TAXI.com

Why does almost every decline (and yes I do have accepted stuff) always seem like boiler plate?

It's getting annoying, and I know Michael probably doesn't read these forums, but if you think the song won't work, don't just put, Instrumentation feels stiff or over-quantized.

Sorry reviewers, I think you are lazy. We pay for submissions and a yearly fee. I'm not expecting a novel, but when everything says the same thing (and as some of you know), I don't use much midi and most tracks are played by real players.

Case in point:
https://hearthis.at/jongriffin/o-come-a ... l-swing-1/
or
https://hearthis.at/jongriffin/jazz-moderno-180bpm/ (not one piece of midi, so...)

Sorry for the rant.

Hey Jon,

Try not to sweat it I much. Remember, the screener is just a single person In this process with their own set of opinions. Once you get those connections established from the forwards you are getting, it’s very likely you can skip the middle man altogether and pitch these songs directly to them.

In regards to the music, the first one felt slightly stiff to me (which I *guess* might be interpreted as midi?), but the second one I though was spot on and sounded great.

Keep doin what your doing, don’t get too discouraged about it. The more you write, the better chance you have for forwards. The more forwards, the better chance you have of finding a home for all the music that got a return.

Andrew

ResonantTone wrote: ↑

Sat May 16, 2020 6:16 am

Hey Jon,

Try not to sweat it I much. Remember, the screener is just a single person In this process with their own set of opinions. Once you get those connections established from the forwards you are getting, it’s very likely you can skip the middle man altogether and pitch these songs directly to them.

In regards to the music, the first one felt slightly stiff to me (which I *guess* might be interpreted as midi?), but the second one I though was spot on and sounded great.

Keep doin what your doing, don’t get too discouraged about it. The more you write, the better chance you have for forwards. The more forwards, the better chance you have of finding a home for all the music that got a return.

Andrew

Thanks!

Second song sounds amazing!

Greetings from just over the border in Gilbert

SamGreene wrote: ↑

Sun May 17, 2020 4:39 pm

Second song sounds amazing!

Greetings from just over the border in Gilbert

Thanks! I'm near Dobson/Guadalupe. Too bad I just bought a house in Billlings, but maybe we can meetup before I leave the heat

Congrats - I wouldn’t mind living up there. Baseline / Stapley over here. Would offer to buy you a coffee, but we’re still in quantine mode.

tresero wrote: ↑

Fri May 15, 2020 7:58 pm

Why does almost every decline (and yes I do have accepted stuff) always seem like boiler plate?

Sorry for the rant.

Don't be sorry for the rant! I know exactly where you are coming from.....

I have quite a few examples I want to post myself where I feel the screener is being totally arbitrary...... and I think TAXI members need to be more critical of this company.

We pay for it after all with our time and money!

Funkyfreddy wrote: ↑

Wed May 20, 2020 7:35 am

tresero wrote: ↑

Fri May 15, 2020 7:58 pm

Why does almost every decline (and yes I do have accepted stuff) always seem like boiler plate?

Sorry for the rant.

Don't be sorry for the rant! I know exactly where you are coming from.....

I have quite a few examples I want to post myself where I feel the screener is being totally arbitrary...... and I think TAXI members need to be more critical of this company.

We pay for it after all with our time and money!

It’s a slippery slope though. It’s good to be critical of returns at times, but it can also be detrimental to a mindset that allows you to improve your work. If you’re convinced the problem is the screener and not your music, you aren’t going to be focusing on ways to improve it.

Personally I would much rather have a few returns that don’t make sense and keep the bar very high relatively speaking, vs letting more stuff through and subsequently devaluing the company as a whole to the libraries and supervisors creating the listings.

Andrew

Pvgeldrop wrote: ↑

Thu May 21, 2020 11:21 am

ResonantTone wrote: ↑

Thu May 21, 2020 6:41 am

Funkyfreddy wrote: ↑

Wed May 20, 2020 7:35 am

Don't be sorry for the rant! I know exactly where you are coming from.....

I have quite a few examples I want to post myself where I feel the screener is being totally arbitrary...... and I think TAXI members need to be more critical of this company.

We pay for it after all with our time and money!

It’s a slippery slope though. It’s good to be critical of returns at times, but it can also be detrimental to a mindset that allows you to improve your work. If you’re convinced the problem is the screener and not your music, you aren’t going to be focusing on ways to improve it.

Personally I would much rather have a few returns that don’t make sense and keep the bar very high relatively speaking, vs letting more stuff through and subsequently devaluing the company as a whole to the libraries and supervisors creating the listings.

Andrew

Totally in agreement with Andrew on this one. In many cases, returns actually make sense even if the descriptions can be a bit vaguer than we'd like at times, and people mostly disagree with the screener because they feel personally rejected instead of taking the criticism to good use and making it input into the writing process itself. If there is a consistent flaw in feedback and returns, this is something you can take up with the head screener.

The feedback with the returns are a part of the overall service, and can be extremely useful, but the service provided is a digital A&R with an enormous amount of opportunities.. I personally feel the yearly fee and the submission fees to be more than fair considering to the opportunities it offers (many of which would never be accessible otherwise to a lot of Taxi members). Thankfully, there is also a helpful community that can figure out the returns with you if you like and see what you could learn for future submissions!

Paul

Which is why I put 2 examples. I'm not in love with anything, I've been at this long before Taxi, but when I see the same reply on the ones that do get rejected, it makes me wonder. As I said, there may be a reason why it was rejected, but it likely wasn't a completely live jazz track being "stiff". Kind of hard to make something that isn't midi, not sound like midi, if you get what I'm saying.

Tresero,

I recently received a return with a similar critique.

My submission was a song with a lot of guitars, an electric bass, vocals, and a drumkit courtesy of EZ Drummer 2. The only MIDI was the drums, although, admittedly, that's a pretty crucial place to have MIDI.

The critique was complimentary of my song as a composition, but the screener suggested the track would be better with more live instruments. It was "stiff/over quantized."

I had not listened to the track since I had submitted it, which had been probably six weeks or more. When I listened back, I was surprised to hear the track dragging in the verses. Not dragging as in played out of time; dragging as in there was a sudden drop in energy where there shouldn't have been one.

I concluded the screener had heard a real problem with the track, although I wasn't sure I agreed with his or her diagnosis of the cause.

I upped the BPM by 5, and suddenly the section that dragged felt plenty lively.

My takeaway was that the screener had been right to return the track, and while the rationale he or she gave was perhaps not spot on, it pointed me in the right direction. I think sometimes the screeners know something is not quite right, but they aren't always sure what it is.