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Title: x-centric Filename: x_centr.mod |
Posted Wed 12th Feb 2003
Rated 7 / 10 |
| Not a whole lot musically going on with this piece. It's really just something to listen to while playing a video game. It's actually quite boring and repetative, but there is a brief break in the middle. The usual acid test I have for musical quality in any techno piece is to get out my skateboard, burn the .mod onto a CD and skate to it. If it's comfortable skating with the music in my head, then I generally like the work. This was a reasonable piece to do some nice street skating to. Otherwise, there isn't much to the music worth writing home about. Nice sampling work! I do have to give credit to the composer for putting together a nice piece of tech work with smooth sampling, good use of tonal instrumentation, and a perfect segue from motif to bridge and back. Only complaint I have is the hi-hat sounds tinny and off center. Perhaps that's what the artist was going for, though. | |
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Title: Altair4 Filename: altair4.mod |
Posted Sat 8th Feb 2003
Rated 3 / 10 |
| How this song got on the modarchive? They filterers were not feeling well I guess (no hard feelings - lol) - 1 minute of annoying music - is it music at all??? The tech rating is horrible. Bad samples, bad 'vocals' - everything is bad. The worst thing I've ever heard... | |
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Title: ALTAIR Filename: altair.mod |
Posted Sat 8th Feb 2003
Rated 9 / 10 |
| This mod seems like an 'old age' module :) However it's very nice - I liked the tune very much, and that's why I'm placing high grade. The samples aren't the best, but for old song and only 50k this is normal(i guess). Anyway, the song is good, very good... | |
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Title: Saturday Afternoon Filename: afternoo.xm |
Posted Sat 8th Feb 2003
Rated 4 / 10 |
| This song has one tune repeating over and over and over and over... There is a major change of the tune at 2:45, but it ends at 3:10 - so we can say there are only 25 secs variations... Nothing special about the tech rating. The samples are good, but that's all. The song is let down because there aren't many variations - there are some, but not major, it's like to replace 2-3 notes or so... | |
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Title: 21stCentSchizoidMan Filename: schizoid.mod |
Posted Sat 1st Feb 2003
Rated 6 / 10 |
| Considering I am a King Crimson freak this little cover amused me.. in a good way! 21st Century Schizoid Man is certainly one of the prog rock anthems, and a good tune on top of that! Unfortunately, the version here (understandably) skips the difficult, fast part with the solos, and does not fully do justice to the piece. Anyway, it's a good effort. Very basic. The little pitch slides with the guitar lead are neat. | |
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Title: exterminate-smooth Filename: extermi.mod |
Posted Wed 29th Jan 2003
Rated 7 / 10 |
| Nicely done piece of music. A little heavy on the use of pitch bending in the beginning, but the overall feel of the central theme makes it work. No credit is given to the vocal sampling and the end is a bit abrupt and I've dropped some points for that, but all in all, I'd say download this one. Nice sampling work going on here even though there is no credit given to the sampling. The transitions are smooth and the percussion is clean. I'll have to hang on to this one and see if I can play with it a little. Perhaps something good will come out of it. | |
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Title: XTEC Filename: xtec.mod |
Posted Wed 29th Jan 2003
Rated 7 / 10 |
| I was actually quite surprised with this piece of music. I tend to avoid the smaller files because they are typically not worth the 3 second download, but this piece was actually quite enjoyable. It flows well and is broken up by a great segue. There is no credit given to an author, but I can't wait to see some derivative work made from this piece and even to play with it a little myself. Nice work on the industrial style sampling. I do wish I knew where they came from, but no credit is given to anything or to anyone. The samples are clean and well proportioned with enough grubbiness to make for a very good dissonate sound quality. | |
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Title: ## emotions ## Filename: xtdemotions.mod |
Posted Wed 29th Jan 2003
Rated 6 / 10 |
| Nice progressives, but no real dynamic expressiveness. A lot could be done to improve this piece of music. It doesn't segue well or really capture the spirit of its title. Such is the way of things. A good effort was put into it, though, and I give it kudos for that. A bit too muddy and heavy handed with the sampling. There is no use of sequential dynamics and the entire work sounds contrived and pounded out like a five year old on a piano. I would suggest that this piece is worth the download, but I'll leave it to the individual discretion. It is neither great, nor bad. | |
