Question on the submission process and mixes - mastering

[gushtone]

Hi all,

New to the forums but have been a Taxi member for a little over a year now. I have a question...

When I'm mixing for a record or for just creating my own music I'll print 4 or 5 versions (vox up a db, guitars down a db, bass +/_, etc) and give them a run on a bunch of speaker sources/headphones/etc and then I choose what works best. Then I'll master that one.

In this case, I was up till the wee hours last night trying to finish a tune for a submission with a deadline yesterday. I burned a couple of mixes, quickly picked one that I thought sounded best, did not have time to try it out on other speakers, and I did not have time to master it before submission. It still sounds very solid but there's definitely room for improvement.

So here's my question, if the Taxi screener digs the tune and wants to forward it, but thinks there's mix or mastering issues, will they forward it under the assumption that a supervisor would reach out and ask for tweaks to the mix/mastering if needed? Likewise, do supervisors build leeway in (obviously depending on their deadline) to have a quick back and forth with the artist if they need/want tweaks?

Obviously this is not a yes.no question, but would like to hear some of your experiences. Creating music on-demand/for a specific request is new to me and I would imagine many of us are pushing the deadlines. Wondering about some of your experiences in this aspect of the process.

Also, I am relatively new to recording and engineering my own stuff, so I'll definitely get faster/better at it over time, but my green-ness behind the mixing desk definitely has an impact on my ability to meet deadlines.

I look forward to hearing about your experiences. Have a great day!

Peace...

[jonnybutter]

I hope others chime in here, because I can offer only my subjective read on it (and there are much better engineers around here than me) - I'm in my 6th year of membership, and I have built up an approx 40% forward rate (but I don't submit a ton).

I would say arrangement is key above all, closely followed by what the style of music demands (e.g. EDM or other electronic genre= limited super loud).

It's probably always a good idea to send in as finished a version as you can, and that includes limiting and final EQ. Listening to a piece of music is an emotional experience, and you want your audience to get caught up in it, no matter who they are. I'd say if you know how to master, you should do it. That said, if the changes you would make in your mastering are fairly small, and the arrangement and production are all good, it might not get returned despite being unmastered. A good arrangement sounds full and loud just inherently.

Bottom line though: no one is going to make 'allowances' for stuff they might fix later, I don't think. Generally speaking, I think the mix you send is supposed to be the 'record'.

hth . good luck!

[Len911]

+1 on what Jonny said

So here's my question, if the Taxi screener digs the tune and wants to forward it, but thinks there's mix or mastering issues

It really would need to be bad, distortion?, imo for there to really be a mix or mastering issue. What you have described are not issues.

[WeWillWriteUaSong]

Imo (and personal experience) submitting for libraries or supes direct is way different than submitting to screeners for taxi listings. If you are submitting direct, the library owner can contact you and say something like "hey can you turn that bass up....or I'd use an 808 there" wheras you can SURELY get returned for something so simple from a taxi screener. The return could/would say "bass isnt loud enough or should be a more updated sound." Although this fix (for example) is relatively simple, it can certainly stand in your way of a forward. Imo I don't think screeners are in the habit of forwarding things [that they feel] needs any mix work at all. I suppose it depends on the screener and their mood at the time. Also how close the track is to perfection. Sometimes we get in our own way and the track is fine, and should be forwarded regardless....but to try to answer the question from my taxi experience, taxi will return a track if they feel it needs any work. Wheras a library or supe may give u a chance to fix the mix/issue before rejecting. Hth

[gushtone]

Thanks for the input. Other than the fact that the track has not been mastered I think it is more a case of me second guessing mix elements. I had a couple of engineer/musician friends with critical ears spin it today and one said he wouldn't change anything. The other only suggested a shift in panning but made a point to note it was just his tastes, not an issue with the mix or tones. I did throw a mastering compressor across the mix bus so it sounds pretty slamming.

Thanks again for your feedback.

PS I mistakenly posted this question both here and in Tech, Recording and Production forum as I failed to note that all posts are screened and I thought my submission had failed. So please ignore it if you see it again...

Have a great day all. Be creative. Be happy!

Peace...

[hummingbird]

Don't forget you can upload a mix to meet the deadline and then upload a better mix a few hours later. Of course you might then have no idea which version a screener listened to... but since the deadlines are usually midnight, I'm relatively sure that screeners in LA might not be working in the middle of the night.

[VanderBoegh]

Hey Gushtone, I'll shed a little more light on this on top of what the others have already said.

Taxi will never reach out to the artist to suggest mix fixes. What you submit to Taxi needs to be the final spit-polished product. There's just not enough time, and not enough screeners, for them to reach out to a composer / artist and say "hey, I love the track, but the mix needs fixed in X areas. Re-mix it and give it to me again." The reasons for this are many, and Michael himself has touched on this a handful of times in various Taxi TV episodes. Bottom line, you need to give them your best final product.

Now, that being said, there is a sneaky workaround, as Vikki mentioned above me... You can always replace your mp3 with an updated mix after you've already submitted your track. Taxi will screen whatever version you have on your Taxi page when they get around to listening to it. But there's no way to tell when they've already listened to your track... They could have screened it within hours of the listing deadline, or it could be weeks later. There's no way for us to know. But think of this as a lifeline that could buy you an extra few hours - or a day or two at max - if you need to make a few later-than-last-minute fixes.

~~Matt