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Hey everyone! VERY new to Taxi, and this entire process. I thought I'd jump in with both feet and go for this "Spy-Style" submission. I realize I may not be quite on point with the references, but I went for it to see what the process is like. Hopefully, I can post the track link correctly:

https://www.taxi.com/members/eUbt-AXzTj ... mond-chase


I'm a sponge, so please fire away with feedback or ideas on how to get moving even. I'm co-writing, doing my own instrumentals, and trying to dig deep here on the forums, podcast, and past road rally videos. I hope to get to know plenty of you in the months ahead!

Kyle, you've got an ear for the style which is a good start. This track feels very rushed, especially at the beginning. I'm wondering how much of this is MIDI programming vs you playing a keyboard or some other controller. It feels like many of the notes are landing together which gives it a mechanical feel. Look into what your DAW can do to "humanize" the MIDI tracks if they are in fact programmed.

The use of instrumentation is well varied, and stylistically congruent. Your track looks to be the same level throughout. Within each section, you might want to allow things to build dynamically, volume mostly, but thicken instrumentation as you go as well. The trombone section at :47 is a good opportunity, start with a solo trombone, then bring in the a3 and then the trumpets(and saxes?).

While the various sections may offer edit points, you may want to think about getting those transitions to be as minimal as possible to provide a good edit point in 2 or 3 places. Can you get those percussion solos down to one instrument, then add the others back a few beats at a time over the course of a few measures?

hope this helps,

Michael

Yo man, I like the track a lot! Brass and drums are dope, how did you record them. The percussion layer is a bit too busy, like it was said before. Maybe some breakdown parts would make it even more usable for sync But that is solid work! Good luck with it.

Chris

Thanks for the excellent feedback guys! I agree with it all, and there is a lot to keep in mind for future submissions!

As far as this one goes, the drums and percussion were part Logic, partly some Kontakt libraries that I played, and I think I recorded a shaker in there somewhere! I'm a trombone player, so all the horns were me just layering things through the track. I threw it together pretty fast, so there are about a million things I would change, but that is what next time is for!