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arcturus's Comments

Download: Title: K9- All your secrets Filename: k9_allyo.xm	Posted Sun 9th Jun 2002 Rated 5 / 10
Not having heard anything by K-9 before, I didn't quite know what to expect from this song. After one listening, I can see that K-9 has potential, but does need work in some areas. The song itself is a slow ballad, mostly based on piano and several acoustic guitar samples. It has a simple melody, but falls into the vicious cycle of repetition, as I have seen happen frequently with trackers of this level. The melody itself isn't bad at all, however, I would have liked a bit more complexity. There's use of a vocal sample in here as well (which I'll comment upon a bit more in the technical section) but I don't think it worked out. It didn't really add anything to the song, and would have been better off without it. K-9 certainly will be able to produce some quality material with practice. I was able to enjoy this song somewhat, but it certainly could use some retooling. Not a whole lot of effort was put into making use of stereo, but at least there was stereo panning in there. I couldn't see much technical complexity, and use of effects was minimal to nonexistent. The sampleset itself has a few quality samples, although I didn't like the choice of piano for this particular song. My main problem with the samples is that they aren't tuned very well. After going through all the samples, I'm not sure how many different flat and sharp tones there were. In addition, the vocal samples just don't work. They're VERY flat, and not timed very well with the song. It would have been better off without them.

Download: Title: TIL K Filename: k.it	Posted Sun 9th Jun 2002 Rated 7 / 10
I must say, this song has a great introduction, which really drew me into it. The chord structure and bassline worked quite well, and choice of samples provided for a fairly unique sound. Of course, the problem I have with this song, as far as the music itself goes, is that it falls into the vicious cycle of repetition. After a few minutes, I wanted more variety, some variant or tangent off of the main theme. None ever came, which was rather disappointing, since this song does exhibit a good deal of potential. I hadn't really heard any other songs by SinSeven, but this one definitely impressed me, in spite of the repetition. With a bit of tweaking and a few additions, this song could be excellent. I do have a few technical complaints about this song as well. First off, there's almost no use of stereo panning. Granted, making the best use of stereo effects is tricky, but anything would have been welcome here. In addition, I had a problem with the use of instrument 1, which is basically the backbone of this song. To increase the volume, SinSeven doubled it up in two channels. The sudden increase of volume when shifting from one channel to two was very awkward, and very unprofessional sounding. The samples themselves sound good, although some are fairly old. Several of them are 16 bit. Good choice of samples for the most part (I would have chosen a different bass guitar, however).

Download: Title: Kalmyrian Journey Filename: kal-jour.s3m	Posted Fri 7th Jun 2002 Rated 2 / 10
I really had a hard time figuring out how to classify this song. But I had an even harder time listening to it. I don't think the drumline has any sort of variation whatsoever during its duration. Add to that that it's ridiculously drawn out, about four times as long as it should have been. It seems as if the author had the mindset of "Well, I can make this song longer if I play each pattern four times more!" It's quite annoying, and not musically interesting, either. The author really doesn't exhibit any technical skill with this song. The drums repeat throughout the duration, and there was nothing that really stood out. At least the samples sounded decent from my observations.

Download: Title: klefz ascii page! Filename: kap.mod	Posted Thu 6th Jun 2002 Rated 3 / 10
I had a little time, so I thought I'd review this little chip tune. And it's a poorly done chip tune. It doesn't deliver a decent melody, and the lead sample chosen grates the ear. It's very short, so there's not a whole lot I can say about this. I'll just say that it doesn't work. Of all the samples the author could have chosen as a lead, it had to be the most annoying possible one. The lead just doesn't sound good to me. There's a few effects dispersed throughout this song, but not a whole lot to really add effect or make this song any better.

Download: Title: the knight is back Filename: knight.mod	Posted Thu 6th Jun 2002 Rated 6 / 10
It's a demo song in a four channel mod. Musically, it's fairly good, but way too long for this kind of song, in my opinion. It carries some good themes, but overall, I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd heard it before somewhere. But hey, not a bad listen. I didn't see what the point of having sample 15 was. While limited to four channels, it makes fairly good use of its resources. Samples are fairly generic, the lead used wasn't of very high quality. Volume was kept at a good level for the samples used. There's not a whole lot I can nitpick here, but nothing beyond what I've mentioned was really notable.

Download: Title: Hide U - Koshen Filename: koshen.xm	Posted Wed 5th Jun 2002 Rated 7 / 10
Okay, we have a sort of acid breakbeat song here. My usual problem with these types of songs is that they are rather repetetive, and this is no exception. It does exhibit some unique aspects (particularly in the style of percussion instruments that you hear in the beginning), but after a while, the theme gets old. The use of the resonatic samples is good. I was annoyed by the looped samples that play one note and remain looping for several patterns at a time (it appears that this was intentional). It makes good use of its resources, with one exception: there is virtually no usage of stereo panning. Only one instrument uses panning, and to a very limited effect. The structure of the song is good, and it uses volume envelopes quite well.

