Tom Petty cover rejected due to rhythm

[douglasricketts]

The track: https://www.taxi.com/members/1xEs3OLTQV ... tty-cover-

The feedback:
Feedback for "You Got Lucky (Tom Petty cover)"
S250313TP
Share Your Feedback
What I like most about this song
Douglas, loving that crying saxophone.

I think you could improve this song by
To put this in the running try to edit this with some quantization. That might help to tighten up some of the screws.

I returned or forwarded this song because
I sent this back because the track is just a bit too loose for what they're after.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. It's a trumpet, not a saxophone.

2. I quantized the cajon (rhythm box) to 80% on this one because when I quantize percussion at 85% on other submissions I'm told it sounds too unnatural. I grew up in the 80s playing along with drum machines, even my live playing is called "too quantized" sometimes!

3. Why would you write "to put this in the running try to edit" when we can't re-submit to the same listing? Terrible advice.

4. Then this was checked at the bottom: "Song instrument sounds or samples sound dated or of a lower quality" -- It's a dobro, bass, organ, trumpet, and cajon with three female voices and one male.


Yeah, I'm frustrated with this feedback. Please help talk me off the ledge, fellow music makers!


The listing:
Lots of COVERS of TOM PETTY SONGS (in a wide range of genres and styles) with Male or Female Vocals are needed by a very active Music Library with tons of credits and a killer track record of placements in Films and TV shows!

This Library is looking for Covers that are in the general stylistic ballpark of these references (and others like them):

"Wildflowers" performed by Charlotte Lawrence

"Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Jamie Jackson

"American Girl" performed by Luke Sital-Singh

"Into the Great Wide Open" performed by Lissie

Please don't be limited by the references! Covers of any Songs originally written and performed by Tom Petty are fair game here!

IMPORTANT: This Company is open to Covers that have a similar sound and vibe as the originals, AS WELL AS reimagined Covers! Pop, Rock, Jazz, Indie, Folk, Cinematic, Blues, and other popular mainstream genres could all potentially work here, just as long as it sounds great and is easily recognizable as a Tom Petty Song!

Please submit Covers of Tom Petty Songs in a wide range of genres and styles! Your songs should feature engaging rhythms, familiar melodies, captivating arrangements, and lots of originality and creativity. Due to the wide-ranging nature of the request, instrumentation and production styles may vary, as long as they stay competitive with other top Songs in your given genre. Mainstream sounds and productions will work best here, and you'd be wise to avoid anything too left of center. If you use any virtual instruments or samples, they need to be high-quality and not dated-sounding. Well-performed vocals (Male or Female) that can bring something unique and special to the Song will go a long way!

Do NOT submit any material with unauthorized samples of any other artists’ music, sounds, or any other form of media. Broadcast Quality is needed.

NOTE: The client may want to hear instrumental-only versions of your Songs as well, but not yet! All you need to submit for now are the Full Songs with Vocals, but please have mix-minus-vocal versions on hand and ready to send at a moment’s notice if you get a call or email from the Music Library.

IMPORTANT: If you had any vocalist(s) or session musician(s) (other than yourself) perform on your Songs, please be sure to have any applicable paperwork and/or work-for-hire agreements on-hand if contacted by the Company.

AI ALERT: This company does not accept or sign music that has been lyrically or melodically composed using generative AI, nor does it accept backing tracks, full instrumental tracks, or vocal performances created with AI.

This company offers an Exclusive 3-year deal. You’ll split any applicable sync fees and/or streaming royalties 50/50 with the company. You must own or control your Master to submit for this opportunity. Please submit as many Covers as you'd like, online or per CD. Submissions must be received no later than 11:59 PM (PDT) on Thursday, March 13th, 2025. TAXI # S250313TP

(Edit: Forgot the link to my cover)

[RealPickle]

Hey Douglas,

I get your frustration. Since you put your issues in a list, I'll respond that way

1-As a trumpet player, that's obviously a trumpet to me, but also, this isn't the first time I've seen someone mistake a harmon-muted trumpet for a saxophone. Plus, they said they like it! Fwiw, it sounds obviously fake to me...I'm not sure what VST you are using, but if you are able to use your mod wheel to vary the intensity of the notes, add some strategic vibrato, and vary the articulation/attacks of notes (like a grace note here or there, or a more legato attack) it would make it much more realistic. Trumpet VSTs are one of the hardest things to make sound real imo.

