I’d love some feedback on another AJ rejection…
I made 2 variation endings and a drum-free version as part of the offering - this is the main track
I also used a few reference tracks of reasonably well performing pieces (but not the obvious chosen few), and observed structure, style, instrumentation and mixing - not to copy but as inspiration to build on my own creativity…
In my head, I thought I’d gone one better than the references and thought I wouldn’t be pulled on ‘quality’ both musically or mixing. Ha, as if!
I’d love to hear what’s in your heads - you guys always deliver gold 
Cheers
Simon
The music is awesomel. But it seems to me that mixing and arranging need some refinement. Until 0:09 it’s pretty empty (just kick and piano), although the first seconds are the most important to hook the listener.The kick sound is rather dull and muddy. Perhaps you wanted to make it sound soft. It seems to me that the track would sound more interesting if the synth and arp parts are replaced. Because of them, it’s difficult to understand the mood of the track. Whether it’s a corporate, or it’ll be a dance mix. Despite the fact that the music is good, I believe that such a chord progression would be more suitable for a song than for a track from AJ
Thanks for your input SolarStock, much appreciated.
Yes, I made the kick deliberately soft and low end, sitting underneath the bass - actually loads more brighter than some of my reference tracks, so interesting you say that, as I wanted to avoid that too much and had compensated, in my opinion maybe too much if anything!
I get your comments regarding the mood - for me I visualised placements to be typical of the
reality/competition shows where the music sits under a preview sad/emotional back story of hardship and bad luck etc, building up to an inspirational possibility of success and retribution…hence the split in moods (and title)… so a sad/emotional ambient piece with some undertones of motivation and future glory - that was the thinking anyway!
Appreciate your time and comments, thanks again!
Simon
1 Like
Hi! I really liked this track. To me the only reason why it has been rejected is the arpeggiated synth sound. I also try not to fill tracks with stuff and tend to forget that this should be background music. If I imagine this track under a video of somebody talking, I would be annoyed by that sound. All the rest is magical.
Just my 2 cents, and I am by no means a good composer 
Thanks Giuseppe-Piol for your comments, much appreciated. I’ll have a listen without the synths, (pretend I never heard the synth’d up reference tracks too lol).
You just know though, that if I kept it raw and took out the synth/arps the critique would be that nothing develops! I get your point though about being annoyed as background music so I’ll definitely take a look at that perhaps if it’s too lacking in development play with some strings.
Appreciate your comments, thanks
Simon
Yes you’re right, nothing would develop unless there is some small variation, even two piano notes, that make you think it’s not 4 times the same stuff. But we are musicians, and we don’t like music that’s too simple, or apparently too simple sometimes
So… thanks for your feedback - decided to check out what tracks were getting through instead…check this latest version