TAXI.com

Alright, heres the thing.... a track of mine got forwarded to this listing EXTREME SPORTS INSTRUMENTALS are needed by a great Production Music Library/Publisher that has signed tons of TAXI members over the years, and has made money for many of them. Think X Games, motocross, skateboarding, BMX, etc. Guitar-based Rock, Power Pop and Punk are typically good bets for this type of opportunity Ð Joe Satriani, Avril Lavign and Blink 182with 2 other tracks. It was a Y/N listing, no critique.It just recently got returned by this listingACTION/ADVENTURE/HIGH OCTANE INSTRUMENTALS are needed by a UK-based Production Music Library for Film/TV placement opportunities. They need really high energy tracks (no vocals) for car chase scenes, sports highlights, high suspense action/thrill footage, etc. Current sounding styles would be the best choice here: Rock/Electronica/Hard Rock/etc. A blend of orchestral instrumentation with the mentioned stylistic approaches might also be a great direction to take. They'll be looking for tracks that don't sound overly synth generated - authentic, pulsing and exciting! Your track should be within 1:00-3:00 and they'll mostly want to hear mid to uptempo tracks. They offer non-exclusive, 50/50 deals. I know the listings are a little different etc & I can understand if the song didn't fit the listing etc, but heres what the screener had to say."Everything here is great except for the lead guitar melody. It sure sounds to me like the melody is in a much different key from the track. This can work, but it doesn't work well here... the melody stands out too far and not in a good way. The rest of the track is great."It got a tick for "on target for this listing" in the style category, sound quality got a "sounds good" quoteand in overall comments the screener said"I know this is very subjective, but that's the nature of the music business. I think the track works great for sports and you should replace the melody track with one in the same key as the track if you are seeking forwards for this cue."Now heres the catch.... I know the melody is in the same key as the backing, its all in c minor. I can understand if the screener just said something like "I dont think the melody fits" or "the melody needs some reworking" or "needs to sit better in the mix" or something like that, because thats something that I could listen to & say, yeah fair enough, I can cop that & I would re work the melody, to be honest I did it quickly in one take to make the original listings deadline & I also think that it could be improved on, but it is in the same key as the song.But the most confusing part is the screener that forwarded the song to the first listing, is the same screener who rejected it this time........weird. So the melody was good for one listing, but then nothing has changed & its not for this listing. I know the music industry is subjective & to be honest, i think the melody probably does need a little tweaking, I mean, who is ever 100% happy with any track they finish? But just a little confused by these 2 critiques.The song is at http://www.taximusic.com/hosting/home.p ... id=4440Its called "Geared". Not sure how you get the song to appear in here....I'm not complaining about Taxi, I love Taxi, all of my songs signed are a result of Taxi, either directly or indirectly, if I could kiss Taxi I would! Whens the rally coming to Australia?Sam.

Sam,I would have to agree with the screener that the "A" part of your melody sounds like it's in a different key than the backing track. This is exacerbated when the bass goes up a half step at the end of the first half of the "A" section. When the bass pedals during the "B" section of the melody, it sounds more harmonically related.Also, while the piece with it's melody as it is may have been right for the extreme sports listing, it doesn't sound "high octane" enough to my ears (besides the melodic issue) for the second listing.I'd rethink the melody.Good stuff, though!!!Mazz

Hey samonbass!Yep, I'm afraid I'd hafta' agree with both the screeener & Mazz! It DOES sound very much out of key ta' me, and even when it gets to the point where it does sound like it's in key, then it sounds out of tune. Yeah, I think re-doing that part over would solve your problems for any future screenings. Save whatcha have, and re-do that part over so there's no doubt about keys or tuning, and submit again when the next listing like that comes along, and see what happens. Just my $.02.I-468

Cool, thanks for the advice guys

not trying to jump on the pile or anything, but I also agree with the screener (and Mazz and I-468) on this one. The guitar sounds out of key to me and the song doesn't feel "High Octane" enough, but I could see it working on eXtreme sports, but I think I would re-track the lead guitar part too. - Big Blue

Sam,The guitar is distorted to a point where it does indeed soud out of sync tone wise with the rest of the song.I'm just saying that you may try, because you are aparantly a very accomplished player, doing the guitar track in more a SRV hot lick manner. I know you are not trying to produce an SRV record but if you do this and lay it over where the other gutiar track was you may either hear a more matched tone or hear something that will tell you that it is indeed not running paralell in tune with the other parts of the song.Lastly i would have thought you would want the guitar track to be more prominent in the song. It sounds like it's supposed to be a background lead.i'm not criticizing, just giving my opinion and mine is not worth more beans than it takes to create a fart, but it's my opinion.be cool, don't explode, explore.Doc