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Title: At Church/Kirkossa Filename: kirkossa.it |
Posted Thu 24th Jun 2004
Rated 6 / 10 |
| Gospel trance? Gospel trance my eye! Well, I can hear the trance part, but it's not nearly boistrous enough to be gospel music! Or maybe I'm just thinking of American gospel music. At any rate, this song has a nice melody, but I find it to be a little bit too simplistic over too long a period of time. The melody follows the typical C-A-F-G progression that I've heard in so many other musical works, that I find it hard to keep interest. The music just doesn't do anything creative with the main theme beyond what we're hearing in the first few orders. It's decent music, but not captivating. Just looking at this track, it's pretty clear that the author put a lot of effort into it. I know I would have a hard time spreading everything across 55 channels. And that's real channels, not virtual channels. The author may have been able to reduce the number of real channels necessary by using NNAs, but that's a moot point - the sound quality in the end would be the same. Samples are all 16 bit and sound very good. The author takes advantage of instruments by using volume envelopes, which works pretty well in this song. | |
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Title: New Life Filename: ke-life.xm |
Posted Thu 24th Jun 2004
Rated 9 / 10 |
| I really like this song's chord progression. It's pretty unique, and the author builds upon it with some very intersting and well written leads. There's a lot of echoing going on in this song, almost to the point of excess, but it provides a nice atmosphere. This song is always interesting to listen to throughout the four minutes it plays. The author keeps on trying new things with the music in order to add variety, and it works. I thought the key change late in the song was awkward, however. Perhaps the pitch slide up on the leads contributed to that - key changes don't need to have such an obvious segue. Still, this song is very good, and is an easy recommendation. Excellent sample set. They all sounded very nice and clear, and work well given the music. Nice, professional job on writing out the music. Volume levels are appropriate, with the exception of instrument 4 in pattern 48 (and subsequent patterns) - that one should have been toned down just a bit. Good use of stereo panning, the directionality employed really added to the depth of this song's sound. Great job. | |
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Title: kakka housuissa Filename: kakka.xm |
Posted Thu 24th Jun 2004
Rated 6 / 10 |
| This is a pretty good chip tune. I've heard better, but it's decent (and very short). It's a 6 channel XM. Definitely reminiscent of old 8-bit video game music. It is able to achieve some good sound on very limited resources, which I suppose means that it accomplished its goal. Standard low-quality samples typical of chip. The author did a pretty good job achieving an echo effect on the instrument playing in channel 6. No stereo panning, but I don't really expect it for this style of song. Not much to say, really - this tune is so simplistic, it's hard to come up with any comments with regard to it. | |
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Title: The Offspring Filename: kaizsu_-_the_offspring.xm |
Posted Thu 24th Jun 2004
Rated 3 / 10 |
| This is a very short punk-style song. The author has a better sense of rhythm and melody than I've heard in his other works, it's just the execution. The author seems to stick with the same set of samples for every song, and these samples aren't very interesting to listen to. The result is a song that has potential to be something interesting, but a lack of creativity holds it back. The main theme is something that could be built into a longer and better song, but the author didn't do that. As noted, the sample set isn't very interesting. In fact, I reviewed another song today by the same author that had the exact same samples in it! Diversify, diversify, diversify. Most of the instruments are playing full blast, but there's no real problem with the volume levels in this song. No stereo panning (I've noticed this in a lot of songs I've reviewed lately). Not that good - but it could be worse. | |
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Title: Emptiness Filename: kaizsu_-_emptiness.xm |
Posted Thu 24th Jun 2004
Rated 2 / 10 |
| I really hate it when the order list is three times as long as the total number of patterns written. It means there's a lot of repetition - and with a song this slow and uneventful, it almost put me to sleep. I suppose it's better than listening to a song that hurts my ears. This song is based on a simple guitar melody based on the A-4 and E-4 notes. It gradually adds more instruments to the mix, but gradually is the key word here. Very little happens in this song. It's five minutes long, but four of those minutes are the same guitar part repeating over and over and over. The timing is very awkward. At the end of each pattern are about 16 rows of air, because the guitar part finishes at row 49. As a result, there's a long pause with no notes that doesn't sound right. The guitar sample has an annoying warbling sound to it, and it sounds like it's being played an octave lower than its optimal range. Increasing the pitch by an octave, or choosing a guitar better suited for that low range would have improved the sound. | |