Download: Title: Knights of Light Filename: knofl.xm	Posted Tue 4th Jun 2002 Rated 8 / 10
Well, after listening to a great deal of mediocre tunes, I was finally rewarded. This one was quite enjoyable. It uses a good melody to its advantage to create a very listenable track. The blending of orchestral samples with a more modern drumline was well done. The vocal samples sounded a bit odd in here, perhaps another orchestral instrument of some kind would have worked better. For the most part, this is quite good. The technical aspect of this song is also good. One complaint I do have, however, is that it used panning envelopes a bit too much. I'm one that doesn't like having instruments moving back and forth between speakers all the time. However, the use of instruments was made to its fullest advantage. Samples sounded good.

Download: Title: Karl Agnes Theme Filename: karl_agnes_theme.mod	Posted Mon 3rd Jun 2002 Rated 3 / 10
Very simplistic. With this particular style of music, having a very simple, basic theme without much variety doesn't work very well. While I've heard a lot of chip music that's enjoyable, this one really isn't. It does procure a fairly decent rock-ish sound, but other than that, it mostly just grates. Good technical skills are always important, but especially crucial with chip songs. This song doesn't really exhibit exceptional technical skills. It's very basic, staying to a particular theme. It does make use of effects throughout, but it's overly simplistic.

Download: Title: karf Filename: karf.xm	Posted Mon 3rd Jun 2002 Rated 5 / 10
Musically, it's not bad. It makes good use of low-quality samples to produce some interesting sound. However, the song doesn't really go anywhere. It's only about twenty seconds long, and I prefer listening to songs of greater length than this. Not a bad idea, but there could have been more. Not bad. Makes good use of limited space and limited samples. The samples themselves are exactly what you would expect from a chip tune. I particularly like the way that the first sample was used.

Download: Title: karawane Filename: karawane.mod	Posted Mon 3rd Jun 2002 Rated 2 / 10
This song has very little to offer musically. It starts off poorly, and just goes downhill from there. The introduction has nothing to do with the main theme of the song, and the main theme of the song is very annoying and repetetive. All in all, this is a song that I am not planning on keeping. Seeing as it's a four-channel mod written in 1993, it's very limited technically. However, it doesn't even use what options it has. The volume of every sample remains constant at 64 in each channel, throughout the song. No effects are used.

Download: Title: Karate Filename: karate_8bit.it	Posted Mon 3rd Jun 2002 Rated 7 / 10
I believe the exact words going through my mind when I listened to this were: "What the hell?" "Karate" is not the kind of title I would expect for a song of this style. However, once I was able to really get into this song, I enjoyed it. True, it's a bit too loud, and fairly low quality, but it's a style that you don't hear very often with mods. It ends up sounding like some bizarre fusion of Bubble Bobble music with 1950's boogie-woogie. Points for originality. I've noticed that the samples sound a LOT better in Modplug than they do in IT, however, it sounds muffled. Samples are not of stellar quality, but they're acceptable. The song makes good use of effects throughout to produce some interesting sound.

Download: Title: War Cries Filename: bz_orc12.it	Posted Sat 1st Jun 2002 Rated 6 / 10
This was certainly interesting, to say the least. While it's certainly not a bad song, it could have been much, much better. It starts out with one theme, and continues with this theme until the end, with little variation. Unfortunately, this doesn't work very well with orchestral songs, which usually call for a bit more variety and changes of key and tempo. The theme it DOES have isn't half bad, but after a few minutes of repetition, it begins to get old. The song has a good idea, but plenty of unlocked potential. The song is waaaaaaaaaay too loud. I noticed that almost all of the channels were blaring at 64. I noticed quite a few unconventional chords. At points there would be a D and a D# playing at the same time, which doesn't sound very good to the ear (however, the author may have been trying to evoke a sense of chaos, judging by the title and style of music). The woodwind instrument that came in at order 25 was quite flat, and could use some tuning (incidentally, using the Gxx effect to slide to a specific note would be much better than using the Fxx effect). Also, the alternating volume effect on instrument 6 (ie 32 to 00 to 44 to 00 to 56 to 00) was used quite frequently, but for orchestral tunes, this makes the strings sound too fake.

Download: Title: untitled Filename: k_nothin.it	Posted Sat 1st Jun 2002 Rated 7 / 10
Musically, I wasn't particularly fond of this song. However, it does have its merits. The author was going for an intentionally scratchy, overdriven sound, which it achieved. While it doesn't have much in terms of melody, it does have a decent beat. However, the song has no real ending, which is something I regard as essential for songs (as opposed to simply looping the song, or leaving it without an ending, as this one appears to do). Technically, there's not a whole lot I can complain about. The samples are scratchy and overdriven, but that was the author's intent. It makes good use of the channels it works in and has good application of effects.

