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Quartz76
  Member
Topics: 11
Replies: 76
Registered: 13.Apr.03 |
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Hi CTG 
These are some tips that you may find useful in reviewing a song. I will use examples of good or bad reviews, but I won't give the name of the reviewer so nobody gets angry.
Here's an example of a bad review...
" i'll must say this is the best downtempo/chillout track i ever heard ,
i'll like the melody it's kick's ass ,
the strings/pad sounds very nice too.
but the beat sounds too much original but that's good too hehe. allso the sound quality is nice.
this is a beautiful track you made, keep up the good work! cheers" Rating: 9.0
Okay, you might notice that this review may look alright, but it really isn't. Let's start with "this is the best downtempo/chillout track i ever heard". The goal of a CTG review is to criticise constructively, and that comment right there will give that artist a narcissistic view of him/herself, and therefore will probably produce crappy (or crappier if he/she isn't producing any lame tracks already) tracks because he/she thinks they are the best chillout producer ever. So it really doesn't encourage the artist to make a BETTER song/peice.
"the melody it's kick ass... strings and pads very nice too" I'm glad you like the melody, but what so kick ass about it? I mean is it really that perfect? Is there any way this guy could possibly make his melody and pads any better?
And the rest, "but the beat sounds too much original but that's good too hehe. allso the sound quality is nice.
this is a beautiful track you made, keep up the good work! cheers"
This sounds like a crazed fan writing an email to their favorite artist, something you wanna AVOID while writing an effective review for a song. Let's dig deeper. Alright, so he mentioned the sound quality is nice. When you say nice, that usually means there's room for improvement, but what is anything he can improve to the sound quality?
In conclusion to this bad review, this person sounds like he/she has little experience with anything musical or soundwise. Sounds like nothing more than a noob trying to be an effective reviewer.
So now that you know what a bad review is like. What is a good review like? Glad you asked.
"Quite basic intro, with reversed cymbal and soft kick playing together with bassline. Specialy couse the bassline plain 4/4 and it is a bit to static, could be more interesting if it would be stroctured a bit differently."
He explained what was going on in the song and gave his thoughts/feelings about them.
"The song builds up quite quick so there is no chance to get repretive .
Drums are quite full sounding, there is lovely fx stuff going on at the background so the atmosphere is quite fine."
He is now getting into the critique of the structuring. I love how this guy reviews. When you're reading it, you feel like you're actually listening to the song. That is exactly the kind of feeling you wanna give to your artists because they want to know if you're paying attention or not. It pays to pay attention 
"The break part with breakbeat and the vocal part is nice, specialy couse of the very catchy vocals from keith. And same thing goes for the melodie, i think the synth pick is quite interesting, it sounds original and a bit different so thumbs up for this part."
He has mentioned good points, which you should mention in a good review. A review isn't all about bad points and it shouldn't all be good points either. These are some of the keys to writing an effective review.
"The theme part reapeats one more time so there is not much new after the song reaches the middle part but i guess this is how it should be, since theme is very nice and people should listen to it more then just once."
Once again, a structural critique, and he gave his thoughts on how he felt while he was listening.
"Very well produced remix, i dont miss much, maybe some improvements on overall sounding and mostly the bassline could be done betterly." Rating: 8.0
A very nice conclusion to the review. Probably one thing I would have done better in this review was to give my feedback on how I would do a better bassline because he was pretty vague on that, but this review gets thumbs up. Very very constructive... states the good and the bad of the song. Don't worry if you don't find that much bad or that much good in a song. Your review doesn't have to be 50 % good and 50 % bad. Oh yeah, speaking of good and bad... don't just put "the melody was good... the strings were bad" Something better would be "the melody was good... I really enjoyed how the arpeggiator syncopated with the other background melodies although that square sound in the back could use an EQ cut in the mids... the strings are not as good... perhaps using a better string sound and changing the chord progression a bit might help? I would personally do a I IV V progression because that's what fits the melody best in my opinion."
Like I stated above, this shows the good and the bad and shows that I'm paying attention and I'm active in trying to help this guy make his song better. Oh yeah another thing... avoid being rude in your reviews... If the strings are pretty lame don't say "Damn bro your strings suck!!" I know sometimes I may have said something along those lines (please forgive me), but that is a bad example. Instead say, "Look, your strings weren't effective for that part".... something that will not offend your artist and MAKE him/her wanna do better. Remember that's your key, you wanna make it sound better
Thanks for reading this. I hope I have helped out in any way.
Cheers,
Gerry
Quartz76
http://www.soundclick.com/djquartz |
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Nygen Dale
 Staff / Moderator
Topics: 68
Replies: 3617
Registered: 21.Jun.03 |
Very constructive thoughts here. I'm sure this will help people... But you have to consider when you expect someone to write something like "I really enjoyed how the arpeggiator syncopated with the other background melodies although that square sound in the back could use an EQ cut in the mids... " That this is, well not really pro talk, but very detailed technical issues that only more advanced and experienced users can come up with. So I guess your suggestion is that N00B artists should use the comment box instead if they can't give helpful technical advice? Ok, that would bring us to a new reviewing system and I don't wanna start this discussion again 
But you gave some good examples, here. Thanks 
Too bad that Gardebring has never been active here in my times, I still ask him for advice and usually get the most detailed technical tips...
btw: That first review looks awfully familiar to me 
Homepage
Artist Page
Direct Music |
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Chris Edberg
Member
Topics: 47
Replies: 2575
Registered: 04.Aug.03 |
Nice wroten, but I was aware of this already.
