Weekly Module Reviews for 04/28/97 (Long)
Boris
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The Weekly Module Reviews
for April 28, 1997
-----========================================-----
------------------------------==============------------------------------
=[ WMR News ]=
------------------------------==============------------------------------
We're back. Leaner and meaner, and more organized. We, as a team, had to
assess ourselves in order to put this project back on the right track.
Some fell by the wayside for various reasons, but I believe that the
product itself will be that much higher quality now that we've got our
eyes focused.
The reviews will undoubtedly be somewhat less numerous than before, but
there will be no fat to contend with. No more 3 line empty reviews, no
more reviews that bear little or no relationship to the ratings that come
along with them, and no more unfairly biased reviews with commensurately
biased ratings (although there still will be some reviews from those who
don't particularly care for the style of the module, but which are able to
judge fairly, and provide useful commentary, despite that).
Again, what we've been forced to give up in volume, we'll make up for in
quality and accuracy (however far such a thing can be taken in this purely
subjective arena).
-------------------------=========================------------------------
=[ Reviewer Roster News ]=
-------------------------=========================------------------------
We've lost several reviewers, most of which fell into the category of
non-contributors. Some left due to time constraints, some left without a
wave goodbye. I won't name the names of those who have departed, but I
will note that we have seen a slow, but steady stream of new reviewer
applicants. Our hope is that everyone who has the generosity and interest
required to make the commitment of becoming a part of this team will be
able to stand behind that commitment. If not, they won't last long. If
they can, they'll know that every other member of the team can be
considered a peer with similar attitudes, responsibilities and goals. And
that is the only way this project can run smoothly, and be capable of
achieving the goals its designed to attain.
As a side note, I recently read an article in TraxWeekly, by Atlantic, and
in it he commented on various things which the WMR has been going through
as well. Namely, lack of actual participation on the part of many people
who had agreed to do so. His music team, called Aim Higher, has
apparently been being "cleaned up" similarly to our own project, by
stating flatly that if you're going to get involved, then you are required
to -be- involved. In a morbid sort of way, it's rather nice to see
someone else in the same boat, but nicer still to see that my feelings are
shared regarding the fact that the good of the project itself comes first,
and active participants aren't going to be allowed to be dragged down by
the unconcerned.
So good luck to Atlantic and his team; we know the feeling.
-----------------------============================-----------------------
=[ Composer Submission News ]=
-----------------------============================-----------------------
We have 17 modules awaiting reviewing which have been submitted directly
to us from the composers themselves. This means that many composers do
take us as seriously as we are now willing to take ourselves. Given the
nature of our resources, we can't guarantee speed, but we can guarantee
quality. You WILL get the feedback you've asked for, and we believe it
will be worth the wait, be the opinions collectively bad or good.
--------------------------======================--------------------------
=[ The WMR Wants You! ]=
--------------------------======================--------------------------
In the past I've put here what amounts to an Uncle Sam poster saying
"Uncle Boris wants you!" Well, I've decided instead to put the info up
front so that all of you can see exactly what it takes to create a WMR
reviewer.
Yes, we want you! But we only want you if you really feel within you the
ability to commit to a certain minimum of effort on a regular, ongoing
basis. You have to understand that you will be a part of a team which is
focused on a certain goal, a goal which is not the acquisition of
something, but the maintaining of something. We have the goal of quality
in hand, and we are determined to both maintain and advance it.
If you can write well, can put forth your well-considered opinions in
text, and have the fortitude to work up the required effort, then you're
the sort of person we're in need of. Although in a certain oblique way we
could be considered beggars, we're still going to be choosers as well.
You'll need to pass muster before you're accepted. This is what a
production corporation would call "quality assurance."
This is achieved through a process of doing a small set of preliminary
reviews which are then submitted to the Senior Review Group (SRG). The
SRG is a subset of our reviewers who have accepted the added
responsibility of evaluating the reviewing skills of all new reviewer
applicants to make certain that they exhibit certain talents which are
needed to maintain our admittedly highly placed quality standards.
Once accepted, you're considered a full team member and are then expected
to be willing to produce the reviews that are needed to help keep this
project moving forward. Weekly minimums and deadlines have been
re-adopted for reasons which I will not go into here. These two things
still remain easy to manage by any reviewer worth his or her salt. The
expectations are a minimum of 2 reviews per week, averaged over each 30
day period, with all 8 reviews given at each interval due within that
period. Barring special circumstances, the bottom line is that if a
reviewer can't manage even this small amount (only 1-2 hours or so per
week), it's better that they bow out.
The main reason for -needing- minimums and deadlines is for the sake of
being able to semi-reliably predict the flow of incoming reviews needed to
fill out our weekly Usenet posts. I want to make certain that the fiasco
of the last several weeks is never repeated. And if that means stripping
off reviewers who either can't or won't fulfil even a minimal commitment,
then that's exactly what will be done.
If you think you've got the knack and the wherewithall to stick with it,
pay a visit to the New Reviewer Questionairre page on the WMR website, at:
http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/WMR/wmr-q.html. There's plenty of
information there to get you completely up to speed on what this project
is all about, as well as a forms section to submit relevant info.
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/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
----------------------------==================----------------------------
Besides the ratings and reviews contained in this Usenet posting, the WMR
website includes:
o Overall head-to-head rankings listing all modules thusfar reviewed
-- no updating yet, still bringing old reviews and ratings up to
speed with the recent balancing act
o A breakdown of all modules into styles, shown ranked within those
styles
-- ditto as noted above
o Current and past reviews containing download links for all modules
-- all links have been fixed to contend with Hornet's loss of the
module format directory sublevel
o Reviewer Top Ten page reflecting the best picks of those reviewers
that have racked up at least 50 reviews
-- these entries will be reevaluated once the back reviews/ratings
have been cleaned up
o A new reviewer questionairre and some Q&A regarding how this project
works
o A composer submission page
http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/WMR/wmr-index.html
----------------------------==================----------------------------
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
----------------------------==================----------------------------
On with the show!
Below you'll find this week's overall rankings, followed by all the
full reviews for each module.
As an introductory note now that we're back in action under our new
procedural layout, I want to note that instead of the requirement of 10
reviews before publication, I've dropped it to 7. The reasoning behind
setting it at 10 was partly with regard to concerns of redundancy needed
for the way overall and style rankings are figured. Under the new style
prefs targeting scheme, this is far less a problem, and the need for a
larger number of ratings/reviews to get a fair assessment for the rankings
tables isn't needed.
-----================================================================-----
-----======================================================-----
-=[ Notes on the format of the reviews that follow ]=-
-----======================================================-----
The header of each module includes the following information in this
order: module title; byline (composer(s) and their group affiliations if
known; channels, format and playtime; filename as found on the site which
is used on the WMR web page, the archive's filesize, and the unpacked size
of the module itself.
Then there is a general indication of the style of the module. This can
be from one to three styles. The order of styles is significant in that
the first one noted is generally the predominant style, and so on.
Following this may by a short statement provided by the author which
capsulizes the module for the benefit of those who like to scan quickly
instead of (or before) reading the actual commentary reviews.
Following that is the list of reviewers that have reviewed each particular
module, and their 1-100 ratings indicating their overall impression of the
module, and in most cases, ratings on composition, technical aspects,
originality and samples (quality, usage, etc.). These are organized from
highest overall rating to lowest, and comply with the following general
common ratings scale:
/-------------------------------------------------------------------\
| 10 = terrible; nothing good about this one |
| 20 = very bad; almost all points are bad, but not extremely |
| bad; there might be a couple of minor points you can |
| praise |
| 30 = poor; most comments you can make are bad, but there |
| is a small number of weak plus points |
| 40 = fair; just this side of being average; the majority of |
| aspects are mediocre, with a marginal number of aspects |
| which are good |
| 50 = average; equal balance of good and bad aspects, not |
| necessarily in number, but rather in weight or |
| significance (for example, one really glaring problem |
| could offset the benefits of a number of other good |
| aspects) |
| 60 = above average; mainly fairly unspectacular, with many or |
| most of the good aspects being more noticeable than the |
| bad ones |
| 70 = good; several significantly good aspects, with few down |
| points |
| 80 = very good; most aspects are well done, with few if any |
| bad points, but in general, the good points are just |
| good and not great |
| 90 = excellent; virtually nothing to complain about |
\-------------------------------------------------------------------/
The symbols tagged to the right of each overall rating is in indication of
the particular leaning of that reviewer towards the style of the module
being rated. A "+" means the reviewer generally likes the sort of music
represented by the module, a "-" means the opposite, and a "=" means they
didn't really have much of a leaning one way or another with regard to the
style. Bear in mind that this doesn't necessarily have any connection to
the overall rating (a bad example of jazz reviewed by someone who likes
jazz is still going to receive a low overall score).
Lastly, and most importantly, come the actual commentary reviews. These
are ordered only by the size of the commentary. No further explanation
needed here.
-----================================================================-----
REVIEWS FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 28th, 1997
-----================================================================-----
-----========================================-----
-=[ This week's contributing reviewers ]=-
-----========================================-----
Reviewer # of Reviews
--------------------------------
Rebriffer 21
Mansooj 8
MING 8
CCerberus 7
DRift 6
Fanta C 5
FrizFry 4
Quasar 4
Klaws 4
PanDuh 4
Parallax 4
Zaigamor 4
JuiCe 3
Balistic 1
(count includes backlog reviews)
-----====================================-----
-=[ This week's overall rankings ]=-
-----====================================-----
(these are weighted statistical rankings)
No overall rankings this time for reasons stated earlier. Overall ranking
will resume when all older ratings are doublechecked, and everything is
recompiled.
Ranking (of 150) Overall No. of Reviews
| Title Composer Rating: (lo - hi) |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Ranger Song NightBeat 88.64 72 - 97 7
-- Jaunt WolfSong 87.07 61 - 96 7
-- Trance of Heaven DJKiKe 86.86 55 - 95 9
-- Extreme Existance FrizFry 71.95 48 - 85 9
-- Tuzie Virtual Reality Band 68.72 49 - 78 8
-- La Carta Multivac 68.25 38 - 79 8
-- The Return of the Braves Dead 64.75 49 - 80 7
-- The Bells Chris & the Clones 34.39 10 - 85 8
-----================================================================-----
"Extreme Existance"
by FrizFry
(12ch S3M, 04:29)
(extreme.zip [183K/307K])
[Metal]
"This is the first song I have done in over 2 years! The last tune I did
before this was done with MODEDIT 2.0! That tells you how long it's been!
My main influence is probably BETRAYER (another METAL MOD writer....the
BEST around!). I listen to a wide variety of music...but I can only seem
to write metal (probably because it's easy?!?)." [Frizzlefried]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
CCerberus 85+ 74 70 80 82
PanDuh 78+ 76 80 75 76
Mansooj 74+ 65 -- 63 75
Rebriffer 68- 65 50 60 50
Klaws 67- -- -- -- 70
JuiCe 61= 54 68 -- 53
MING 60= 55 75 70 70
DRift 58- -- -- -- --
Parallax 48+ 65 20 60 50
--------------========[ Mansooj ]========--------------
Yes, folks, metal...metal through and through. It's better than most I've
heard in this genre, but I haven't sought out those metal gems, so my
opinions might not be directly relevant to tracked metal; but I'm givin'em
anyway, so there.
To this module's credit, there were no whiny guitar leads! Yay! That is
probably the number one cause of metal-module-self-destruction, IMO.
However, instead of replacing crappy lead guitar samples with good lead
guitar samples, there's no real lead at all here. Well, I suppose it
depends on what you're looking for in a lead...what some might consider a
lead here is what I'd consider a rhythm lead. In other words, if it were
extracted and played alone, it wouldn't exhibit much melody or actual
musical line of its own. Anyway, the guitars are used pretty well here;
lots of powerchords and deep strumming as with all tracked metal, and as
such, there's nothing really unusual here.
The main failure in this module is that each phrase is repeated several
times in an apparent attempt to extend the playtime without any real need
to put forth extra effort. This inevitably leads it down several short
paths of monotony. However, there still remains enough in here to keep it
poking along. A much needed change of direction begins at the 3:00 mark,
led in by one of those stock haughty laughter samples. In reality, this
bit, which comprises the endpart, is really more of a veering off the main
course than a true change of direction. As it came in I was all set for a
nice fast rideout, but it didn't happen. The tempo did increase some, but
not enough to really accomplish anything. And then to the endpart we
come--a copout of saddening proportion. Nothing more than a continuation
of looped patterns that smack unceremoniously into a brick wall. Even a
simple fadeout would have been better, not to mention almost as easy.
This all boils down to a kind of compromise. Since metal modules are
presumably harder to fashion than other genres (if the average quality of
such is a fair indicator), I would have to say that this is a pretty darn
good example, despite its faults. It ain't Megadeth or Armored Saint, but
it's worthy of a download by any metalhead-computergeek into tracked
music.
-------------========[ Parallax ]========--------------
Oh man. Playing the same sample at the same frequency and at the same
tick twice, and even three times, is a bad idea unless you offset or delay
it. The resulting bad effect of this might be muted with a cheap sound
card, but it really sounds bad with a better one (i.e. the GUS family,
which is still the de facto standard on the PC for use with tracked
music). Therefore, the drum part is a total loss, which is quite
unfortunate since the tune itself is nice.
Add some "WRAHH-WWREUHH-WRAHH" to this song (in other words, a guy
screaming his head off with lyrics nobody can understand) and you'll have
the usual White Zombie stuff. The only problem, though, is that such
songs are quite dull without these lyrics. The one voice you'll hear in
this song is not enough.
The distorted guitar is acceptable, at the beginning, but it gets a little
too annoying as the song advances, and it also becomes quite repetitive.
The samples are well chosen, and even if there are only a few, it's
enough, since you wouldn't expect more instruments from a hard rock song.
The song gets a little better after many, many patterns, but there's still
too much repetition. It ends abruptly, leaving me to think that FrizFry
had had enough of it, just as I did. I'd make a serious rewrite, since
there are elements in the composition which are really good. I'd omit
half the song, and redo the percussions which sound simply lousy. It's
too bad to see nice material get ruined by repetition and novice tracking
techniques.