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Title: b-ware of xtc Filename: b_ware.mod |
Posted Wed 29th Jan 2003
Rated 1 / 10 |
| A very poor work in general. The opening is completely out of tune, which I don't understand how that can happen in an electronic media. The bass is in a different key than the melodies. It's very hard on the ear. Sounds like it could be a first effort. I guess we were all pretty lame at first. Even worse on this than in the music. The sampling is harsh and overbearing. I can't really think of one good thing to say about this work from the tech end of the spectrum except maybe that all the samples line up with the beats. That's not saying much. I wouldn't even bother with the download even though it's short. | |
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Title: xtc racer Filename: xtcracer.mod |
Posted Wed 29th Jan 2003
Rated 4 / 10 |
| Booooooooring. Yeah, that's right, this thing is dull. I mean, by nature Techno is pretty repetitive, but I've heard some very talented things done within the genre. An attempt was made towards the end of the song by adding in what sounds like strings and a piano, but it just doesn't make this worth the download. As there is no artist credit, perhaps this would be a good base for making remixes. Sampling work isn't too bad. It's a bit heavy handed, but that's easily improved upon by use of panning and sequence control. It's still amateur work, but the only credit is given to it being downloaded from Music Channel BBS. | |
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Title: Rising Day Filename: x-rd.xm |
Posted Sat 25th Jan 2003
Rated 4 / 10 |
| Another standard from S.I. There is no musical quality to this work at all. It smacks of a European car commercial, to be honest. The same two chords going over and over again with no rhyme or reason to them. Combined with a shakey rythm, I have to go with a low score on this one. I've reviewed a lot of this artist's work and it would seem to me that each sample in every piece is the same. A little variety goes a long way and my advice is to record some new samples. The work here is low rent and I'm not impressed. | |
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Title: Newer To Be Alone Filename: x-ntba.xm |
Posted Sat 25th Jan 2003
Rated 5 / 10 |
| One has to appreciate the apparent hard work that goes into all of S.I's mods. Hard work, however, doesn't do quite enough to make one a formidable musician in the face of so much amazing talent that I've seen in these lists. My problem with this musically is there is nothing new about it. It is standard progressions and simple, driving motifs that make it, frankly, a little boring. The one nice thing I will say about it is that it's short. I have to give a lot of lost points on the technical aspect for no other reason than it would seem some of the samples were ripped from Tekken 2 without giving credit to the original sampler. I cannot stress this enough, folks: If you're going to rip samples, credit them to the person/place you ripped them from. I understand that not everyone has the patience, time, or dedication to record every sample themselves, but I am begging people to *please* credit ripped samples. | |
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Title: Engage (djduck) Filename: x-engage.it |
Posted Sat 25th Jan 2003
Rated 9 / 10 |
| So I decided to bite the bullet and download this monstrosity. It's been on the list for a while, but has few downloads. I imagine this has nothing to do with anything more than it is a big file and dial-up is still the most common way to access the internet. So, I'm a dinosaur, but here's my review. As far as pure musicianship, on which I guage based solely on the standardized definitions I spent all those years and money in college learning, this is a very good piece of music. It has enough variety to keep the listener waiting for the next nuance, but becomes a bit repetitive in its "building" style of layering the new motifs into the old ones. There is a nice bridge which gives the listener a moment of pause and the use of full, rich chord progressions makes for an overall enjoyable work. Kudos to the writer! In the technical aspects of the work, this is where DJ Duck really shines. Good clean samples and a wonderful use of panning and dynamic approach make for an amazing experience. I listened to this piece while sipping whiskey and relaxing and it really did wonders for my state of peace simply by a slight randomization of panning on at least four of the instruments. All in all, I'd say take the time to download this work! | |
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Title: Late At Night Filename: znm-latenight.it |
Posted Mon 13th Jan 2003
Rated 10 / 10 |
