Hard Rejection, I'd be thankful for some advices !

Hi guys,

The following song was rejected. I’ve been writing prog rock for 15 years so I know what i’m doing regarding composition (please, note that i choose a very cheesy & basic chord progression on purpose). So i think that the problem here comes from either the arragement and/or the production. The orchestral style is not really something that I master yet. Perhaps some VSTs sound really bad or so. I also thought about the intro, is it too long ?

Anyway, like many people here, I’d like to know what I could improve in order to get this song validated.

Thanks in advance for your time & replies !

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Hi @lonecalm, in my opinion the following things need to be corrected:

  1. MIXING: use more automation. Low parts are too low, you should automate them to make sure they can be heard strong and clear. Everything sounds very bi-dimensional, add some reverb wisely to make it deeper (a good trick is having a delay right before the reverb). To learn some tricks, take at least 30 minutes a day to dig into forums like Gearslutz, which is a true goldmine of information.

  2. ARRANGEMENT: I’d cut the very first seconds (solo choir) and go straight to the following section. In the loudest sections I hear some notes clashing, check out that every part works together with all other parts and try not to overlap instruments in the same register. If you do, do it very wisely (for example, a low-level synth to reinforce a strings part).
    To dig deeper into this genre you should learn a bit about orchestration, there’re some awesome manuals available (Adler’s “Study of Orchestration” is in my opinion one of the most straightforward)

  3. PRODUCTION: the instruments you’re using do not sound very realistic (maybe you’re using old libraries?) + it seems you’re not automating enough MIDI controllers (vibrato, expression, volume). You should check out what are the reference libraries for this genre (there are plenty, just search on youtube and in forums like Gearslutz): you don’t need to have many, just pick up 2 or 3 very carefully and then dig into them to know every nuance and every possible control they have. Some sample libraries producers put demos on youtube and in description you can download the MIDI file of the demo ( for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZaaf2R34fQ ). There’s a LOT to learn from this resources.

Hope it helps! :wink:
Pietro

1 Like