*********************************** AM/FM ***********************************  MUSIC DISK REVIEW: Title : Short Modules 2 Producer : Pyrogenic 17 bit No : 2363 No. Disks : 1 No. Tracks : 23 Musicians : Various *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************  This is a collection of small (in disk space, but not necessarily length) modules, taken from various intros and demos. Twenty-three songs will take way to much disk space to review, so here are a few of my favourite tracks. Ten Minute Trash, by Mekkannik of Betrayal : At just over 23k, this module is about half the length of one of my average samples. It's quite a short song at only five patterns long, but what there is of it is great. There's just five samples on offer here, a bass, bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, and last but not least, a beautifully harmonized vocal "Doo" sample. Basically the song is constructed of a drum track, and a simple but effective walking-bass track, leaving the "Doo" sample to take the melody. It's such a simple song that it annoys me that I didn't think of doing this first, but I love it, it sounds so happy, and is guranteed to put a smile on the grumpiest persons face. Rating 7½ Dream Off, by HMC : Wow, pump that bass ! This 56k module puts a lot of the 200k+ Rave tracks to shame. Starting with a mix of bongo drums, bird calls, and a Japenese flute, it first gives the impression of some sort of bizzare jungle song. These impressions are soon smashed when it launches into a powerful Rave/Acid based drum and bass tracks. A nice feature of this song was the relative lack of repetition. Loads of changes in tempo, drum breaks, and the returning Japensese flute theme kept the tune sounding quite fresh all the way through. All of the samples were of a good quality, if not original. The actual song itself wasn't a very original idea, but it had some nice twists, was put together very well, and I found it enjoyable to listen to. Rating 7. Heartbeat, by Carillion : On hearing this 9½k song, I thought it was pure chip music, with a few sampled drums added for good measure. I found this to be not strictly true. The sounds are actually played as samples, but they are carefully sculpted square and sine waves averaging about 50 bytes each. For the size of these "samples", the instruments sound pretty good. There just beeps, and whistles really, but by changing the position of the loop point, a slightly different sound is produced. The actual song is quite simple, it contains a standard drum track, and a nice bouncy little bass track, while is comes down to the "sythetic" instruments to play the high pitched melody. It's best described as a fun song. Rating 7. Necroscope, by Mantronix of Phenomena : Like "Heartbeat", this song mixes "synthetic" sounds, and normal samples, and is one of three songs on this disk composed by Mantronix. One of the reasons I liked this song was because of the variety of different sounds he's managed to coax out of a few 34 byte samples. This is another quite short song, and so it's fairly uncomplicated, the usual drum track, and bass track are here. With the "synthetic" instruments being used as the lead, and as an appregio accompliment. I know that the sound of appregios are not everybodys cup of tea, don't let it put you off, this is a pretty good song, and only takes up 15k. Rating 7. Ferrytales, by 4-Mat of Anarchy : This is quite a large song, (for this disk anyway) weighing in at 46k. As much as I love the pure simple addictiveness of "Ten Minute Trash", I have to admit that the more substantial length, and variation of this song do make it better, and in fact my personel favourite of the disk. "Ferrytales" really does mix the "synthetic", and more traditional sampled sounds very well. Kicking off with a good funky syth-bass track, it's soon joined by rock-guitar, and a quite well sampled one at that. Later on in the song the synthetic sine-wave instrument is used to play the guitar solo, and does a pretty good job. The sine-wave instrument is also used to create a great stereo effect, when two of the sound channels are given over to rapidly deceanding, and ascending sine-wave scales. It's a great song, and as you've probably noticed, very hard to describe. I suggest you get hold of this disk and have a listen for yourselves. Rating 8. Compositions - There's an amazing amount of variety in these songs, which can probably be attributed to the large number of different composers. A lot of the songs are quite short, (one of them is just one pattern long !) but what's there is at least usually original. Rating 7. Samples - Hmm, a tough rating to mark.. Many of the songs used almost identical instruments; a couple of drums, a bass, and a "synthetic" sine-wave sample. For the amount of bytes these samples took up, they sounded very good. I wouldn't be very fair of me to compare a bass sample that took up 800 bytes against one that took up 10k, so I won't. I'll just say that the majority of samples sounded very clear, and the odd few that didn't, did not hurt the appropriate song much. Rating 6. Presentation - Wow, moving graphics. Nothing fancy though, just a couple of star-fields, and a copper bar selector that fades in, and out when you move it. All very pretty. The selector program worked with no hitches, so you'll get no complaints from me here. Rating 7. AM/FM Rating - The fact is a lot of the sons on this disk use synthetic sounding instruments. That seems to be a problem for some people, who apparantly don't like the Amiga to be made to sound like a C64 when it has the capability to do so much more. A fair point perhaps, but personally I'd rather have a disk full of well written, and enjoyable compositions using "synthetic" sounds, than a disk full of badly written songs that use wonderfull samples. So put aside all your prejudices for screaming sine wave sounds, and go out and get this disk. All the songs are unprotected, and uncrunched, so you can also study their construction. Well Recommended. Rating 7 *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************