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I get my fair share of returns, and all three I submitted for this listing were returned. One I knew was a long shot, the other two, although not my newest stuff, are good pieces, but obviously short of the mark in this case:D091118ININSPIRATIONAL/UPLIFTING INSTRUMENTALS needed by a very successful Production Music Library who has placements with ABC, CBS, NBC, WB, Disney, Discovery, Lifetime, Fox, USA, etc. Instrumentals can be orchestral arrangements, simple/acoustic piano or guitar pieces, lilting/playful Alt Country/Singer-Songwriter tracks, etc. Overall tone must be heartwarming, inspiring, and/or uplifting. Tracks can range between 1-4 minutes in length - instrumental presentation must be top-notch! www.taxi.com/johnmazzeiPieces:Golden Victory, Nectar of Bliss & Sweet VictoryBe the screener!!Mazz

Hey Mazz,I read into this listing to provide them with either: Orchestral Arrangements or Simple Acoustic Piano or Guitar Pieces, or lifting / playful Alt Country/Singer Songwriter tracks. I'm not sure if they put an "etc," in there, that they will consider everything else. I'm still trying to crack that TAXI code. I submitted to the same listing and got returned.Nectar of Bliss - had a low-freq synth in there - maybe should've been replaced by an orchestral instrument, such as a bass or cello to fit that "orchestral arrangements"?The others, as well as the above mentioned, all have outstanding instrumental performances. I personally like "Sweet Victory" and would've thought that was a forward.Golden Victory - again, great performance - from pieces like this that I attempt, I always get dinged on the horns - they always say mine sound too synthesized.go figure. Thanks for sharing this.-Jeff

Hey Mazz,I pretty much consider you "da man" on this kind of listing, so I'm shocked as hell to hear you getting a return on these.I only submitted one piece, and it was returned as well. My mini-critique was that the piece (which has been forwarded several times before) was for "recording - not broadcast quality"!WTF???Sometimes you just gotta wonder what these screeners are snorting. Steve

Interesting - thanks for posting Mazz. Golden Victory is very good. I think they might have thought it was more cinematic than inspirational, altho it has uplifting elements. Nectar of Bliss - feels more new age than inspirational.Sweet Victory - sounds pretty uplifting, heartwarming and inspirational to me.I will say, though, that the overall level on the last two seemed lower than the first. Still it makes me scratch my head a little.

Hi Guys - I also had returns on this Dispatch listing!One track (that has been forwarded 3 times before and is already placed with at least 4 libraries) was apparently 'not broadcast quality'.I've just renewed my TAXI subscription and now wondering if I made a mistake.Yours Gloomily - Modal.

Hey modal,These Yes/No minimal critique listings are rough because they have to fit so much criteria into a very few check boxes.Also, it looks like the bar was pretty high on this one so even if a piece was forwarded for other listings and even signed, it may not be right for this listing. Every piece is measured against the listing, not on it's own merits.I suggest you append the "not broadcast quality" statement with "for this listing". That might make it easier to take.Mazz

Mazz,I think all of 3 of your tunes are "heartwarming, inspiring, and/or uplifting" as the listing requests. Had I recorded those tracks, I would have submitted them to this listing.I submitted several tracks and had just one forwarded. It was a medium to uptempo mallet/percussion track. My solo piano tracks and some other tracks were rejected. Most of the "Stylistically Off Target" rejections had no supporting details.

Hi Mazz - your comments make good sense. I think I need more practice at deciphering listings and tailoring my submissions to fit specific listings.I'll also start using the forum much more as you regular guys & girls are all very helpful.Regards - Modal

Mazz, sorry for the returns. As you know, I'm just getting my feet wet with dealing with returns and Taxi's review process. I've appreciated your comments on my postings and thought I take a moment to return the favor.For various reasons, when I read the listing description, my eye zero's in on the keyword "playful". It's a unique keyword in the description and It seems to stand out to me and be a key piece to the submission puzzle. While your tracks are of course great, I didn't interpret any of them to be playful. The "long shot" must have been Golden Victory...it was clearly "triumphant" and was far from "heartwarming, inspiring, uplifting or playful". Nectar of Bliss is slow moving and sounds like a music bed that would match a scene where somebody was sadly contemplating their life...but at the end get's inspired. That initial "sad feel" seems counter to the listing title. However, this would tie into my previous gripe...as a movie editor/producer, this is just the type of piece you'd want in certain situations!!! Sweet Victory however seems to be pretty close. It's still "triumphant" and "new beginnings-ish" verses "playful"...but it is totally "heartwarming, inspiring and uplifting". I felt so inspired I thought about going for a jog...but instead hung up new sound proofing in my studio. Like I said, Sweet Victory sounds like a good submission for this listing. Makes me think, the screener heard the first two first and said..."nope" to you as a whole. I think they need some kind of crackers or bread to clear their palette between each listen.

Nov 25, 2009, 4:06pm, mazz wrote:I get my fair share of returns, and all three I submitted for this listing were returned. One I knew was a long shot, the other two, although not my newest stuff, are good pieces, but obviously short of the mark in this case:D091118ININSPIRATIONAL/UPLIFTING INSTRUMENTALS needed by a very successful Production Music Library who has placements with ABC, CBS, NBC, WB, Disney, Discovery, Lifetime, Fox, USA, etc. Instrumentals can be orchestral arrangements, simple/acoustic piano or guitar pieces, lilting/playful Alt Country/Singer-Songwriter tracks, etc. Overall tone must be heartwarming, inspiring, and/or uplifting. Tracks can range between 1-4 minutes in length - instrumental presentation must be top-notch! www.taxi.com/johnmazzeiPieces:Golden Victory, Nectar of Bliss & Sweet VictoryBe the screener!!MazzI don't think they hit the bullseye of Inspirational/Uplifting/Heartwarming. In other words if you took those three words and tried to write a piece of music that would fit all three, yours wouldn't be that piece.2 of the pieces are more on the victorious/proud side, the other on the very mellow side of heartwarming.The compositions are otherwise excellent, however the two "victory" pieces have some places where the phrasing or sound isn't quite believable. On Golden it's mostly the trumpets that sound fake, always a huge problem with samples. I go to all kinds of lengths to avoid fake sounding trumpets which may include not using trumpets at all if I can't get them to sound good enough to convince me...even with an excellent instrument like the SM trumpet it often still requires a lot of blending and tweaking and doubling. Trumpet chords (or even just diads) in the high register are particularly problematic.On Sweet Victory the opening oboe phrasing sounds somehow unrealistic (as does the trumpet when it picks up the theme later). I think this is one of those cases where the repetitive nature of your melody (4-3-4-3-4-3) is doing you a disservice by exposing a weakness in your samples. I probably would have abandoned that melody and tried to replace it with something that would have played to the samples strengths instead.What I've found is that for broadcast quality applications, realistic orchestral sound almost always trumps quality of composition. In other words, a simple and even somewhat pedestrian composition that sounds as real as possible (and hits the bull's eye stylistically) will win out over a masterful composition that has some fake sounding passages in it.That's because it is much easier for the average person to spot "fake orchestral sound" than "fake orchestral composition"...