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Title: Mennään kotiin Filename: kaizsu_-_mennaan_kotiin.xm |
Posted Wed 23rd Jun 2004
Rated 1 / 10 |
| This song hurt my ears. I'm not kidding. It's not kind to people wearing headphones. So, what to say about the music? It's a combination of distorted guitars played at an irritatingly repetetive rate and excruciatingly shrill leads that just POUND AWAY AT YOUR EARDRUMS RELENTLESSLY. I can vaguely sense something that resembles music in the introduction, but aside from that, this song is pure cacophony. There's nothing redeeming in it - stay far, far away. Some songs can break the rules of music theory and still sound good. This is not one of them. I wouldn't bother trying to fix it, either. There doesn't appear to be any technique whatsoever applied to the music, so there's not much I can say about it on the technical front besides "it's all wrong." Let this song serve as a warning to all young, eager newbie trackers who want to release their tunes for the world to hear: don't upload your songs right away. | |
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Title: Joys of Insanity Filename: kaizsu_-_joys_of_insanity.xm |
Posted Wed 23rd Jun 2004
Rated 2 / 10 |
| It's not very good. It sticks to one theme and doesn't offer anything interesting. Mostly volume, little musical value to this song. No originality to this piece, it's just not much fun to listen to at all. Not recommended. The lead guitar sounds like it's being played about an octave lower than it should be. It was very hard to hear amongst all the heavy hitting percussion and guitars. Too many patterns repeated - it makes the song tedious. | |
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Title: Ice core of my mind Filename: icecode.it |
Posted Wed 23rd Jun 2004
Rated 6 / 10 |
| There's a good number of things to like about this song, but a number of things not to like as well. I think the author did a good job of creating the melody and chord progression to acompany it, and this song has a nice demo style to it. The song doesn't ever stray from this melody and chord progression, and for a 3:28 song, it gets tedious to hear the same theme repeated over and over. I don't think the pianos were tracked very well, either - using a note cut and copying the channel to add an echo effect are not very effective: it doesn't sound like a real piano. I think a simple note fade could have provided all the reverb necessary. Still, it's not a bad song, it's just bogged down by the repetition. Technically, it's effective, but not spectacular. I like the effect produced with the offsets in pattern 13, on the synth lead instrument. A few 16-bit samples, but mostly 8-bit. The 16-bit samples are all percussion, and the percussion does sound good - however, the synth samples are of a noticeably lower quality, and they're what mostly make up this song. As a result, the overall sound is of lower quality than it should be. Patterns are tracked out well enough, however - they seem to be well structured and organized. | |
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Title: Killerbeats - techmi Filename: kill_beat.xm |
Posted Wed 23rd Jun 2004
Rated 6 / 10 |
| This is not music for listening. I have listened to it twice already, and really don't like the sound of it at all. Is it well tracked? Sure. But I don't really see the appeal of listening to the same techno sounds repeat over and over and over for five minutes. This could work as something played at a rave, but it's not something I would sit down and listen to. It is heavy on the percussion, with trance-like chords playing every now and then, as well as an electronic sequence achieved through use of instrument one. But that's really all there is to it - and it's repeated endlessly. Well tracked, but I didn't enjoy the music. This song deserves some good technical marks, even if I didn't like the music. Good mix of samples, none of them overpowered the others. The author knows how to get the sound he's looking for out of his samples. I was a little disappointed that sequences were used, as opposed to being tracked out, but they did add to the overall sound. No stereo panning used at all. I certainly don't expect a panning envelope or effect on every single row of the song, but having some stereo effects could enhance the sound - songs in mono have little depth to them. | |
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Title: The Unavoided Filename: kd-unav.it |
Posted Wed 23rd Jun 2004
Rated 7 / 10 |
| Musically, this one is very nice. While the main chord progression and underlying theme never change, the author does enough with the patterns to keep the song interesting throughout the four minutes that this song runs. I really like what was done with the piano, that sounded very nice. I'm not sure how to classify this song, but whatever style it is, it sounds pretty good. Percussion was nice and clean sounding, but I don't think the claps added anything - they probably could have been left out. Overall, this is a very solid song. I think perhaps putting in an interlude from time to time to complement the main theme would have been beneficial - I'm really big on making sure songs have lots of variety in them. Regardless of that, this song is a good listen. Pretty effective technical work on this song. The samples sound pretty good - they probably could have sounded better as 16 bit samples, but I don't really expect that from songs of this one's time period. The crash cymbal that came in at pattern 12 was too loud, and I don't think that sample really fit in with the feel of the song. A cymbal with less "high end" on its sound would have worked better. The author didn't use any envelopes, but did take advantage of new note actions, which added some depth to the song. | |