| OK, so I am reviewing 2 songs by the same artist (the previous was Believe, which is on the top 10 for November 2002), but for good reason - this songs kicks major ass, and after watching it go relatively unnoticed for several months, I feel it is time it gets the attention it warrants. It's not that the melody is spectacular, but simply that it sounds perfect, and is a thoroughly professional trance tune. Too often tracked music sounds tracked (i.e., random samples just thrown together), and Zanoma is one of the few artists who can produce music that sounds seamless (for lack of a better word). Zanoma is a portamento and pitch offset wizard. He masterfully plays with the synths in this song, and I would rate this song a masterpiece simply from the sheer effort that seems to have gone into its creation. My only gripe - this guy need's an artist page, and to submit some more music. Currently, he has three songs on modarchive: Joy, Late at Night, and Believe, all of which are superlative. | |
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Title: La Flor*23:53*8/3/01 Filename: laflor.xm |
Posted Thu 9th Jan 2003
Rated 5 / 10 |
| Ok... This is a simple and short piece of ballad by some artist that has fallen in love.=) Yepp, so the texts say. I was a bit confused with this though since to me it sounds more like ambient or from a horrormovie... You know when a kid is walking in the dark house and the bad guy is watching him from behind the corner or something... Well, who cares, primary thing is that the artist has made something that is beautiful to him. The song starts with nice soft bellpads and almost immediately low strings come along. So far the song sounds really nice. And then those "horror"-strings appear. A high femalechoir sounds really nice. But then the song is over. This song would be a Great intro for a song, but like this it is... Well, I dunno... Odd? A good song, if it would be a real song.=) Tracking was very simple overall. Effects weren't used , but the good thing is that the samples (all four of them) were 16-bit quality. I really don't know what to say about this piece. It is good, but.. Well, try it for yourself. | |
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Title: lamp of asharam Filename: lampasha.mod |
Posted Thu 9th Jan 2003
Rated 1 / 10 |
| Well there is not much to say about this song. It was composed by Baroque from South Africa in the year of our Lord 1990. According to the texts in this song it was also used in some intro... Well, in those days it probably didn't required so much as nowadays. Ok, here is the deal : There are three different patterns used in this song. Wow. The song lasts for 1.16 and loops into the beginning. In some songs it might even work, but I must say that there was nothing good in this song. There wasn't any serious flaws, but it is so damn boring and dull and unimaginative and... Gaah! I'm sure that Baroque can compose but at least this track does not impress me. This kind of tracks could actually be deleted from the archive. As said : three different patterns, no effects, no nothing. This song was done in five minutes max. I don't recommend this track even to any chip-tune-fan. Really... don't.. | |
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Title: Kentsu Filename: a-----07.it |
Posted Mon 6th Jan 2003
Rated 6 / 10 |
| Very similar to the "Zombie" song by the same artist. This is only 0:39 long - is that a song really? The music is good, but 39 seconds - what is this??? Good samples, same as in the other songs of this artist. I don't like that at all, but the samples are definately good! | |
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Title: Anta Baka 2.0.0 Filename: anta2.xm |
Posted Thu 2nd Jan 2003
Rated 8 / 10 |
| Ok.. It is about time to meet a composer called Jonemaan. And as we download this song and take a listen to it, we might actually think that it wasn't such a bad idea.=) Ok ok, so this is one sort of cover song, but who cares? It is well done and that's it. So stop whining and read on! Well, I've pressed play now and I'm listening... Hmm... Sounds a bit like Deathjester to me. Samples sound like him and the vibrating choirs... But hey! What is this? First the song creates a nice orchestral build-up and turns into some sort of oriental-indian-jungle-party. Well. Sounds pretty nice anyway.=) But just when I got used to that... It changes again. I'm cursing in my mind, but I'm also calmed right after that I got over the shock. The style went just upside down and I remember the small intro of this part that reminded me of c64's "last ninja 2". Well right now I'm already enjoying some aggressive yet pure "peak" of this song... It sounds so damn good and I am almost starting to wait that the song would be over so I can hear everything from the beginning. And so it does... And again...and again...=) There it was. "Anta Baka", that is based on musics from the game "King of Fighters". Never heard the original tunes, but at least these are good. There are three different songs which might annoy some people, but be brave and listen to this - you can actually like it. I enjoy it more and more everytime.=) Great song. And then the technical part. Trackin is professional - effects are on their places and there was lots of variation in this song. If the copy ain't perfect from the original then the arrangement is excellent.=) Huge amount of samples were used (both 16- and 8-bit quality). The only "bad" thing that I can say is that the samples sound old. I don't if that was the intention, but... Well, it sounds maybe more like game music this way, but I cannot be without thinking that how this could have sounded. You know, "real" guitars, drums and modern synthsamples and so on... Oh God, this would have been soooooo good.=) | |
