 |
 |
| Michael Laskow | |
It's very hard to define what makes one piece of music better than another. You know it when you hear it, but when asked to pinpoint why one piece is better, most people are stumped. TAXI's A&R team (aka, our screeners) has a very difficult job because they have to give reasons why a piece of music isn't great and give suggestions that will help our members improve.
Some TAXI members believe that the screeners try to find excuses for not forwarding their material. They take the comments in their TAXI feedback as criticism, not as suggestions for improvement. I understand. Nobody likes to hear that his or her baby is "ugly."
I was reminded of TAXI's age-old conundrum late yesterday. Which conundrum you ask? The one that requires us to forward the very best music from our members to the company that requested it, while upsetting the members whose music didn't make the cut.
We know we lose members over that issue, so you can bet that it's a painful decision every time we don't forward a song or instrumental track. Believe me when I tell you that we would much prefer to forward everything we hear. But we can't.
We recently ran a listing asking for instrumental tracks for video games to be given to the leading agent for video game composers. He represents many of the top composers in the field. The listing specifically asked for music from composers who are ready to enter the "major leagues."
That Major League requirement was where the bar was set.
About 200 submissions came in. Nearly half of them were really good, but they weren't exceptional. If you had listened to them, I have no doubt that you would have agreed with our screeners. Many of the submissions were really strong—certainly good enough to get picked up by production music libraries and used in TV shows. But when compared to tracks produced by the top video game composers in the business, they fell a little short.
While the majority of the tracks were well composed, well-recorded, and well mixed, most lacked that almost indescribable thing that separates the good from great. Sometimes the difference was simply that the track didn't make you feel anything. The composition certainly wasn't terrible, but it didn't make your heart race. It was absolutely competent, but not incredible.
If you were the listing party, would you want to hear 100 tracks that were competent?
In other cases, the compositions were fairly impressive, but one or more of the instruments sounded like an old school sample. I know it sounds petty to say that a single cheesy sample could be a deal killer, but again, if you had heard what I heard I'm certain you would agree.
I distinctly remember hearing one track that was rolling along nicely. I was impressed until the horns came in. Screeeech! The horn sample was so obviously a sample that it destroyed the track. I was amazed that somebody who was so talented would use a terrible sample like that.
"Why don't you let the listing party hear it anyway if the rest of the track was so good?" I can just feel my readers asking that. Fair question!
In this case we did forward the track to the listing party, and we attached a note letting him know that we were aware of the bad sample, but thought he'd want to hear the member's compositional skills anyway. But we can't always do that!
Most people in the industry aren't in the business of accepting music that just needs a tweak or two. They don't have the time or patience to do any hand-holding or "grooming" when they can simply move on to something or somebody who does have it all together. Most end users are typically not in the business of coaching, mentoring or developing composers.
That's why I started TAXI in 1992: To identify and forward those who are already excellent, and to help everybody else to become excellent. That's what our screeners are trained to do via the critiques they send you.
 Okay, do you want to hear something that I would personally send to the top video game scoring agent? Have a listen to my friend Kavin Hoo. There are a bunch of tracks in several styles on this page. They're not necessarily targeted at the video game market, but you'll probably hear some tracks that would work.
I'm sending you to Kavin's site so you can see where I think the bar is set. Notice how his tracks are excellent at evoking emotion, how they make your heart race, how well the melodies work, the mixes, the samples he uses... in my opinion, Kavin Hoo gets it all right. He is truly excellent and certainly has a bright future.
I have personally walked him into the Executive Vice President of Music at Universal Pictures. I also handed his music to my friend who is the top agent for video game composers a few months ago. He called Kavin after he heard his tracks.
I promise you that every TAXI member who is truly excellent will get similar opportunities.
As I listened to track after track on Friday night, I was impressed with how many members TAXI has who are very close (in the video game music genre). They are very, very good, but most were just a little bit shy of excellent.
I have little doubt that at some point in their careers, Kavin Hoo, as well as the top video game composers in the business were right where our good members are today. I also have great confidence that several of our members will make the transition from good to great in the near future.
|
