Would like feedback on rejected submission

Envato Authors AudioJungle
#1

Hi there. After I had a few items rejected because, I suspect, they were too complex (they were really full instrumental pieces) I followed various YouTube guides on creating music for AudioJungle etc. and created, what I thought, was a suitable piece. But it got rejected with the generic “this item does not meet the general commercial quality standard required to be accepted on AudioJungle, unfortunately.”.

What does this actually mean? If it just not a suitable style? Is the quality of mixing/playing not up to standard? Is the arrangement wrong? I’d appreciate some feedback/guidance please… https://soundcloud.com/aj-in-oz/lazy-hazy

Thanks
A

#2

So from my perspective there’s nothing wrong with your track, it’s a nice groove, really vibey. I’d listen to this late at night on the balcony haha :slight_smile:

As far as constructive feedback, one thing I noticed is that your mix is pretty dry. You only have a few instruments playing and that’s totally okay to do that but it only works if the quality of the overall mix is really high.

Your mix isn’t terrible, I’ve definitely heard a lot worse. But the piano and lead samples seem a bit high in volume compared to the rest of the elements. That throws off the mood a little bit, I mean i can still vibe to it but I think it would be better if they were brought back in volume so that they sit in the mix instead of overpowering it.

Also your drum groove is pretty basic and just not that interesting to listen to for the full 2 minutes of the track. If it were me I would add some more percussion elements to fill out the rhythm a little more. Depends on what you’re going for but right now you have pretty much the same drum pattern and sounds for the whole 2 minutes with no variations at all, and that probably hurt you a little in the review process.

Finally I think sample/sound quality hurts you in this track a little. You could definitely get a better piano sound, not sure what library you used but that’s one area of improvement. Same with the drum samples you used. Maybe some reverb on that rim shot and hats to give it a bit more sense of space.
You’ve creating this really great moody, melancholy atmosphere here… but you’re not yet doing it justice with the sound quality and processing.

So yeah that’s what I would work on. Keep in mind I don’t produce this style of music at all, so feel free to disagree. I hope some of this helps though!

1 Like
#3

Thanks add9audio, that’s very useful feedback. The samples are just from Xpand2, the freebie that comes with Pro Tools. I guess you get what you pay for! Good point on the reverb too. Thanks,
Andy

#4

Hi add9audio

Ive finally had time to revisit this track and taken all your feedback into consideration. I’ve added some more elements to the tracks and varied the drums more (and used EZdrummer rather than UJAM VDRUMS). Also changed the piano sample from Xpand to Mini Grand. There’s a few other things I have done to vary it as it goes through the track. If you wouldn’t mind taking a listen some time and let me know if i’m heading in the right direction I would appreciate it.

https://soundcloud.com/aj-in-oz/lazy-hazy-2



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Lazy Hazy 2
Guitarist, composer, and mixer. Doing it for the love of creating music, and it’s safer than riding a Harley!
soundcloud.com
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A

#5

Yeah this definitely sounds headed in the right direction!

At this point, if it were my track, the main mix adjustments would be to make the bass louder and drop the volume of that that key/pad chord sound.

The drums sound pretty good, I think the open hat is a bit loud but it’s not a huge problem. I like that you changed up the drum pattern throughout though, that makes it more interesting. If it were me I might have a short section with just no drums at all, but that’s up to you.

All in all, I think some styles are more difficult to be successful with than others… from what I have seen, upbeat and happy tracks tend to sell the best on AudioJungle. With this track you’ve taken the exact opposite approach: very slow bpm, and moody/melancholy. So just keep that in mind, those factors are probably also taken into account when the reviewers look at your track. Not saying you can’t be successful with downtempo, melancholy music, but I think the production quality has to be pretty high for those tracks to be accepted and then do well.

Also your chord progression goes back and forth between the same 2 chords for the entire track, and not only that but the 2 chords are relative major/minor to one another. So basically there’s very little harmonic motion throughout the piece. Again, it’s possible to be successful with this, there are tracks out there with only a few chords that still do very well… but the production quality has to be really high for it to work.

Anyway those are just my thoughts, hope some of that helped!

#6

Hi add9audio

Thanks so much for this. Very helpful insights! I probably do have the track too simple musically, but I’d had a few rejections for things that were more complex so I thought i’d try the other extreme :slightly_smiling_face:

A