Hello,
I’ve had three hard rejects in a row… As a gigging musician library music seems like the only productive use of my time at the moment, so this has taken the wind out of my sails a bit.
I would love to hear from more experienced and capable authors to learn why my stuff isn’t up to scratch.
Here is the latest track I had rejected:
If you can find the time to explain what I’m doing wrong I would very much appreciate it.
Many thanks.
Hey there!
First of all, very nice to hear some bluegrass music played by real musicians (or a VERY good job tweaking samples)!
The playing and recording are top notch, but here is what I personally thought I would change:
• The panning of instruments. Right now you have three pan entities, and the sound kind of jumps left and right between the banjo and the lead guitar. This can be a tad bit distracting if used as background music.
I would double the strummed guitar (Hard L & R with a real second take, or by faking it) to have a more modern, wide stereo image, and have the solo instruments sit in the middle.
• The composition. While it’s nice, I would make it a bit more exciting. Raise the tempo a bit, and maybe try to come up with a less improvisational song structure, even though it’s bluegrass. Maybe a more memorable hook lick or a clear chorus section?
Anyway, it’s of course a very nice track, but to make it really commercial, those are the things I would change. But that’s just me. 
Best of luck!
This track is good for listening purposes.
But doesn’t have the “stock music structure.”
You might want to check the approved tracks in this genre.
Thanks a lot. I appreciate you taking the time to help me out.
I’m interested in what you say about the panning. In general I’m going for a natural sound stage, with each instrument in its own position. I can hear how that could be ‘distracting’ when two instruments are responding to each other. Perhaps a good rule of thumb might be to only have one instrument playing the melodic theme?
I can hear that it’s too slow… My left hand isn’t very fast so I need to work on my chops!
The hard panned rhythm guitar thing has worked for me here before. I guess I need to work on making my stuff sound contemporary even if it’s bluegrass, folk, gypsy jazz etc.
Thanks again - you’ve been very helpful.
Thanks for your feedback. I have had some tracks that were accepted before that had more normal forms - AABA or ABABCAB. I think this has given me a false impression that these are suitable structures for Audiojungle.
To clarify what you mean by stock music structure, you mean AAAAA, in which a new instrument is added every 8 bars, culminating in a crescendo close to the end?
Do you think this is the ideal Audiojungle structure for all categories? Or in your opinion are there exceptions?
Many thanks