I would appreciate though if you looked trough all my reviews and made a review on every single one of them... That would be great, maybe I will improve!  |
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obScene
Member
Topics: 137
Replies: 3482
Registered: 08.Aug.03 |
Yes I only know one person who uses the term "chillout" as a genre. 
I think it should be noted that some artists ( me ) are very happy to get any kind of review at all. If you think my bass sucks... you dont have to explain. It's my job to make a bass that will satisfy all!
I think its good to give constructive reviews... but we should allways remember the time before we found CTG ( or other scene sites )... when we were sitting at home writing music with nobody listening at all. Was only a few months ago for me. |
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Quartz76
Member
Topics: 11
Replies: 76
Registered: 13.Apr.03 |
As for where I got the reviews, you'd have to search for yourself. I"m not giving out any names or anything....
I called your bass shitty? oh well I'm sorry for that... like I said in my post thing "I may have said things along these lines (please forgive me)"
Quartz76
http://www.soundclick.com/djquartz |
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Quartz76
Member
Topics: 11
Replies: 76
Registered: 13.Apr.03 |
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N.D. wrote on 07 Nov. (0:47) :
Very constructive thoughts here. I'm sure this will help people... But you have to consider when you expect someone to write something like "I really enjoyed how the arpeggiator syncopated with the other background melodies although that square sound in the back could use an EQ cut in the mids... " That this is, well not really pro talk, but very detailed technical issues that only more advanced and experienced users can come up with. So I guess your suggestion is that N00B artists should use the comment box instead if they can't give helpful technical advice? Ok, that would bring us to a new reviewing system and I don't wanna start this discussion again
But you gave some good examples, here. Thanks
Too bad that Gardebring has never been active here in my times, I still ask him for advice and usually get the most detailed technical tips...
btw: That first review looks awfully familiar to me
Homepage
Artist Page
Direct Music |
oh well the example of a good review doesn't have to be too technical... My friends who know nothing about music production give me better reviews than some of the noobs on CTG. Sorry for being unclear about it but I"ll write a clearer example of how that part can be said effectively if it were said by a newcomer to the scene.
Basically share whatever you know.
"the melody was good... I liked how it did that up and down thing and it went really well with the other melody in the background... there's a sound in there that I can't really figure out... it's a bit too crispy... mind fixing it somehow?... the strings could use a bit more work... I've heard better tracks of this genre and I've noticed that they do something else with the notes... try different things to see what sounds best"
obviously your newcomer's reviews aren't going to be very specific in what needs change, but at least this pretend noobie is trying to help out. I'm sorry if I may have discouraged some of you new comers with my effective review post. Share your knowledge... you can help out in anyway
My exgirlfriend used to review my songs kind of like in the manner I showed you in my example, and she's not that bright a person.
Okay so your friend there may have reviewed it with a lot more technical words, but seeing that I'm not as cool as your friend, I'd have to play with your track myself to see what works best.
Bottom like... you don't have to be the man at reviewing to review, but yes something like "wow that track is awesome!!! YOU GOT A 10!!" should NOT belong in the reviews section... put that in the comments section.
Quartz76
http://www.soundclick.com/djquartz |
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Quartz76
Member
Topics: 11
Replies: 76
Registered: 13.Apr.03 |
A.K.E. wrote on 07 Nov. (0:49) :
Nice wroten, but I was aware of this already.
I would appreciate though if you looked trough all my reviews and made a review on every single one of them... That would be great, maybe I will improve! |
If you are aware of this already, and you have taken it into consideration, then you're probably in good hands. These are for the people who STILL write crappy reviews no matter what.
Quartz76
http://www.soundclick.com/djquartz |
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Quartz76
Member
Topics: 11
Replies: 76
Registered: 13.Apr.03 |
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obScene wrote on 07 Nov. (0:51) :
Yes I only know one person who uses the term "chillout" as a genre.
I think it should be noted that some artists ( me ) are very happy to get any kind of review at all. If you think my bass sucks... you dont have to explain. It's my job to make a bass that will satisfy all!
I think its good to give constructive reviews... but we should allways remember the time before we found CTG ( or other scene sites )... when we were sitting at home writing music with nobody listening at all. Was only a few months ago for me. |
I'm not making fun of any downtempo/chillout producer here at all. I'm just using any random bad review as an example. Notice I didn't give out any names out of respect.
Sorry if the review examples got a little personal with the real reviewer or artist. This wasn't my intention at all! I simply picked ANY bad review I could find. I wanted to use real examples instead of be making up stuff because it depicts what the average bad review writer could be really writing.
Quartz76
http://www.soundclick.com/djquartz |
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Quartz76
Member
Topics: 11
Replies: 76
Registered: 13.Apr.03 |
A.K.E. wrote on 07 Nov. (0:49) :
Nice wroten, but I was aware of this already.
I would appreciate though if you looked trough all my reviews and made a review on every single one of them... That would be great, maybe I will improve! |
I've read some of your reviews, and they're nothing like the bad example I gave. Keep writing good reviews...
The goal here is that people write descent or good reviews.... not stuff like "this song sucks here is a 1" or "I love this song i'ts so beautifully perfect here's a 10 "
Quartz76
http://www.soundclick.com/djquartz |
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Quartz76
Member
Topics: 11
Replies: 76
Registered: 13.Apr.03 |
Thanks for the feedback. In the mean time, I'll be searching CTG to find a real-life example of a newcomer who gave a very good review. So that way I can prove the noobs wrong!! And show that noobs CAN write a good review
Quartz76
http://www.soundclick.com/djquartz |
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