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Title: nearness-i-think
Filename: nearness.mod
Posted Sat 27th Sep 2003
Rated 4 / 10
This music is cute... and that's all there is to it. The melody is one and only and it gets repeated throughout the entire length of the song, although there are some variations to it. The percussion used falls very short of what it was supposed to do; a lot more work is needed in that department. There are some interesting speed changes, though, that make the song a bit more varied and less monotone. Even though this song is very simplistic, it is not entirely bad. It's more like a promising start of a novice tracker. The only effect used is the speed change, but it is used well and according to the purpose it had been trying to achieve. There are more samples in the module than are actually used; a clean-up could reduce the unnecessary file size. The loop of the one sample that uses it (strings) could probably be improved, though it works well as it is. Overall, the artist could have experimented a bit more with the melody and the sounds in this one. Still, there is always room for improvement, which is the good news.

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Title: Remotelife
Filename: remoteli.it
Posted Mon 8th Sep 2003
Rated 4 / 10
The genre of the song is rather unclear, since it could best be described by a mix of melodic drum'n'bass and jungle. The quick jungle drum breaks initiate the song and are followed quickly by the heavy hit basses and the crowd sound effects; at this point the song could even be classified as rave. Nevertheless, the lead (a sort of a phased chorus sample; quite neat) and the piano do give the song a touch of melody; quite basic really, but enough to give the song the necessary variation. The bass does not modulate along with the lead; this sounds off-key at first but maybe the idea is to focus on the jungle-like atmosphere, instead of on the melody. The tracking is somewhat basic, although portamentoes down are used on the rhythm samples to create interesting effects. The fadeout at the end should really be improved; it is better to decrease the global volume by 1 on every row for 16 rows in a sequence, instead of decreasing it by 16 every 16-th row and leaving it unchanged in the meantime. At the end, the crqash sample loop can really be heard as background noise; maybe that was the original idea, but to my opinion that is something that should be avoided. All in all, this is an interesting mix of several genres, which could sound a lot better if the tracking techniques would be improved.

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Title: ~Urban Chaos~
Filename: a--urban.it
Posted Thu 28th Aug 2003
Rated 4 / 10
This is a metal song composed by an artist who usually comopses techno (as stated in the song comments), and it shows. The only thing that qualifies this song as a metal song is the use of distorted guitars and heavy drums. Most of the song is based on a constant string progression which never variates. The only thing that does change is the rhythm section, but that does not make the song more variated in itself. Some more different lead melodies, different chords and possibly key changes would greatly improve the musical quality. The samples are well chosen and serve the purpose, although their loops could be improved. The artist tracks the same notes in two channels to double the volume of the notes played - something that should really be avoided. The samples are panned well enough, though. The effects used are redundant at best; there is really no need to repeat a set panning effect throughout the entire channel in the pattern once it had been set already. This track gets monotone very quickly, and to improve that, the author would need to variate the lead more.

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Title: Cranial Overgrowth
Filename: cranial.it
Posted Fri 25th Jul 2003
Rated 6 / 10
Synthpop is probably not the best description of this song's genre, since it contains a lot of variation in its melody. The rhythm is dance-like and that is the only thing that does not change significantly throughout the song's duration and spans all its 3 parts: 1) The beginning and middle part, based on a rather hyped octave bass progression that spans 5 octaves (!!!). The melody revolves around this fast-paced bass and develops seemingly spontaneously, even though it may appear at times that sounds are randomly placed; at a whole, it works out quite nicely and there is enough variation. 2) The transition, that is a sort of a drum solo. It is rather short, but serves well to prepare the listener for the last part. 3) The last part does not provide a lot of variation with different sounds, but rather with key changes, as the melody progression variates through several modulations. The ending could have been worked on a bit more, since it is rather sudden. This song is tracked in .IT format, but it could really have been an .S3M: it uses no instruments and all the samples are 8-bit. The samples are well chosen and variable enough, though the loops could be improved. There is a good choice of effects used, especially in the first part, though it appears as if the effect values have been chosen in a more experimental way than anything; it still works out, though, and sounds well enough. All in all, this is a song that sticks to a certain form throughout its entire length, with a bit of technical experimenting and a fair amount of melodical vatiation, which gives a good overall sound.