---------------========[ JuiCe ]========---------------
When this one started, I thought "Oh no, another perfectly good heavy
metal module ruined by weak, unrealistic guitar samples," and I was, more
or less, right.
The riffs are skillfully composed, and sequenced, but the power chord
sample just sounds too unrealistic when it is more than a few semitones
from it's original pitch. Since this is the case with 99% of the metal
mods out there I took it for granted and listened on. A few minutes into
the song I noticed how repetitive it was. It seemed like the same riff
over and over and over again. Admitedly it has a lot of variation in
terms of dynamics, and rhythm, but it is still basically 4 bars constantly
repeated, crying for a lead on top.
Just when I was about to eject the song from my module player, the
breakdown kicked in, followed by a change in tempo and a different riff.
After a few patterns finally the lead kicked in as well. This second part
is much better than the first, because the second riff is sequenced in a
way that hides the poor quality of the guitar samples, and the lead is
there to keep it from sounding repetitive like the first part. Since the
second part more or less saves the tune, it's a shame that there's not
more of it, and less of the repetitive first part.
Although this still isn't what I'd expect a good metal mod to be, it is
much better than many others I have heard, so people who like to hear a
metal mod shouldn't miss it.
------------========[ Rebriffer ]========--------------
Another example of a fast growing genre, yet more 'death metal' a la
Zackman0/Ryan/Betrayer. Lots of interest in this subject on absm but I
gotta be upfront and state that this is not a style I like a lot. I have
been known to headbang to some of the better examples of the style but
not, I'm afraid, to this particular track
OK, so this is a decent attempt at the style but it tends to get tedious,
and isn't as impressive when compared to some of the composer's
stablemates such as Ryan or Betrayer, whom I do like. The Betrayer kick
drum tends to overshadow what's going on which is a bit offputting as
it's, to be kind, a bit 'ploddy'. The lead, when it happens, sounds very
high compared to the solid backing, and only happening once may very well
be it's saving grace. Leads, by their very nature, have to be
*convincing* and have the *power* of that conviction otherwise it's just
an aural frill, as it is in this track.
Making a tune mostly of chords is OK, but it could have been a tad more
adventurous--maybe it's just the style the composer wanted, but I don't
personally care for it. By the way, having the track just kinda stop at
the end also shows lack of experience. There are many composers who spend
*weeks* worrying over intro and outro, and some would claim that the only
*really* important part of the track is the first 20 seconds--I tend to
agree with that.
-------------========[ CCerberus ]========-------------
YES! A well-written death metal song by FrizFry. This song is clearly
influenced by metal tracking master "Betrayer," using many similar
techniques without sounding unoriginal. I am a huge fan of death metal
anyway, so it was not difficult for this song to please me. I'll let it
slide that the word "existence" is misspelled in the title. :)
Sample-wise, this is really great. The distorted guitars are actually some
of the best I've ever heard. I'll be ripping them all, of course. :) The
percussion was also intelligently arranged.
I have only two complaints. One is that there was no use of panning
whatsoever, other than to center all of the channels. Now, that's not
inherently a bad thing, but I believe that with all of the tom rolls and
killer guitar orchestration in this song, a lot of cool use could have been
made of panning. My other complaint is that the hihat was
under-emphasized. Traditionally, in heavy metal, the hihat is quite
audible. In this song, I could barely hear it, and many portions of the
song seemed to not have any hihat at all, even though it sounded like it
SHOULD have been there.
Those minor complaints aside, this is fantastic. I'm keeping it for sure.
---------------========[ MING ]========----------------
Ok, some real headbanging, fat, juicy metal. When reviewing metal mods, a
few things must be taken into consideration. First, it will never ever
sound like the real thing. No way. It just won't happen. Second, for
some strange reason, the compositions tend to lean towards plain boredom.
Not often very melodic or with any innovative and "catchy" rhythms, which
makes good metal in this particular style stand out. Third, there are no
sound effects or atmospheric sounds whatsoever.
All those criteria fit perfectly into Extreme Existance. It is, after
noting that it is, in general, a well composed and overall good piece of
music, quite dull and repetitive. It isn't a echo of what it would sound
like on a stage. The strength of this tune is the drums. They are very
realistic and well arranged, and they show a lot of variation, which,
unfortunately, the song itself lacks. For a start, the same riff is
repeated for far too long, only to be replaced with another that repeats
all the same.
Summing, this is a metal tune. I can't even judge Good or Bad, because it
is neither. It is well done, but it just doesn't give me any kicks.
--------------========[ PanDuh ]========---------------
It's always cool when I come across a good thrash/heavy metal mod, because
it brings me back to the days of the head-bangin eighties. This module is
exactly that type of song, with the quick palm-muted chords and
double-bass drum beats. It's akin to some of the music from the likes of
Anthrax, Testament, Slayer, and Sepultura. You're not going to find any
major chords or interesting progressions in this module, just some good
ol' fashioned metal-ass-whuppin'.
FrizFry uses his distorted guitars quite well, and although he doesn't
manage to achieve the most realistic sound, it's probably the best you'll
get without recording looped samples of metal guitars outright.
On the downside, it could probably use a little more variety, even though
I realize that metal is a very repetitive style, this module doesn't have
vocals to break the monotony--a melody would have been nice. Also the
ending was a little too abrupt.
However, if you are a thrash metal fan or a former metal-head looking for
some nostalgia, pick this one up for some definite head-banging action.
---------------========[ DRift ]========---------------
If such a thing is possible, this song is very clean-sounding metal. The
samples are high quality, not fuzzy in the least, and the tempo is a
reasonable step down from the insane speeds of some other metal songs.
The instruments are standard; very low-pitched distorted guitars, drums,
and an occasional cymbal crash. All of this makes an excellent
*foundation* for a song. But, there's nothing more! It just repeats and
repeats and repeats. If I was a heavy metal fan, the small changes it
makes might be enough, but, well, I'm not. A lead guitar does eventually
come in, but it appears much too late in the song. Even with the guitar,
this mod feels empty.
---------------========[ Klaws ]========---------------
Use of channels is somewhat sloppy; he could have halved volumes rather
than doubling channels, as well as condensing the lead channels with the
bass plucking (or whatever it'd be called). Additionally, the solo at the
end is rather dissonant, but I think that may be expected with metal
music. And it doesn't end--it was obviously meant to be looped, but it
needs something to give it some sense of finality. Or maybe CUBIC needs
to have the feature that old WinModPro had--"Fade on repeat."
-----================================================================-----
"Trance of Heaven"
by DJKiKE of The Banner/DiSc
(24ch XM, 04:32)
(Dubu99.zip [357K/770K])
[Dance/Trance]
"Trance of Heaven is a trance song, with some kewl voices (a girl singing)
and fast rhythm. :D I hope you like it, many people have said that it's
my best tune. :)" [DjKiKe]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Rebriffer 95+ 85 80 95 85
CCerberus 91= 86 81 68 80
Mansooj 86+ 85 -- 74 86
MING 84+ 80 75 70 88
Quasar 80+ 75 80 75 75
PanDuh 80= 82 80 83 78
Parallax 79+ 80 80 75 80
DRift 76= -- -- -- --
JuiCe 55+ 81 56 -- 73
--------------========[ Mansooj ]========--------------
I fear I may lose some credibility, assuming I've managed to gain some, by
saying that I was piqued immediately by the rolling synth bit and the
accompanying warping synth note that serves as the initial lead-in to this
little gem. This is something that's not exactly unique, having been
heard in numerous tunes in various genres, but be that as it may, I like
it. I also liked the stuttering synth thingy that carries throughout most
of the tune. I find this instrument impossibly difficult to describe, but
I have heard something like it elsewhere.
As the song approaches the 1:30 mark, the bottom drops out and things
quiet down a bit at the advent of some lovely synths and falsetto
synth-voices, which at first sounded a bit starkly odd, but as the main
theme whipped itself back up and the voices began to harmonize, that
initial impression vanished completely. They took up a place somewhere in
the middle of the music, and blended in perfectly. And while on the
subject of the vocals used here, there's a "join the bass" sample stuck in
at a point just before things start taking off, and which would have been
better left on the editor's floor.
The pacing is very good here. The song moves along briskly and manages a
rather desperate feeling which I found quite engaging. Overall there's
quite a bit of internal variety in this piece, which is always a welcome
fact. Most of the various instruments and sub-melodies/riffs enter, then
fade away, then reenter, some doing so several times throughout the song.
I like this because it helps engender the feeling that there's a lot going
on within the music. It's also a good trick even when you're being
conservative with the instrument palette, because as long as you're not
boring the listener between appearances, the instruments can often come
off as a new sound, because the listener has basically forgotten about it
and is instead concentrating on each new bit that comes along.
Obviously I like this one, but on several levels. It's a good dancy type
of tune, but one that's not really a danceable tune (or maybe it is, I'm
not a clubber); but it also has elements of spacemusic and even some
techno. I'm really not sure I caught the trance part, but it didn't
matter. The various sub-melodies were universally well done and added
greatly to the sense of motion and purpose. The sample set was clean and
nicely varied, as well as being perfectly suited to tell this story.
Well, there's not much point in continuing along this line--it should be
obvious by now that I recommend this one quite highly. Don't miss it.
DjKiKe is a quality act, if this tune is a fair indicator.
-------------========[ Parallax ]========--------------
This one caught my eyes, or rather my ears, at the first pattern. Finally,
a song which respects my headhones by not indulging in extreme
over-panning.
Normally I don't like songs with the word "trance" in their titles, and
stay away from them, but I don't consider this one to be trance. I'd
rather call it soft techno. Either that, or I've never heard good trance
before. Although this is also not a dance song, it could compete with
Robert Miles' Children, which appeared almost a year ago with its
futuristic style, and which has been number 1 for a while. Hell, I'd try
to play it out on a student radio to see how it's received, but regardless
of the results of that, I think it's really good and worth downloading.
Too bad it's so short at only 17 patterns.
The samples used are mainly somewhat techno-style, a few of which have
been heard elsewhere, such as the orchestra strings. Overall, they're
crisp, some being 16-bit, however, not all of them really needed to be;
16-bit with hihats, and such, is not really useful. Another example of
recognizable samples would be the first voice heard, which appeared long
ago in a good ol' module called Tekhaus. The other sampled lyrics, though,
are killer. They give an Enigma-like ambience, but the Gregorian priests
are replaced by a girl which sounds much like Lorena McKennit. For those
who do not know her, she made a few albums as well as a song for the movie
Jade. She has a very special voice when she sings; I could almost
consider her songs as a mix of opera and pop. Anyway, back to those
lyrics: I don't think they're in Spanish, the tongue of the author; they
look Scandinavian; either way, they sure as hell add something creative in
this song.
This module isn't a notable achievement, technically, since effects could
have been used a little more. However, the song itself does appear to be
well tracked.
------------========[ Rebriffer ]========--------------
Now, one of my personal favorites--DJKiKE. I've recently downloaded and
been listening to The One (his 100th tune), and I much prefer that track,
but this is a great example of the work of this increasingly creative
composer. He tends to focus on rave/trance, but he does it very well
indeed. Matter of fact, almost any one of his tracks are worth checking
out.
I have a suspicion that if you hear this track you will probably end up
liking it a lot, it definitely has hooks by the thousand--a great example
of making a commercially viable MOD track. The highlight of the track for
me, though, was the female vocal, which was recorded by the DJ himself.
Although it gets a bit repetitive it does work and is a good showcase for
how vocals can be fully integrated in MODs.
The arpeggiated sections work particularly well which is surprising as DJK
seems to use hardly any coding, most of the work being done in FT's
instument editor. It's good to see people using other features of FT2
besides the endless coding we're all so used to; the instrument editor is
a particularly underused facility. Top marks, and if this had been
The One it would have scored every which way.
---------------========[ MING ]========----------------
I don't know if I really should review this. Kike is a personal buddy and
fellow group member of mine, and I might have a too subjective view on
this. But since I never have claimed to be anything but totally
subjective I think I'll give it a shot anyway. :)
I don't think I've encountered any modmaker so totally unrestrained by
personal doubts, or unsure of what he wants to do, as DjKike. This
results in merry dance and trance-pop-techno tunes, often with vocals and
heavenly pads, all of very high quality. Tunes with even more commercial
tendencies than commercial tunes normally have.
Trance of Heaven is just like that; a mix of standard strings, standard
techno synthies, standard rhythms and some angelic vocals. Lots of
standard there, but that doesn't make it less interesting. Or rather,
less entertaining. Because it is not originality that gives this song top
scores, but the sheer easiness and joy of making music the composer wants
to share with us.
Technically, it leaves little to be wished. Maybe a bit more practicing
on dynamics and mixing, but far from anything that would waste the good
first impression and lower the score.
-------------========[ CCerberus ]========-------------
Some of you may not believe this :) but there was a time when I absolutely
COULD NOT STAND dance music. Songs like this one have gone a long way
towards changing my mind on that topic, and shining examples of what I
like, such as this song, continue to pull me....
I really have NOTHING to complain about in this song, so I'll just go over
some of the outstanding points. Masterful use of panning is evident here.
All too often, people who are using the XM format seem to get a little bit
"pan happy," creating an irritating effect. Here, it was beautiful. The
panning actually served to enhance the realism and "roundness" of the
song's sound. The samples are magnificent. I ripped tons of them. :)
By far the MOST impressive aspect of this song, though, is the composer's
expert-level skill at playing samples in a large number of channels without
the sound becoming "cluttered" or just too much. THAT is something which
is extremely hard to do, and I have to admit I was flat out AMAZED to see
that at one point I think all 24 channels were fired up. !!! That is
skill, my friends, and this guy has it. This song deserves your download.
---------------========[ JuiCe ]========---------------
This commercial fast trance mod's composition is almost a textbook example
of trance music, featuring all the trance cliches like long snare rolls,
gated strings, the resonant bass which hits between two bassdrum hits,
etc.