Download: Title: mean and green Filename: k_mean.xm	Posted Wed 29th May 2002 Rated 7 / 10
I was surprised to see this one unreviewed, so I decided to do so myself. That said, I was surprised at the amount of enjoyment I got out of this song. It's quite simple, but it sounds good. It has a beat I was able to get into. Unfortunately, it falls into repetetiveness after a while. If you enjoy bass and drum songs with a good beat, you'll probably enjoy this one. The samples sound good. It is for the most part well put-together, with fairly good use of stereo panning. The use of percussion meshes together very well. I do have one rather large quibble: just what was the purpose of order 24? It was out of place and detracted quite a bit from the overall feel of the song. Otherwise, not too bad.

Download: Title: kilroy6a Filename: kilroy6.mod	Posted Mon 27th May 2002 Rated 1 / 10
The final of the kilroy series, this one is not very different from the previous ones. It's got some sort of a melody that it keeps on repeating and throws in different leads. The author HAS shown a great deal of improvement over the first two kilroy songs, but it's hard to not improve over that. And there's still plenty of room left to improve. The author DOES make better use of the ending this time around, instead of just leaving it to loop back to the beginning. Samples sound the same, 4-channel mod limitations still apply here. No real use of effects as far as I could see.

Download: Title: kilroy5a Filename: kilroy5.mod	Posted Mon 27th May 2002 Rated 2 / 10
This is the best kilroy song that I've reviewed thus far. But that isn't saying much. This one at the very least had a consistent melody. However, there was no variation in the melody, and it got old very quickly. All these kilroy songs seem to be somebody's very early attempt at tracking. Again, it's not too different. The samples are slightly better than the previous kilroy songs I've reviewed, but only slightly. Being a 4 channel mod, there's no panning. Little to no effects were used in this.

Download: Title: kilroy2a Filename: kilroy2.mod	Posted Mon 27th May 2002 Rated 1 / 10
It's a shame that there is nothing below "OK" and "Novice" under the ratings, because if there were, this song would deserve them. I thought kilroy1a was bad, but this one was worse. It amounts to little more than noise, and let me say that I was thankful that it was only 90 seconds long. Not too different from the last kilroy song I reviewed earlier today. The samples used are very poor, especially the snare drum. And the use of the samples isn't anything to write home about, either. Very simplistic, just a bunch of notes that were put together.

Download: Title: kilroy1a Filename: kilroy1.mod	Posted Mon 27th May 2002 Rated 1 / 10
Now, I don't mind simplistic tunes or primitive tunes - if they're listenable. This song, however, is NOT listenable. In fact, listening to this song causes pain. There's no melody to speak of, and whatever's in its place keeps on repeating. Others would do well to avoid this. Technically, it's not as good as it was musically. Samples are of poor quality, and don't really add much to the song. It's just one long repeat, and never gets very complex or interesting.

Download: Title: Kingdom Of PerpetualNight Filename: kingperp.it	Posted Mon 27th May 2002 Rated 7 / 10
This song accomplished a rare feat: it got me to like a dance tune. While it certainly isn't perfect, it kept me interested, and I didn't find my finger hovering over F8 to stop it. I particularly like orders 10-13 and 17-27. While it IS perhaps a bit too long, overall, I liked it. Technically, I didn't like it quite as much as I did musically. The samples are in tune for the most part, but aren't extremely high quality. I noticed that near the beginning, the synth base line and drums overpower the lead just a bit...the lead could be increased slightly at that point.

Download: Title: kill me darling Filename: killmeda.mod	Posted Mon 27th May 2002 Rated 6 / 10
I'm not a huge fan of chip tunes...although granted, judging by the date on this one, it IS quite old. Fortunately, this one isn't half bad. Unfortunately, it falls into the trap of repetetiveness, and gets old after a while. Also, I'm one who prefers and ending to the song rather than a loop. But at least the tune isn't bad. Seeing as it's a four channel mod, using low-quality samples, there's not too much I can say about it technically. The song did sound rather messy - for chip tunes, I like them to have a relatively clean sound. Perhaps the echo used for the leads was a bit too deep.

Download: Title: Killing System II Filename: killing2.xm	Posted Mon 27th May 2002 Rated 4 / 10
This is a very short heavy metal song. Although for a metal song, it seems to have a good base to build upon, it doesn't really go anywhere, and isn't extremely memorable. The theme is rather repetetive (although I admit, it's difficult to write a metal tune that isn't repetetive), and gets boring after a while. Good choice of percussion samples. There are a couple of technical issues. There is a solo to lead off the song, but when the rest of the instruments come in, there is a volume jump in the solo that sounds very awkward. It would have been best to keep the solo at a constant level. Also, the synthesizer used (instrument 20) is out of tune.