TAXI.com

Hi all

Let me know what you think! I'd really appreciate the feedback on this piano piece. I had an alt mix of this in mind for a historic listing but that didn't get submitted in the end. Any tips on the mix if this could be improved would be appreciated. I hope I've got the 'intimate' feel correct.

https://soundcloud.com/rachel-marshall- ... strumental


Details:
EMOTIONAL, HEARTFELT PIANO INSTRUMENTALS are needed by a top-notch Production Music Library that's landed tons of placements in TV Shows, Films, and Commercials.

Send them top-notch, original Instrumentals that feature piano as their ONLY instrumentation. Captivating melodies, excellent performances, and engaging arrangements that evoke a strong emotional vibe and sound and take listeners on a dynamic and heartfelt journey are all needed for this request. Please be sure your production is polished and any virtual instruments or samples you may choose to use are of the highest quality and indistinguishable from the real thing. If you have tracks that could tug at listener's heartstrings, send them in.

All submissions should be about 90 seconds to 3 minutes long, give or take. Clean beginnings and Non-Faded, buttoned endings are required so that no extra editing work is needed on the client’s side to make the piece work in a project.

Reference tracks

Blazing - Korey Banks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlABHrl0gFU

Laetitia - Ron Adelaar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOMDLcANU-k

Nuvole Blanche - Einaudi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR2W2scFS4Y

Comptine d'un autre été, l'après-midi - Yann Tiersen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znfYwABeSZ0

This is really a beautiful piece and I think the composition is a great fit for the brief. In terms of mixing - it does sound more distant and roomy than the references. I don't see the word "intimate" in the brief, but each of the references sounds very close mic'd and the mix is pretty dry. You may not need to change the reverb/room mics, but bringing those down in the mix might help. The overall mix is a little muddy right now and bringing down the reverb might solve that, too. At the very end you can hear the strings as the pedal releases - if this was recorded live it might just be what it is, but if it's midi holding it down and letting the last note ring or drawing a fade might be cleaner for sync.

Not sure any of those factors would be a deal breaker though as the piece is well written and played!

Beautiful piece of music! That pedal release at the end should probably be fixed, though, really need to have clean endings.

Hi both

Thank you each for taking the time to listen to the track and giving feedback. I’ve since changed the reverb and made it sound I hope much drier and so you can hear less of the room. I’ve also fixed the pedal issue, after many attempts! It’s always the little things that take up the most amount of time. It’s on my page as a remastered piece.


Thanks again
Rachel

Hi Rachel

Congratulations on composing an excellent and emotive piano piece; and very well performed. I was not able to locate your updated version, but assuming that you addressed the pedal noise at the end, and the reverb issue, both mentioned previously, then I believe that this composition works in terms of the listing, so I wish you all the best with your submission.

Cheers
Michael

I am writing piano presently so I spent a dozen listens on this. My opinion means nothing but this is what I notice.

Compositionally it sounds solid. I would prefer no tonal melodic resolution at 00:10 and instead add a suspension there (too early in the track to resolve). (Also at some other points like 00:45)

In headphones it sounds too heavy to the left (panning/level problem) especially after about halfway in (build-point at 00:50).

In headphones it sounds muddy beyond the halfway point due to the bass range and reverb. It was causing my imac to buzz. Perhaps the Reverb needs to be EQ'ed.

I cant tell on soundcloud but it seems like the downbeat starts at 00:00 rather than having space on the front.

The mastering seems to change for the worse at 00:50 (build up point). Brightness is lost, woofiness increases, perhaps bad Compressor or artificially lifted-too-high volume automation.

Maybe some of these are the fault of soundcloud, I don't know.

I also notice the pedal release at the end which is perhaps unwanted.

It is peculiar that this listing is worded as "This client will need ... STEMs" but the listing is for SOLO instrument (so there is only 1 stem. with possibly a "mastered vs. unmastered" split version of dry/wet files). shrug.