Pirate Pete's Mod Reviews

Notes regarding origin, methodology

The songs reviewed herein were obtained through the Walnut Creek CD-ROM collection and through my travels on the Web. I began searching through the 1998 area of Walnut Creek. I started with the "g's" and "h's", and I plan to eventually work my way through the entire 1998 collection. Then I'll begin to move backward in time (assuming, of course, that Y2K doesn't put a serious crimp on everyone's Internet life). In general, I will not review a song which is not on the Web (i.e., which does not have a link) unless I keep the song in my permanent personal collection on my hard drive or on "Gryzor's CD-ROM Anthology I". If you want me to review your song, make sure it's somewhere on the Web first. I do this so I can provide a link to the song so that my readers will be able to download the song and review it themselves.

All reviews are my own opinion, nothing more, nothing less. The reviews express how the songs made me feel. Here is the process I use to review mods:

  1. I give the mod an initial listen to determine if it is a song or simply a melodic phrase. I only review complete songs, not song fragments. I also do not review mods which are nothing more than showcases for special effects samples. Thus, to be considered for inclusion in this reviews page:
    • a mod should be longer than a minute
    • the mod should have a definable beginning, middle, and end. This requirement is flexible, but the length requirement is not-- I will not review mods less than one minute in length.
    • a mod must be some type of musical composition.

  2. After the initial selection process, I listen to the mod a second time to determine my overall feelings--i.e., how does the thing sound? I ask myself, among other questions:
    • Is the song melodious (pleasing to the ears), or cacaphonious (raucous, screeching)?
    • What type of song is it--is it one of my favorites (techno, dance, house, rave)
    • What kind mood does the song put me in? Does it make me happy, angry, sad, or exuberant?
    • What type of environment would be optimal for this mod? Should it be played at a discotheque, in church, in an opera, in a honky-tonk bar?

  3. If possible, I load the song into Impulse Tracker and dissect it. I look for
    • Tracking skill--does the artist seem to know what he or she is doing, technically speaking? Does he or she take full advantage of the innate features of the tracker? Does viewing Impulse Tracker's "note dot" display make my jaw drop to the floor?
    • How does the song sound in IT? Some songs sound better in the tracker in which they were created; some sound better with a dedicated player like ModPlug.
    • How do the individual instruments/samples sound when played in isolation from the rest of the song? Are they scratchy? If looped, are there audible clicks at one or more loop points?

  4. After Impulse Tracker, I listen to the song at least one more time with ModPlug, with all of my favorite effects enabled (Dolby surround sound, reverb, 60% panning, graphic equalizer set to "Flat"). If the song turns out to be a favorite, I may listen to it a dozen times, playing it in the background as I do other computer work.
  5. Finally I determine if the mod is suitable for my Top 10 / Top 100 lists.

My rating system consists of 5 categories, each of which I give a score from 1 to 10:

  • Opening -- Was there a definable opening? Was it abrupt, or did it blend into the body of the song?
  • Middle -- Was there a definable middle? Was the song's main melody easily distinguishable from others of its type?
  • Closing -- Was there a definable closing? If so, did the style of closing fit the song as a whole (abrupt endings are fine for certain types of songs, as long as that is the effect the composer is searching for)?
  • Headphone factor -- How did the song sound in headphones? Did it sound flat or 3-dimensional? What type of panning effects were used? Was there a balance between the bass and treble frequencies in the song?
  • Technical -- this is a recent addition; only mods with numbers greater than 82 will have this category. By 'technical', I refer to the tracking skill AND musical abilities of the composer.

I do not claim to be an expert in music theory or MOD tracking. What I am an expert in is what kind of music makes my inner ear go "boogedy-boogedy." As such, my qualifications are simple--I love music, all kinds of music.

MOD Musicians: If I give your piece an unfavorable review, don't lose heart-- as I said, these are nothing more than my own, uninformed, wholly subjective opinions that, in the long run, don't mean squat. On the other hand, if I give your work a favorable review, this does not mean you'll soon be raking in the dough from recording contracts (but then, you already knew that). This page is meant for entertainment only.

18 Oct 98 -- With the demise of Hornet , I will now be reviewing songs from Gryzor's CD-ROM Anthology I, 4-CD collection of over 18,000 (yes, you read that correctly--18,000!) mods, which you can learn more about at the following website: http://wwwperso.hol.fr/~gryzor/index.html [Read reviews of this CD-ROM Anthology here]. In place of where the URL would normally go, I display the CD number and complete path to the song I'm reviewing (e.g., "CDROM-1:\MODULES\AUTHORS.A-G\16BEAT\AERODROME.MOD") These MODS Anthology reviews begin with #60 - "A Rocktale" by 16-beat. I am also currently looking into reviewing mods from MAZ's "MAZzive Injection" CD.

As stated above, I am continually reviewing mods for my Top 10 and Top 100 lists. If you're interested in submitting something for consideration, please follow these guidelines:

  • I will review submissions by email or by Web--but I strongly prefer by Web (i.e., a song that is somewhere on the Web that I can link to).
  • If you are sending me an email submission ASK ME FIRST. Nothing irritates me more than to see my mailbox jammed with 1 and 2 megabyte files that I'm not expecting, which take 5 or 10 minutes to unload from my mail box (besides that, I only have a small amount of room on the server. If you have already sent me something, THERE IS NO NEED TO RESEND. I am reviewing *all* of my online mods for the new lists.
  • There is no file size restriction, but I will give preference in my ratings to the smaller files (small here being a relative term).
  • Please send no more than THREE entries.
  • There is no guarantee if you submit something you'll place on one of my lists; I might consider doing a special review of each entry, however.

Addendum: I am currently a reviewer at The Internet Music Monitor and Trax in Space.

That out of the way, let's get on with the reviews!