The tune itself is not bad, but this sort of thing has been done over and
over and over again, and this tune doesn't have much to make it stand out
from the rest. It's like one of those songs you'd have a great time
dancing at a party/club, but you wouldn't remember it later.
One of the plusses for this song is the rather unusual vocal sample, with
a slight ethnic flavour, which fits rather well with the song, especially
in the "I-wanna-see-you-throw-your-hands-in-the-air" bit in the middle
(i.e. the breakdown).
The downer (except lack of originality) is the poor tuning on the gated
string sample, and that is quite a big flaw since it is supposed to carry
the tune in quite a few places.
Anyway, the good and bad points more or less balance out, making this a
conspicuously average song. Not really good or bad. Just average.
---------------========[ DRift ]========---------------
"Show 'em the baze"? "Join my silent you'll need that"? I guess the
vocals must be in Spanish. :) The main melody is electric pulses; high
energy, fast, loud, sharp, and intense. The vocals, as well as some quiet
strings, are very smooth sounding. The contrast this creates gives this
song a tangible texture; I'd like to see this done more often.
The melody combines the many different instruments pretty well. The song
seems to flow in and out within each measure. It is a little bit
repetitive, but *some* part of the melody is always changing. The only
real problem is that the high electric sounds are too loud and sometimes
disrupt the flow. Overall this is a pretty good song with some very
refreshing techniques.
--------------========[ Quasar ]========---------------
What can be first said about Trance of Heaven is that it is perfectly
named. DJKiKE's latest is a very fast paced composition with elements of
trance, techno, rave, but also has an etherial, even heavenly, air. The
deep bass and high wistful vocals present a unique contrast that adds much
to the module. Trance of Heaven features an outstanding and original bass
and percussion line, clear heavenly vocals, and a refreshing arrangement
that keeps this module from being "just another" trance/rave/space/techno
(take your pick) module.
--------------========[ PanDuh ]========---------------
It uses an arpeggio intro and breaks into a syncopatic melody followed by
what is actually an ethereal, Celtic-sounding vocal part.
DJKiKe uses these vocals effectively, preventing it from sounding cheesy
like in some other mods (although the "join the bass" voice in the
beginning is a little dorky).
Not a bad module at all, it's even pretty original, so pick it up for some
truly "heavenly" sounding voice samples and a good bouncy beat.
-----================================================================-----
"La Carta"
by Multivac
(14ch XM, 03:10)
(lacarta.zip [168K/320K])
[Soft Rock/Ballad/Hard Rock]
"La Carta" is the first song I've released to the public. It came to me
one night as I was lying in bed, and I was able to translate it into the
computer without too much effort. It has two different parts: the first
one is a normal guitar / piano slow piece which eventually breaks into a
hard rock segment, and later goes back to the softer part to finish off
the song. Maybe not an outstanding tune but good if you like these
styles!" [Multivac]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Klaws 79+ 70 75 85 75
Zaigamor 73+ 72 70 75 78
CCerberus 71+ 63 58 70 60
MING 65= 65 65 50 70
Rebriffer 60- 75 60 70 70
Quasar 57= 60 40 70 75
Mansooj 57= 68 -- 60 65
DRift 38= -- -- 40 --
--------------========[ Mansooj ]========--------------
Given the title and the fact that this song is mainly a rock ballad, I
suspect this is yet another Dear John reaction in curly little musical
notes. For those unfamiliar with Spanish, La Carta roughly translates
into "The Letter."
The intro is a somewhat traditional brooding, emotional guitar and
haunting violin medley until the entrance of the percussion, synths and
piano. It reminded me of some of the ballads by a now ancient (given the
perceived accelerated time frame of commercial music) group, Kansas. This
part was nice. However, at the 1:30 mark, we are struck in the face by a
barrage of whiny, and I have to say, obnoxious, guitars screaming out a
fast-paced hard rock interlude. After only 30 seconds or so, this
invading bit blends back into what turns out to be the end sequence (so
we're at this point after only 2 minutes...) which sounds essentially the
same as the intro. In addition to the annoyance of that middle part, I'm
also left wondering what the point of it was. It certainly didn't seem to
lend anything to the song as a whole. It really seemed more like a spacer
than something intentional. Like it was there just to breach the gap
until the "real" musical core could be put in.
The three segments of this song, taken together, really don't amount to
too much. As noted, the intro and exit sequences are essentially the same,
and although they're quite nice, in my opinion, they simply aren't enough
to comprise a whole song (even with that middle section). They are, as
they ARE, just an intro and exit; the song is, as it IS, just an intro and
exit with a highly dubious hard rock snippet stuck in between.
I really think Multivac could've done a lot more with this song. The
replacement of the middle part with a real melodic section with some
character to it would have made this something worth listening to more
than once.
As a side note, the loop around at the end left at least a channel or two
playing a looped violin note which sloppily heads off into the beginning.
This is with HippoPlayer on the Amiga, so I won't count that against
Multivac, since it could be a problem with HP's interpretation, or lack
thereof, of certain XM commands.
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
This turns out to be a slow guitar based track, with some good guitar
samples, but to use a classic understatement, I found the high strings
just a bit shrill. Unless the composer was actually trying for a 70's
Mellotron string sound, I'd say it would have to go! Some of the bass
notes are definitely out of tune - the piano too on occasion. This would
suggest that the composer needs to spend a little more time and effort in
collating and tailoring the samples *first*.
I'm also not sure about the change to the rock mood, it's very jerky and
feels like it was stuck in there as an afterthought, as in "oh dear it
sounds a bit samey, better put in something different"--a ploy that can
often pay off, but not in this case. The main guitar leads are waaay too
high in this section, and tend to screech a bit. The actual reentry back
into the song is particularly predictable, which doesn't help to make this
track stand out.
Overall, this is a reasonably good effort, but one I cannot mark too
highly because of the obvious flaws in construction, sample choice and
composition. These are predictable flaws, and the curse of every would-be
tracker. I would advise Multivac to keep on composing on a regular basis,
as I can promise him that practice does indeed make perfect.
---------------========[ MING ]========----------------
First, a brief description: SoftRock...SoftPunk...SoftRock.
It starts like one of the thousands(?) of mellow guitar tunes the
mod-scene is buried to the ears in. And...well...it's not even a fine
specimen of its breed. It does have some nice melodies and sounds, but
it's much too simple in composition, construction and creativity to give
me anything but an urge to press the fast forward to see if it ever gets
to the point. Which it never does, by the way. Then in the middle of all
this, a punkrock-esque part is brutally inserted. The composition of it
is ok enough, I suppose, but the problem is that the composer would have
needed a shoehorn, or maybe a sledgehammer, to make it fit into -this-
song. And since those aren't available on Fast Tracker, that middle part
is hopelessly misplaced.
Samples and effects usage are fair enough, but the samples are maybe a bit
on the thin side for such a song. But with a little practice, I think
Multivac can produce some real hit tunes. If only he can manage to get
those tunes that are playing in his head down on tracks.
-------------========[ Zaigamor ]========--------------
The opening of this track by Multivac is very peaceful and atmospheric
making use of a very nice violin sample. The drum work in this part is
also good, and I mention this especially because the drums aren't usually
used very well in other ballads.
I found the piano melody a bit simple, just playing one note at a time.
You don't have to use multiple notes and chords for the piano, but it does
help to make the song much more lively, complex and interesting.
Halfway in, the song changes from a ballad to a metal style very abruptly,
without any warning. I couldn't really find a reason for this sudden
change, and the problem is that this metal part isn't half as good as the
ballad, so it doesn't really add anything to the track. The good thing is
that this metal part isn't all that long, and it eventually gradually
fades back into the ballad part.
This one is just one more nice ballad song, but it doesn't really stand
out in any way. I think Multivac can create a more interesting ballad
piece given some more time.
-------------========[ CCerberus ]========-------------
For the most part, this is conventional soft rock music, with all the
characteristic elements of that genre: the echoing acoustic guitar, the
crisp and realistic percussion, and the piano and strings in the
background. That portion of the song is nicely done, if not stunningly
creative.
However, in the middle of the song is a VERY unexpected and fairly amusing
attack of screaming guitar rock. Although I admire Multivac for having the
guts to throw this in his song, and therefore I gave him additional
originality points for it, I think his talent lies more in the soft rock
realm. The metal section is FAR too trebly, and quite unrealistic. Much
of the harmonic constructions in that section are...well...they're just
bad. With some better samples, maybe something better could have been
done. As it is, that section of the song actually brings down the rest of
it.
Other than that, there's nothing really new going on here. If you like
soft rock modules, you'll probably at least enjoy this one.
--------------========[ Quasar ]========---------------
La Carta is a slow, melodic module with a main keyboard melody backed with
a strong and resounding bass line. Multivac throws the listener a curve
midway through the module when he launches into a frantic, high-paced
interlude before gradually transitioning back to his original sequences.
La Carta has clear samples (especially a full, resounding bass), original
orchestration, and fine composition. However, the module is not
technically complex, and despite the aforementioned interlude, it lacks
variety in its patterns. La Carta isn't bad, but it just doesn't have
what it takes to be great.
--------------========[ DRift ]========----------------
This song is rather dull and plodding guitar and piano until 1:30, when it
unexpectedly explodes into dull, screeching speed metal. Mysteriously,
the fast metal part quickly drains away, and the original returns to
repeat until the end.
Some suggestions: there needs to be more of a transition between the slow
and fast parts. Simple volume fades are rarely good enough. I'm not sure
why the sound is so dull...some more variation within the individual
tracks would help. The technical problems are, in fact, small; I just
don't like the melody. Maybe it is just this particular style.
---------------========[ Klaws ]========---------------
I really like the introduction (first minute), but Multivac adds this
screeching guitar riff for about half a minute, which, to say the least,
is very distracting after the VERY mellow preceding part of the song.
Undoubtedly Multivac intended that, but it just doesn't jibe with me.
However, the song is very good, even though distortion guitars fail in
most tracked songs. A better way to describe that distortion guitar
interlude is "it knocked me out of my chair." The problem is, the rest
makes you go zzzzzz...
-----================================================================-----
"The Bells"
by Chris and the Clones
(8ch FTK, 01:42)
(thebells.zip [199K/425K])
[Experimental Jazz/Other]
"The Bells" is a tonally complex song using diverse elements combined with
a heavy beat. From the chants of African women to the bells of
Westminster it travels through space encountering jazz, metal, and
downright weirdness, while maintaining a melodic character throughout. For
those whose ears like a challenge! As with most anything I do...play it
loud! [Chris and the Clones]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Rebriffer 85+ 90 85 90 80
MING 60= 40 55 80 70
CCerberus 40- 31 30 72 65
DRift 30- -- -- 80 --
Quasar 18= 5 10 35 5
Mansooj 17- 5 -- 80 70
Zaigamor 10= 10 10 10 10
Klaws 10- 50 50 -- 75
-------------========[ Zaigamor ]========--------------
When you first start tracking, it is hard to do decently. Especially if
you have little knowledge of music theory, and no experience in the
techniques of tracking. It takes a lot of time and patience to create
something in a tracker that other people will find worthy enough to listen
to. There are only a few talented trackers whose first tunes were good,
but these are exceptions. Usually, the only thing you can do as a novice
tracker is to practice a lot, and eventually, after having made a lot of
horrible music, you will make a module that other people will enjoy
listening to.
It is a pity that there are always novice trackers who release a tune too
early, and this particular tune is an example of that. This track is just
not good enough for the ears of the general public. It shows a lack of
tracking skills, such as sensible use of effects or volume settings. The
composer made no effort to create an atmosphere, to highlight various
melodies or to make the track sound as smooth as it could have been.
There was hardly any sign of musical knowledge either. The notes were
placed seemingly at random, forming no structured melody, chord
progression or anything else music needs in order to be enjoyed. What is
left is cacophonous anti-music or, to put in more popular words, crap.
Also, after listening to this track a couple of times, I still haven't any
idea what style of music this track is supposed to be an example of; and
the mushy old samples don't offer any help towards an answer either. The
WMR considers this tune a progressive jazz, but I think that that name is
given much to easily to music that doesn't fall within the borders of
today's music theory. Of course, progressive jazz is experimental and not
always easy to listen to, but that doesn't mean that any music that is
'different' also is progressive jazz. This tune is not progressive jazz,
it is crap. [Either way, it is represented as Fusion-Contemporary Jazz,
not Progressive Jazz, for whatever that's worth. -Boris]
--------------========[ Mansooj ]========--------------
Hehe, I feel for Boris in these cases, because as this is labeled as
experimental jazz, it may be the best he can do beyond calling a spade a
spade and labelling it as pure cacophonous noise. The best thing about it
is that it's mercifully short at only 1:40 or so. Intrigued? Morbid
curiosity niggling at the edges of your brain? Read on....
I'm all for experimentation and the efforts of composers to strike out in
completely new directions (If I weren't, I would have gladly skipped this
review entirely), but there's a point at which a person can't really
expect to get away on the grounds of the old "Modern Art" dilemma where
the artist claims more depth than their artistic inability really shows;
maintaining the hope that others will invest their work with some
perceptual value only a certain elite few can really appreciate.
As with modern art, I just don't see it. To me it's noise, unstructured
and unworthy of much, if any, praise from this quarter. It actually
sounds more like a war between three or four independently weird songs.
The warped bells of a gothic horror or Halloween type song are there, as
the title might imply; so are random saxes, some odd synthesized organ
noises, percussion with twenty-five legs all struggling to go in different
directions, some heavy metal or gothic guitars, and a plethora of other
random sounds forming a collage without form or apparent intent.
To this I give a shrug, a shake of the head, and a great big, "whatever."
Still, it gets big points for originality, which it justly deserves.
However, there remains the question of whether or not a recording of
someone slamming a dead cat against empty aluminum trashcans filled with
lime jello, would be worthy of the same recognition....
---------------========[ MING ]========----------------
Ever had one of those nights, when you wake up with your head on the
foot-side of the bed, dizzy, sweaty, and with that nauseous, "I'm gonna
throw up!" feeling? Remember the feverish dream you just had? The one
where more and more surrealistic things kept showing up, where people,
cars and animals were howling at you, where your feet were stuck in the
mud, and at the same time you're late for your flight, which leaves in
five minutes?