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Title: adventure.it Filename: adventure.it |
Posted Thu 26th Dec 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| I didn't like the intro, but the rest of the song is great. It sounds very triumphal and it's a typical orchestral song. I can't say more... The samples are very good, but the trumpet samples don't fit the song by my opinion. That's my critic. All other is great! | |
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Title: Per Westerberg 00 Filename: inzomniax.xm |
Posted Mon 16th Dec 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| The rating and classification of this song say it all - this is an excellent melodic trance song that has a definite Depeche Mode feel to it (namely the atmosphere of Music for the Masses). At about 1 minute 20 seconds into the song, you realize that this song is a professional and enjoyable work of art - the synths are all superb, except for a couple of the drum samples (which are a little too synthetic). If you like Electronica and Trance, this song is a must download - I just wish it were longer than 3:00 minutes. Per again proves he is a master of composition with Insomniax. This song is light-years ahead of the tracking skills of most other people in the mod scene. The only people who perhaps come close (that I have heard and reviewed) are Area51, DreamSection, Jogeir Liljedahl, Necros, Zanoma, and Karsten Koch. I especially like how he uses 2 samples that supplement each other (one will pan left and the other right), and applies neato echo effects while an alternate melody plays around in the background. | |
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Title: Raizing Sun III Filename: raiz_sun3.it |
Posted Wed 27th Nov 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| Starts with piano and grows over into something between metal and symphony. Sometimes the backround distortion guitar sucks duo to some extra-wierd movements. Later there's a bass solo with drums and ends soon after a solo. Now some good stuff: solos are quite enjoyable due to it's fast movements and panning reverb. Backround is also quite good. Hmm ... nothing very special ... almoust none effects used .. only some vibratos and volume effects, but the samples sound good. Maybe other instruments like trompets and stuff, that play sometimes in backround, should have also some reverb or somthing ... | |
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Title: The Way (orchestral versio Filename: the_way.it |
Posted Wed 27th Nov 2002
Rated 10 / 10 |
| Oh, it's a quite long song with many different themes and different instruments. It's also very impressive, how themes change so you don't notice that. It's very powerful song with many cool solos on different instruments like electric guitar, oboe. The symphonical backround with distortion guitars and mega solos is all you need!! Well, technically there are lots of different effects used, balance is very good and everything rocks, but only thing is the compability. I first opened it in Winaamp, but when the song played a while, guitar went very loud and everything was wrong ... later, opening it in MPT, everything was nice ... maybe it's composesrs fault or trackers .. i don't know ... | |
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Title: Burst Into The Flower Of N Filename: burst_nem.it |
Posted Wed 27th Nov 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| It's very good to listen to this song. Well-balanced backround synths, bass and piano + guitar solos. Only thing maybe is that, when the electric lead guitar comes in, the sound is not very clean ... some offsets would fix this problem. Everything else, like delay-effects and stuff is well done! Technically, there's nothing very impressive, sample quality is average. Some samples are 16-bit, but frequency is low and so on. The artist has made his life easier with using the envelopes and stuff and the drumkit is in big instrument .. that's an advantage! Everything else seems to be ok! | |
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Title: P. Westerberg 98 Filename: forever1.xm |