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Title: ElkMan-King of the Forest Filename: kingman.it |
Posted Tue 22nd Jun 2004
Rated 8 / 10 |
| I must commend the author on his style for this one - it was really refreshing and enjoyable to listen to. The song begins with pizzicato strings and some cello...and then the funky breakbeat kicks in. It's an odd combination of instruments, but it works really well. The song slows down in the middle for a different section, and then it kicks back into gear with the main theme again, in a different key. I actually thought that the middle section was unnecessary, and would have liked to hear more of the main theme playing - I'm sure there are lots of ways to add variety to the song without having to completely change the theme. Overall, it's very good musically, I just wish it had been longer. The song has some nice, high quality samples. You wouldn't expect a "floating tempo" with most songs that are based on orchestral instruments, but this song has one. It adds to the funk flavor of this song that's mixed in with the orchestral style. When I first listened to this song in Modplug Player, I thought "that's a pretty good drum loop in there." Turns out it's no drum loop - the percussion is all tracked out by the author, and it sounds great. Good use of stereo panning and good volume levels - solid all around. | |
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Title: :bezuszny karol.. Filename: karol.xm |
Posted Tue 22nd Jun 2004
Rated 2 / 10 |
| In what appears to be an attempt to show off his technical skills, the author composed the entire song within one pattern. This mean there are lots and lots of loopbacks, and lots and lots of repetition. This song gets old very quickly, as a result. I suppose if it were tracked normally, it might be a worthwhile listen. As it is, there's just not enough variety to make this song entertaining. Too clever for its own good. About two minutes after hearing the same theme over and over and over, it starts to get a bit messed up. It doesn't sound right. A huge negative: the song doesn't play in Modplug Player, and in Modplug Tracker I had to play the pattern, not the song. I'm not sure for the reason why there was only one pattern - either to show off, or because of the rules of some compo. Regardless of the reasoning, the outcome is that it makes the song a big mess. | |
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Title: McGyver Filename: kaizsu_-_mcgyver.xm |
Posted Tue 22nd Jun 2004
Rated 3 / 10 |
| This is a very short Fast Tracker take on the opening theme to the 80's and early 90's TV series McGyver. The introduction sounded decent enough, but when the main theme hit, it went downhill. There was an unexpected (and unnecessary) increase in tempo for that part, and after that, I didn't really like the sound at all. I don't think a guitar lead works for the melody here, it just doesn't sound right. Samples, particularly the guitar lead, are low quality. The guitar lead's loop is terrible - however, it was not obvious in the song, as I'm not sure the sample was ever sustained long enough to get to the loop point. Didn't look like much care went into determining the volume levels. This song is a bit haphazard technically. | |
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Title: kattastrof Filename: kattastr.xm |
Posted Tue 22nd Jun 2004
Rated 5 / 10 |
| This is a rock song, but I found it to be a little boring. Part of this is due to the repetition of patterns - there are 32 orders, but only 17 patterns. The rule of thumb in this song seems to be "play one melody, and then repeat it." There's just not enough in the melody to keep me interested as I listen. The chords for the guitar lead are an interesting idea, adding a new lead every pattern over four patterns until you get the whole chord - but I don't think it's very well executed technically. All in all, this song underwhelmed. Samples are some of the same ones I've heard time and time again in other songs, and I've liked their usage more in other songs than in this one. Volume levels don't work: the guitar lead (instrument 7) gets way too overpowering in patterns 10-13 (sequence used twice). The panning should have been different for the lead as well - it sounds awkward to have them all shift right and then left in unison. The author did little in the way of controlling the volume and panning within the song, and it ended up sounding messy. | |
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Title: kivikehä Filename: kivikeha.xm |
Posted Sat 19th Jun 2004
Rated 9 / 10 |
| This is what I call good techno. It's not brash and noisy and dark like industrial music, it's not annoyingly repetetive and simplistic like dance music, and it's long enough that you can sink your teeth into it - but not excessively long. Kivikeh is a nice synth/breakbeat song, with a great chord progression and some very nice percussion. It's always interesting to listen to, the authors throw in some changes with every pattern so that it never gets boring or repetetive. In fact, not a single pattern is repeated. Masterful work on the percussion, even if one of the samples IS a drum loop. Good, satisfying ending. Well done! Samples sound great. They're all 8-bit, but I didn't notice any detriment to the sound. Good job on tracking the percussion - lesser trackers would have left the song up to the breakbeat completely, whereas here the breakbeat is all part of a larger set of percussion instruments playing. Why no stereo? Adding some stereo panning could have added depth to the song. Volume levels are good throughout, nothing was excessively loud or soft, just about everything sounded right. | |