2-To me, this comment is not about the cajon. I hear multiple downbeats where the keys/bass/trumpet don't quite hit together, or where the keys and dobro are in unison but not *quite* together. I can't guarantee that's what the screener meant but that's what I hear.

3-This seems like a pure frustration comment I get it, but I've found that each screener has their own little quirks or ways of commenting. My favorites are the person who always uses the "royal we" when giving feedback, ("We'd need to work on our mix if we want this to fit the listing"), and the one who mentions ear candy almost every time. It's part of the deal! Also, you probably know by now that there's almost always another brief somewhere down the line you can submit to. (Although this one is admittedly pretty niche)

4-IMO this is about the trumpet mostly. The other stuff sounds fine to me.

Ok, that's my 2 cents!
--Geoff

[telefunkin]

Hi,
Returns can be frustrating, but the expectation is that submissions should be comparable in quality with the ref tracks.

My opinions don't count for much but I have to say that I agree with the return. I like the female vocals and the dobro is nice, but there are several other things that are less convincing. At 14s (for example) there's a bit of uncomfortable loose timing, the cahon sound is very forward and dry and it doesn't anchor the track's rhythm, whilst the rest of the performances are fairly static and lacking character. The main vocal is good in places but also has quite a few pitch problems. Therefore, although well recorded, IMHO the overall result doesn't stand up and sounds like a home recording.

If you listen to all the refs and compare your track with them then be 100% honest with yourself I think you'll hear the differences.

BTW, screener feedback suggestions can help if you were to re-submit the track for another similar listing, so they're not so terrible, especially if they're general rather than specific to a particular listing requirement.

[douglasricketts]

Thank you Geoff and Telefunkin. I guess I'm just salty about the whole thing.

I fretted over the "pitchy" vocals at first then leaned in on them, like the singer was literally saying all of that to the person as he was singing it and struggling to control an emotional outburst. I keep forgetting there's a gloss for sync music and that anything which takes attention away from a scene is a detriment to the overall production. I'm going to delete the song now that I know it's crap.

[joe44850]

Thank you Geoff and Telefunkin. I guess I'm just salty about the whole thing.

I fretted over the "pitchy" vocals at first then leaned in on them, like the singer was literally saying all of that to the person as he was singing it and struggling to control an emotional outburst. I keep forgetting there's a gloss for sync music and that anything which takes attention away from a scene is a detriment to the overall production. I'm going to delete the song now that I know it's crap.

Hey, Doug, your song link doesn't work for me, can you double-check it? I'd love to give this a listen

[douglasricketts]

Hey Joe, I got grumpy and deleted it.

Maybe I'll revisit it in the future!

[joe44850]

Hey Joe, I got grumpy and deleted it.

Maybe I'll revisit it in the future!

Heh, i totally understand!

[BradleyHagen]

The track: https://www.taxi.com/members/1xEs3OLTQV ... tty-cover-

The feedback:
Feedback for "You Got Lucky (Tom Petty cover)"
S250313TP
Share Your Feedback
What I like most about this song
Douglas, loving that crying saxophone.

I think you could improve this song by
To put this in the running try to edit this with some quantization. That might help to tighten up some of the screws.

I returned or forwarded this song because
I sent this back because the track is just a bit too loose for what they're after.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. It's a trumpet, not a saxophone.

2. I quantized the cajon (rhythm box) to 80% on this one because when I quantize percussion at 85% on other submissions I'm told it sounds too unnatural. I grew up in the 80s playing along with drum machines, even my live playing is called "too quantized" sometimes!

3. Why would you write "to put this in the running try to edit" when we can't re-submit to the same listing? Terrible advice.

4. Then this was checked at the bottom: "Song instrument sounds or samples sound dated or of a lower quality" -- It's a dobro, bass, organ, trumpet, and cajon with three female voices and one male.


Yeah, I'm frustrated with this feedback. Please help talk me off the ledge, fellow music makers!