Posted Thu 21st Nov 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| This is an ultrafast trance song, very reminiscent of Vogue's style in that the melody is very staccato and complex. The vocalization at the introduction is jarring, but this song is a very enjoyable listen due to the great use of effects, a potent bassline, and the gradual application of each melody. If you enjoy Nimbus (by Per Westerberg as well), this song is probably a must also. The rating of this song reflects it's enjoyability in comparison with Per's current masterpiece. This song is as good as a tracked song can get, which means it doesn't sound tracked at all. Per is a master of music composition, and this song is a flawless case in point. The samples are all high quality and blend perfectly. Although Forever1 pales a little next to Nimbus, this song is at least the second best song I have ever heard by Per, and I have downloaded all the songs I can find by him (including all the songs at this site). | |
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Title: MELOSTATIC Filename: melostat.xm |
Posted Wed 20th Nov 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| This track has some really great samples and achieves exactley what the artist has set out to from, this shows from the smoothness of the layout of the whole composition. the effects are what i would call "smart" neat and it is a track for without the temo and effects changes would not be as good at all. i consider that there are 10 samples here. AND 8 tracks :) it sounds more like 25/30 are being used. he has manipulated samples in a way that causes it to sound like there are more samples used. no wasteing nore over use of any samples. default volume is set right as is the individual sample rates. the tune itself aint a very catchy tune though, and it sounds really old skool with a up to date edge to it, Nothing wrong with that though!, it has a classic ambiant trance feel to the flow and backgroung throughout. one flaw i would point out was the fact that it repeated the same patterns a little to much,but, it then suddenley fell into a new status and suddenly beguins to end. I used the abuve comments to make technical skills known on this track. the sound qualitys, samples qualitys individually and collectivly were second to non!. for an 8 track xm this can only be placed as a professionaly made track. the technical skills inspeird me to work with the track and remix it. and the samples will end up in my sound files for use in a project of my own. top quallity arrangment with no flaws to point out, but of course, it could allways be better ;-) | |
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Title: Night in Palo Alto Filename: hsa_npa.it |
Posted Sun 17th Nov 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| A very good piece. Overall mood is very HomesickAlien-ish, with beautiful samples setting up a great mood for this great song. Although the tempo and the BPS remain constant, the song speeds up in the middle and slows down towards the end, creating a perfect "night-time" mood, as I perceive it. Strongly recommended. HomesickAlien has created his own style for his modules, and this is a very good example of this. The samples are tweaked to perfection. Although the large number of currently-played channels will slow down many computers, it is well worth it. Furthermore, the outstanding samples set the mood of the whole song | |
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Title: Content Workforce Filename: aow-content.it |
Posted Fri 15th Nov 2002
Rated 10 / 10 |
| When I heard that song, I just fell in love with it! So nice sound, so soft and beautiful... Mr. van den Bos is surely a proffessional! Excellent music, I can listen to it a week without stopping! Usually I review metal songs and I generally like metal, but maybe this will change my mind.. Who knows? Excellent combination of high-quality 8-bit and 16-bit samples. Perfect tech rating - absolutely no need to describe it! | |
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Title: Believe Filename: znm-believe.it |
Posted Thu 14th Nov 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| I am constantly hunting for good trance songs to listen to at work (a cup of coffee and quality background music do wonders for my productivity) and was pleasantly surprised to find this gem in the Top Ten. This is a superlative trance track, with a great melody and pulse-pounding beat. Definitely a must download. My only complaint is that for a trance tune, it is way too short - which is why I subtracted 0.5 from what would otherwise have been a 10. This song sounds like a professional studio production - flawless samples and perfect stereo/panning. Since this song sounds so well made, there is really no point in wondering why. In terms of tracking trance songs, this song is up there with Nimbus by Per Westerberg (imho). | |
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Title: aGReSSioN iN ouR LiFeS... Filename: agressio.it |
Posted Mon 11th Nov 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| Not bad metal song, but it is not the best metal i've listened to... There are good and bad parts, but it could be a way better song. Nice try anyways... Nothing special in the tech side. The samples are very nice tough, but I didn't notice any effects... Average tech rating i'll say. | |
