Judging a Generation

Judge in order, form first and mix last, and ignore what post can fix.

Related

TimbreMixdownMastering

The problem

A generation often sounds convincing for the first ten seconds. The drums are loud, the reverb is wide, the timbre is novel, so the mix persuades you before you notice the form is a pile of loops. Evaluation usually fails on order, not on ears, because the cheapest layer gets judged first and the most expensive layer last.

The order

Listen from the most expensive layer to the cheapest. Pass one, form only: is there an opening, a development, a return; are section boundaries audible; does the loop change. Pass two, harmony: does the key hold, do cadences land, is the bass doing more than doubling roots. Pass three, performance: are timing, accent and articulation making decisions like a player. Pass four, timbre: are instruments plausible, is there phasing, metallic residue, an audible sample switch. Mix comes last, balance, width, loudness. The first four are nearly impossible to fix in post; the mix is the easiest to repair.

Scoring and ignoring

Score each layer from one to five and write one sentence of justification. Any layer under three sends the version back; do not use the mix to rescue the form. The ignore list matters just as much: loudness, mono compatibility, one wrong note, reverb amount, stereo width. These are post problems and should not decide whether the version is kept. Prompt adherence is not a score either; a track can match the brief and still fail as music. Send the scores and reasons to a collaborator; whether they agree matters more than the numbers. Listen three times before deciding, since the first impression is the least reliable.

What to listen for

In Haydn's C major sonata rondo, how the refrain changes each time it returns, that is form. In Bach's three-part invention, whether all three voices stand on their own, that is harmony and texture. In Chopin's nocturne, rubato and touch, that is the performance layer. In the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth, the density of the tutti, where timbre and mix start to interfere with each other.

Sources

• 生成结果的听辨顺序，依制作与混音通识归纳，未抄原文
• 评估分层与后期可修范围，依公开制作资料核对，未抄文本

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.