TAXI.com

Took a crack at uplifting piano and strings. Any and all comments are welcome and appreciated.

Here is my track:
https://www.taxi.com/members/N5SOUeh_Qe ... o-uplift-1


Here is the post:
A Bunch of EMOTIONALLY UPLIFTING PIANO & STRINGS INSTRUMENTALS are needed by a Music Licensing Company that's secured tons of great placements with Major Network TV Shows, Films, Commercials, and Video Games. This Company has signed many TAXI members over many years and has garnered lots of placements for them!

This Company is on the lookout for heartfelt Instrumentals in the general ballpark of the references below:

"The Optimist" by Michael Logozar

"Sugarcane" by Ensemble Rivr Dane & Ana Olgica

"Blessings" by David Tolk feat. Steven Sharp Nelson

Please send them well-composed Instrumentals that feature piano and strings as their primary instrumentation and convey an overall uplifting, inspiring, relaxing, and emotionally moving vibe and feel. Your submissions should have expressive melodies, top-notch musicianship and performances, polished production, and solid arrangements. If you plan to use any virtual instruments or sounds, please be sure they are of the highest quality and sound like the real thing – nothing stiff or obviously MIDI driven will work.

TAXI Tip: We suggest trying to keep your submissions on the simpler side, melodically. Your job is more about establishing an uplifting mood rather than winning "Composer of the Year"!

Submissions should be about 2 minutes long, give or take, and have non-faded, buttoned/stinger endings. Do NOT copy the references in any way, shape, or form. Use them only as a general guide for tempo, tone, and overall vibe. Broadcast Quality is needed.

Brian
Beautiful piece! Love it. I think it's great for the listing with the caveat that I'm not as good as others on specific mix and virtual instrument details. I'm sure others with chime in. I say FORWARD!

Best,
Casey

Thanks! That's great to hear!

Beautiful music! After listening to the three references, I think the strings need a little work. The first half is fine, but I think when it gets more dense around 1:28 there needs to be some more dynamics in the strings. Swells to indicate bow motion and increase the human factor. Give a listen to the references again, especially Sugarcane, and listen in headphones. I think this will help portray what I'm trying to describe.

It's probably a forward, these 'emotional' listings can often be very subjective. (I've had forwards and returns in this category)

Good luck!

Hi Brian,

First, let me say that this piece is lovely. I agree that it is emotional and does a nice job conveying that. My one question vs the brief is that I would say that the mood you're conveying is more "melancholy" than "uplifting" so that might be a concern, depending on how it lands with the reviewers. I'm new here, though, so I may be off in how those terms are intended in the listing.

Great work!

-Chris

audiogust wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 23, 2022 4:37 pm

My one question vs the brief is that I would say that the mood you're conveying is more "melancholy" than "uplifting" so that might be a concern, depending on how it lands with the reviewers. I'm new here, though, so I may be off in how those terms are intended in the listing.

This is an excellent point. I've had a few piano returns because my mood was not close enough to the requested mood... too sad versus melancholy, or too scary versus sad.

bmoBauhaus wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 18, 2022 8:04 pm

Took a crack at uplifting piano and strings. Any and all comments are welcome and appreciated.

Had a quick listen ( not read other comments yet ) - couple of things that struck me

The refs have a more delicate feel, this is because the piano parts are played more softly. I feel that your piece is too firmly played to get the emotion across properly that is present in the ref tracks. Hopefully an easy fix with a velocity plugin or some midi editing

Listening further the refs also seem to leave more space in the piano parts, I feel yours could use some thinning out as it feels too full and thick to me which pulls me away from that emotional vibe.

The high strings in the middle section feel late

At around 1:30 the fuller string sound that comes in is not doing it for me, it sounds too much like a keyboard string part - it has no shape to it so I think you need to work a lot more on the expression controllers there to get it to swell and then recede like a real string player would.

Not a bad effort overall but I don't think I would Forward it personally without some adjustment to get it closer to the sound they are asking for. I would say it's the difference between sounding more current and sounding a bit more dated.

Hope that helps

Mark

At first I thought you nailed it. After listening to "The Optimist" I heard a change in the beat/timing which gave the piece an "uplift" which was a requirement in the listing. My 2 cents only.

Wrote a second one over the weekend. Maybe this is touching closer to what they are looking for? Would love any comments before the deadline tomorrow. Thank you.

https://www.taxi.com/members/N5SOUeh_Qe ... ft-gentle-

Ha.... this one for me is more on target. It is a nice melody and the strings sound well composed and mixed. Good job and best of luck