TAXI.com

I'd like to get your opinion on a listing I recently submitted to and the tracks that I submitted.

http://www.taximusic.com/listings_popup ... =S130305HI

Here you can listen to the two tracks I submitted, Mode 1 and Stardust-

https://soundcloud.com/john-e-rawkstaugh/mode-1

https://soundcloud.com/john-e-rawkstaugh/stardust

I was lambasted by the reviewer even saying that my tracks "weren't broadcast quality", but I think they sure as hell are excellent home recordings! I'm sorry that I can't afford to send my stuff of to be mastered just to SUBMIT for a taxi posting. I've invested PLENTY already and can achieve ANY sound necessary to fulfill a listing, as I do not see the need to "purchase cutting edge software" to do this. I guess I'm not "West Coast" enough to be forwarded. BTW- I got all 6's on both songs.

DO share!

Wait.... in all fairness, I did in fact get a 7 for song structure on one and a 7 for melody on another.

Hi John

I know next to nothing about this genre, so this may not be much help. The first tune sounded hip hop to me but the second one not so much. Some of the sounds on both do come across as dated. The lead track on the first one comes to mind. Sorry.

As for the production, that's much more of a mystery to me. I can't hear anything wrong with your recordings to merit being criticized as "not broadcast quality". I've submitted material that, in retrospect, was definitely not broadcast quality. (After coming home from the rally I realized that -3db mixes with no effort at "mastering" weren't going to cut it ) Anyway, nobody took me to task for them. Maybe the screener was having a bad day.

I hope someone more knowledgeable in hip hop will respond & give you more detailed suggestions. You're obviously a talented writer/arranger & to my ears seem to have plenty enough studio chops. Shake it off.

Good luck.
Mike

Hey John,

I got 2 returns for this listing as well.

As far as the specs for this listing, I don't really see Mode 1 fitting the listing very well. If the reviewer said this isn't broadcast quality, I don't think he meant actual sound quality (ie. clarity/mix), nothing more equipment/plugins would fix. Instead, it may be the quality of the composition/arrangement may not be up to broadcast standards.

I'm not really finding anything particularly west coast ( a la dr. dre, dj quik) about this piece.

If you'll allow me to be blunt and honest, overall, the composition and choice of sounds/samples/instruments leave a lot of room for improvement in terms of getting the sound/vibe of west coast hip hop.

Stardust, on the other hand starts off with a lot of promise. The drums hit in the right places/frequencies, the piano(?) hits that follow some of the kicks, that pattern and progression is the right idea. But then at the 1:00 mark, the vibe is totally lost. The snare you used isn't right, sounds like it's from an 80's pop kit, from the M1 maybe? That kind of acoustic snare just doesn't work for any kind of hip hop. The melody and sounds don't really fit a hip hop aesthetic either.

One thing I'm noticing as well is the mix is extremely dry sounding. A very slight and short reverb will give it a bit more space and life.

Whatever I've mentioned here as not sounding "right", it's hard to explain what IS right when it's not really down to a particular sound.

It may help you to listen to some Dr. Dre (the albums Chronic, 2001) to get a point of reference.

As I mentioned, I also got 2 returns. While the reviewer said they were definitely in the ballpark and broadcast quality for the west coast hip hop sound, the reviewer found too many problems such as the production as a whole didn't sound full enough, the percussion was too stiff, the kicks weren't deep/full enough, percussion lines weren't interesting enough, etc..

I had DJ quik in mind when I made this..
http://www.taximusic.com/stream/533650/ ... uncing.mp3

and Dr. Dre with this
http://www.taximusic.com/stream/533651/ ... mental.mp3

I've got no problem with these getting returned. While I don't necessarily agree with all the feedback I received, they do make sense and I'll apply what I learned next time around.

Hope that helps,
Owen.

johnerockstar wrote:
I was lambasted by the reviewer even saying that my tracks "weren't broadcast quality", but I think they sure as hell are excellent home recordings! I'm sorry that I can't afford to send my stuff of to be mastered just to SUBMIT for a taxi posting.

I know quite a few of the Taxi forum members and I don't know really anyone that sends their stuff out to be mastered. We all do it from home studios. The bar is set by other home studio composers, not by an imaginary mastering house.

