Surf Rock Instrumental

[Milkmanmo]

SURF ROCK INSTRUMENTALS are needed by a company that's looking for a bunch of music in this style!

NOTE: Over the course of the next few days you will see several requests from this Music Licensing Company as they are looking for a variety of Rock music styles and will be using TAXI as their primary source to find that music!

They’re looking for Mid-to-Up-Tempo Instrumentals that could fit stylistically with the following references:

“Dawn Patrol” by The Eliminators

“Bullwinkle” by The Centurions

“Guitare Jet” by Les Jaguars

Send in well-crafted Surf Rock Instrumentals that instantly transport listeners back to the California Surf scene! Having solid musicianship, authentic-sounding instrumentation and traditional Surf Rock elements (like Tremolo-ed Electric Guitars) could help get you in the zone! Anything that’s obviously synthetic-sounding or MIDI-driven won’t work well for this pitch. If you can picture your Instrumentals being used in a variety of surfing, cruising, or beach scenes, send them in!

Submissions should be about 2 minutes long, give or take. Non-faded, Buttoned/Stinger endings will work best. Do NOT copy the referenced music in any way, shape, or form. Use it only as a general guide for tempo, texture, tone, and overall vibe. Broadcast Quality is needed.

This company offers an EXCLUSIVE deal, so please be sure the Instrumentals you pitch for this opportunity are NOT already signed with any other Companies or Catalogs. Any 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 Instrumentals as you'd like, online or per CD. All submissions will be screened on a Yes/No basis – No full critiques. Submissions must be received no later than 11:59 PM (PST) on Thursday, December 12th, 2019. TAXI Dispatch #D191212SF

TAXI # D191212SF

My submission: https://soundcloud.com/moshaw/skip-and- ... strumental

Return Feedback:

Nice job on this, but I'd consider having everything start together. If you do a drum intro, consider having it start on the toms. This was a fun listen, but honestly, it could stand another layer of guitar and maybe keys too. The ending also stops rather short, I'd make the ending bigger, and more dramatic. Rock out a little and let the final chord ring out...
Listener ID # 416

I sincerely appreciate the detailed feedback. I'll tweak some things, and fatten it up a bit (I muted some tracks I felt were unnecessary). The intro could be cleaner/more interesting. I personally think the ending is perfect for a request specifying "2 minutes" and a "button-ending", not much room there to drag it out. My concern is, none of the reference tracks have the band all starting together, or keyboards, and tons of surf intros start with a snare instead of toms. Seems like the reviewer had a specific sound in mind that wasn't alluded to in the request and the examples. But the advice is helpful for future listings.

[MBantle]

I think it's a nice surf rock track. Don't bother too much about screeners' feedback. Rejection is part of the experience... Forget, Repeat as the Taxi mantra goes. Having been a Taxi member for over a year I realise that I get better by just keep on doing 'it' instead of agonising over a single feedback. I appreciate everybody is different though. But I write a lot these days and there are forwards, returns from both Taxi and my publishers. Just keep on writing/composing - if that is your thing - I can say for myself I learn with every track, every day and I enjoy doing it. Music is a highly subjective topic and two people will each say something different about a track you wrote. Just bombard them with stuff / start fishing with dynamite and I am sure there will be great results soon! All the best, Matt

[Milkmanmo]

I think it's a nice surf rock track. Don't bother too much about screeners' feedback. Rejection is part of the experience... Forget, Repeat as the Taxi mantra goes. Having been a Taxi member for over a year I realise that I get better by just keep on doing 'it' instead of agonising over a single feedback. I appreciate everybody is different though. But I write a lot these days and there are forwards, returns from both Taxi and my publishers. Just keep on writing/composing - if that is your thing - I can say for myself I learn with every track, every day and I enjoy doing it. Music is a highly subjective topic and two people will each say something different about a track you wrote. Just bombard them with stuff / start fishing with dynamite and I am sure there will be great results soon! All the best, Matt

Thanks for the encouragement. Surf/beach music instrumentals are my specialty, so I have lots of other tunes in the chamber that fit the feedback more than the examples given. I guess next time I'll blindly shoot with both barrels, to parallel your bombardment analogy.