The listing:
Lots of COVERS of TOM PETTY SONGS (in a wide range of genres and styles) with Male or Female Vocals are needed by a very active Music Library with tons of credits and a killer track record of placements in Films and TV shows!

This Library is looking for Covers that are in the general stylistic ballpark of these references (and others like them):

"Wildflowers" performed by Charlotte Lawrence

"Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Jamie Jackson

"American Girl" performed by Luke Sital-Singh

"Into the Great Wide Open" performed by Lissie

Please don't be limited by the references! Covers of any Songs originally written and performed by Tom Petty are fair game here!

IMPORTANT: This Company is open to Covers that have a similar sound and vibe as the originals, AS WELL AS reimagined Covers! Pop, Rock, Jazz, Indie, Folk, Cinematic, Blues, and other popular mainstream genres could all potentially work here, just as long as it sounds great and is easily recognizable as a Tom Petty Song!

Please submit Covers of Tom Petty Songs in a wide range of genres and styles! Your songs should feature engaging rhythms, familiar melodies, captivating arrangements, and lots of originality and creativity. Due to the wide-ranging nature of the request, instrumentation and production styles may vary, as long as they stay competitive with other top Songs in your given genre. Mainstream sounds and productions will work best here, and you'd be wise to avoid anything too left of center. If you use any virtual instruments or samples, they need to be high-quality and not dated-sounding. Well-performed vocals (Male or Female) that can bring something unique and special to the Song will go a long way!

Do NOT submit any material with unauthorized samples of any other artists’ music, sounds, or any other form of media. Broadcast Quality is needed.

NOTE: The client may want to hear instrumental-only versions of your Songs as well, but not yet! All you need to submit for now are the Full Songs with Vocals, but please have mix-minus-vocal versions on hand and ready to send at a moment’s notice if you get a call or email from the Music Library.

IMPORTANT: If you had any vocalist(s) or session musician(s) (other than yourself) perform on your Songs, please be sure to have any applicable paperwork and/or work-for-hire agreements on-hand if contacted by the Company.

AI ALERT: This company does not accept or sign music that has been lyrically or melodically composed using generative AI, nor does it accept backing tracks, full instrumental tracks, or vocal performances created with AI.

This company offers an Exclusive 3-year deal. You’ll split any applicable sync fees and/or streaming royalties 50/50 with the company. You must own or control your Master to submit for this opportunity. Please submit as many Covers as you'd like, online or per CD. Submissions must be received no later than 11:59 PM (PDT) on Thursday, March 13th, 2025. TAXI # S250313TP

(Edit: Forgot the link to my cover)

I never got a chance to hear it Douglas, as the link is dead.... I understand your frustration, but you shouldn't DELETE anything (I hope that you didn't in any case..) EVERY single TAXI member has gone through frustrating returns, and I do mean EVERYBODY, including the most successful on here (the "usual suspects" lol) - I too have been pretty pissed off in the past, and lashed out on here, so I totally get it, believe me. With that said, I think it is important to get into the mindset of "what went wrong?" It is the only way to get better at this. When I receive a confusing return, I bring it on here, just as you did, and listen to EVERY opinion from everyone, and weigh them all. The beauty of this is that it is ONE listing, out of what? 100 or so per month? As my good friend Casey likes to say often on here :Write Submit, Forget, Repeat" . Who is to say that another Tom Petty brief doesn't come along and after making a few small tweaks, you re-submit it, and get the forward?? It has happened to me many times with the same track....
P.S. If you still have it, send me a link to your track, I would love to hear it regardless.......

[douglasricketts]

Thanks, Bradley. I do appreciate everyone's opinions and take the advice to heart. It didn't help that I got kicked in the teeth twice, I had two subtle tension cues rejected as well. In that case I'd been able to run them by some members before the due date and they gave good advice I applied and in one case an experienced member thought I'd nailed them. NOPE!

I might resurrect the Tom Petty cover after revisiting it, we'll see. I'm still quite salty about it! Stylistically it was a bit dour, they definitely weren't going for that in the listing. And the screener did say they liked some elements of it. Maybe I'm also being greedy, I've had four forwards over the course of nine months. Some folks say it took years to get their first ones.

[BradleyHagen]

Well there ya go!!! You have had forwards, and know what to do!! Onwards and Upwards my friend!