I know your post was probably written kind of at the heat of the moment but remember we're not submitting *just* for a Taxi listing where there's some kind of quality difference between what we'd submit to Taxi and what we'd submit if we were contacted directly by the music supervisor. The listing companies have entrusted Taxi to screen for them and to bring them only the cream of the crop so we have to always give our very best effort in everything that we submit.

I think that a listing like this would be hard to get a forward on if one weren't totally immersed in the hip-hop genre. For a casual listener like me, I have no idea really of what the difference is between East Coast, West Coast and Dirty South. Ask me to name three hot West Coast hip hop artists, I'd reply with "Duh...". Now unless one of the hip hop guys actually happened to use "Duh" as his artist name, I'd be 0 for 3. Using that lack of knowledge as a starting point, I myself would have very little chance of a forward on something like this even though I have good success elsewhere. However, I do know several Taxi members that know the differences down to the most subtle nuance because they pretty much live and breath the stuff and of course they get forwards, deals and placements for the hip hop genre left and right.

So anyway, I guess I'm saying don't be too discouraged. A wide open "hip hop in any style" listing, a non hip hop guy *might* have a chance to get one or two by. Something specific like this, I think that unless that hip hop is more or less your bread and butter that it'd be hard to capture the exact thing they're looking for.

One or two or more forum members will hopefully post a forward or two from this listing. Hopefully that will help to put everything in context. Tough listing I think for us non hip hop mere mortals.

It says that this was first published in 2008 so it may be a little out of date but here's an article about the differences in East Coast, West Coast and Dirty South with examples and everything. All new to me...

http://audio.tutsplus.com/articles/hip-hop-east-west/

I know how annoying it is to be into a track and then to get feedback that doesn't seem in line with your view. I feel like your vocals in the first track sound pretty good, although they get presented more as fill-ins or added vocal tracks, because they are short phrases and not a rap / verse from the way I hear it. They're panned off to the side which is kind of unusual for hip hop main vocal track. But you are probably playing that part off of the female vocal, I'm guessing.

Maybe the reviewer was looking for a 'story' or narrative in the lyrics. I feel also like your track is kind of light in the frequency sense, like even though there's a kick and everything, I'm not hearing a low end shake things up, but that is just my perception. Sometimes, even if you have a limiter and compressors on the master o/p of those tracks (whatever the case may be), you can take the whole stereo mix, throw it back into your DAW and run it through another pass of a limiter and/or a multi-band compressor. No matter how much oomph it has, it will end up having more. (of course there gets to be a binary limit to 'oomph' but hey). Maybe you can try that and toss it up to your SoundCloud for an A/B test. Also, the Waves maxx bass plugin is helpful, I have been using it lately for tracks that are supposed to have that bottom. Good luck, keep on makin' tracks.

pboss

Haha, last time I was "dated", it brought me a wife

Bw "broadcast quality" doesn't just refer to production quality, it's also about composition and arrangement.

I'm not an expert on Hip Hop by far, but my view on these tracks is that the first one sounded really good. I liked it a lot with the ad lib vocals. It had a so called "false" intro, which may be an issue using it for tv/film, and it suggests one thing and then does something else when the intro is over. And allthough the ad lib vocals sounded good in themselves, they might still be too specific for the intended use for the client ("shake your body now"). Soo..

The second track didn't really develop to my ears, and the listing required that secifically, so while I understand the frustration, I also think it's about understanding the context of use they were intended for basically makes any types of specifics risky business, and that close reading of the listing should have prevented you from submitting the second track.

But, like I said, just my opinion and I'm no expert.

I appreciate all of the time you guys took to listen and share your frank opinions, it means a great deal to me and I certainly understand where you're coming from. Your insight is well heeded and I will definitely go back to the drawing board and make some adjustments as well as hold some very valid points that were made, in mind as I move forward.

It's awesome to have such a vital tool as taxi and all of you fellow musicians to share this with, it keeps me focused AND grounded.

Thanks again for your time and input! You cats rock!

Prost~

Ah, to look back and see the growth.

I renewed my membership for one particular listing that I was sure was going to hit, but I just missed the mark. I was given a great compliment on my sound, but the track itself was a hair outside of what they wanted. I guess it is the drive to succeed that keeps us all coming back.

Here's to that first forward and hitting the mark!