The Bells is the soundtrack for that dream.
It's a chaos of totally freaked out little melodies, massive, false chords
and insane voices. Sometimes it's like C&C just randomly fill the
patterns with notes, and sometimes it's not quite that cacophonic, but
still on the edge of total meltdown. It's actually quite refreshing, and
worth listening to.
But only once, maybe twice, or your brain will start to do strange things
all by itself. You'll begin to see tiny, blue elephants in your drawers
and small imps in your drinks, and hear funny voices in your head telling
you to do the weirdest things. You get the picture.
------------========[ Rebriffer ]========--------------
C&TC are also lurkers on absm and have been releasing tracks there for a
while, some of which I've liked--even! This track, to my ears anyway,
could have been a Frank Zappa track in another incarnation, so close does
it come to that frantic 'Zappa' trademark cacophony. I am not in any way
a complete Zappa fan, but I can't help but admire his innovation and sheer
musical perversity; I can say the same of this track.
However, one thing spoils my enjoyment of this track completely. Dear
C&C, at 1:39 this is waaaayyy too short!!! Tack on another 4-5 minutes of
this kind of material and you could make a reviewer froth at the
ears...wouldn't you like to do that so you can tell your grandchildren one
day about the frothy eared reviewer you once knew...coooommmeee on, don't
be cruel ....
Innovation with a capital YEEAAHH!
-------------========[ CCerberus ]========-------------
This is a difficult song to comment on, primarily because of its high SQ
(Strangeness Quotient). It's hard to say whether the bizarre sound of this
song is due to lack of skill on the part of the composers, or if it was
intentional. I tend to give musicians the benefit of the doubt, so I will
assume the sound was intentional.
This song reminded me a great deal of another song which the WMR has
reviewed, called Cacaphonium. It's just short of sounding like random
notes at times, but there is a very SLIGHT wisp of orchestration under
there. For the most part, this annoys the crap out of me. However, if you
like the sort of music where harmony and melody are more "hinted at" than
obvious, you might like this.
I will close by saying that although I am a very open-minded music listener
and reviewer, I cannot understand how somebody could find this music
pleasant to hear over and over.
--------------========[ Quasar ]========---------------
The Bells is an unorthodox style of module, and can best be described as
an assault upon the listener by as much sound as possible. There is
little rhyme or reason to the cacophony presented in this module, and it
can only generously be called music. The melody or theme is only slightly
discernible amid the vastly over-sampled instruments and voices, and while
there are, as the name suggests, bells in the module, the listener may be
hard-pressed to distinguish them. The Bells is a failed experiment, but
it is anyone's guess as to what hypothesis was being tested. Chalk this
one up to experience and move on.
--------------========[ DRift ]========----------------
How shall I describe this...hmm...mental images.... Picture the
Chipmunks, possessed by demons, gleefully destroying an expensive
synthesizer. Need I say anything more? =) The song IS worth a laugh,
which is the main reason I can give it thirty points overall instead of
two. Oh yes, bells can be heard at one point, so the title is not
completely unrelated. This song is really, really bad, but in an amusing
way.
I notice this was a direct composer submission. I'm sure it wasn't meant
to be taken seriously....
---------------========[ Klaws ]========---------------
What on earth was this guy thinking when he wrote a song running at 1@7D?
It's so fast that he either wanted really HIGH accuracy... or it was a
conversion of a MIDI.
Describing this song as bizarre is too kind. He makes no effort to
maintain a theme (it's very ecclectic), no solos, no harmony, and discord
abounds--just a single drumbeat offers any kind of continuity. The end
result is a track utterly repugnant to me.
-----================================================================-----
"Ranger Song"
by Nightbeat of Digital Disaster
(12ch S3M, 04:27)
(nb-rangr.zip [247K/335K])
[Soft Rock/New Age/Fantasy]
"This song came to me when I was creating a Ranger character for an RPG.
Picture a road, one that goes all the way to the far horizon...with
adventure waiting at the end. That's something like what I had in mind.
The song made 10th place at multi-channel compo at Compusphere VII, and
it's built on a simple flute melody backed up by acoustic guitars."
[Nightbeat]
! Placed 10th at Compusphere VII music compo !
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Quasar 97+ 99 95 95 99
Rebriffer 90- 80 85 75 70
MING 88+ 90 75 80 75
Klaws 84+ 80 72 85 75
Mansooj 83+ 85 -- 77 88
DRift 83+ -- -- 50 --
Zaigamor 72+ 75 60 80 65
--------------========[ Mansooj ]========--------------
This tune manages to blend a sense of blissful relaxation with the airy,
in-motion feeling of skimming across sunlit fields, somewhere back in
time, in a more carefree day. And it's done creditably. It also bears a
mild flavor reminiscent of medieval folk minstrels, both in the tempo and
through the auspices of the flute accompaniments. (Oh, and see if you can
detect the melodic fragment ripped--knowingly or not--from the Battlestar
Galactica theme; the first occurance is about a minute in.)
Although other reviewers (to date, anyway) hadn't taken to Karsten Koch's
song, Endless Heaven, as I had, this song bears the same basic stamp in
that, in essence, it's a fairly monodimensional tune, free of much in the
way of tempo changes (there are some, though not to much of a degree),
instrument intros or exits and other such things I would normally consider
important. With both, there is a give and take between structural variety
and the "niceness" of the overall sound, and with both the overall sound
is so nice that the inherent dearth of variety is not really missed. Both
could benefit from a bit of expansion, but neither fall flat while doing
without.
There's nothing to complain about, as this is a nicely polished piece of
work. In general, there isn't anything that can qualify strongly as a
main instrument, with the flute and acoustic guitars sharing center stage
across a background of supporting instruments which are almost as loudly
played. In fact, this is a good place to mention that I thought the
guitar work was very nicely arranged--it had a very good "feel" to it; and
the supporting synths were expertly placed and shored up the edges of the
sound just as one would hope; furthermore I found the percussion to be
perfectly interwoven--it seemed more a part of the main line than
percussion normally is, and I think this played a big role in getting away
with a lack of overt variety. As for the instruments themselves,
Nightbeat didn't skimp here. There are 20+, all of which are of good
clear quality and skillfully chosen.
Summing up, this garners a definite recommendation to those who are
appreciative of nice melodies and pleasant sounds. A sharp piece of work;
very well done.
------------========[ Rebriffer ]========--------------
This is NB's 100th MOD if the track notes can be believed and boy can you
tell! Most of us composer/fans wade through so many different tracks in
the space of a week we quickly become experts in spotting the silk
whatnots amongst the pigs ears. The main reason this particular MOD gets
such fulsome praise from this reviewer isn't because of the music--to be
honest it's not my cuppa--but to hear an *artist* at work is always a
pleasure.
Nightbeat has been a fave of mine for awhile and I have a few of his
tracks, all of which always attain a certain very high standard. Ranger
Song is no exception to this rule--the coding is awesome, but where this
track really scores is in the amount of work that went into *each and
every sample*! See, this is what sorts out the snivelling brats from the
lager louts, such attention to detail is priceless and almost always a
result of literally thousands of hours of work on the part of the
composer.
Yeah, yeah yeah but wot about the music!....
The track starts much like it means to go on--a light classical style is
plainly evident throughout the track. A coupla bars of string noodling
finally brings us into the song proper while a beautiful flute sample
floats lazily about somewhere over our heads. The track finally gains
takeoff velocity with the introduction of a wonderfully clear and precise
acoustic guitar strum. A bit on the lightweight side, is what I wrote the
first time I heard the track and after repeated listening, it's still my
opinion. It doesn't stop the track from being a great listen though, so
grab it while ye may....
-------------========[ Zaigamor ]========--------------
The acoustic guitar, probably the most commonly used instrument in today's
music, is not very often heard in tracked modules. If there is any
acoustic guitar sample in a module, then it is most likely to be a
sampling of just one string, not a chord, but usually it is the strumming
of chords on a guitar that gives a song that specific folk or rock sound.
This track does use samples of guitar strums, and it uses those samples
well. These samples give the song a light and atmospheric rock mood, but
it is a pity that the guitars are pushed a bit too much to the background
when the other instruments come in to get the song going. It is a pity
because the guitar parts in this piece are original and well constructed,
and deserve to be more prominently placed in the foreground.
The guitar samples are good and clean, but some of the other samples are a
bit noisy. The loops set for the piano samples create some clicking,
which is a shame, because I think these loops weren't really necessary.
At least, the track sounded a bit better after I removed the loop
settings. Also, I found the drum samples sounding a bit flat. Doesn't
take away, even with these minor flaws, that this is quite an original
light rock track.
---------------========[ MING ]========----------------
The title of this song hints towards some kind of soundtrack to a heroic
tale of some sort. The song itself narrows that down to a fantasy tale
with elves, dragons and all the usual goodies. Strings, flute and
drumpace with a snare that could be heard leagues away. It allows you to
almost (note "almost") imagine well enough to look out your window onto
smooth green hills, majestic mountains in the distance and a herd of
unicorns down by a stream.
Anyway, I say "almost" since the production is too bland; something that
manages to break the illusion. The strings are a wee bit too artificial
and the drums sound like those drum machines that were used by bands like
Joy Division. (For those not knowing what the heck I talk about, I can
tell it sounds damn synthesised.) One interesting thing is the background
guitar samples, which are recorded acoustical chords, a great technique
too seldom used in modules.
So mainly, although they are not really bad, the samples are this tune's
weakness, along with some lack in technical aspects and a tendency towards
being repetitive. These are in no way weaknesses that overrule the
greatness of the composition, which is simply grandiose. It's just that I
felt I had to point out SOMETHING not so great in this otherwise delicate
piece. So I recommend you immediately download this, put it in your
favourite player and let it stay there for a looong time.
--------------========[ Quasar ]========---------------
In the arena of module composition, Nightbeat's is a name synonymous with
quality and excellence. Ranger Song continues Nightbeat's tradition of
excellence. The module features a slow, flowing melody backed with an
amazing guitar and bass line. The listener is presented with a smooth,
whimsical melody which continually evolves as the module progresses. No
words can do justice to the near perfection of this composition:
Nightbeat's samples are of the purest quality and are unmatched; his
composition is masterful and strikingly original; and his technical
prowess is unrivaled, and is employed so as to make each of the module's
samples indistinguishable from true instruments. You must not miss Ranger
Song, the best module yet this year.
--------------========[ DRift ]========----------------
A very nice wood flute softly brings in the opening. The rock guitar
comes in...and the music begins. The main melody in this song is one of
the best I've ever heard. It's carried up and down and around by the
flute. The tone is very upbeat, yet soft. The ranger the title refers to
must be in a warm, green forest at sunrise.
Now, the bad stuff (don't worry, there's not very much). The bass and
drum samples are bad quality--a minor thing, but noticeable. Second,
there's no ending. It is a little strange how composers always remember
to put in a beginning and a middle, but endings are left off so often.
Well, dammit, I think it's important! =) But back to the topic--this is
an excellent tune. Consume and enjoy.
---------------========[ Klaws ]========---------------
Very, very good! This song's style is almost my favorite type--almost
because it's a bit too cheerful--but otherwise, everything is great! Only
one thing I would change, if it were my song: I'd add some kind of final
note on the last order. It finishes on a note other than the tonic, so it
seems as if it should loop, but it doesn't. All it would take is one 'C'
chord (well...one C on instrument 3, 4, or 6) rather than a G#.
-----================================================================-----
"Tuzie"
by The Virtual Reality Band
(16ch XM, 03:50)
(vrb-tuz.zip [188K/208K])
[Pop/Jazz]
"Tuzie (rhymes with "Suzie") is a melody that's been bouncing around in my
head since around 1984. It's first presented by the clarinet with piano
accompaniment, then, after a solo section, given a big swing treatment,
but ending quietly. It's the Virtual Reality Band's first release."
[The Virtual Reality Band]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
PanDuh 78+ 76 76 80 57
Rebriffer 74+ 75 80 75 60
Mansooj 72= 75 -- 78 60
CCerberus 70+ 93 95 93 66
MING 58- 65 70 35 60
JuiCe 57- 85 55 -- 45
Parallax 49= 50 50 50 45
DRift 49= -- -- -- --
-------------========[ Mansooj ]========---------------
Tuzie doesn't waste any time getting into things. The lead in is a quick
percussion bit which falls into the main part, which itself comes off as a
crossbreed of very light French influence (I think you'd have to really
listen hard to detect this), and a sort of...sheesh...this is one of the
few modules I can't really find words to describe properly. I'll say at
least one thing in its favor here...it's unusual and climbs high on the
variety scale; although the basic style remains fairly constant
throughout.
Ok, the only real problem sticks its neck out very early on: the lead
instrument. A rather strange choice in that it's a kind of Casio-oid
synthetic sax/synth, which really stands out like a sore thumb against the
rest of the sample palette. The majority of samples, although not
extremely good, are pretty decent, but the lead is just completely off the
wall, and because it -is- the lead, we get to hear it a lot, and it
consequently detracts greatly from the overall potential of this tune.
In essence, it's a great shame because this is actually a pretty nifty bit
of tuneage which rambles around making use of a nice array of sounds going
through interesting compositional gymnastics. For example, there's some
nice horn-section work (although, I have to say that it was a bit thin
sounding at times), pleasant piano work, lively and varied percussion;
about halfway through there's some cool vibes and, subsequently, some
horns which lifted the song to a higher level. Shortly thereafter,
there's a tempo change ushered in by an interesting, if not inspired,
percussion segment, and then the outro of piano, synth and a smattering of
those vibes draws together the loose ends.
All told, the orchestration, the variety, and the clever use of a rather
small set of samples to yield a full range of sounds, implies some worthy
skills and musical sense behind the notes. Again, it's just a shame about
that lead synth...bleah.
