TAXI - Critiques, anyone had one?

[blaccard]

Hello All,

Recently there was some discussion on this board about a Taxi interview with John David Kalodner. Has anyone had their critique experiance? I have!

Recently I had some CD's made by Discmakers and a free 1 song critique from Taxi was included with the deal. Out of curiosity I thought, what the hell.... I knew that of course this was obviously going to be a sales tool for me to sign on to TAXI, but I gave it a shot.

I'll give you my results.. Taxi is very prompt and professional. They said in 3 weeks they would send a response, have people answer calls and they did. However, their complimentry feedback is horrible. Its not a question about whether they like or dislike my songs, but rather how bad they go about it.

I received a simple "Complimentry Feedback" form back with check boxes that have Titles like Melody, Structure, Lyric, Overall rating and overall comments. So for Melody I get "Good music and verses" checked. For Structure I get "Not enough sectional contrast" checked. For Lyric I get "Cohesive, Good Use of Imagery, and Vocal does help to sell the Song" checked. I get an overall rating of 8 out of 10 for arrangement, Production, Engineering, Lyrics and Music, but a 7 for Marketability.

Comments were its a "Tasty piece of Work" but has an "absence of Chorus thus limits the song and won't be a single'... Listener ID #30

Small print on the feedback sheets says it's just one person's opinion and that Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before he could make a working light bulb.

It's sad to see that they have made people,s music such a mechanical process in which to listen to. Oddly even if it was a 10 out of 10 song, they won't do shit with it anyway since you have to sign up with then, pay them additional money for each song for them to critque and forward to a label.

What do the Tape Op board people think? Has anyone else done this? Oh it was my song called The Acrobat at http://www.purevolume.com/johnnyarsenic

[nestle]

didn't seem to play for me, but I would've given you a free critque too, to bad

[Knights Who Say Neve]

For $35.00 I'll post an old joke here.

[Spiderhead69]

I can remember an article from some one many years before taxi talking about the sad state of A & R people and how they wouldn't know a hit song or potental hit maker. To prove their point they had submitted about 40 early works of music from people like Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Mingus, etc...to several A & R people at record companies..In the responses he got, only 1 of them recognized that it was the works of someone now famous..all other entries were not approved.

[ubertar]

It's sad to see that they have made people,s music such a mechanical process in which to listen to. Oddly even if it was a 10 out of 10 song, they won't do shit with it anyway since you have to sign up with then, pay them additional money for each song for them to critque and forward to a label.

What do the Tape Op board people think? Has anyone else done this? Oh it was my song called The Acrobat at http://www.purevolume.com/johnnyarsenic

It makes sense they'd have some kind of standard form, but it would be nice if they gave you more detailed critique in some of the sections. How much would it cost per song if you had to pay for it? I wouldn't pay much for a checklist like that (if I were inclined to do such a thing).

My 3.5 cents: I liked Acrobat. I didn't like No Wonder. Both songs sounded very professional (too professional and safe for my taste) and showed you guys can play your instruments and get good sounds recording-wise. I'd try to find what makes you guys different and push that. IMHO

[rhythm ranch]

Some other threads regarding TAXI. Both here:
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=17182
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=14773

And abroad:
http://www.recording.org/ftopict-21653-taxi.html
http://www.recording.org/ftopict-267-taxi.html
http://www.recording.org/ftopict-252-taxi.html