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Title: unisex green
Filename: unisex.xm
Posted Fri 20th Jun 2003
Rated 9 / 10
A very strange, very original, very effective song. From the very beginning the listener seems to be immersed in some kind of liquid world, and remains there throughout the entire length of the song. The sounds all work very well with one another to create a flowing, light, yet active atmosphere - almost as if a living creature other than smirk is sending a message with this song. This song is very addictive, and it is actually a pity that it ends so abruptly; perhaps it is meant to be looped? The biggest sample is 7 Kb big - everything is very minimalistic but is nevertheless done very well. The samples are outstandingly well chosen and instrumentalized with some excellent volume and panning envelopes. The artist seems to be firmly in control of the tracking, which is demonstrated by some very successful use of effects and sample loops. The leads are quite well tracked and seem to fill in one another at just the right moments. The rhythm section is a story of its own: it is consisted of only a bass drum, snare (that takes the role of a hihat at times (!)) and a sine wave that is used as a bass (and a lead (!)). At times even the percussion samples change notes! Everything seems to be flowing and changeable. This is a great song in all aspects, especially minimalism :)

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Title: bond
Filename: bond.mod
Posted Sun 1st Jun 2003
Rated 6 / 10
This tune is based upon the James Bond theme, but it is translated here in a very original way. From the beginning the very well tracked percussion in 6/8 measurement creates a groove which is maintained throughout the entire song. The sounds interchange all the time, providing variety. The interesting element are the vocal samples, which give the song a somewhat funny tone, but it actually helps the overall atmosphere. All the samples are 8-bit but nevertheless very well chosen. The two brass samples provide the lead most of the time, but at the middle of the song (when the transposition occurs) this role is taken by the bass (!) and at the end by the "ahyeah" vocal sample (!!); both times it is done quite successfully. Technically this song is quite simple, as there are no chords and not too many effects used, but everything works perfectly. With this song you have one more good 4-channel MOD.

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Title: a.g.techno
Filename: ag_tech.mod
Posted Tue 20th May 2003
Rated 5 / 10
Musically, this song is not much in particular. It does have some groove, mostly because of the aggressive distorted bass and the nicely tracked percussion (it reminds of breakbeat a little). The first part of the song is based on the initiall bassline and is quite well composed, in a sense that it is always full of different sound and is not very dull, i.e. has enough variation. The second part of the song is based on that tube-sounding synth line, which does not have much to do with the first part, and the transition is not quite well tracked, i.e. it is reather sudden. The "check-this-out" sample is even used as a lead, but not very successfully. At this point the song gets really repetitive and stays like that till the end. The samples are rather well chosen for this type of music and they certainly serve the purpose to create a groovy and agressive atmosphere. In an oldskool fashion, a sample is played on two channels and on one it fades in and at the other it fades out, to create a panning appearance; the same thing could be accomplished with a Set Panning effect. Of the effects, only the Set Volume is used, although effectively. This song does not have much to offer and can be easily forgotten, though you may consider downloading it if you'd like to remind yourself of a way to track 4-channel MODs.