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Title: A Town in Fog Filename: tif.xm |
Posted Fri 8th Nov 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| Very nice relaxing classical piece. Even though it is only 1:21mins long, which does subtract just a bit of the value from the song, it is worth the download if you like this kind of music. The chords are very nice and fit together very well. The complaints are mostly in this department. The string sound could have been made to sound more like a string instrument with a bit of tweaking here and there, especially in the middle part, but the piano is really nicely done. Good download. | |
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Title: Mind Blower Filename: trance2.xm |
Posted Wed 6th Nov 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| Good song that takes you on a trip. The music itself is layered very nicely, and seems like something you would hear in a techno record store in England. Its actually quite hard to stop listening to as it is quite addictive. It will be staying in my mod collection. There is one synth that comes in at around 2:05 that seems a bit off tune, but other then that, its fine. Not many effects used execept for offsets for filter effects and portamentos. Equal mix of 8-bit and 16-bit samples. Time: 3:40mins | |
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Title: farseeker Filename: farseeke.xm |
Posted Sun 3rd Nov 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| This track has a folky modd to it, more due to the samples and instruments used. but allso from the compossition as a whole. It had some nice clean acordian shapes. it starst with a good quality folk arrangment and moves on into a game tune, but not chip sounds! In the background of a game, this would not be a boring tune, and quite fitting, as it moves on from one point and dosn't dragg iitself in the one mode. allthough it IS a little short for a good long running game. all aside, it is allso a good track for just simple listening too. I do feel it would do Very well with some exta acompanyments, for example wind instruments/flute, some deeper frequencies such as a bassy hum, timpany and crashes would complete this track further. allthough the simplicity of it is good enough in its self.. The tunes here are definatley emotionally driven and are touching.. The track effects are Just right! major swapping of the tempo/speed to allow effects and samples to show themselfs correctley. it had pattern breaks and volume controll. no lowd samples, and no track arrangments were wasted. so i would guess this artist is professional. i do think it could have made good use of some better panning though. and some clever reverb formed from volume controll and overlapping :)allso that bassy sample needs upping or swapping for a more fitting one. Overall: for the genre, it is a good quality and well formed track... | |
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Title: The Last Raindrop Filename: lastrdrp.xm |
Posted Thu 31st Oct 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| This Efenstor is a tracker from Siberia and so far has managed to survive pretty well as far as I can tell by just checking his artistpage.=) This time he has created a nice soft poptune with nice ambiental vibes. The consept of this track reminds me of Enigma (Michael Cretu that is) or those monk-orchestras where choirs are moaning on electrical background. The beginning is nice with the sound of raindrop and bongos. Soft strings come along soon, but then... Leadsample (some sort of flute / clarinet) sounds just awful to me... As the song goes on and the drums are already there and everything, this leadsample has changed to normal flute , but still sounds bad. It is quite amazing actually that otherwise so pure and goodsounding song has got something like this in it... Well, I guess it is just a matter of taste and I am sure that some people like those solos but I didn't. Don't judge or pass this song because of what I say here ok? ;) The background remains the same through the song and it is the best thing in this track. If those leadinstruments would be done in another way (don't ask me how) I would love this song. It has such simplicity behind everything. It is rhythmic and yet smooth combination of everything. Very well worth checking and listening.=) Nice job Efenstor.=) Yeah, well, I liked the samples that were chosen. Especially percussions and strings created very nice athmosphere over here. Both 8- and 16-bit samples were used, but effects were forgotten. Well, actually this song didn't needed any effects. It was just fine the way it was. I have now listened it about 10 times in a row and that fluteaction doesn't disturbe so much anymore. But it did.=) And still does... a bit.=) | |
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Title: Magic view Filename: mview.xm |