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Title: T.S. [Extended Ver.] Filename: ke-tough.xm |
Posted Sat 19th Jun 2004
Rated 9 / 10 |
| When I look at the huge backlog of mediocre songs I have waiting for me in the "K" directory, it's songs like this that make it worthwhile. This is songs is 5:46 in length the the file size is a whopping 4.570 megabytes. The tune is experimental, as described by the author, and it's really very interesting - a lot better to listen to than the generic dance techno that people like for some reason. There's a warbling guitar that plays the lead throughout most of the song. It wastes no time with the introduction and gets right into the meat of the song. The chord progression is quite good. I particularly liked the patterns towards the end, when the song was coming to a climax. Just an overall great sound. I found a few sloppy things related to the samples. Modplug indicated that there is one sample referenced by an instrument that is never played. Several samples also have data after the loopback point. Cutting those and removing the sample saved about 400K on the file size. The samples are very high-quality sounding 16 bit samples. The lead guitar takes up the bulk of the sample space, but it sounds pretty good. I think the author went a little overboard with the tone portamentos on it, however. It doesn't hurt to play a sample from the start every now and then. Good job of panning, good use of effects. A very professional technical job. | |
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Title: Sami Filename: kaizsu_-_sami.xm |
Posted Sat 19th Jun 2004
Rated 3 / 10 |
| A little better than the other offerings from Kaizsu that I've heard so far. This is a two minute song that actually combines two completely unrelated melodies. The first 50 seconds are a piano + percussion tune, the remainder is all metal. Why are they in the same song? I have no idea. The piano part is just two chords playing at the same intervals, gradually adding percussion. The metal part is the same riff playing throughout the remainder of the song, but at least the author has a decent sense of progression in this part. A little better than the same author's "Aaltonen" and "Korpi Warrior," but not by much. No stereo panning whatsoever. Sample set is pretty basic, using guitars (electric and bass) that I've heard many times before. Very loud, a little toying with the volume levels could probably produce some better sound. | |
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Title: intro tune no.5 Filename: k3-intr5.mod |
Posted Sat 19th Jun 2004
Rated 4 / 10 |
| Short chip intro, four channel mod, written in 1994. There were better chip tunes written in 1994 (see Skaven's InvTro 1994). Has a loop back ending, but the loop back is a little awkward (something about how the percussion is handled in the last 16 rows of the final pattern). High end "chord" effect supplied by arpeggios, which I suppose works okay. Very short, and certainly not the best sampling of chip music out there. Not much to say about this technically. Typical assortment of chip samples. Arpeggio is used throughout the whole song, there are some pitch slides and tone portamentos as well. Nothing to write home about, really - it's tracked well enough for a chip tune, maybe it works given the intro it's a part of, it's just not really worth listening to as a mod. | |
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Title: Clip Tune 8 Filename: k-rave.mod |
Posted Sat 19th Jun 2004
Rated 6 / 10 |
| This is a four-channel mod, sort of an acid-house style of music. It has decent chord progression and good use of the acid samples. It's a little over three minutes long, and I like the fact that it throws in some interludes to the main theme that's playing, to keep it interesting. On top of that, there are variations of the main theme that also play. I'm not too enamored with the song's style itself, but it's decent. The author keeps it interesting enough for it to be a rather worthwhile listen. Pretty good, considering the limitations of the format. All channels are used well, the author did a good job of creating echo effects with limited resources. Samples are of decent quality. Stereo panning is the extreme left/right that I've come to expect from this format, not much that can be done with that. | |
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Title: All Dimensions Filename: kecke-dimens.xm |
Posted Fri 18th Jun 2004
Rated 7 / 10 |