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Title: copie2.it
Filename: copie2.it
Posted Mon 19th May 2003
Rated 7 / 10
This tune is a good example of how to combine chip sounds with more "conventional" instruments and produce a solid overall sound. The chip sound that is present at the background (and sometimes as lead as well) creates a relaxing, yet upbeat atmosphere. The background strings could be worked on a bit more, as the transition from one note to the other is really recognizable and at times creates tension not really needed for a song of this genre. The strongest part melodically (along with the chip sound) are the bass and the piano, which are indeed very well tracked and complete the positive atmosphere that this song offers. The weakest part is the percussion - here the author could really do with some more samples and better sounds. Still, since this is primarily an ambient song, perhaps the very simple beat (just one rhythm sample) is sufficient. In summary: excellent tracking with samples of less than average quality. All samples are 8-bit and contain some noise within them (except for the chip sounds). Still, it is the way they are assembled into the song which make this song work as a whole. The chip tracking is flawless (I think), both as a background and a lead sound. The bass is quite funky and at the end it even takes the role of a lead (in this case it works, because the main bass line is actually provided by the background chip sound; very original). The piano present in the song is adequate for a moderately-paced ambient song and fits in very well with the rest of the sounds. The background strings could probably have been improved with the use of instrument envelopes. And, it should have been paid more attention to the percussion, though the author certainly deserves credit for making the most of that one rhythm sample, with clever use of the set offset and panning effects.

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Title: blueberry moon
Filename: alk_bbm.xm
Posted Sat 31st Aug 2002
Rated 6 / 10
This is a fair piece of music allright. It starts off with the minor synth sample, occasinally being filled in with some neat bubble and pitchslide effects (good samples and tracking skills here). All the while the ride cymbal is present, indicating that a rhythm would come. And it does. The beat is pretty well done - a combination of fast percussion and bongos. After a while the "main sequence" starts, which upgrades the present beat with the somewhat strange synth progression, doubled sine bass and the kinda empty piano melody line. Afterwards there is a slight break with the vocal sample, and the alternate rhythm gets introduced, after which the song repeats, with both the first and the second rhythm, plus a somewhat jazzed up piano melody line. The ending is REALLY inappropriate - a longer fadeout would do much better (for example, an additional pattern, duplicated, but with added global volume slide or something). Apparently Alk's breakbeat rhythm skills are top-notch. The drums and percussions are really well sampled and arranged. The sine bass is adequate for this occasion, as it gets the job done; maybe an alternate, more "groovy" bass sample would do better. The synths are the ones that carry the melodic energy; the combination of the minor synth sample and the "heavenly" synth sample work very well together. The piano is really inadequate, as it does not really add on a variety in the melody and is also too quiet to be heard among all those drums, synths and double bass. Maybe a more specific melody contained within the piano line would do the trick (also, making the pian a bit louder would not hurt). The samples are all 8-bit and quite noisy, which reduces the quality of the song; maybe cleaning them out a bit would improve the overall impression. All in all, this is fairly a simple, yet an interesting breakbeat. It is really the lack of sample quality and variety in the piano that could use some work.

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Title: Far Above Greatness
Filename: hsa_far.it
Posted Tue 18th Jun 2002
Rated 8 / 10
The music is very good indeed. This is a complete orchestral piece consisting of 4 parts, based on a storyline. It is a full-blooded musical piece with lots of emotion put into it. There are no musical flaws, and this is a piece one can learn from. Even as the samples' qualities have been reduced to fit into ModArchive, the music still retains its beauty. The samples are well chosen and orchestrated, although on several occasions one can hear some off-key notes. Those are actually because of the low quality of the samples, which in turn have lower quality to be able to fit into the 5 MB allowed by ModArchive. Other than that, there are excellent technical aspects to this piece: mode mixtures, modulations and even mixing several time signatures. The 4 parts of this song blend well into one another to create a real symphony. It is a shame for the sample quality, HsA, but the music remains timeless.

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Title: cream of the earth
Filename: cream_of_the_earth.mod
Posted Thu 13th Jun 2002
Rated 8 / 10
Have no doubt - there is superb music written within the 4 channels of this MOD. This was probably a cutting edge music back in 1990, when it was created, according to the title. It seems that this song was composed by Romeo Knight of Red Sector (thanks to Tommy Mikalsen for sharing this info). cebit.mod and cebit-90.mod are the same file, i.e. they contain the same music. And my, what a great music it is! This tune can teach you most directly about gating of sounds. If you happen to be learning how to track and may have difficulty understanding what gating is all about, open and play this tune, to catch a glimpse of this powerful tracking technique - in each pattern you'll find a gated sound, whether it is a chord, lead or background sound. This song is full of sound all the time while you hear it; you will be focused on this tune all the time while you are listening to it, for sure.