Posted Thu 31st Oct 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| This is a very solid song by Nitro, musically mosts things are done well. There isn't very much repetition (probably because this is a demo piece) and the chord progressions for the most part are good. I enjoyed the opening chords and the chords from 37 to the end, the seemed "dark and brooding". The percussion section is solid as well, mainly because it is tracked well enough to grab and hold the listeners attention. There is a nice blend of samples which improves the overall song, and helps it flow nicely. There isn't too much more that can be done to improve up this song, except for re-arranging the ending, but being that this piece is constrained by the demo, I'm sure that would be a near impossible task. All of the samples used were edited very well. The bidirectional loops were surprisingly clean, and lacked any major popping or clicking. During the actual piece, no one sample was excessively loud, and the mixing was fairly good. Perhaps panning should have been used to add some separation to the sound, especially with the percussion and background parts (this might have improved the musical parts of the song as well). Overall though, very good effort. | |
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Title: musicbi.xm Filename: musicbi.xm |
Posted Thu 31st Oct 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| This song starts off well enough, even though this song is a completely different song without headphones on (More on that in the technical section). The actual lead melody of this song isn't anything special, but it fits really well with the lazy breakbeat that is present throughout the entire song. I personally think that this could be a much better song if the author had taken time to "play" with breakbeat a bit more. The beat never actually changes throughout the entire duration of the song, a hi-hat or an extra bass drum could have been thrown in at a couple points to at least change the beat up a little. This song does do some things well though. One section of the song that immediately comes to mind is pattern 24 where the bass line goes on a pretty awesome syncapated riff, repeats and then kills the breakbeat to let the lead solo. As stated before the breakbeat choice was a very good one, this is one that makes you want to nod your head, despite its lack of variety. Technically this song is rather weak. Call me crazy but if a vocal sample is to be used in a track it should have some meaning, or enhance the song in some way. Well, almost immediately the listener is hit with a vocal sample which is indecipherable, and on the verge of being overwhelmed by the initial bassline. It neither enhances the song, nor does it have any comprehendable meaning. The author wanted an echoed effect on the voice, but that's very hard to do when the original sample isn't exactly clean itself. There are a couple times where it seems almost as if the author forgot to kill a lingering note, or if it was meant to stay. In those three or four occasions in which this happens in this song, I don't think it worked to his advantage. Next time, think about the total volume of EVERY instrument and sample you include in your work, and try to make them blend as much as possible. | |
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Download:
Title: lutfisk-vegring Filename: lutfisk.mod |
Posted Wed 30th Oct 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| This track was composed by Mutant / New Wave for some compo that was held who knows when.=) It got 7th place, but it would have probably gotten much higher with few changes...(like I'd really know) Lets see what we got here... The song begins with bass and percussions (rimstick and hihats) and then it begins and goes on without bigger changes till the bitter end... But seriously, the background is boring since it lacks everything.=) The speed is quite slow and there is no bassdrum used at all! Gees and the snaredrum comes along when the song is almost over. This song sounds now really thin. Good thingie is that melodies and leadsamples have enough variation. Although i think that whining chip-lead does not fit with rocksamples behind. =) It is quite funny actually.. This song is well made and artist surely know how to track, but this one is lousy from musical point of view. Maybe he got too excited because of the compo.=) I don't personally recommend this song to anyone, but if you feel like trying, be my guest.=) Technical side is okay. Effects were used pretty well. Especially with leadsamples. How about samples then? Well, when this song started to play, I was quite sure that it was Moby's old rock-module. Most of the samples are similar that what Moby used to use. "Substance" for example would be better choice to download since it has almost same samples and that track is million times better.=) I said it once and I'll say it again. This song was made well, but it just didn't hit me in anyway. Sorry about that.=) | |
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Download:
Title: observations Filename: observat.mod |
