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owing to the feature set of fl studio and the stuff you can do with it, the VSTi/DXi support, automation, layering tools etc etc i do feel as if you could make an fl studio review at least 5 times longer if not more. the problem with low word count reviews is you have to edit it very tightly to get in as much information within the word limit and this is very hard without having to leave stuff out. when i was doing an english degree all my tutors basically told me to put S.E.C.C.s (heheh, sex) in all my essays. that is, statement, evaluation, critical comment.
and after a while i figured this makes complete sense. lets take an example. you say
| quote: | | But, deep down inside, fruityloops is a very powerful music generation program that offers a great verity of sound that can burst out, as any professional artist or producer can work with. |
and you are right but you have only made the statement. to make it informative and truly useful you would need to go further. you would need to state some of these functions - the way in which pretty much every knob, slider, dial in fl studio is automatable, thus pretty much every variable from volume to phase to the cutoff frequency of a filter can be altered dynamically and set to operate automatically. this is in turn gives rise to endless possibilites and transitions between sounds.
you could also include information on VSTi support which is to my mind, coupled with the clean and efficient layout is one of fruity's BIG pluses. you could go in depth on the layer function, how you can control parameters of many different instruments at the same time using the layer tool to save you having to automate several instruments independantly using new patterns.
by doing this you have already made your statement and evaluated it to some extent. addressed some of the reasons why your statement is true. ideally, every statement you make should be backed up by an evaluation and a critical comment. the critical comment can either be your comment on how these functions work in practice or what other people have said, or other reviewers (in this case you can quote them but remember to reference them and give them credit).
a critical comment in this case can be how well you thought the automation tools worked. did you feel it was awkward to use? unnecessarily difficult? did you feel that the fruity help file didnt explain this in depth enough? did you feel that another sequencer such as reason or cubase had a more logical way of setting this out? overall did you thing this was a strong point for purchasing fruity?
see what i mean about being able to expand what you have said to about 5 times its length? the logic behind this method is that someone reading your review should not be confused or have to say 'well why is that?' or 'whats a VSTi? why do i need this? reason doesnt have it.' also if you quote from a sound on sound review and share opinions of fl studio and how it works that makes your review more authoritative because hey, a professional publication shares the same views that you do about this product. the person reading it will think, well lots of reputable journalists agree with this guy and hes written the review well and covered all the angles and just taken the time to redraft it and explain everything in depth. thats what makes a quality review and it'll make it very difficult for other people to criticise if you explain everything in a clear and concise way, with good grammar and good spelling. if i were to see loads of spelling mistakes i would think, well this guy obviously hasnt even bothered to even spellcheck his review. whats to say hes bothered to get critical feedback from anyone? or bothered to accurately quote from another source? or bothered to even try out some of these features in fl studio to know how they work? how do i know this guy knows enough of what hes writing about to accurately put it in words?
as another example you make another statement here
| quote: | | FL Studio can also allow VST and DirectX plug-ins, which makes the program even more powerful than it is |
but you dont evaluate it. you dont say what VSTis can be used for. you dont say what they are and how this is a possible plus over using fruity's most common market rival, propellorhead reason which is a closed platform. you dont offer any of your critical or personal experience to mention how fruity's internal synths compare to some popular VSTi's on the market.
i suspect that many people reading an fl studio review will want to know how it sizes up against reason and the more information you can provide the better. the more authoritative and complete your assessment of fruity is, the more help it will be to a prospective buyer and the more useful your review will be as a review guide to fl studio and how well it stands up against other sequencers.
another thing you can mention is price point, because fruity costs much less than reason but is fully featured enough to compete on nearly the same level. fruity's internal synths like 3xOsc however do not match up reason's internal synths like subtractor, and you can say why this is - no filter on the 3xosc, a course, tinny and empty kind of sound as a result whereas subtractor is more fully featured. you could also say how fruity's VSTi support goes some way to remedy this, especially with the likes of vanguard or discovery or oddity. fruity producer edition + the cost of any one of those synths is still alot less than the price of reason which is a very big plus as all of those VSTi's are very versatile instruments. you ca also say how much more fully featured fruity is when compared to dance eJay and how deceptive the price tag is. just a peak on generoproject.com will show you the kind of professional sound you can get out of fruity even though it has earned a reputation with reason (quite unfairly) as an 'entry level professional audio' product, second fiddle to the likes of logic and cubase.
if you always remember S.E.C.C. for EVERY statement you make and you spell check it afterwards, you provide evidence when you make statements and you give critical commentary to back up what you have said then your essays/review will be watertight. the best essays/reviews are the ones like this, that are informative, easy to read, where every question you could have is answered. basically if you can do this, you can do an english degree no problem.
also, critical feedback is a good way to make your review better. redrafting is a necessary stage in every form of critical writing. if you redraft your review id be happy to proof read it for you and offer more feedback - i kind of do this for alot of people in uni anyway so its become second nature. my email is [email protected] so feel free to drop a draft into my inbox and ill get back to you when i can sit down and read it fully.
this process of redrafting can happen maybe 3 or 4 times but i guarantee you that at the end of it you'll have a cracking good review.
Last edited by Derivative on Sep-29-2004 at 19:22
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