| I thought that this song had a very good introduction. I like how it started out with just the four piano notes, but then got progressively more detailed. On the whole, the song is interesting, as normally you don't hear something this happy-sounding accompanied with dance beats. You know what the most important part of a stew is? Not the meat, potatoes or vegetables - it's the stew base. If it doesn't have the base, it's not stew. So, what's the most important part of a song? Not the piano, percussion, or the synth leads, but the basic theme that the song is written upon. That's what makes a song a song. I bring this up because this song's theme is just too simple and overly repeated. The C-7 A-6 F-6 G-6 alternation of notes is one of the oldest themes in modern musical history, which you can hear in all sorts of songs - this one reminded me of music from the musical "Grease." Was it a bad idea to use this progression? No, it's never a bad idea to use any progression, but the song the author built on this theme never strays from it. I'm not saying the song is bad, of course - it's really pretty good. But it never wavers from this one theme, and it's overly simplified. With only a length of 2:45, the author could have easily written a longer and more interesting song by adding interludes and a new theme or two. As it is, this song is a very nice little tune, and will receive the distinct honor of not being deleted from my hard drive. But I can't help but think that, with a little more imagination, this song could have been much, much more. Technically, it's very good. Samples are nice and clear, being used at appropriate times. The author displays good tracking know-how with the guitar effects and short patterns used for transitioning. The dance percussion samples - the hihat in particular - are the same ones I hear in every dance tune, which is slightly disappointing. Good volume levels, no one sample overpowers the others - I like how the saw synths were loud enough to be noticed, but not loud enough to drown out all the other samples (an all too common mistake of those using saw synths). Very well tracked. | |
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Title: Aaltonen Filename: aaltonen.xm |
Posted Fri 18th Jun 2004
Rated 2 / 10 |
| Short metal song, with vocal samples, very basic musical style. I didn't understand the vocals, I assume that they're in Finnish. They really gave an idea of what the whole song is like: a lot of overdriven noise. This song was not something that I could just sit down and enjoy, it's just way too loud. On top of that, the melody is simplistic and doesn't vary - if the song had been longer than 86 seconds, some interludes, or at least SOME kind of variety would have been necessary. Not recommended. Technically - the vocal samples were recorded way too loud, causing annoying distortion (particularly for those listening with headphones, such as myself). Generic sample set, using the same metal instruments I've heard time and time again. Decent job of doing the percussion. No stereo panning at all - it certainly could not have hurt to add some. | |
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Title: Korpi Warrior Filename: kaizsu_-_korpi_warrior.xm |
Posted Fri 18th Jun 2004
Rated 2 / 10 |
| You've got to love a song that's based on a grand total of three notes (C, D and D#, to be exact), especially when they're all playing in the same order. Seriously, that's all there is to this metal song, plus a lot of percussion. Fortunately, it's only two minutes long. There's absolutely no variety in this, and the pounding tom drums got on my nerves about halfway through the song. It just keeps on relentlessly firing away. Some of the looping samples had excess after the loop end point, this could have been cut to save file size. Guitar samples blare at the loudest possible volume. I've heard all of these samples before, they're seriously overused. Very little sense of structure - the patterns are like big cinderblocks of music stacked on top of each other. No stereo panning, adding a little could have helped the sound somewhat. | |
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Title: PuuTiaisen Kosto Filename: kan-puut.s3m |
Posted Fri 18th Jun 2004
Rated 4 / 10 |
| A three minute metal song. The author at least went for a little variety throughout this tune's course by modifying the theme played, so I have to give him a little credit - but overall, this song is uninspired at best. The guitar lead that comes in towards the end is very flat, and hearing it play with the other instruments bothered my ear. Tempo change near the beginning made things a little interesting. This song could have been better. The main guitar sample is played higher than its optimal range from time to time, such as in the beginning - and A-6 is a bit of a stretch for this sample. Also, these are samples I've heard zillions of time, but since it's a song from 1996 (about when I started tracking, coincidentally), it's probably forgiveable. No attempts at stereo panning. Very few effects, aside from the speed change. Samples are out of tune. | |
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Title: Allt jag önskar Filename: klu_allt.xm |
Posted Fri 18th Jun 2004
Rated 6 / 10 |
