ETHNIC "HEALING" MUSIC NEEDED BY L.A MUSIC SUPERVISOR
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Besides the obvious attraction of getting your tracks on the desk of music industry executives, one of the most valuable benefits of The Music Broker Network is the "Virtual A&R meetings" we provide. This is where we give you a full written evaluation of your tracks from the viewpoint of someone who works in the industry. There is no better way to get an honest, immediate response on your music than listening to the honest, gut-reaction of an industry pro as he hears your work. Every element of the track is discussed from lyrics to arrangement, production to performance .. and of course the commercial potential of the track. There are some Songwriting Organisations that will give you a critique of your track - bear in mind though that it will be other songwriters doing the evaluation. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can be useful to hear what fellow writers think: but at the end of the day, if you want to make a career from music, opinions of other songwriters (who are also wanting to make a career from music !) don't count as much as music publishers, record companies, A&R, etc. Here is a full, unedited written Virtual A&R for a recent Gold member whose work was mainly instrumental and aimed at Film & TV Opportunities: ALL I HAVE Nice synth guitar part on this track. There seems to be some very minor timing issues in the drum parts - nothing major, but enough to spoil the groove a bit. Double-check that parts are quantized properly; failing that maybe your PC or sampler is working too hard and it can't play everything exactly in time. There are some nice ideas in the arrangement but it really needs a better production to finish this track. The drum sounds are good but the bass part needs to be a bit funkier. Better use of reverb on the synth guitar, vocal samples and piano would make the track much bigger and more polished. You want to create two extremes between the hard "in-yer-face" drums that you have now and the wash of instruments and melodies that you should create with reverb & delays on the parts you have now. Like an unfinished jigsaw, everything is there now but it's not quite in the right places. ALL MY LOVE With a title like "All My Love" I was half-expecting a soppy ballad rather than a funky number like this. This is a genuinely innovative track. Production/Arrangement first: again, you've got all the right bits but you need to work on polishing the mix more. The drums are too quiet, bass too loud. No discernable reverb anywhere, and the (well-performed) vocals are not done justice in places by the demo-ish quality. Of course I realise this is a demo, but I think you can get a better sound out of what you already have just by analysing the mix. What most pro's do when starting to do the final mix, is reset all faders to zero (so you can't hear anything) then bring in one instrument at a time, making sure that each instrument sounds as good as it can before bringing in the next. It is normal to work on the drums first, then the bass, then other instruments, with the vocal last. This ensures that you spend time on each part of the mix. Regarding commercial potential, although this is a vocal-based track it is really something of interest to Film/TV people rather than record companies as you are using the vocals like another instrument and it is not a song in the typical sense. CAN YOU FEEL IT This track is noticeably better produced/mixed (try and think if you did anything different on this track that might explain this). It's an interesting Urban-flavoured track which has a lot of space in the arrangement. When writing music for Film/TV it's important to not have too many parts going on as there would be no space for narration or dialogue. Having said that I do think a bit more development of the track would be good. My attention started to wander after a couple of minutes. Try to vary the rhythm, maybe adding another snare at one point or a percussion loop. A couple more synth parts in different places, replacing the parts that are already there, would help sustain it over 4+ minutes. DETERMINATION Again a better produced track - are you using loops from sample CD's on this one ?? They always help to give a track instant "polished" production, though they do tend to limit you creatively. Most of the sound are appropriate for this kind of dance track, though again you could have used the reverb & delay better to create contrast between wet & dry parts. A good mix should be like a good painting having foreground and background. In this track the drums and bass are the foreground (dry) with other parts being progressively background (wet). EVERYTIME We're really getting into Dance territory with this one. The most obvious difference hear is the vocals. I don't think they have been delivered with enough confidence, which is surprising as you obviously can sing (I'm presuming it's you that I can hear singing). Is this a case of bedroom-microphone syndrome ;) ? Many demo's have relatively weak vocals because the performer is inhibited by the thought of their neighbour hearing them sing. If you are indeed performing these at home, maybe you would perform better in a real studio. Again, there are lots of good ideas in this track. FINAL SUNRISE This was a nice change of mood. Almost chillout, though perhaps a little too aggressive for that pigeonhole. The bass part was noticeably absent, so it felt as if the track never really got going. Apart from that it was a pretty good mix with only the lead needing to be a bit louder and the drums to be a little more ambient. It did get pretty repetitive though so it either needs more ideas or the length should be halved. GOTTA GET UP A great drum & bass groove on this one and for once the very dry production was appropriate. I'd lose the bar-long breakdown at 30 seconds in though as it's too soon. The track needs more structure as it all seems a bit random and ad-lib. There are some great vocal bits in this track but you need to sit down and plan what's going to go where. Treat it like a song - what is the hook ? What sets the tone and should come first ? It's the unfinished jigsaw again ... HOPE ETERNAL A versatile track this one, somewhere between New Age & Chillout. It needs a bass part though :) The chord progressions on this track work particularly well and side for the lack of polish already mentioned on other tracks the mix works well. ONCE I GET UP I CAN'T GET DOWN You certainly mix up your genres and keep it interesting. A bit of House to finish off the 12 tracks. Again, some really good vocal ideas mixed with some simple but effective instrumental parts. The vocoder on the vocal is a nice touch and the mix is pretty good. Some of the vocal's overlap each other too much though and it gets a bit too busy. Structure, structure and then structure again :) CONCLUSION Most of these tracks are about 90% there, which is very good. I've concentrated on the Film/TV possibilities because I think with most of your tracks being instrumental and the remainder using the vocal like an instrument (rather than being lyric-led), Film/TV is the obvious home for your talents. You should be submitting to Opportunities with Music Publishers that specialise in music for Film/TV (sometimes called Library or Production Music publishers) as well as pitching directly to the end Film/TV user (such as Director or Editor).