Since this is the composer's first released effort, it can be safely
expected that there will be better things to come. More time taken with
the choice of lead instruments, and perhaps a bit of work on the
structural coherency (it seemed to ramble a little -too- much in places),
should pave the way for some quality stuff in the future.
-------------========[ CCerberus ]========-------------
I have some very mixed feelings about this song. Lots of times, I can
handle happy music, but this song sometimes was just a little bit TOO
happy...sickeningly sweet. I'm not sure I'm really clear on this "Virtual
Reality Band" business, but if I understand it correctly, a fairly large
group of people contributed to the writing of this song, which explains the
rather high degree of complexity evidenced by each individual instrument.
Unfortunately, the old saying "too many cooks spoil the broth" comes to
mind here. Each instrument is orchestrated with HIGH complexity in this
song, but it's just like with a real-life band--if everybody's trying to be
a "front man," then the whole thing just goes to mush. That's not ENTIRELY
the case here, but at times it does get a little silly. I mean, one of the
big advantages of writing in the module format is that the entire song
sounds exactly the way the composer wanted it to. He/she doesn't have to
deal with trying to get a band together, and trying to get them to all
learn their parts, etc. What we have HERE, though, is basically the same
as what you would get if you had about 8 people recording using real-world
instruments by just playing back the recording of what the other people
have played and adding to it. It doesn't tend to work very well. Like I
said, everybody starts playing a solo and the whole thing just goes to
mush.
But I'm sounding too harsh, I know. This song really isn't BAD. It's
actually pretty good. It's extraordinarily complex and uses a lot of
musical techniques that I love to see in modules, such as unusual time
signatures and intelligent percussion. There was a lot of really skillful
use of the effects available in the XM format, and overall I got an
impression that the musicians knew what they were doing.
It's a shame that panning wasn't used at all...that rather confused me,
considering the large number of instruments. Each could have been panned
to its own "on stage" position, and the effect would probably have been
pretty nice.
-------------========[ Parallax ]========--------------
This is a style you'll rarely see with tracked music: "MIDI" style. Let
me explain: the samples seem to have come straight from a cheap Casio
keyboard (but they sure are original, at least the guy must have sampled
them himself). The percussions follow a pattern which is inspired from
the usual pattern-in-ROM parts from any synthesizer. How many MIDs will
you download which will sound like this one?
It sounds just like a demo song that comes with a synth, and I mean it.
The composer sure has played with his keyboard a lot since this song has
some portamentos arranged so that they look a lot like a bender wheel
effect. But, besides that, I can't see the point of using an XM for this
song, since a MID would have been much easier to do, and would have
sounded better with a good General MIDI sound card.
The tune itself can be compared to one you'll hear in the credits of a
casual TV show. There are a few nice parts in the song, though, such as
the part at the end, when there's only piano, strings and a sad violin (or
is it a baritone?). This part should have been found at the beginning of
the song since it's not bad at all. With the current arrangement, many
people might just "tune out" before reaching it.
------------========[ Rebriffer ]========--------------
This is one of the most poppy sounding MODs I've ever come across, but
it's a great shame it doesn't quite deliver what it promises. There are
some very weird sounding samples sprinkled around the track, and I would
have thought the composer could have found better samples to work with.
The track itself meanders a bit more than you would expect, which doesn't
help to establish the track as it should. Because of the sample quality
there's quite a lot of 'crosstalk' between the leads, making the leadlines
appear busier than they actually are. A bit more attention to separating
these leads or using more harmonious sounds may have helped
There's a really familiar break based on something I definitely recognise
but can't put my finger on, and it'll probably keep me awake for days
trying to remember it. About the best sample in the track is a really
good vibe sound but that doesn't say a lot for the general choice of
samples. There's also a *very* strange drum breakdown at the very end,
which definitely sounds unfinished. Ultimately, this tries hard to be an
upbeat, bright track but it just doesnt quite make it.
--------------========[ PanDuh ]========---------------
At first listen, I thought this song sounded a lot like those old handheld
CASIO keyboard demo-songs; you know, where you press "rumba" and then
"start," and the keyboard churns out this little ditty in a particular
beat that sounded oh-so cheesy.
In actuality, the tune itself is not bad--it's just hampered by poor
samples. First of all, get rid of that hihat, it's too synthetic, and too
loud. The song becomes maybe 75% better without the hihats (I know,
because I tried listening to it with the "hihat channel" turned off).
Also, the clarinet sample needs to go--I've heard far better.
There was one part in the middle that really reminded me of the theme song
to Magnum, P.I., and although the cheesiness of it made me chuckle, I
don't think it was intended to be humorous (well, this song was originally
thought up in 1984, so I guess it would be appropriate, huh?).
Aside from all that, it's not bad for a first release, and I happen to
like the Queen-esque ending and how nicely it wrapped up the song. All in
all, I don't think this is a bad module, but something should really be
done about the samples.
---------------========[ JuiCe ]========---------------
This reminds me of those one-man-band dudes who do gigs on hotel terraces
on the seaside. Well, they do here in Croatia, dunno about other
countries. Anyway it is a cheesy lovesong type of thing. All sweet and
yucky and stuff. :]
Style prejudice aside, this could be a very good song, if it weren't for
the lead woodwind sample, which is so flat and unrealistic with -zero-
expression, and also hopelessly out of tune. And since it carries the
song throughout, it obscures any good thing about it.
And there are quite a few of those good things, namely the composition is
excellent, with smooth transitions and bridges, great arrangements and
melodies (although again, very cheesy - yuck. :]). It uses lots of
transitions and variation to avoid repetitiveness, but it manages not to
get annoying by doing this too often. Worth mentioning is the slowdown
near the end, which seems especially nice....
But the lead sample is so horrible all this nice work falls through. Even
though I don't care for this style, I'd have to say it's a shame because
this could probably be a really excellent representative of it.
---------------========[ MING ]========----------------
Hum-de-dum. What an extremely...nice song we've got here. It is quite
frightening how nice it can be. It's so nice it's almost offensive. A
bunch of crisp, but fearfully nice samples of real-life characters, like a
standard piano, standard drums, big band horn section, and in the middle
of all this, some chip as a melody carrier. All this is thrown into a
mixer to produce a sweet, pulpy mass close to--but not quite--muzak.
It is all, both in composition and technique, quite well done, well mixed,
and impressively complex, and retains correct backgrounds. This indicates
that there is some musical theory hiding behind the curtains, as well as
skill in using the tracker. Except for one thing that made the production
even flatter, and that is...no panning whatsoever. As if I would care.
I'm sure the song came out exactly as the composer intended, but I'm not
able to figure out why the composer intended to make a song as nice
(meaning inoffensive meaning uninteresting meaning boring) as this. Were
the intentions really the effect it had on me: in one ear and out the
other?
---------------========[ DRift ]========---------------
This song is very happy. Too happy, actually; it makes me think of some
ancient pop song. The melody is pretty good and simple, however, the
problem with it is that it has almost no pauses; when one section ends the
next picks up immediately. This was intentional, I can tell, but I still
found it annoying. The best part is in the middle, where a generic
instrument gets a solo, and jumps up and down the musical scale. The last
fourth, though, is an absolute disaster. The song loses all coherency; it
sounds almost like two different songs playing at once. I'd only
recommend this if you love the happy-jazz style.
-----================================================================-----
"Jaunt"
by WolfSong
(20ch XM, 02:49)
(wolf_jnt.zip [424K/722K])
[Fantasy/Rock]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
CCerberus 96+ 95 95 95 88
Mansooj 88+ 88 -- 83 80
PanDuh 85+ 85 86 84 77
MING 85- 88 95 60 75
FrizFry 84= 85 85 80 85
Rebriffer 80+ 85 75 80 70
Parallax 61+ 60 70 60 55
-------------========[ Mansooj ]========---------------
This is a very powerful, atmospheric tune with what I figure most people
may consider recognizable elements...so what...they're expertly tailored
into a fantastic fabric of sound. You can so teach an old dog new tricks;
you just have to turn the dog over to an expert handler.
A crash or two of thunder and the song's gorgeous intro starts rolling on
a set of synth rails towards the tune's tempered-rock heart. Powerful and
well-articulated percussion and bass drives the track forward; wrapped in
great tension-generating synths, this produces a kind of rock-techno feel.
This progression is interspersed at a couple points where the synths take
center stage and really dredge up a lot of atmosphere. The second of these
synth-points is actually an extended outro, making use of at least three
different synths, one of which is a sleek synth-voice that sounds just so
good in this mix.
As WolfSong says in his sampletexts, he ran out of time and had to rush
this song to get it into Music Contest 4. Well, if I could I would first
smack him on top of the head for his procrastination, and then beg for an
extended version, because the prolonged outro REALLY seems like it was
heading somewhere--obviously the fadeout was not the real hope for this
song's ending.
Besides the fact that the song was truncated and is too damn short (I HATE
when that happens! There are far too many crappy, but longer than
necessary tunes around, there's supposed to be balance in the universe--so
this one should be about an hour or so....;)), the only complaint is with
the looping of one of the samples in the intro section (the problem is a
very easy one to discern). Should have been cleaned up, but maybe it's
just another leftover from the rush job. Bad WolfSong, bad!
I've made a note and checked it twice, and it says, "FIND MORE WOLFSONG
STUFF!!"
---------------========[ MING ]========----------------
Rock'n'Roll demo dance tune in the same worn out tradition as folks like
Elwood and Purple Motion (who did loads of other more interesting stuff
too, but that's another story). What we're talking about here is dancepop
with oscillating strings in some cool dancepop way I've never understood,
rock-beat on high pitched drums and a light yelling guitar playing the
theme of some imagined cute platform game. Probably something semi-tough
like a kiddie superhero throwing water balloons at mutated bunny-rabbits
and collecting hamburgers (which probably had laid there out in the open
for days, blyeach). You get the picture.
This tune contains one speedier (kiddo in the theme park, throwing popcorn
at evil clowns) part, and one slower, more dark one (kiddo hunting the
wardrobe monsters with suction cup arrows), that gives the tune more
entertainment value and raises it from merely just another one of those
tunes to a one-of-the-better-of-that-style song.
Well produced, well mixed, well made and well chosen samples, and no
technical mistakes makes it, soundwise, leaves me with nothing to be
annoyed at.
Almost always there is something in a mod that I get highly annoyed by,
like a merely stupid theme, an illfitting sample or shitty drumming, but
there's nothing like that in Jaunt.
Not one thing to criticize, other than the basic style...but that's
WolfSong's aritistic freedom showing, I guess.
Good tune. Rock on.
-------------========[ Parallax ]========--------------
This song is some kind of Euro-techno, making use of a number of
recognizable samples such as the electric guitar (which I think was
created and popularized by Lizardking). Some of them, for example, the
bass and various other percussion, sound like 8KHz oldies, which lowered
my "samples" score, mainly because this song was released in late '96.
The composition isn't bad, but it isn't exactly original either. Although
the tune starts off very nicely, it steadily loses its beauty as the
patterns roll past. It's really too bad that half the samples are poor,
as good ones could have offered quite a facelift to the song as a whole.
Technically, effects are used enough, with occasional portamentos and
such, but the panning could have been done much better--especially with
regard to the percussion.
In conclusion, this is a song inspired by many other European songs which
became popular quite some time ago. I've always liked this style, but
having heard many such songs, I'd say simply that this one is neither the
best of the lot, nor the worst.
------------========[ Rebriffer ]========--------------
The bass and thunder samples in the intro of this track are a little
overdriven, tending to distort the beginning enormously. In fact, the
bass samples seem to play the same trick throughout the track which is a
real shame because this tune isn't half bad otherwise.
It's in Classic MOD stylee, loads of neat arpeggiating basslines, and
great moody and incredibly melodic leads coming from a lovely synth
sample. Very, very impressive track it would have been indeed if it
wasn't for the distortion--and it sounded distorted no matter how I
equalized it.
What is there though, is very good indeed, lots of twists and turns, and
those effective synth lead lines really make the track work. And right
there, at the very end what comes lumbering into view--yet another fade!!
OK, obviously I was wrong about the rarity of fades, alright. Do I go
hang myself now? [This bit is a reference to Reb's review of Anthem.
-Boris]
-------------========[ CCerberus ]========-------------
THIS, friends, is //musical genius// at work, there is no doubt in my mind!
Only extremely rarely do I hear a song that I love this much. You MUST
download this! If anybody reading this is a fan of the CCerberus taste in
music, :) then you will want to own this module. Go get it! Go! Come
back and read the review later!
What we have here is an absolutely perfect balance of 80's pop, modern
dance music, and "demo style" music ala Purple Motion. Screaming guitars
are overlaid on a thumping rhythm, with swirling synths providing harmonic
foundation and a raspy electronic bass kicking out the emotional thrust.
When I was listening to this, I was unsure whether to be bouncing around,
concentrating on the melody, or sitting back and relaxing, so I sorta did
all three! This is //masterful// music. BRILLIANT.
My words for WolfSong: YOU DA MAN!
--------------========[ FrizFry ]========--------------
While this song would definitely be classified as a "synth" piece, it also
incorporates a bit of "rockish" leads, mixed together with a technoish
beat. The tracking being well done with a good spread of effects and
excellent transitions, the skilled mixing and sampling (high quality from
the synth to the bass, to the drum set), along with the style blends,
create a clear-sounding, smooth-flowing tune that is rather pleasant and
never gets boring.
My only complaint about the song is that it is a bit short at just under 3
minutes, but even so, if you like synthy/rockish sounding tunes, this is
definitely worth a listen!
--------------========[ PanDuh ]========---------------
I really like this module, all 2 minutes and 50 seconds of it. It starts
out with a militaristic intro with some thunder, and breaks into a
toned-down Mortal Kombat-like beat and rhythm followed by a breezy ending.
I found it to be pretty inspiring, and I found myself grooving to the
interesting melody. The leads remind me of the flashy 80's lead
guitarists of such great names as Satriani, Friedman, Becker, and Vai.
The only real problem with it is that it's TOO SHORT; a few minutes more
would've been great.
All-in-all, a very good module, and definitely worth a download.
