Client Review
Three options per stage, structured notes, and revisions with a boundary.
Related
The problem
Sending twelve versions usually does not produce a better choice, only a longer silence and vaguer comments. The client says warmer, or not quite right, while the problem may be structural. Revisions have no boundary, and by round three everyone is guessing. A review workflow manages attention and decisions, not file transfer.
Few options
Review in stages. At the direction stage, send two or three sketches of fifteen to thirty seconds, level-matched, same start point, named by intent such as restrained or driving, never version one and version two, which implies a ranking. At the structure stage send one version with a timecoded section sheet so the client can point. At the detail stage send one version and collect notes accurate to the second. Three options per stage at most; a fourth only slows the decision.
Feedback and limits
Ask four questions, what should stay, what should go, where exactly in seconds, and what is the reference. Adjectives alone do not count; ask for a timecode. Collect in a shared document or form, not on a call, because spoken notes never land. Put the revision rounds in the contract, for example two included and hourly after that, and define what counts as a revision versus a new direction, which is quoted separately. Have the client listen once on a phone or a television, the system they will actually use. After each round send a confirmation listing what changed and what did not, so the next round does not reopen it.
What to listen for
In the two fanfares, how two short options offer different directions at a similar length, ideal for a direction-stage comparison. In the 84 BPM funk groove, whether a rhythmic direction holds before anyone discusses timbre. In Shostakovich's Aphorisms Lullaby, how a mood reference can be made specific. In Faure's Berceuse, what the word gentle actually points to.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 分阶段审阅与修改边界的做法，依设计委托实务通识归纳，未抄原文
- 结构化反馈的提问方式，依客户协作公开资料核对，未抄文本
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.