Reason for rejection. Advice/input very welcome!

I got rejected with the very generic explanation, “This item does not meet the general commercial quality standard required to be accepted on AudioJungle, unfortunately.” for my first 2 submissions:

I could understand if the style doesn’t fit or if there were some issues with the mix or master, but no information has been given. Can any seasoned contributors give me some more feedback?

I’d also love any advice you can give me to improve any aspect of the music making, composing, arranging, mixing, mastering. Thanks!

I like the way you use chords and mix styles (in Guitar Wars). It’s two beautiful compostions and very rich arrangements with good ideas.

However, I think the mixes need to be better done.

Volume balance in Guitar Wars can be improve. The guitars are too loud and harsh. The snare is a bit too quiet in the back. Try not too have all your guitars peaking in the same place in the frequency spectrum (it sounds confuse and messy because you have 2-3 guitars playing at same time all different part and all fighting each other around 2000-3000 hz).

The biggest problem in Rolling Hills is that for an orchestra track, all is way too dry. Do you use reverb? It needs to sound open so you need reverb and more brightness on many of your instruments. It sounds harsh too much 2000-3000 hz and too many instruments loud here. Your french horns could sit well somewhere around 300-500 hz over the acoustic guitar and e. piano. It would let the place for your higher instruments in the hi mid area. Yet your hi staccato strings need more treble, they are very harsh (telephone like) and muffled. With more treble they would have openess and crispiness they need in the context. To me, the hi strings long notes should be the brightest element in your mix (place them more in the treble area than the others). Watch out to not make them too tiny. I personnally always start by eq bass instruments, after low mid etc to not finish with a tiny/harsh sounding mix. Take break between sessions. I personnally work on many projects at the same time and go from one to the other to keep my objectivity.

Cut what you don’t need, keep just what is needed in each instrument. It will let the place for the others.

I hope it helps! Again very nice and interesting music. :wink:

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It makes me kind of sad to hear good ideas and composing skills with bad mixes. Don’t let this discourage you, but you have nice ideas and music, while you have a long road ahead to make perfect mixes! Mix is not only how it sounds and volume - pan - eq only, but also aesthetics ( delay reverb etc)

What listening environment you have and how much experience you have in mixing? Do you have a good sound reproduction system to trust? I hear mostly very big differencies in volume of instruments and also too much resonance in 100 - 200 Hz. You need to find a good reproduciton system you can trust ( room acoustics, proper speakers, or calibrated headphones with Sonarworks reference)

Best of luck!

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also watch out for the mastering! maybe the tracks are ruined in it! :slight_smile:

Wow, thank you Anthony! I really appreciate your encouragement and your advice was incredibly specific and very helpful :slight_smile: I will incorporate some of your ideas into my future mixes.

In the rejection email it said “you won’t be able to re-submit this item again”, so does that mean I shouldn’t bother making some adjustments and resubmitting? Or do they just mean that I cannot resubmit the songs as is?

Thanks again! :slight_smile: and I checked out your stuff on AudioJungle and it’s really great!

Thank you for the encouragement and constructive criticism, I really appreciate it! :slight_smile:

My listening environment is less than ideal, I’ve got an untreated room with a pair of Presonus Eris E3’s and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones. I switch back and forth between the two while mixing and takes breaks when I can. I also mix (and master) over at least 2 days so I don’t suffer from ear fatigue or anything like that. That being said, I’ve only been recording, mixing, and mastering with this setup for a few months now, and prior to that I had a bit of a hiatus from music, so I’m kind of just getting back into it.

I will look into Sonarworks, but until I sell some songs I can’t really invest in more gear.

Thanks again, and I like your tracks! Cool stuff :wink:

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Use the premade graph for DT 770 in Sonarworks reference headphone edition

Great! Thank you, I’m working on 32 long tracks to be finished this year better than what I have on my portefolio right now. I never stop to make what it needs to gain more skills. It’s a never ending adventure.

If you reupload those tracks on your soundcloud later with new mixes I will give to you my opinion if I have time. I’m subscribed to you on souncloud now.

No, you cannot resubmit those same pieces here but you can submit them elsewhere. Take the time to improve your skills in mixing before to do that. This youtube channel will help you to quickly understand a lot of things: https://www.youtube.com/user/mixbustv

You have great musical skills! I hope to hear again those tracks with the mixes they deserve. :smiley:

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In the first track, the rhythm block is very quiet.

Also in both tracks you need to do a mixing and a mastering (again and fix a lot of nuances, you need to make a candy)

A lot of work needs to be done in mixing (detail) , but the idea itself is cool.

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Hi!
Very interesting music)
In my opinion, you need to find balance between instruments in these tracks.

First track need to be more pumping, so to reach it, you need to make drums louder and work for its mixing with other instruments.

Second track, need more space (reverb, maybe delay, a little) for strings, and balance between all instruments.

I hope my advices was be helpful)
Sorry for my english

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Thanks!