[MBantle]

I think it's a nice surf rock track. Don't bother too much about screeners' feedback. Rejection is part of the experience... Forget, Repeat as the Taxi mantra goes. Having been a Taxi member for over a year I realise that I get better by just keep on doing 'it' instead of agonising over a single feedback. I appreciate everybody is different though. But I write a lot these days and there are forwards, returns from both Taxi and my publishers. Just keep on writing/composing - if that is your thing - I can say for myself I learn with every track, every day and I enjoy doing it. Music is a highly subjective topic and two people will each say something different about a track you wrote. Just bombard them with stuff / start fishing with dynamite and I am sure there will be great results soon! All the best, Matt

Thanks for the encouragement. Surf/beach music instrumentals are my specialty, so I have lots of other tunes in the chamber that fit the feedback more than the examples given. I guess next time I'll blindly shoot with both barrels, to parallel your bombardment analogy.

That's the spirit! All the best!

[OldTom]

Hey Milkmanmo,
I liked your tune. It is definitely a surf rock vibe.
As far as the screener's feedback goes, I would have preferred some of your "B" section a little earlier or some of those parts introduced sooner.
Other than that it's a write', submit, forget thing.
If you don't agree or concur with the screener and are happy with what you've got just write another tune.
I'd be interested in hearing some of your other surf tunes.
Cheers
Tom

[Milkmanmo]

Hey Milkmanmo,
I liked your tune. It is definitely a surf rock vibe.
As far as the screener's feedback goes, I would have preferred some of your "B" section a little earlier or some of those parts introduced sooner.
Other than that it's a write', submit, forget thing.
If you don't agree or concur with the screener and are happy with what you've got just write another tune.
I'd be interested in hearing some of your other surf tunes.
Cheers
Tom

Thanks for the feedback. I've got another surf tune on my profile page called "Haole Ghosts". I wouldn't have submitted it for this listing, though. I originally made it to demo features of a chorus/vibrato pedal, so it's purposefully more "wobbly" than "wet". (And it also starts with a snare intro instead of toms, so I guess it would have literally been doomed from the start if I got the same reviewer )

[Milkmanmo]

According to the forwards blog, nothing was forwarded for this listing. Past surf requests have gotten tons of forwards, so it must have been something really specific they were looking for this time.
Well, time to go make some more music

[lesmac]

I think if you stick with what the screener says you'll have a more usable track. Cut the intro altogether.

I personally think the ending is perfect for a request specifying "2 minutes" and a "button-ending"

The end sounds a little sloppy to me. Have the drums and guitars finish together on a dut, dut, dut, dut, DUT!
Is everything except the time based fx in mono on purpose?
The drums could punch more, especially the toms in the breakdown. Because everything is up the middle they are being masked a bit. Try compressing the kick, snare and toms with slow attack and fast release compression. I'd try putting a mid/side plugin on the guitar bus and filter out 200Hz down out of the middle. Take a dip at 350 out of the drum bus too.
If you can get the drums punching and some stereo width you mightn't need to add more instrumentation.

I like your guitar playing, nice riffs.

2 centers.

[Milkmanmo]

I think if you stick with what the screener says you'll have a more usable track. Cut the intro altogether.

I personally think the ending is perfect for a request specifying "2 minutes" and a "button-ending"

The end sounds a little sloppy to me. Have the drums and guitars finish together on a dut, dut, dut, dut, DUT!
Is everything except the time based fx in mono on purpose?
The drums could punch more, especially the toms in the breakdown. Because everything is up the middle they are being masked a bit. Try compressing the kick, snare and toms with slow attack and fast release compression. I'd try putting a mid/side plugin on the guitar bus and filter out 200Hz down out of the middle. Take a dip at 350 out of the drum bus too.
If you can get the drums punching and some stereo width you mightn't need to add more instrumentation.

I like your guitar playing, nice riffs.

2 centers.

Thank you - this is really helpful! I guess the ending (and EQing) is one of those instances where I'm hearing what's in my head when I wrote it, more than what actually got executed, so your advice is eye (ear) opening. The stinger is the main lick played in reverse, but everything together does sound a little messy. Not sure what you're hearing in stereo. It should all be mono. The only FX are live from my reverb tank, delay pedal, and amp tremolo.

I stalked your soundcloud - excellent work!

[lesmac]

Not sure what you're hearing in stereo. It should all be mono. The only FX are live from my reverb tank, delay pedal, and amp tremolo.

I just wondered if you were going for mono. I thought you might be for the retro vibe. Flicking from stereo to mono the fx were the only thing I could hear in the sides that were a bit wider in stereo.