Explanation of Album Reviews
* updated 5-3-09 *
I did away with the circle/dot/slash way of rating the tracks, which is now replaced with the simple mp3 tag compatible star system. You will still see the same “Sound Code” as is described below, and the (FCC) notes that warn of radio-unplayable material. The reviews are now just posted as regular HTML instead of PDFs which I found time consuming.
Album reviews: Most of the elements shown are obvious… including artist, album, year of release, genre, track titles, and track lengths.
The others that you may be a little confused by are the track by track review that is denoted by all the circles, slashes and dots around the track numbers.
Circled with slash are the best tracks on the album. These always denoted rotation tracks at my old radio station.
Circled with dot are the great tracks. These always denoted the runners up to rotation.
Circled are good tracks.
The other would be the one or two letter code that is next to the track numbers. This is what I call the sound code. Basically its just a cross between tempo and sound density. Here is the breakdown with an example of what that code would apply to.
L – Light: Ambient music or A Capella singing.
LM – Light Medium: light singing with minimal instrumentation.
ML – Medium Light: Slow music with singing and light instrumentation.
M – Medium: Medium tempos with a decent amount of instrumentation.
MH – Medium Heavy: Medium to fast tempos with heavy instrumentation.
HM – Heavy Medium: Fast tempos with heavy instrumentation and distortion.
H – Heavy: Super fast tempos and extremely dense sound.
This review method is the method we used at the college radio station that I was music director at for almost 4 years. The original purpose for the sound code was for radio playability but now I find it helpful for making mixes or selecting music in general. I always found reviewing an album in this way was the best way to get to know it, and once you are done you almost have a sonic map of that musical space.
You will find a short worded review, usually giving basic info and a few opinions. I always preferred giving the facts and letting each listener decide how they felt about it. You also may find notes after the track title including bits of important information. One of the most important things I will be including is “[FCC]” which would note the existence of radio unplayable material.
If you find that the reviews might be helpful feel free to print them out and use them.
