[Help me] to understand why my track was rejected - Criticize my track please

Envato Authors AudioJungle
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Hi Everyone,

I would really appreciate your criticism on my track who recently gotten a hard reject.

Any suggestions for me to improve would really be appreciated.

This is my first submission and my first attempt to compose a corporate type feel of an instrumental. I have just recently learned to tinker mastering and mixing. I do understand that I still have lots of things to learn and maybe your criticisms would be a start for me to move forward and be better in this field.

Thank you very much in advance
Steve

2

Hey Steve,

I would be more than happy to provide you with some feedback. I am a new creator here, but I’ve been mixing/mastering, creating, and DJing for about 20 years. I play guitar, bass, drums, keys, and sing.

I will break it down into overall composition/arrangement/instruments, mixing/mastering, mood, strengths, weaknesses, and overall impression. Lets start with overall impression.

Overall Impression:
This is an enjoyable song. Honestly, I am sitting here jamming to it. Some things stick out to me that are very great and some others, not so much. I will go into detail in the other sections so you can make your improvements. I think with some reorganization of the track, trimming some stuff up, you’ll have yourself a really solid track.

Composition/arrangement/instruments
The muted guitar noise in the beginning is great. Very well done, but that pad in the background, uprising synth, are not the greatest instrument selection. I see what you were trying to do but it misses the mark. Try a simple transition effect and get rid of that pad noise. If you want to keep the pad, cut out most of the low and and let the high end bleed into the mix. This will remove some of the cloudiness.

The guitar is nice at 25 seconds. Really nice melody. The lead and the backing guitars. I would try to do a better job at mixing these two together. At the break/bridge at 1:00 the track loses a little too much momentum in my opinion. Also, at 1:13 it falls a bit flat. Good news though, it picks up nicely. I would work on your transitions. Also, work on better fills with your drums. They are not bad by any means, but this will help it pop. Think of your track like a story. Unveil a little by little until it reaches completion.

Mixing/master: I will admit I am listening on headphones and not my JBLs but the track seems “cloudy.” I would go back, re “eq” every track and do more frequency cutting than adding frequencies. Think of it in subtractive way to let other frequencies of other instruments shine through.

Mood: I am loving the mood. Very corporate, product showcase feel. You really hit the mark here with that. Be proud of yourself because I think that might be one the hardest parts of making a song.

Strengths: Very captivating mood. Great tone of guitars. Very nice and crunchy. Is a very solid base for a solid track.

Weaknesses: Overall arrangement. The track loses its momentum at that 1 min mark. Try a piano right there. Something nice and rich with some slappy reverb.

I hope that helps buddy. Best to you!

Keep in touch. Let me know when this becomes approved!

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Thank you very much for your honest opinion. Really appreciate this!

Some of the things you said were something at the back of my mind, but thought it would be enough, thank you for pointing out the additional points I need to work on. I was enlightened on the re-eq of each track and thank you for pointing it out.

I will work on another song as AJ said I can’t re-submit this (too bad)

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The hook and the structure of this track may be good but this is the example of too many of the same instruments clashing on the same registered frequencies. Check out at 1:41 where the loudest part of the track messed up. The new boy introduced is not well blended, it only makes the track cloudy and blurry. In most cases, when the guitar is strummed with distortion, it easily messes up the lead and other part of instruments in the mid-high frequencies unless it has the right tune and the right chords. Also the whole drum is weak, especially the kick, bass and the snare need to be punchier and well balanced. The metal area like hihats on high frequency are thin and the cymbals are a bit shy. Well i think, many tracks on AJ were rejected because of the mixes and masterings aren’t up to their standard. You need to work more on them.

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Thank you for the remarks. Ill definitely work on those on the next song ill write. Really appreciate this!

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Hi, very nice track. Too bad it only sounds like a demo.

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The weird sounds at the beginning I don’t know what you were going for there but they just sound weird (0:12 secs mark). The mix needs a lot of work, everything seems to be panned dead center except for the drums (which likely are panned wide out of the box), that’s a tell of bad mixing to me. Other than that I’d say the track is great, just focus on improving on mixing.

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Thanks Leo, ill try to work on those. Really appreciate your feedback

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