-----================================================================-----
"The Return of the Braves"
by Dead
(16ch S3M, 02:37)
(2ndmov.zip [281K/377K])
[Orchestral]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Rebriffer 80- 75 70 80 65
CCerberus 64+ 87 60 64 43
Zaigamor 62+ 60 65 57 68
FrizFry 59- 68 50 60 45
Mansooj 58+ 60 -- 50 55
Balistic 50+ 62 -- 30 60
MING 49+ 60 30 50 30
-------------========[ Mansooj ]========---------------
With an intro that sounds ripped straight from a medieval computer
wargame, Return of the Braves paints itself immediately as a
military-march based bit of orchestralization. The expected horns,
cymbals, strings and timpani are there, but they're not really used in any
unusual way, and as such, sounds much like most other orchestral pieces
I've reviewed. Although it is, in and of itself, fairly interesting, with
some nice-sounding bits, I still get the impression that
classical/orchestral music is a haunt welcome only to a few module
composers, with the rest being mainly just pretenders following the basic
program because they can't quite figure out how to improvise this style on
their own. Well, perhaps that's a bit more harsh than it should be, but
the basic point remains.
There's really not much to comment on regarding the music itself, since it
amounts to a few phrases repeated several times before moving to the next.
The tempo breaks here and there, but after listening to it a few times, it
seems quite monodimensional--drum rolls, timpani hits, cymbal crashes,
form the foundation and don't change enough to hold the interest. It
reminds me a bit of Fight to the Finish!--similar enough that I probably
couldn't trust my memory alone to tell them apart if someone asked which
was which.
Of particular note is the use of some vibrato operatic voices that come in
for about 10 seconds and then are never heard from again--do I hear the
echos of Dead saying, "I've got it, I'll use it"? Why bother in the first
place? It didn't accomplish anything.
Oh well...until composers discard the notion that an orchestral piece has
to be based on a military premise, I'll be waiting around for some true
classical orchestral fare (as true as such can be) in module form.
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
I'm sure there isn't a MOD tracker in the world who hasn't attempted the
'opus' classical piece at some point, only to discover an elemental
musical truth: that stuff be *hard* to compose. Whenever you come
across a *good* example of this genre, it is often surprising. When a
tracker decides to take on a second chore by attempting a cinematic piece,
a la John Williams et. al., you know this must be a supremely confident
human being...or an insane lunatic.
Dead can stop watching for the men in white coats, though, because
although I wouldn't have said this is any great shakes in the "classical
MOD of all time" stakes, it is one that has some very, very neat touches,
such as the arrangements and use of the Three Tenors samples.
Unfortunately, it is also one which ultimately ends up sounding just a
little too 'tracked' for it to work as a real orchestral piece. The fault
of this problem must lie in the samples themselves. With the
proliferation of *actual* orchestral samples (from such sources as sample
CDs), the difference in quality between the samples used in this piece and
what is nowadays the norm, is made obvious. One of the particular
problems with this lies in the fact that "realistic sounding" brass,
string and woodwind instrument samples would have a certain amount of
natural echo to them--these samples don't, and hence just don't *sound*
right.
All in all a brave attempt at a much misunderstood genre, and one I will
indeed listen to a few more times yet.
-------------========[ Zaigamor ]========--------------
Among all of my favorite modules ever, there are two or three orchestral
pieces. These pieces really fascinate me, because it's so damn hard to
make orchestral modules interesting and credible. Because it's so
complex, a composer who wants to create a good example of orchestral music
needs to be skilled in every conceivable aspect of music in general.
This particular tune by Dead is not a bad attempt at orchestral music, but
it doesn't get past the standard things. For instance, Dead settles for
instruments seen in many other orchestral tunes (such as the marcato
strings); he also sets the cymbal crash at too low a pitch. The
composition is also very standard, it is, as I call it, typical chord
bombast. Strings play the chords and another instrument, the brass
section in this case, plays a melody.
What this track also lacks, besides originality, is a fair amount of
tension. Where are the volume changes?? The panning effects?? The
rhythm changes?? The haunting melodies?? An orchestral piece really
needs those things.
Don't get me wrong, this piece is not bad, not at all, but you can do so
much more with orchestral music. This one just leaves me unsatisfied.
---------------========[ MING ]========----------------
If the composer had just said, "OK, this didn't work. Maybe I shouldn't
do orchestral music," and dismissed the whole idea as a failed attempt,
I'd have forgiven him, but he carried on with this doomed project, (which
he apparently hasn't the talent to improve upon), and released it.
Even after one or two patterns sounding like this, a realist composer with
a healthy sense of self-criticism would have stated, "Naah, this ain't
working. I'm going back to Acid." But oh no, Dead woudn't listen to
reason. Oh no, he's Mozart, Bach and Beethoven (he seems to think). After
all, Beethoven is dead, so Dead should be Beethoven, right? (Yeah, I
know, lousy pun. So spank me.:)
The samples are way too raw and noisy. Not that pure technical noise is
that terrible here, but what should sound like a soothing string section
sounds more like a screaming tire, and the cymbals sound more like car
crashes than anything else.
Now, this isn't, however, a total waste. If you can bear the lousy sound
and the somewhat too simple themes, you could grow to like it. From time
to time the melodies work as intended, and a true classical feel is
achieved, for a few seconds maybe...or less.
-------------========[ CCerberus ]========-------------
This is a classic example of music written by a composer who is OBVIOUSLY a
musician with natural talent, but who has not yet mastered the module
format. I say this not because of compositional errors, but rather because
of apparent technical shortcomings in this song.
For example, the ONLY effects I saw used were "jump to pattern" and "set
tempo." That's not very impressive, especially in a song with this kind of
potential emotional energy. SO MUCH MORE could have been achieved if the
composer had utilized the available effects. As it stands, the technical
points received for this song are only due to the composer's obvious
understanding of musical structure, with many points deducted because of
lack of effect employment. Unfortunately, the resulting sound is something
like the theme from Battlestar Galactica...well, even that song didn't have
the choppy note beginnings created by sample waveforms.
That leads me to my second big complaint--the samples! I mean, some of
them were okay, but JEEZ there are better orchestral samples out there than
these! Especially the snare...it sucked. That's just about the worst
snare sample a person could have picked for this song. It irritated the
hell out of me.
So, in summary, this song is musically quite good, but "modularly" somewhat
mediocre.
-------------========[ Balistic ]========--------------
I can really get into a booming orchestral battle anthem...unfortunately,
this isn't one. The composer of The Return of the Braves mentions that he
is inspired by the likes of John Williams, but I think he needs to listen
better.
This song may be intricately composed, but it is never moving or
emotional. It's just sort of a symphonic noise that doesn't really take
the listener anywhere new or exciting. The voice samples are laughable,
and the instruments sound very bland. I wish composers with a few extra
channels left over would start adding some echo, without it, a song like
this lacks depth.
In the end, I would only reccommend this module to die-hard classical
music lovers, otherwise, look elsewhere.
--------------========[ FrizFry ]========--------------
This orchestral piece tries very hard to sound like a WAR ANTHEM, but with
the sub-par samples, it's just not very convincing. Don't get me wrong,
overall this tune is not terrible; it does show some promise, but because
of the extremely flat sounding samples, there is no depth of sound. The
tracking, as a whole, is not at all that bad, though Dead makes use of
very few effects beyond volume changes. Overall, I would have to
recommend this song ONLY to those who (a) love anthem music, (b) love
orchestral music, (c) love to collect any kind of song.
-----================================================================-----
-----================================================================-----
B A C K L O G R E V I E W S
-----================================================================-----
NOTE: Please don't consider the following reviews as gospel in and of
themselves! They are simply one (or maybe a few) person's opinions on
each module and are part of a larger set of reviews that can be found on
the website.
-----================================================================-----
"Mind Machine"
by Elfstone
(28ch XM, 04:42)
(elf-mind.zip [519K/906K])
[Fantasy/Demo]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. | | |
Overall -. | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
====================
Rebriffer 74+ 80 85 65 70
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
Considering this is a tune where there is so much going on, it feels
incredibly lightweight. It all works together, and there are a couple of
spots where I found myself nodding enthusiastically, but all in all, I
found the track a bit tame.
The composer obviously knows his chops because the material is couched in
some very decent coding, and the sound is as clear and audible as
possible, but it still doesn't elevate it above the overall banality of
the tune itself. To me, if the track doesn't capture you within the first
few bars, it probably won't capture you no matter what its length. So,
although I would give high marks indeed to the individual components of
this track, the overall execution (once again) lets the whole side down.
I have to say that I went back to this track more than a few times trying
to be as fair as possible, because I could see the effort that had gone
into it, and the best that I could come up with was that it was a pretty
tune (but only in spots). And maybe that just ain't enough for me....
-----================================================================-----
"Fall From Sky"
by Elwood
(22ch XM, 03:00)
(elw-fall.zip [322K/621K])
[Demo/Dance]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Rebriffer 95+ 80 85 70 80
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
There are many Elwood fans out there, and I've often had cause to number
myself among them, but to be honest this track isn't one of his best. As
usual with this composer, the main things are in place and work well; the
samples used are clear and bright enough to cut through, and the coding
used shows the material in a good light. Unfortunately, it's the material
that doesn't work for me.
I do like a good rousing techno tune a la 'classic MOD' stylee, but it can
get wearing after having heard the same thing 24 million times.
Fortunately for Elwood, this is a style this composer helped to develop so
you have to understand there are a lot of people copying him. It's a kind
of rote composing these days. Get yourself a few synthy pop sounds, get
them looping merrily away and play the damn thing into the ground.
What lifts Elwood's material *waaaaayyyy* above the crowd is the way he
puts all the bits together -- and Elwood surely knows what's what. So
although this is far from Elwood's best material, it's a good effort
nonetheless, and compared to 90% of the other composers working in this
genre, this is a work of art. Certainly downloadable, but only if you
like Elwood's style....
-----================================================================-----
"Unparalleled World"
by Arcturus of Quasar
(16ch IT, 04:18)
(aq_world.zip [105K/177K])
[Industrial/Ambient]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Rebriffer 72+ 75 70 70 65
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
This starts with a really neat kick/snare sequence, where the snare moves
smartly from the left to the right channel setting up an interesting
counterpoint. The tune slows down slightly and then...
wwwwwwoooaaahhhh...what is this???
The reason for my surprise is that almost as soon as the track starts, it
takes a major turn. From the intro you were led to expect a kinda fluffy
ravish track, but that turns out not to be the case. A very heavy
'industrial' track hammers merrily away at your brain once you peel the
layers of intro away. In its own mechanical way this is as good a track
as any other in this genre, but it's not a stand-out. If anything, I feel
a little more thought could have gone into the structure of the song to
make it more interesting in the long run, because as it stands it tends to
repeat too much.
What's there really isn't too shabby though, especially the arpeggiating
synths right towards the end. As far as industrial goes, this is a
worthwhile attempt, but more could have been made of it with a little more
diversity in the sounds used.
-----================================================================-----
"Love is War"
by Subliminal
(16ch S3M, 02:49)
(a_lvswar.zip [133K/190K])
[Other]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Rebriffer 59= 70 55 65 55
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
The track starts with a simulated (and reasonably accurate) rendition of
the Star Spangled Banner (a la Hendrix), and that works well enough to set
you up for the track proper. Kettledrums and strings gather like
stormclouds on the horizon, announcing the tenor of the track. Yep, this
is a dark one...moody, mysterious and, dare I say it, a little tedious.
"Influenced by Cannibis" the composer claims in the sample notes, and if
that's the case then it's a definite no-no to legislation. If smoky de
weed makes folks as depressed as this tune suggests, then there ain't
gonna be a lot of us doing it in the future! It's not *bad* though, just
not up to very much. What's here works well enough except the central
refrain (carried by a really squeaky synth) repeats so often you find
yourself wishing that it would just shut the ^&*^(* up.
I tried the track on 3 different players (Seal, M4W and IT) and I found
the same complaint in all three: the samples tended to break up quite a
lot, spoiling whatever enjoyment could be found. So, all in all, I can't
say I liked this track too much. But I'd have to put that down to the
composer getting a little more experience because the idea was good, it's
just that the execution didn't appeal to me.
-----================================================================-----
"Images of Terror"
by LioZ of TbK
(18ch XM, 04:51)
(lz-image.zip [496K/907K])
[Techno/Spacey]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Rebriffer 80+ 85 80 80 65
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
A Norwegian XM that starts well, its atmosphere building through a dark,
moody intro. The composer uses FT well to separate out the various sounds
so it sounds clean and well mixed. The sounds used, I found a litte
same-y; the same sounds I have heard a million times. It didn't
ultimately harm the track but....
This is what you would expect from a very decent, workmanlike MOD from
those pesky Scandinavians. Actually, it's a bit above that, I damn it
with only faint praise.
It's basically a synth driven piece, the atmosphere being generated by
droning strings (aaah, a familiar refrain...) settling ultimately in the
more techno area of the musical world. What's interesting about this is
the composer's willingness to take chances with some of the breakdowns,
one of which is exquisite. It's always interesting to see how other
composers tie themselves into musical knots, but here's a composer well
versed in getting out of them. Segues (the one around 2:40 is excellent)
make or break tracks like this, and the composer obviously bore that in
mind.
-----================================================================-----
"Polar Bjorn Attack"
by Azazel of The Black Lotus/MONO
(4ch MOD, 03:24)
(m_polar.lha [423K/590K])
[Goa/Techno]
Zooooom. Time for Mono to get funky, we feel, and who better to do it for
us than Azze of The Black Lotus? It may make your head nod unashamedly,
and it may sound just a little bit like Lizardking, but it sure as hell
rawks. Yeah, rawks. Definitely a contender for catchiest Mono tune so far.
[h0l]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. | | |
Overall -. | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
====================
Rebriffer 70= 70 80 65 70
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
A Swedish 4 channel MOD which sets out to do what most Swedish 4 channel
MODs do, and does it successfully enough, buuuurrrtt...is that enough?
Plainly not, as you may be able to tell from my tone.