| This is a three minute one-sample wonder. The only instrument is a single piano sample, no percussion, strings, bass, or anything else. The tune itself is pretty nice, and it flows very well. I like how there were several different variations of the main theme that kept things interesting. Repetition was a small problem - there were only ten unique patterns, one of which was an "empty" pattern for the ending, but 26 orders. That means that, on average, each pattern would have to be played at least two times. It's not evenly distributed, of course, as the final three patterns each play exactly once. Patterns 0 and 3, however, are played six times each. Six times! That's a bit much. The fact that the song is a pretty good one lets me forgive that slightly, but I really think that more variety could have helped out a lot. The ending was a bit weak - I was expecting a resolution, but it just ended on some awkward notes. In the end, however, the song is a good one. What can I say about the one sample? Well, seeing as space isn't really a problem, I think the author should have added more samples. A lower piano and a higher piano would have really enhanced the sound from this mod. The single sample included is optimal when played between the notes C-6 and C-7. However, the author has this sample playing notes far beyond that range. It's not quite as noticeable on the lower end, but when the high notes play, it just doesn't sound like a piano anymore. That's the most important technical note I can make - fixing that would have earned the song a 7.0 or 7.5 rating from me. | |
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Title: kintaro's cap Filename: kintfxd.s3m |
Posted Thu 17th Jun 2004
Rated 5 / 10 |
| I assume the title refers to the character of Kintaro Oe from the anime series Goldenboy. The author of this song seems to have a good idea of how punk rock music is constructed, and I heard some good musical ideas in here. The problem I had with it is that it kept on playing the same theme without much variation at all. There were some tempo changes and interludes that gave it a bit of variety, but on the whole, I found this song to be not terribly appealing. The various sound effects samples used, such as the slide whistle, gave the song some flavor, but in the end I couldn't figure out what purpose they had for being there. This is a decent song, and punk enthusiasts may find it to be worth listening. On the technical side of things, the author exhibits some skill as a tracker. Not all of the samples blare at maximum volume the whole time, and there's some creative use of volume sliding with the main guitar. There's limited use of effects, but they are used. The sample set is fairly simple, and I swear I've heard those guitars somewhere before. Not terribly high quality samples, but they get the job done, and none of them bothered me when I was listening. | |
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Title: Green Greens Filename: kirby.it |
Posted Thu 17th Jun 2004
Rated 5 / 10 |
| What the crap? This one's...odd. It starts out with some very fierce pizzicato strings in a major key, and then suddenly switches to xylophone and sinewave playing a goofy little oldschool Nintendo-style song. Then the breakbeats come in. Sound weird? Well, it is. It does have a fairly catchy theme, and I wouldn't be surprised if it WERE based on an old video game theme (the fact that it's called "Kirby" gives credence to that). Interesting ideas, but sometimes the song just sounds empty - there'll just be the piano and xylophone playing, and it feels like something more should be going on. This may be due to the quality of the samples used, or the fact that there's no attempt at creating effects like echoing. True, such things are not always necessary, but might be appropriate in this situation. It's an unusual little tune, to be sure, and I'm not quite sure it works. It is an interesting listen. The author knows a few things about musical construction. This is the first song I've reviewed over the last week or so that actually uses the concept of chords! The samples blare pretty much throughout the song, but I was listening on headphones, which will have some effect in that regard. No subtlety at all, but I guess this style of song needs little. Didn't use any notable effects (aside from Cxx) or take advantage of the power of the IT format, doing so could have improved the song. Uses the same piano sample that everybody uses. Made pretty good use of some of the samples included, and did a good job constructing the beat. | |
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Title: Jose 1 Filename: goodnightkiss.it |
Posted Thu 17th Jun 2004
Rated 7 / 10 |
| This is a short, very nice little song. It begins with some atmospheric rain effects and some low strings before the guitar kicks in. It's a slow, mellow song. The flute that kicks in a bit later on sounds odd, but it still works, given the context. I like the guitars, which I believe are the Washburn guitar samples made famous in Leviathan's "Emerald Visions." The ending of the song seemed a little abrupt to me, for some reason - it left me hanging. I could see that as being the desired effect, however. This is a nice song, not the most earth shattering thing in the world, but it's recommendable. Technically, it's very well done. The author uses stereo panning to its optimal extent, providing great directionality of the samples without the panning becoming a distraction. I like how the rain ambience sounded with the stereo effects used - it had a very envoloping feel to it. Author used volume and panning envelopes to his advantage, varied the volume appropriately for the samples, and was able to dictate the pace of how the whole thing went effectively. Everything seemed under control. | |
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Title: Kinky Dinky Waltz Filename: kinky.xm |
Posted Thu 10th Jun 2004
Rated 4 / 10 |
