TAXI.com

Is this a "Bumper" or what?
Would appreciate any opinions and feel free to critique...
See I, like many others submitted to the Y110506ET Entertainment television-type Instrumental cues, it said: "short cues of 60 seconds or less - think "bumpers" and transition music!...'urgent entertainment news... fast tempo Electronica..." -
I only had a day on me and the genre was not familiar, but I thought "Bumper" without thinking if I really knew what that is, even though I haven't watched those shows they mentioned, I thought I had some idea of what it was, I just had a feeling of how it can sound on TV shows, not really music but some diffuse drumbeat and swwwooocch, sswooch! in between scenes.

I thought at least I can do a few seconds bumper. I thought I perhaps would get a return due to not good enough samples, or not hip enough. But the critique had "music" checked and mentioned some other things that were a bit surprising to me. My first thought was "Music?, what music? It's a bumper?!" But what do I know? I was just amused over my reaction, caused when I made the piece I was surprised over what I had accomplished (cause it's quite far off from what I normally do) but I was very happy and thought; Oh, it sounds like TV!
But apparantly it didn't well enough, feels like, if I can't make a few seconds bumper for a listing that needs a lot material, what will I be able to do?
/Tino
http://www.taxi.com/tinoagren
SpectaPresents

Tino,

Bumpers usually always have a "button" ending, which is an ending that is composed, as compared to your ending, which drops elements out as it goes along and kind of acts as a fade out, even though it doesn't fade. You need to put a definitive ending on a piece to have it be a bumper. A rule of thumb for production music is that it usually always needs to have a button ending. It can "ring out" after the end, things like cymbals and echos are fine, but the ending has to be definitive.

Here's a little ditty that has seen some placements, I'm not sure how it was used, but it has an ending that was written specifically to function (hopefully) as a bumper. It's not in the same genre as yours, but hopefully it illustrates the point of the ending (with ring out). An editor could cut in near the end and use the ending as a transition out of a scene into a commercial, for instance. It's only a minute long:

http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/3341685

HTH,

Mazz

Thank's Mazz!

I guess I had something else in my mind then, that is not a Bumper.
I think what I had in mind was (without having a clear picture) those diffuse swoosh-things that bangs in and fades away during a camera pan in a studio or cut to something else.
And thinking of that, I was surprised that the listener mentioned music and melody cause those things don't have much melody in them.
Oh, well...
Tino

Hey Tino .. i know nothing about "Bumpers" but it's a great start of someting bigger.. Sounds real nice ..
Tom

Thanks Tom! Sounds good to hear.
And it's fun seeing links to people's work and go in and listen, some really cool and fun guitar there in Alley Funk, Tom.
Tino

Hi Tino

Hope you don't mind me offering my two cents worth... I think that your tune starts off great. The reason perhaps why it wasn't selected was because it has that long fade to silence at the end which I think most of the time is now what music supervisors are looking for. I'm sure if you went back to your tune and tweaked it a bit so it has that 'button ending' it would get picked up for a music library.

All the best

Mark

www.taxi.com/markcrozer

Thanks Mark! Any thougt and comment are welcome. I sure could try that button ending.
Tino