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Title: Beyond the stars
Filename: dn-beyon.xm
Posted Wed 1st May 2002
Rated 9 / 10
This is one powerful piece of music. Area51DNA creates a melancholic, even dreamy atnosphere from the very start and keeps it going until the very end. Through excellent usage of interwoven lead samples and effects, he has created a song that would definitely remain in your memory after you have heard it. The melody of the song seems to flow naturally and effortlessly. The story behind it (written in the instruments list) gives even more strength to the song and to the emotional experience from it. It takes one look in a tracker to figure out a simple beauty about this song: it is tracked in swingbeat! The swingbeat pace and the great ping-like synth lead (additionally strenghtened with a piano), combined with the additional high-pitched panflute (an unusual way to use a flute indeed :)) ) and oboe, as well as guitar and strings accompainment, provokes really strong emotions in the listener. Not many effects are used, but there is no need; the sounds themselves are very well chosen and tracked. Maybe the loops of the samples are not perfect, but it does not show in the song. The instrumentalization of the samples is really well done (the volume envelopes and fadeouts are quite unusual but effective). Perhaps the fadeout at the end of the song is a bit too sudden; maybe prolonging it a bit (just a couple of seconds more, for example) would create a better effect. All things said, this song is still an example of Area51DNA at his best. Listen to it; you will be hearing pure music.

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Title: 4x30secs
Filename: a-4x30s.it
Posted Fri 26th Apr 2002
Rated 7 / 10
The music itself is not too bad, although it could be loosely described as "warped" :)). The main melody, and pretty much the larger part of the musical score is based on the piano. Apparently, Crimson King is responsible for the larger part of the song (after all, this song is an extension to his 30 second compo tune ;)) ), whereas Minomus' part is consisted of adding some more complex piano chords and a bassline. The extension is successful and the song gets a sort of a "masterful" touch to it, making it indeed jazzy and improvisational-like. Technically, the only variation in the song is in the piano solos and maybe in the bassline (the latter is not easily recognizable and one should pay more attention to it). Still, the song displays some quality piano tracking, and especially in the part done by minomus (where the piano goes wild ;))) ). Since the larger part of the song is made by Crimson King (as well as all the samples, except the bassline, which was added by Minomus), a part of the credit goes to him. Nevertheless, Minomus deserves credit for turning a 30 seconds song into a 2 minute song full of sound and skillful tracking.

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Title: Christofori's Dream
Filename: christodream.it
Posted Tue 19th Mar 2002
Rated 7 / 10
The music starts with a piano roll that is persistent throughout the song. The slight dissonance within the roll has an eeire effect that is carried out all the way until the end. The simple progression of the piano roll affects the rest of the instruments, as they build up an atmospheric, fantasy-like ambient, that may have indeed been perceived in Christofori's Dream :))))). The only downside is that the music keeps building up but leaves a sort of an unfinished quality... The hihat-like snare in patterns #12 until #32 makes the listener expect some more percussion, but it never arrives. Some more rhythm elements could possibly improve this. The samples work very well with each other and the piece is complete, with no technical flaws. Maybe it is based too much on the piano, though... The roll, piano and bass sounds are based on the piano sample (they are all accompained by additional instruments, but the piano is dominant throughout the song). When the piano sample is played at high pitches (which is quite common) it appears somewhat noisy. Sure enough, the piano sample is DC shifted downwards, and it shows as a silent background noise (when played single as well as in the song). Perhaps a bit more sample editing could improve its quality. Other samples are well chosen and looped; there are some interesting stereo samples as well. The song uses no instrument envelopes; perhaps utilizing them could improve the song quality (technical as well as musical) even more.

