TAXI.com

Hello Friends,Greetings from a new member! I submitted some tunes from my old catalog to a couple of listings and received mixed reviews from the Taxi critique staff. It appears that I’m not too bad at producing and mixing my old songs but my major obstacles seem to be that I’m either “Hard to Classify” or just plain out of date with my present material.I know it is a lot to ask, but it would be superb if my new friends in this forum could listen to my tracks just enough to get a feel of where I’m coming from. I need to know whether I should bother to continue submitting any of these songs or should I devote ALL of my attention to re-inventing myself with all new material (if so, what would you suggest?).Thanks a lot!...In the future, I’ll be sure to have easier, more specific questions for forum members. But whatever you are willing to do for me this time will be greatly appreciated!Best Regards,Allen

Quote:It appears that I’m not too bad at producing and mixing my old songs but my major obstacles seem to be that I’m either “Hard to Classify” or just plain out of date with my present material.Are you sure you're not me? Sounds EXACTLY like my Taxi critiques early on. Now you can't hang your hat on every single individual Taxi critique but if you're getting a general consensus from several reviews about your production and style I think you can pretty much take that to the bank. At least I did and I'm glad I did because, well, they were right. Like you, my critiques seemed to say that I really didn't have to worry about my production too much, but rather I needed to work on my style and sounds. Those needed updating. Part of what helped was writing music to meet the listing rather than shoehorning an existing track into a listing somehow. Writing to a specific target is definitely more focused. For me, I also started listening to Electronica artists as well as modern filmscore people.I only listened to snippets of a couple of your tracks. The "guy to listen to" that popped into my mind is Trevor Raben. As you probably know he's a brilliant guitar player and filmscore composer. Actually I didn't realize until National Treasure came out that he was even doing filmscoring. His music, especially recent filmscores, are really good because he blends in modern instruments and styles with orchestral stuff. It seems like you're headed that direction, intentially or unintentially. Anyway, Trevor is just one thought. A guitar player who has a modern sound/orchestral blend is probably a good place to start.Good luck,Dave

Thanks Dave,I'll surf over to Trevor Raben's work right now. At this point, I still believe that I can create a marketable product - eventually - if I only know where to focus. But I could easily go astray and lose that faith without good advice like yours.Thanks,Allen

Hi Guys,Sorry to be picky here but the spelling is Trevor Rabin You might remember his work on "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes sometime in the early 90s.Allen,Your music has a very nice feel and you are an accomplished guitarist. I think your music might do well in libraries. Google "Production Music Libraries" and listen to the examples on their websites to hear what the sounds and the styles are and where you might fit in.One specific thing that caught my ear which might be putting your sound "out of date" is the effect you are using on your guitar. I listened to a couple of your songs and skimmed the intros to some and I heard the same chorusing on pretty much all of the guitar sounds, acoustic and electric.While I'm sure it feels great in headphones to play with this effect on, you may consider monitoring through it while tracking to give you the feel you need but track the guitar dry as well and then add an effect in mixdown that more fits the piece rather than the same setting for every song. Maybe the acoustic guitars would sound nice just in a bit of reverb with no chorusing, especially on melodies. I'm with Dave when he says to write to specific listings you may feel fit your style while at the same time listening to what's happening right now in your genre.Keep up the good work.Mazz

Quote:Hi Guys,Sorry to be picky here but the spelling is Trevor Rabin You might remember his work on "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes sometime in the early 90s.Actually I try to forget that period in Yes' and Trevor Rabin's otherwise progressive history. Personally, the filmscore to "National Treasure" is one of my favorites. It's a great blend of really melodic orchestral and modern instruments and sounds, some of it really raw and gritty. In this particular filmscore, Trevor is pretty clever. Dave

Thanks Mazz,Great advice, and thanks for the words of encouragement! BTW: Most of those tunes were recorded dry but I mastered them all really wet for a dreamy ambient quality. I'm sure my musical taste will mature from white zinfandel to a drier wine as I progress in the work (ooh, that was bad prose - I'm not into lyrics either).I may remix them after giving them a rest for a while.And Dave: Thanks again for pointing me toward Trevor Rabin's soundtrack work. Powerful stuff!Thank You,Allen

Actually, Yes's album "Talk", which came out later but featured the same lineup was quite good!Dave

Hello again,I just got some new feedback from a new reviewer: Broadjam accidentally caused Taxi to skip 2 out of the 3 songs I submitted to S070222IN so Taxi chucked the first critique and started over. And (Ta-Daaaa!!) I got my first forward on one of those skipped tracks titled "I Remember You". Mazz, you were right on with your earlier comments: many of my tracks are too wet. Luckily the melody on this song was thought to be strong enough to forward it anyway. Man, that was a close one!Thanks for putting up with me! Your advise is great and I'll be sure to put it to good use in the future.Best Regards,Allen

Quote:I just got some new feedback from a new reviewer: Broadjam accidentally caused Taxi to skip 2 out of the 3 songs I submitted to S070222IN so Taxi chucked the first critique and started over. And (Ta-Daaaa!!) I got my first forward on one of those skipped tracks titled "I Remember You". Hey Allen,Congratulations! That answers somewhat the "Am I Marketable" question. It sounds like you learn and want to learn from those critiques... that's a major part of being successful with this. Individually there will be conflicting opinions on critiques but overall you should start getting a basic, realistic picture of yourself musically - what to work on, what you can leave alone. Definitely a time-saver over guessing. First forward. Time to pre-order that new Maserati in anticipation of all your licensing fees and royalties. You're on your way! Dave

First forward. Time to pre-order that new Maserati in anticipation ofall your licensing fees and royalties. You're on your way! Dave Thanks Dave,I really appreciate your input. But I think I’d rather go for a private jet. C-Ya,Allen