I received hard reject for my first audio file. It was recorded with professional musicians, in professional studio, and Envato says that it does not meet commercial quality of the platform. How can I understand this? What you guys think about this track? Is something wrong with me or with the review people?
Appreciate any opinions
Your music and vocals are very nice! Great song!
But the accent is not acceptable, unfortunately.
If the singer is not a native speaker you’ll be rejected. It’s even written somewhere in the rules.
Here is a link to the article about vocal requirements. https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/202822470-AudioJungle-Vocals-Reference-Guide
The only line that you might be referring to is “Any sung lyrics should be viable for use in primarily English markets.” In which case, I don’t see them having any issue with this track’s vocals. I think the accent sounds commercially appealing in this track.
If this track is unacceptable, then by those same standards Björk, or The Cardigans or Abba are not “viable for English markets”…
I think it’s more likely that the rejection is to do with the production, or the odd guitar chord choices towards the end of the track. There are some dissonant notes in there (maybe an open A string??), and those are hard rejectable.
Nice track, however, it might have been rejected because overall it is more a “listening” track than a background music track.
There are some problems in the mix too: The vocals are pretty dry and direct, maybe a little too much in-your-face plus there are some annoying frequencies in there, especially when she’s hitting the long notes. Also, the shaker is too loud and too sharp in the high frequencies, getting really unpleasant.
Overall, the track might have much better chances to be accepted without the vocals and with more focus on the guitars, more warmth, less harshness.
Hello mate,
Try submit the backing track only. You can name it " Journey Acoustic" maybe. :D. And add a little glockenspiel melody if you can. Your recording quality is good.
Hope you get better lucky.
I really enjoyed this track the more I listened to it, so I wanted to give some more suggestions that might help get it accepted. I think the problem is that for the production of stock music, Envato are looking for perfection in the production, so any little problem in the mix can cause a rejection.
Some points I would address are;
Shaker; The sound is quite harsh, so I would reduce the area around 9kHz a few db. It is also too loud in the quiet parts, so I would use automation to bring the volume down a few decibels in these parts.
Vocal; As I said, they want perfection, so you will need to go through the whole vocal very carefully and check for tuning. There are a few shaky parts which could be smoother. The vocal mix is a little harsh, so maybe use EQ to reduce the high mids a little. I think the reverb is the perfect amount.
Guitar; Generally the guitar mix is great, but there are some errors and “imperfect” moments in the performance. These give it character, and would be fine on a band’s album, but not for stock music. Especially in the final section- some chords are played perfectly but some are quite messy. If the song is fixed to a tempo grid it would be easy to cut and paste the good chords over the bad ones.
Other suggestions; I would maybe add some piano or strings or both (maybe some percussion? Warm cymbal rolls?) in the last chorus and all the way to the end. I feel like the track needs an extra lift at this point.
I hope that helps!
The song in great! If finally the issue is the vocals for whatever reason, you can try to create an instrumental version as @LongXmusic said. I would add a nice acoustic bass to the instrumental so you don’t stay so much between just mid and high frequencies and give it a little body to the thing as well. Of course, when you remove the vocals, many things that were not there, will appear. And then a re edit of the guitar tempo and execution to meet Envato’s standard is advised. If you finally decide to make the instrumental, that means different kind of mix. I hope this helps!
Thank you so much, guys! I appriciate all your help. I’ll try to follow your tips and fix the issues. I didn’t write but the instrumental version of this song was included, so I believe the rejection was not only because of the vocal. In my opinion the problem is that the review team does not deliver any detailed feedback, so you never know what has to be changed. I’m really happy you liked the track as we put a lot of effort to create it. Do you think it’s a good idea to present every track before it will be uploaded to the review process? Thanks for all your replies. Greg
Ιt is still a great track, very motivating and sincere. All the best!
The guitar and the music sound great, but like the others said, the vocals is the reason. I would submit just the instrumental track (maybe add a soft piano/guitar melody or something) and it would get accepted 100%.
How proud of himself reviewer must be after rejecting such a splendid item
Your song is very nice! I love your style.
I’m not agree with the “accent conflict”. It sounds fine to me… , I totally agree with @AlisterBunclark
Guitars are sounding very nice at the start, with a good rhythm. I cannot localize the main problem in this track… Maybe the complexity of the second voices (…but I love them) … maybe the presence of falsetto in the voice… or the some kind of abrupt ending…
I don’t know, you are doing a great work.
Good luck with new approvals… I’m sure you’ll get a lot of them !
Thank you very much @Kannonh, @AlisterBunclark, @FirstNote and all of you guys. You really cheer us up! Anyway we are wondering what to do now. We are totally confused. Whether we should record all tracks from the beginning (vocal with improved accent, guitars without these little imperfections) or maybe try to mix the song again (less sharp, vocals not so loud, etc.)? How do you think guys? We appreciate all your help.
I think that the lead vocals should be, at least 4-5dB, lower in the mix. The girl’s voice has a great energy on the mid range that would kill any voice off a video producer/editor would want to put on top of it. Despite that, it’s a nice song, congrats!!
Nice track! I like it!
Your track is very cool and sounds great, but it’s not a format for audiojungle.
Good luck to you!