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Title: vicious
Filename: nuke-vic.xm
Posted Sun 3rd Feb 2002
Rated 9 / 10
Let's hit the dance floor! This song is a superb dance tune, that would become one of your favorites if you are into dance music. It is not all about the rhythm and bass, but it has a strong melodic backbone in the excellent synths and bass section, that could be called the chorus (sequence no. 10 (i.e. pattern #8) and onward). A magnificent merge of dance drums, bass, synths and reso sounds with ambiental strings and piano. This is a pure, original piece of music, unique among its kind. A dance tune, tracked in swingbeat - this surely produces a great sound! :))) No doubt, this tune is superbly tracked. It has all the elements of an energetic dance tune that makes you dance to its beat from the very beginning to the end. I was especially thrilled to discover that even the resonated parts of the song were tracked note by note! This one is a great song, folks! Give it a try to feel the beat. :)))

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Title: Gaia's Awakening
Filename: ds_ga.xm
Posted Sun 3rd Feb 2002
Rated 9 / 10
Absolutely stunning! This song makes you feel the spirit of Gaia all the way throughout the length of the song. This is a great combination of dance-like rhythm and bass and dreamy strings and piano leads. The song makes you listen to it over and over, without getting tired, annoyed or bored. This is a must hear for all ambiental lovers. With the introductory leed strings, the listener is placed in a relaxed, dreamy mood, only to be shaken and refocused on the superb bass line, followed with the excellent drum accompainment. It is quite astonishing how powerful is the effect of the bass on this song: the lead piano and the bass follow the inintial progression of the background strings, and yet it is the bass that carries the mood and the soul of this song. The drumwork is very adequate and follows the song very well, but could be improved a bit more, since there are no real drum transitions. Also, there are cases where the samples are not reverberated enough and seem to be cut off from their fadeout. All in all, the arrangement may not be perfect, but certainly is highly effective.

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Title: The Search for Life
Filename: as-tsfl.xm
Posted Sun 3rd Feb 2002
Rated 6 / 10
The song surely sounds nice enough. The song has an overall atmospheric quality in itself, which is pretty well done. It does sound rather rough, though, and it lacks some sounds that would make the music sound smoother. The effects are indeed well done, but a little bit overemphasized, I'd say. There is an overall lack of bass sounds in here, which greatly reduces the enjoyment. Pretty impressive. The atmospheric sounds and astronauts' voices seem to generate an excellent ambient, the kind you'd expect when watching a movie about a flight into deep space, which in turn is consistent with the song title. One BIG remark I have is the lack of bass - there is just NO bass that I can hear. Maybe this is accomplished via background strings, but it is just not enough. For example, at order 12 (i.e. pattern #10) the lead enters the song and this part seems like a chorus. At this point, adding a simple bass progression, which would just follow the lead at reference points (i.e. at every fourth of a measure or something) would greatly expand the emotional experience from the song.

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Title: Winds of Fjords
Filename: a-windf.it
Posted Sat 29th Dec 2001
Rated 8 / 10
The song attempts to encapsulate the emotions that the fjords of Norway produce when seen... This is to a large extent accomplished in the song, and quite well, too. I guess Minomus knew what he was tracking about? ;)))) This song is much more about emotional than technical experience, so there is not much here to say. The intro with the harp, choir and low stings is quite good indeed. The drumrolls at this point are nice too. When the song reaches its "movable" part (pattern #10), the transition into it is not very well done and could be improved; this part is a bit contrasting to the rest of the song, which is largely ambiental. Nevertheless, change is good at times. :))))

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Title: A knight's Tale
Filename: ds_akt.xm
Posted Fri 16th Nov 2001
Rated 9 / 10
A very good relaxing melody. The main string progression is the backbone of the song and is really well done. The overall music feeling is really great all the way throughout the song. It's especially great when the flute enters and (at the end) when the lead gutar enters. The melody is indeed powerful, backed up with the strong support from the piano and strings. The atmosphere is really excellent. Really well put in piece. Everything seems to work well in the song. Stil, one remark is: there is no bass. I guess you could say that the low piano sound is bassy enough to give bass support, but I really feel that adding a melodic bass would really take the listener to the stars and back. :))) Nevertheless, some superb piano, flute and lead gutar tracking present in this tune. Great job.