My new album is out. For lossless quality downloads of (what I think is) my best music, please buy it here: http://swint.bandcamp.com/album/mouldi ng-reality It would also support me making more music, which I can only hope you guys want. I'll be sure to rustle up some more good songs for you though. :P Don't worry about that.

If you complain about a review of mine, please note this.

When I review a song, I won't sugarcoat it and give you a nice little bib and candy to take home when you're done reading it. I will say what I mean, I will make analogies, I may appear to get slightly nasty when there's something I really don't like. If you don't like actual criticism other than what most people do (one line reviews that basically say "I like it" or "I don't like it". No offense, that is what a lot of people do), that's really too bad, because I won't stop and kiss your boo-boos that I caused by saying what's actually wrong with the song.

I focus on the composition of the song, not the mixing as much, so you can have a song that's perfectly mixed, and I may not like it because the composition is bad. Composition includes but is not limited to the instrumentation, distortion, the kinds of effects, etc. To me, mixing is how well it sounds on a multitude of different speakers and headphones. Not effects, necessarily. Just because you have Bose headphones and speakers so you can hear the perfect frequencies in the right way should not mean that everybody has to in order to hear the song right. Ear buds or the cheapest headphones/external speakers should be enough. Laptop speakers, admittedly, do not cut it. Asking for somebody to pay $15 or less for a pair of ear buds so they can hear almost all songs better than with laptop speakers isn't that much. Asking them to buy $200-300+ speakers/headphones to listen to one song better is.

Furthermore, if you don't like what I'm saying, also keep in mind a few things.
1) This is my opinion. Not necessarily fact.
2) On the same vein, just because nobody else has voiced the same opinion/concern/complaint, doesn't mean it doesn't apply. There are reasons that low ratings occur other than jealousy of your allegedly "awesome" skill.

Note: If you aren't quite as cocky as the kind of people I mentioned above, and you actually take criticism kindly, then you don't need to worry. Chances are I won't bite. But if you freak out because I'm the first person to give you a lower rating than 8, then I sure as heck will knock your head around in an attempt to get you to wake up.

Regards,
SWINT

Here are some "guidelines" that I believe will assist in reviewing.

1) Go through the whole thing at least two times before reviewing. First time to check it overall, second time to check specifics.
2) Make sure to say what you like and what you don't like.
3) Tell people what's good, compliment them, but make sure to focus on what can be improved. Everybody can use constructive criticism, as we can all improve.
4) Be kind. Don't insult them for making a mistake.
5) Make sure that it is a reasonable length for the song. If the song is 13 seconds, obviously you can't make a large review. If it's over 5 minutes, you can do a long, in-depth review.
6) Only say what can be said about it. If there's something without many compositional elements, or mixed badly, you can comment on it and say what might help, but you can't really give much fine-tuning advice unless it's fixed. Ever tried to juggle four eggs when you can't juggle two?

These are my guidelines for reviewing that I attempt to follow. Take them or leave them. ^_^