| Don't be fooled by the name - there's no actual kinkiness in this waltz. The music is interesting, it reminds me of music that would be played in German festivals (I've been to many of those, so it's hard to forget the style). It's very short, and the music doesn't particularly grab me. It's a little boring, to be honest. Perhaps waltz just doesn't translate well into mod format - either that or I just haven't heard one that I've liked enough to recommend yet. I don't care endings that loop back to an earlier point in the song, with the possible exception of game music, so the ending certainly leaves something to be desired. The author seems to know what he's doing in 3/4 time. However, I have a major quibble with the final pattern, at the loopback point: the row with the Dxx command (using FT2 effects) plays, and once the row is complete, the jump occurs. However, the author placed the Dxx on row 48. Since we start at row 0, that means that 49 rows ended up playing, and we get an awkward pause before it loops back to the beginning. Moving the Dxx command one row higher fixes this problem. I'm pretty surprised that the author didn't catch that, and so I'm going to have to dock him some points for it. Samples are of mediocre quality, fairly limited set, and the author doesn't really do anything interesting on the technical side of things. | |
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Title: kingsize by m Filename: kingsize.mod |
Posted Thu 10th Jun 2004
Rated 4 / 10 |
| Not really worth a download. Most of the music wasn't particularly interesting. I did think that after order 10, the song gets a little better - the musical ideas are at least interesting, just not well executed. The tune is overall just too simple and too boring for me to want to hear again. Four channel MOD, so no stereo panning beyond Left/Right. Low quality samples, and for a mod apparently written in 2000, I would only accept low quality samples for chip songs. All samples play at the maximum volume throughout the song, no variation in volume. The patterns look like they were put together hastily, as it's pretty much all notes, with very few effects and volume changes. | |
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Title: kingsize Filename: kingsize2.mod |
Posted Sun 9th Nov 2003
Rated 5 / 10 |
| kingsize is a rather unremarkable bass and drum synth mod. It's a very simple tune, not deviating at all from the main theme. I really couldn't warm up to this tune - it just didn't sound like there was much inspiration at all behind this thing. I didn't really care for the bass line, either. Add to that the fact that it doesn't end - it simply loops back to an earlier point - something I really don't care for. It certainly wasn't a horrible song, but certainly not a song that's worth the download. The sample set is very limited, and most of them are very generic sounding - I know I've heard a lot of these samples before. Being a mod, it's limited to four channels. It certainly didn't get the best sound out of what it had, though. The musical structure didn't seem very professional - mostly just repeated use of the same basic theme over and over. | |
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Title: King Aurther Filename: king-aurthers-madriegle-v2.xm |
Posted Wed 11th Sep 2002
Rated 5 / 10 |
| While I do give this song points for originality, it doesn't offer a whole lot more than that. The filename describes it as a madrigal, although such is not true - a madrigal is a polyphonic song written for several unaccompanied voices - seeing as this has instruments, but no voices, the title couldn't be more incorrect. But I'm nitpicking. While the song itself isn't bad, it certainly isn't one that compels me to go back and listen to again. Is it just me, or does it seem that all the samples are played at full blast? Oh well, no matter. The construction of the song itself was appropriate for the style, with a fairly minimal approach and no adding of unnecessary notes. Samples sounded decent enough. | |
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Title: Kestrel Divine Filename: kestrel.it |
Posted Wed 11th Sep 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| I had a hard time trying to classify the style of this song, so I just put synth (it's a style similar to that of Necros's "Ascent of the Cloud Eagle"). That aside, I must say that this is a very good song. I liked the introduction, and the music throughout the song sounded very nice. My only complaint is a rather minor one - the snare drum used clashed a bit with the rest of the song. A slightly softer one would have been a better choice. But, regardless, it's a good sound through and through. Nicely done. There were no noticeable flaws in the technical side of things. The samples sounded good, and blended together very well. The fading done on the chords was masterful. The author exhibits a very thorough knowledge of tracking. | |
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Title: kingdomr.xm Filename: kingdomr.xm |
Posted Fri 6th Sep 2002
Rated 3 / 10 |
| And why, pray tell, should I find this song interesting? This is a very basic dance tune that offers nothing that hasn't been done better elsewhere. It's just a bass drum, a few other percussion samples playing, and a ceaselessly irritating synth lead. There's far better dance tunes out there. Taking a look at the order list, I see that one pattern was repeated no fewer than eight times. Yes, EIGHT times. There is no need to play a pattern over and over simply to pad your song's length - it only bores the listener and detracts from the overall experience of the song. Also, I should point out that the bass drum was far too loud. | |