Posted Mon 28th Oct 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| Another weird, but very good track from Jesper Kyd. I think that this guy has been some sort of limitbreaker in the early 90´s when all his modules (that I've heard) have been made. Excellent songs. Experimental, but still rhythmic and the tune stays as a whole through 9 minutes. Quite long eh? =) In the beginning there are once again used, vibrating strings. I somehow got a feeling that I would be "hearing" the music that would play in H.P.Lovecraft's books.=) Sounds very odd and hypnotic. And after the song has passed the intro - the synths appear. Drums fit well over here and those are even a bit different than usual. Then the athmosphere changes again a bit and those vibrating strings come along again. In some points, the percussions are there and then again those disappear. Strings fade in and fade out, synths play their game in the background or foreground and everything changes all the time... Of course there has been used some same patterns in the end that artist used in the beginning too, but the point was that this song never turns dull. It has lots of variation and unique ideas. Interesting melodies and turning-points. And this sweet piece of music lasts for 8.44 minutes.=) Ahh, enjoy everyone.=) Jesper Kyd has risen into my favorite composers. Not only because of his style of making music, but because of his technics. He uses effects very well and boldly. I would really like to now , what this guy is doing nowadays. Well, anyways... Samples were wonderful. Everything stands out from a "normal" module. Many samples were used in one track, tempos change and things like that happen all the time. I just happen to like this guys music. Sorry 'bout that.=) | |
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Download:
Title: stone.xm Filename: stone.xm |
Posted Sun 27th Oct 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| Well well well... A new guy... SlippingAway... Tracked only 8 eight months and produces stuff like this? Gees.=) I must say that I'm impressed. To be honest, this song ain't musically that good. It has no actual melody or anything, but it reminds of Smirk's music and that is usually good right? =) It is quite hard to describe this song, since it is quite similar through the whole piece. But it consists mostly from dark and low strings and percussions that are also played from really low. Sounds maybe weird, but works pretty well. The beat ain't steady, but more like experimenting. Maybe that is the reason why this track keeps interesting. Well, so far this track has been playing for almost 20 minutes now (I'm doing other stuff too right now), and still this song hasn't got boring...=) I think that is quite positive.=) But as this song is quite unusual, it may not open to everyone. if you like melodic music, you probably don't like this.=) But the ones with dark mind and perverted musical ear may like this - like I do.=) Nothing special to say about. 16-bit samples, but still the soundworld sounds pretty odd... Maybe because the samples were played so low. Song itself is very simple, but the twisted idea of this tune repairs that thingie. Some effects were used, but so little that there is nothing to say about those. Overall this was very nice surprise from a new guy. I guess I'll have to check what kind of stuff rest of his songs are...=) | |
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Download:
Title: Sapphire Starlight Filename: saplight.xm |
Posted Sun 27th Oct 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| Skyrunner is a tracker from Germany and sounds like that he is quite good too.=) This track represents a nice style of synthpop and it was composed for a compo. Nice work I would say. Feeling is happy and music is well created.Yesh.=) The intro is quite calm with synths and all, but then the leadsample fills the air with nice drumline. I really enjoyed the lead, which is quite bizarre since I usually don't like this kind of leadsample. It is too sharp and high for me, but here it works nicely since there has been used two different samples to create one melody. Works well for me.=) I also enjoyed the piano that was used in this piece. It is varying all the time. Only thing that kept bugging me is that there is a part in this song that sounds so damn familiar. And it is played with pianos... Well, can't recall.=) It was also very nice to hear all sort of fills in the tune. Some synths were added here and there and a small use of arpeggio gives a very nice effect to the listener. Makes your interests stayin' awake.=) Overall very nice track that I can easily recommend to every synthpop-lover.=) Everything was done well here. Both 8- and 16-bit quality samples were used and everything sounded great. I really liked the use of arpeggio although it was quite minor. And the melodies were really nice. Good slides in the leads and panning was excellent. The song itself was quite simple despite the fact that 26 channels were used.=) Very nice job Skyrunner. keep on sending you songs. You only got 6 of them over here.=) | |
Title: x-static magic
Filename: x_static.mod
Rated 6 / 10