----The Bellmaker's impromptu guide to writing audio reviews--------
Preface: As much as audio artists want to be told that "OMG I LOVE YOUR SONG I GIVE YOU 408523042/10", they will take suggestions over mindless praise any day. As Fro said, a review is about helping out your fellow artist or giving advice as an audience member. Even if you give a submission a 10/10, there's always room for improvement. Here are couple types of reviews I find are very helpful.
=Type I Reviews=
Probably the easiest kind of review to write. Type I Review format goes as follows:
-Praise: This is important mostly to keep the artist interested in reading your review. No artist likes to read a 1000 character review full of criticism and pointing out of shortfallings. Usually this section is pretty easy, even a few lines will suffice for adequate praise.
-Suggestions: Pretty self explanatory. Tell the artist what you didn't like, and give advice on how to fix it. This also includes absence of melodies/sfx you feel would have made the song a much better listen. Never write in your review that you don't like a certain beat, or a certain transition, but not tell them how you think it should sound.
-Overall: Basically, just sum up your points, give the reasoning behind your review score in a concise sentence or two, and offer some encouraging words!
Type I reviews I find are the easiest to write when you listen to a track and can name several big suggestions off the top of your head. Usually this occurs when you give a submission a low score. I usually write Type I reviews as payback review (when people review my stuff, I sometimes give theirs a listen). It's probably the most common review type I see, if not the only.
=Type II Reviews=
Type II reviews are time sectioned reviews, useful for reviewing very long songs, or songs that seem to move along very fast. They are also useful if you can't find really anything big to talk about in a Type I review. Type II Reviews are structured as follows:
-Praise: Again, some very short positive statements, ie "Your song is very upbeat, it has a lot of energy"
-0:xx critique
-0:xx critique
-1:xx critique
...
-Overall: It may be hard to sum up everything if it is a long submission. Usually a couple statements explaining your score will suffice.
An example of a Type II review would be:
-I like this and that and these and those
-0:15 I like how that instrument comes in, but it's too loud, turn it down
-0:46 Very creative transition, but I feel it is incomplete, you should add these
-1:46 Damn, that was awesome! maybe a little more filter over here?
-Overall, me gusta
Basically, you'd be writing a bunch of mini type I reviews for specified time segments in the song. I find this very helpful when I'm listening to 7 minute tracks or skipping around. It also helps the artist a lot, because you are being very specific with your criticism, and it helps you a lot, because it lets you address many issues in your reviews, making them more high quality.
=Type III Review=
Type III Reviews are somewhat easier to write, I find, than type II reviews. Type III reviews are highly structured, as follows:
-Praise
-Introduction: Mini type I about specifically the introduction.
-Conclusion: " "
-Leads/Instrument: Mini type I about instrument selection/mixing
-Percussion: " "
-Melodies: Mini type I about melodies
-Rhythm: " "
-Lyrics: If it has any
-Overall
Basically it is a categorized review. The categories don't have to be in any specific order, nor do they have to be the ones mentioned above. However, I find that type III reviews are the most detailed and comprehensive reviews. I've easily exhausted half my character limit on reviews on Type III's. If you wanted to, and you have had a bunch of spare time, instead of writing mini type I reviews, you could write mini type II reviews in each section. It would be like a review within a review within a review....
Overall
Type I: Good for med-length tracks, if there are many obvious suggestions
Type II: Good for long-length tracks, if there are few obvious suggestions
Type III: Good for short-length tracks, if there are few obvious suggestions
-------/TheBellmaker's impromptu guide to writing audio reviews---------