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Title: Army Of Immortals Filename: ka-mmrtl.xm |
Posted Fri 6th Sep 2002
Rated 4 / 10 |
| Much like the other recent song by Katana I reviewed (Twilight Mazes), this one started off showing some promise, but fell apart a few moments later. In this case, it was when the orchestral part ended and the rock part kicked in. I found it very hard to continue listening to this one, as it offered nothing interesting, and was annoying to my ears. I wonder why Katana didn't just work on the theme he had at the introduction? While that could have used some polishing, it would have been much better than the rock part that took control after a minute had passed. The piano is HORRIBLY out of tune. And I mean horribly, to the point of making the song almost unlistenable. Like Twilight Mazes, this one suffers from what appears to be poorly planned patterns. At times it seems that there's no real direction the song's headed in - just a bunch of garbled, halway-tuned notes playing. | |
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Title: TwiLight Mazes Filename: ka-mazes.xm |
Posted Fri 6th Sep 2002
Rated 4 / 10 |
| This is a very confused-sounding piece of music - while frequently a lax sense of rhythm can work to a song's advantage, it doesn't work at all here. To be honest, the piano part to this one sounds like a novice sat down and improvised a tune. Which isn't to say that this song isn't without its moments. The beginning is not bad. But, for the most part, this song is a jumbled mess. I've got some issues with the chords in this song - or rather, the dischord. I don't know if this was intentional, but the piano chords sound terribly off once the introduction ends. While in some songs this works, it does not work for this song's style. The general sound of this song was quite clunky and garbled - not very well put-together at all. | |
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Title: kaikki on unta Filename: kaikkion.it |
Posted Fri 6th Sep 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| Whoah! While the beginning didn't sound like it would provide a whole lot of promise, this song just blew me away after a bit passed. It was very short, but the fact that it was short worked to this song's advantage - any longer and it would have become cumbersome. It's a very sedate piece, with no percussion, focusing heavily on a very simple and lilting melody. This one's a keeper. This author knows what he's doing. Panning is spot on, and adds a great deal of depth to the song. I also liked the way the volume was handled - not a single sample sounded too loud or too soft. Good use of reverb as well. This is one of the better songs I've reviewed on a technical level. | |
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Title: The Lost Kingdom Filename: kingdomm.xm |
Posted Tue 16th Jul 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| A nice, short atmospheric song. The introduction was good, and I like the way it progressed. It manages to stay fresh the whole time without rehashing previous material. There's a nice blend of different sounds in this one as well. Great effort throughout, and worth a listen. I'm going to get my only technical quibble behind me first thing: in pattern 6, the bass is left looping for the duration of the pattern. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but it didn't sound very good to me. Other than that, this is quite well done, with great use of effects. | |
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Title: My kingdom to come Filename: kingdomcome.xm |
Posted Tue 16th Jul 2002
Rated 4 / 10 |
| Well, this was certainly interesting. Irritating, but interesting. I can't help but feeling like there's no musical point to this song. It's metal, but it constantly changes the tempo and melody, and when it ended, I was very unsatisfied with what I had heard. I guess it doesn't help much that I'm not a big fan of metal, either. For what it's worth, some of the themes sound decent, but in the end this song just felt like a bunch of highlights from a dozen other metal songs. I'm not sure what the point of the constant tempo changes were. The samples sound decent, although tuning needs work. The structure of the song itself is very messy. I think the biggest flaw is the lack of a sense of rhythm. Not only are the tempo changes constant, but in the patterns themselves, the timing doesn't seem right. | |
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Title: King's Cross Filename: kingcrs.xm |
Posted Tue 16th Jul 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| I gawked a bit when I saw the length of this song, but after listening to it in its entirety, I must say that I liked this one. The piano-based melody sounded very good, and I really didn't get bored during the first five minutes of the song. However, I think that it could have been shortened. The ending sounded a bit different, it didn't quite mix well with the general style of the song. However, it's still quite good, and worth listening to. Generally well-done in all technical areas. I was disappointed that the author didn't track out the percussion himself, as it was entirely based on one breakbeat throughout the whole song. It sounded fine, though. Technique seems to be well-done, good use of echoing and fading throughout, and effects seem to be well-placed. Samples sounded fine. | |
Title: Dark poetry
Filename: klu_dark.xm
Rated 6 / 10