I like most of the 'Scandinavian' MOD scene, particularly the more
innovative members of the breed, but I must admit that I do get a little
tired of the same kind of approach every time. We composers have the
ability to make *whatever* we need to, in how ever many channels and
sounds we choose...and yet....
So what is this track, that I should rant and rail over with such ill
humour? PBA starts, like most of this genre, with a fast pulsing
wavesound before relaxing into a standard techno-ish beat. The track
bounces on in relentless style until it's broken up slightly by the
introduction of yer typical synth sound, while all the time a toy sounding
piano batters your right ear. The panning is most unfortunate, placing
the synths on either side of the mix may have been a good idea, but
eventually it leaves the more irritating synth sound joining forces with
the piano I mentioned earlier to commit aural abuse to my right ear.
-----================================================================-----
"Submerged"
by Numb Lock of Toll Free Prod.
(16ch IT, 03:43)
(tf-sbmrg.zip [464K/600K])
[Atmospheric/Ambient]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. | | |
Overall -. | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
====================
Rebriffer 100+ 95 95 90 100
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
Underwater sounds held up by strings, big stereo moves and luvverly brass
are some of my favourite things. This, ol' jaded buddies, is *bloody
marvelous*! A wonderful cruise through some of the more underused sounds
in the universe -- all in glorious, brain expanding, blood vessel bursting
STEREO! Yes, folks, it does exist!
The intro I described above, a little over the top I admit, but how does
the track actually pan out? The good news is that the beginning is just a
sideshow to the main event. Make no mistake, this is one SERIOUS entry in
the WMR chart, just in terms of the production values alone. I'm certain
that most of my fellow reviewers will vote the same way. The serious use
of stereo throughout adds stunningly effective atmosphere to what is
basically a simple riff embellished with some of the best percussive
effects I've heard lately. Even if you don't like the musical style,
you'll love the work this composer has done.
Play loud... AAAANNNDD (get this...) this is Numb Lock's *first* IT,
here's a collector's item for you trainspotter types. :-D
-----================================================================-----
"Oh! Soo Hip"
by Racoon
(4ch MOD, 02:00)
(oh.lha [254K/362K])
[Funk/Dance]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. | | |
Overall -. | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
====================
Rebriffer 70= 80 75 70 60
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
A 4 track MOD from Sweden, and it has that classic 'Scandinavian' sound to
it. Stylish and classy, but ultimately let down by its being so limited
by the 4 track format. Once again this would have made a GREAT XM or IT.
I don't mean Racoon doesn't know what he's up to, as he obviously does
judging by the high quality on evidence here. My gripe is about having to
squeeze all this good stuff into the straitjacket of 4 channel MODs when
programs like FT or IT make it possible to get much nearer to studio
quality.
Musically, it's a jazzy little number, all synths and pulsating basses.
All this activity is punctuated every once in a while by some very well
placed string stabs. Nicely done. I'm not always a fan of this
particular branch of music (i.e. from the more northern European
countries), but this is definitely a classy piece and well worth a
download. You'd have to like the style, otherwise it could lead to a
weepin' an'a wailin'. This is JAZZZZZZ.
-----================================================================-----
"Fiat Lux"
by Stalker
(27ch IT, 03:39)
(ari-fait.zip [510K/706K])
[Fantasy/Light Jazz]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Rebriffer 85+ 85 75 80 90
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
High pitched pianos are joined by a very clear section of almost
orchestral sounds which build nicely to combine into a sturdy little track
indeed. Folks, this here toon *ooozes* atmosphere. The obvious technical
abilities of the composer don't harm its cause any, either. Very well
produced, well mixed IT. Personally, I wish folks would give up this old
argument about which tracker is best.
I've heard crap in all its hues, and I've heard pearls from all tracker
programs. This track only goes to show me that IT has everything it takes
to be a great tracker by any standard -- should that be your choice. One
thing is blindingly obvious, IT tracks are really beginning to give the
venerable FT a run for its money....
The track itself is (sorta kinda) tranceish but oh so much more than that.
A bass sample, itself as clear as a bell, powers the whole track along,
joined every once in a while by the same orchestral sounds that appeared
at the beginning. It's the easy way the song grabs your ear that finally
turns the tide for the track, though, and after a few plays I knew that I
was listening to a track I was going to become very familiar with. A top
notch IT and one I can't recommend highly enough.
-----================================================================-----
"King of the Rainforest"
by ToalNkor of RealTech
(16ch IT, 05:14)
(forestki.zip [339K/480K])
[Jungle/Ambient]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Rebriffer 85= 80 70 70 80
-------------========[ Rebriffer ]========-------------
The track starts with some very gratifying seashore sounds, and then heads
straight into a long, drum driven intro sequence that makes full use of
IT's stereo facility. Good start, I scribbled into my WMR Reviewers
Complimentary Notebook, I hope it stays like this. It does indeed, and
then some. The sounds used throughout were excellent choices, although
the flute-y sound (which I loved) tended to break up a little when I tried
to do anything else in Windoze....
There are a lot of extremes of panning in the mix, and although it mainly
worked I found it grating after awhile, probably because I prefer the mix
to *breathe* and move about a lot more than it did. The 'African' vocals
sounded as if they were homemade, but not too bad for all that, and seemed
to fit into the track well enough.
The music itself didn't really do a lot for me, all a bit to epic for my
liking, but there again I'm a weird cuss like that. Real good effort
though and well worth downloading for something slightly off the beaten
track....
-----================================================================-----
"Hate!"
by HarleQuiN of SuccesS
(8ch S3M, 02:17)
(hate.zip [486K/614K])
[Hardcore Punk/Thrash]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. | | |
Overall -. | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
====================
FrizFry 57+ 60 55 65 50
--------------========[ FrizFry ]========--------------
This song reminds me of the old S.O.D. days, (early 80's) thrash metal. It
even has a vocal track! The vocal track, while lyrically immature, is
clear and intelligible, and it essentially makes the song. Without them,
there wouldn't be much merit left, for while the tracking job isn't that
bad, some of the guitar samples, quite simply put, are BAD. I find that
the rhythm guitar samples seem to bear no resemblance to a real guitar,
although the lead guitar (solo) is actually pretty good. The percussion
is average, with a pretty bad mixing job (all bass and snare are on the
right channel only). While it is obvious that the tracker dedicated his
time to the vocals, it's a shame he didn't take the time to sample at
least ACCEPTABLE guitars, or at least taken the time to rip something
SEMI-REALISTIC sounding.
If you liked the early 80's thrash metal, check this tune out; if not,
skip it. By the way, I gave the samples a score of 50 ONLY because of the
vocals, if I were judging on the instruments alone, it would have gotten a
35.
-----================================================================-----
"Deus ex Machina"
by CyberCerberus
(16ch S3M, 07:37)
(machina.zip [416K/553K])
[Metal/Orchestral]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
FrizFry 79+ 80 77 90 70
--------------========[ FrizFry ]========--------------
This song starts out very synthy (orchestral), then builds into a modest
beat, after which some distortion guitar is added, and then it reverts
back to orchestral. It's not done then...oh no, it then kicks in with the
guitars again in a rather speedy THRASH segment, and then reverts back to
synth/guitar mixtures. As you can, I am sure, tell, this tune is rather
DIFFERENT...and I like it.
The tracking is rather well laid out, with a lot of changes...no boring
tune here. A lot of effects are used (though none TOO noticeable).
Overall, this is a decently tracked tune. I do, however, have a complaint
or two. First off, the quality of some of the samples is not great.
Mostly the synth samples sound too Casio-like, and are lacking in depth.
Second is the annoying hihat sample. While the sample itself is not that
bad, it is mixed too loudly and it dominates portions of the song.
Overall, I would have to recommend this song to anyone who likes a tune
with an edge. The combination of the orchestral/synth/pop/metal actually
works rather well. Check it out.
-----================================================================-----
"Epidemic"
by Vegas of Carcass
(17ch IT, 02:10)
(ccs-epdm.zip [451K/846K])
[Dark Jungle]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. | | |
Overall -. | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
====================
Rebriffer 80+ 75 80 80 75
------------========[ Rebriffer ]========--------------
This is the track I used when I was trying to figure out the problem with
Balistic's Trance Atmospheric which I reviewed sometime earlier; and which
probably isn't being fair on Balistic, because this is a very classy,
accomplished and stylish IT track.
The samples are clear with good tone, and are well used when building into
this very good techno-ish track that stands above most of its
contemporaries due to the amount of musical nous on display. This is a
composer who understands the *dynamics* of the material they are working
on, building the track into a series of peaks, each one greater than the
other.
Excellent in all ways. Impulse Tracker used to its best by a composer who
knows what's what and what's not. Highly recommended.
-----================================================================-----
"Improvization"
by Chris Snyder & Evan Korzon of SoundGod
(18ch XM, 03:57)
(imprzvtn.zip [513K/1048K])
[Jazz]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. | | |
Overall -. | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
====================
Rebriffer 90+ 85 80 85 75
------------========[ Rebriffer ]========--------------
The great and enduring beauty of the MODULE format is its versatility. Its
ability to treat each sample used as an instrument will ensure its
survival as a musical medium to be reckoned with for some years to come.
One of my own particular 'reasons to be cheerful' has to be the amount
of musical diversity this format has spawned. These days you can hear
MODs playing in most musical genres that can be thought of, and even some
that it's best *not* to think of. A specially active sector of this world
is the increasing amount of 'jazz' type MODs, many of which can be found
on an FTP site near you.
If jazz (whatever the h*** that means!) is a favored style then have I got
the track for you....
Improvization is a beauty from start to finish. A slow, gorgeously
arranged piano based piece that gets into this reviewer's head from the
very first note. Speaking as a composer, I have to tell you that getting
a *believable* jazz feel from ol' FT2 is a very, very difficult task, and
not one most composers would even bother to try. Thank whatever god you
believe in then that there are gifted composers such as Soundgod and Eagle
Falcon (!?) around to do our dirty work for us. A very worthwhile effort
and one I recommend for any listener who likes their MODs to be
different.
-----================================================================-----
"Off Topic"
by Obuk
(16ch S3M, xx:xx)
(offtopic.zip [305K/456K])
[HipHop]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. | | |
Overall -. | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
====================
Rebriffer 45+ 60 60 70 55
------------========[ Rebriffer ]========--------------
Billed as a 'hip-hop instrumental', a claim that can either mean something
diabolically clever or something equally dire. Well, to be fair,
Off Topic isn't exactly dire, but it's not exactly a right rivetting rave
either. In fact, in all kindness, it's just kinda tedious.
The composer cites such artists as Marilyn Manson and NIN as influences,
so I go back and relisten to it with slightly changed perspective, but
once again, I still find it fairly ponderous -- and that's where I think
the trouble lies.
The samples, and the way the composer uses them, aren't too bad, ya see,
it's just the musical *range* the track is set in. I found the bass
pitched far too low which tended to give the track a leaden atmosphere,
which doesn't help when making 'hip hop', which, by definition, tends to
be fairly light and quick on its feet. Let me be clear about this, I
liked the elements of the track, just not the way they were used together.
It slowed down the track when it should have been lifting it up...and as
for that irritating distorting scratch sound, the less said the
better....
-----================================================================-----
"A Song Without Words"
by Porus
(16ch S3M, 03:09)
(withoutw.zip [224K/540K])
[Soft Rock]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Fanta C 88+ 86 89 85 92
--------------========[ Fanta C ]========--------------
This track causes me grief. It's almost perfect in every way. The grief
comes from the fact that it simply requires too much listening! This is
its one downfall; the complexity of the composition detracts from the
music. If this MOD had a slightly more accessible melody, it would have
gotten a higher score.
This is not a track that you will find useful if you like working whilst
playing MODs in the background. If you're looking for a quick melody,
forget it, however, if you're looking for masterfully designed composition
and nigh on perfect samples all wrapped up in expert timing, then download
this one immediately.
Well played Porus!
-----================================================================-----
"Crimson Eyes"
by Pariah of V.S.L.
(14ch XM, 03:47)
(p-crimsn.zip [217K/467K])
[Rock]
If you haven't heard it yet, it's a rock song. I'm not a rocker (no
offense to those who are) yet I appreciate and respect all forms of music.
Most of my inspiration came from Aahz The Demon's [CARCASS] song
"Daydream" which is a rockish type of song with wild solo work, and a hard
driving feel...so all due respect to Aahz. [Pariah]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Fanta C 78+ 80 80 82 70
--------------========[ Fanta C ]========--------------
Ok, let me come straight out with this: it's quite good, but it would have
been excellent with a little more work. Pariah does easily manage to
infuse variation throughout the whole piece, which is a creditable
achievement with this type of rock/metal style. There's classic drum
work, well thought out harmonies, reasonable melody and a full sound
stage.
On the down side I have two minor complaints. First, the lead sample gets
slightly monotonous about halfway through the track. Very Rick Wakeman
rather than Lead Fender. Secondly, I feel another "rhythm" sample
should've been taken "further up the neck." Don't get me wrong, I
struggled to find any problems, but I can't help wondering why these
"faults" weren't fixed before release?
Worth the modem time? Yes, but you'll need 300 watts to appreciate it.
:-)
-----================================================================-----
"Hypnosis"
by Kotivalo
(16ch XM, 03:06)
(koti_02.zip [346K/613K])
[Light Rock/Demo]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Fanta C 62+ 65 63 50 68
--------------========[ Fanta C ]========--------------
Well, it starts great, and you think you're going to get something good.
You don't. On the plus side, it's reasonably well put together, and makes
effective use of some samples (as you would expect for this format), but
on the minus side, it's a simple melody extended through some three
minutes via a series of key changes. I found it got boring after some 27
seconds, and after about 45 you've heard the whole thing barring some
effects samples.
The most skillful author in the world can't save a bad track, and
unfortunately that's what this is.
