gets a bit big at the end for tension. If you dialed back the last :30 seconds or so it could definitely work for one of the many tension listings you'll see regularly pop up on Taxi.

But, as always, be very careful submitting an existing track for a brief. Make double and triple sure it really truly fits what the listing is asking for, and be ready to make adjustments to make it really fit. As many folks on here can tell you, trying to retrofit existing tracks to new listings is one of the best way to get a return.

[andrewsummersmusic]

Really good feedback! Understood on the sounds and I will look to update those samples and work on getting the link to my songs fixed with Taxi.

After revisiting the listings and reading your comments, it is definitely not a good fit for a few of the listings I was thinking. Super helpful to have your input to guide me! Much appreciated. Back to work to write some new music.

Thanks again to each of your for your help.

Cheers!

Andrew