-----================================================================-----
"Symphony"
by Pumpkin
(4ch MOD, 09:31)
(symphony.lha [279K/407K])
[Orchestral]
SYMPHONY is a very bombastic soundtrack-like module. As this song was
written for a german PD-adventure called "WELTENAUGE", it tells the story
of a young man, searching for the murderer of his beloved family and
friends. The music comments on the conflict between some village people
and a horde of orks, the journey through a dark and dangerous forest and
the final fight with the dark lord "Gorgon." [Pumpkin]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Fanta C 94+ 96 93 98 90
--------------========[ Fanta C ]========--------------
If you look at the instrument list, you'll see that Pumpkin signs his name
as PuMpKiN. Bad. Anybody signing their handle like "tHiS" should be shot
at dawn! That's what I didn't like--the rest is outstanding!
As the name suggests, it's a symphony running to 9:28, produced as a 4
channel MOD, and it's the best classical piece I've heard in any MOD
format. First and foremost, it's pure, original, music. It's also very
well arranged given the format, and it really is a symphony--right up to
the classical reprise. This guy has worked on this. Note especially the
unbelievable whole orchestra slide at the end of pattern 18! It works too!
Look, I could write reams and reams comprised of superlative after
superlative, but they won't give me the space [who won't give you the
space?? ;) -Boris], so if you're looking for a good classical MOD, get
this one.
Finally, I would like to BEG Joerg Rupp to rearrange this in XM format;
I've given this one very high marks bearing in mind it's format...a
multichannel conversion....
-----================================================================-----
"Computer Sins"
by Sun of Dreamdealers
(4ch MOD, 05:48)
(Computersins.lha [214K/301K])
[Demo/Light Rock]
Samples -----------------.
Originality -------------. |
Technical ---------. | |
Composition -----. : | |
Overall -. : : | |
: : : | |
: : : | |
====================
Fanta C 86+ 92 90 83 79
--------------========[ Fanta C ]========--------------
Picture the scene: I have a MOD to review. Coffee in hand, monitor
dimmed, lights off. Play MOD...listen. I'm giving Computer Sins the
treatment.
Great samples, engaging melodies and wicked composition. Two instruments
in particular stand out: the slap electro bass and the lead guitar in the
last minute. Yeah, this guy has it sussed. It'll get the marks.
Ok, song finishes, lights on, monitor up. Read text. It was written in
1992--Amazing!
Download this one whilst I run you through it.... Start: slow,
melodramatic rise into echoing synth progressions. Bass in at 0:30, drums
in at 0:40, more and more until the entrance of the lead synth at 0:49,
playing the main melody. Lead instrument change at 1:25 with previous
lead alternating slightly--nice. Short break at 1:44 to backing with
enhanced drums and bass. At 1:52 a key change to variation on the initial
melody for about a minute. 2:52, a drop into tempo/key change and
variation. 4:00 to 4:56, a bridge into the end piece. 4:56, a stunning
"Wish you were here" type guitar work until the end at 6:00.
For a late 1992 MOD it's outstanding. It's music. This one is going into
my daily play list.
-----================================================================-----
< Converted by HTMLess v2.1 by Troglobyte/Darkness. Only Amiga... >
Victor Ducedre
Boris,
Could you either:
a) post these reviews on a web page, and post only its address and a very
brief summary here [A cross-posted, 2962-line, 150Kb message is IMO beyond
excessive and intensely annoying, especially on a weekly basis], or
2) stop posting it to comp.sys.amiga.audio [Since almost all the MODs reviewed
were s3m's, IT's and XM's, it isn't likely that they were composed with Amigas,
and a single Amiga-specific reference in the body of the message (criticizing
HippoPlayer) hardly justifies posting it to this newsgroup. IMO the only
appropriate groups are alt.binaries.sounds.mods.d and alt.music.mods].
Submitted for your consideration...
--
Victor Ducedre Ask me a riddle and I reply:
vic...@netrover.com "Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."
Jeremy
Victor Ducedre (vic...@netrover.com) wrote:
: Boris,
Hello. I am not Boris, but am one of the senior reviewers for the WMR,
and at the risk of addressing this before Boris gets to it (he has had his
hands quite full recently), I thought I would take a stab at your concerns.
: a) post these reviews on a web page, and post only its address and a very
: brief summary here [A cross-posted, 2962-line, 150Kb message is IMO beyond
: excessive and intensely annoying, especially on a weekly basis], or
This is a valid concern given bandwidth problems, however, this is a
binaries group. Alt.binaries.sounds.mods.d is for discussion respectively.
Ironically, mods.d gets almost no use, and this group is hardly flooded
with binaries.
I imagine this will get some personal attention by Boris, as limiting the
text seems like a logical idea. For future reference, the web-page is
always listed in Boris' .sig after his posts. The address for immediate
reference:
http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/WMR/wmr-index.html
: 2) stop posting it to comp.sys.amiga.audio [Since almost all the MODs
: reviewed
: were s3m's, IT's and XM's, it isn't likely that they were composed with
: Amigas,
: and a single Amiga-specific reference in the body of the message
: (criticizing
: HippoPlayer) hardly justifies posting it to this newsgroup. IMO the only
: appropriate groups are alt.binaries.sounds.mods.d and alt.music.mods].
Although recently the trend has been to cut out more and more .mods from
the review indexes, a ratio had been maintained for some time including two
.mods per review-week. Why this has changed recently could have a number of
causes, but .mods are not excluded from the pool of reviewable musics.
The WMR is in theory a medium by which composers can get direct
critiques by persons established to do so. By that standard, those on
comp.sys.amiga.audio are more than welcome to submit .mods for review.
Submitted musics generally have gotten automatic priority for review, and
the format is certainly not taken into account. For this reason, it makes
sense that a posting be made to that group.
Bandwidth concerns are still a concern, and hopefully this will be
soon addressed.
--
- <?> - <e> - <?> - <R> -
- <J> - <?> - <A> - <r> -
Boris
In article <819.7060...@netrover.com>,
Victor Ducedre <vic...@netrover.com> wrote:
>Boris,
Hi Victor,
>2) stop posting it to comp.sys.amiga.audio [Since almost all the MODs
>reviewed were s3m's, IT's and XM's, it isn't likely that they were
>composed with Amigas,
To this, I have to say, "so what?" Amigas are fully capable of playing
every module we review (if one excepts some of the handling of special
effects). In fact, I purposely restrict the module formats reviewable to
those that both Amiga and PeeCee people can appreciate.
>and a single Amiga-specific reference in the body of the message
>(criticizing HippoPlayer) hardly justifies posting it to this
>newsgroup.
I do believe your platform bias is showing, as well as symptoms of tunnel
vision. To whit:
The SINGLE comment regarding HippoPlayer was just that, a comment about
the possibility that HP may not handle certain commands exactly correctly,
it was not a criticism (it was obviously also made by someone who is
playing the module on an Amiga...so how can it be irrelevant to Amiga
users?).
As I already noted, every single module that was/is covered is playable on
the Amiga (perhaps not equally well on everyone's Amiga, but most will
have little trouble...), and therefore I believe the information is fully
relevant to Amigoids. Which, by the way, I am one of and have been for
almost 9 years. So I know whereof I speak.
>IMO the only appropriate groups are alt.binaries.sounds.mods.d and
>alt.music.mods].
Your opinion here is valid, and after consideration I plan to post the
full reviews to the two ngs you note and post notifications on the other
ngs. I agree that this will serve to diminish the bandwidth and focus the
relevancy.
Thanks for your comments.
Boris
WMR
==----------------------------------------------------------------------==
The Weekly Module Review website is reachable at:
users: http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/WMR/wmr-index.html
reviewers: http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/wmr.html
==----------------------------------------------------------------------==
Boris
In article <5ke8sq$d...@scooby.beloit.edu>,
Jeremy <oer...@stu.beloit.edu> wrote:
>Victor Ducedre (vic...@netrover.com) wrote:
>
>: 2) stop posting it to comp.sys.amiga.audio [Since almost all the MODs
>: reviewed
>: were s3m's, IT's and XM's, it isn't likely that they were composed with
>: Amigas,
>: (criticizing
>: HippoPlayer) hardly justifies posting it to this newsgroup. IMO the only
>: appropriate groups are alt.binaries.sounds.mods.d and alt.music.mods].
>
>the review indexes, a ratio had been maintained for some time including two
>.mods per review-week. Why this has changed recently could have a number of
>causes, but .mods are not excluded from the pool of reviewable musics.
There's a very good reason why 4-channel mods have not been represented as
much lately: the composers who are submitting their modules for review,
are all submitting multichannel mods (there's a MED there now, though).
Maybe if my fellow Amiga-dudes would like to submit some good 4-channelers
for review, this won't be the case, but it's up to them.
As jeremy said, there are NO restrictions whatsoever against 4-channel
MODs, in fact, I welcome them. I, as well as most of the other
Amiga-based reviewers, harbor a great appreciation for what some can do
under the limitations of the format, and usually make mention of such
things in the reviews themselves.
But, again, since we're functioning more on an as-submitted basis, if the
4-channel mods are not being submitted, they can't be reviewed.
> The WMR is in theory a medium by which composers can get direct
>critiques by persons established to do so. By that standard, those on
>comp.sys.amiga.audio are more than welcome to submit .mods for review.
>Submitted musics generally have gotten automatic priority for review, and
>the format is certainly not taken into account. For this reason, it makes
>sense that a posting be made to that group.
Oops...guess my comments above are rather redundant now.
> Bandwidth concerns are still a concern, and hopefully this will be
>soon addressed.
Yep. Truth is truth. I don't think it will destroy anyone's ability to
get at the reviews by restricting the full postings back to only the two
most relevant groups, with pointers for the others.
Victor Ducedre
Quoting Boris <bo...@hondo.cyberverse.com>...
>Hi Victor,
>The SINGLE comment regarding HippoPlayer was just that, a comment about
>the possibility that HP may not handle certain commands exactly correctly,
>it was not a criticism (it was obviously also made by someone who is
>playing the module on an Amiga...so how can it be irrelevant to Amiga
>users?).
>As I already noted, every single module that was/is covered is playable on
>the Amiga (perhaps not equally well on everyone's Amiga, but most will
>have little trouble...), and therefore I believe the information is fully
>relevant to Amigoids. Which, by the way, I am one of and have been for
>almost 9 years. So I know whereof I speak.
Yes, okay, points taken. But they also play on many other platform, yet
this is the only platform-specific newsgroup that you posted to...
"Amigoids"? There's gotta be a better word for that. :)
>>IMO the only appropriate groups are alt.binaries.sounds.mods.d and
>>alt.music.mods].
>Your opinion here is valid, and after consideration I plan to post the
>full reviews to the two ngs you note and post notifications on the other
>ngs. I agree that this will serve to diminish the bandwidth and focus the
>relevancy.
This was all I was asking. Thanks.
Also, if you really want to boost Amiga readers (better than a newsgroup),
go to www.cucug.org/amiga.html and ask to have your website linked from the
Amiga Web Directory. They get tens of thousands of hits/day...
==-------------------------------FREE PROMO-----------------------------==
> The Weekly Module Review website is reachable at:
> users: http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/WMR/wmr-index.html
> reviewers: http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/wmr.html
==-------------------------------FREE PROMO-----------------------------==
JavaMug
--------------03D552F9CF5361B2D9E01CAF
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hi everyone,
I am looking for some mod's from Carmina Burana, aka music from
Excaliber. I would appreciate any help. I am new to mod and would like
to post links on my websites also.
Thanks everyone,
Javamug
http://www.stealth.net/javamug/
--------------03D552F9CF5361B2D9E01CAF
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
<HTML><BODY>
Hi everyone,
<BR> I am looking for some mod's from Carmina Burana, aka
music from Excaliber. I would appreciate any help. I am new
to mod and would like to post links on my websites also.
<BR>Thanks everyone,
<BR><A HREF="mailto:jav...@usa.net">Javamug</A>
<BR><A HREF="http://www.stealth.net/javamug/">http://www.stealth.net/javamug/</A>
</BODY>
</HTML>
--------------03D552F9CF5361B2D9E01CAF--
Boris
In article <2007.7067...@netrover.com>,
Victor Ducedre <vic...@netrover.com> wrote:
>Quoting Boris <bo...@hondo.cyberverse.com>...
>>As I already noted, every single module that was/is covered is playable on
>>the Amiga (perhaps not equally well on everyone's Amiga, but most will
>>have little trouble...), and therefore I believe the information is fully
>>relevant to Amigoids. Which, by the way, I am one of and have been for
>>almost 9 years. So I know whereof I speak.
>
> Yes, okay, points taken. But they also play on many other platform, yet
>this is the only platform-specific newsgroup that you posted to...
That may be true, but I and, to my knowledge, pretty much the entire
reviewer group are split between Amigas and PeeCees. I don't have a
familiarity with certain other platforms enough to feel safely justified
with xposting to them.
> "Amigoids"? There's gotta be a better word for that. :)
Well, I always wanted to refer to us as Amigalomaniacs, but it carries a
connotation that can be used by unscrupulous individuals. ;)
>>>IMO the only appropriate groups are alt.binaries.sounds.mods.d and
>>>alt.music.mods].
>>Your opinion here is valid, and after consideration I plan to post the
>>full reviews to the two ngs you note and post notifications on the other
>>ngs. I agree that this will serve to diminish the bandwidth and focus the
>>relevancy.
> This was all I was asking. Thanks.
> Also, if you really want to boost Amiga readers (better than a newsgroup),
>go to www.cucug.org/amiga.html and ask to have your website linked from the
>Amiga Web Directory. They get tens of thousands of hits/day...
I'll make a note of that. I haven't given a major promo push to the
project in this regard because I've chosen (pretty much) to wait until the
web pages are completely spruced up. At that point I'll make a pest of
myself as any good pr-guy would. :)
Boris
WMR
==----------------------------------------------------------------------==
The Weekly Module Review website is reachable at:
users: http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/WMR/wmr-index.html
reviewers: http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/wmr.html
==----------------------------------------------------------------------==
tog...@swcp.com
In article <2007.7067...@netrover.com>,
Victor Ducedre <vic...@netrover.com> wrote:
| "Amigoids"? There's gotta be a better word for that. :)
I prefer "Amigaphiles", myself! :-D
--
Togath (tog...@swcp.com)