50Steaks's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[|01| Hello There!]

Can’t tell you how many problems I had exporting out of FL mobile and even the regular FL. I’m forced to turn down the master level a ton to get it to not be extremely distorted and the master limiter has proven to make things worse. It makes all my songs extremely quiet as I have a wide range of dynamics in all of them and it becomes impossible to balance them out without ruining the vibe.

[|14| ALKALINE!]

I can tell you had a lot of fun with the repeater on the hi-hats lol. Probably wouldn’t have gone with the 8-bit/80’s type synths in combination with this insane percussion that every so often pans everywhere as it felt a little out of place. That is until 3:17 where everything meshes together so well as there happens to be some more traditional drums to close out the song. Not gonna lie in all my 2.5 years of using FL mobile I’ve never dared to touch the stereoizer and master limiter (along with most of the other effects besides reverb, delay, the param EQ and of course autoduck (more commonly known as side chain) for the lead) as they just don’t work as well as their pc counterparts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been yelled at to remove the reverb from the kick drum entirely and leave it on just the high hats/snares since it “occupies the mix and makes it sound messy and muddy”. Sometimes I agree with them but other times I think it sounds fine with reverb and taking it away doesn’t always have 0 consequences for the style of music I’m trying to make. Anyways here there is no reverb on the kick drum past the intro and it works well enough anyway thanks to the sheer quantity of instruments used.

PartyBalloof responds:

Yeah this is where I discovered the repeater, and you bet I had to use the heck out of it.

As for the reverb, I found that adding too much reverb to drums made them sound hissy, while using too much stereoizer made the snare and hihats sound like they were coming from two slightly out-of-sync speakers.

I also found that using reverb on certain kicks have their benefits, such as give them more presence without increasing overall volume, but some kicks definitely become messy with reverb.

Meanwhile stereoizer definitely gives the kicks more oomph but also makes the hihats and snares sound weird.

Honestly most of these effects are new to me. I mean have you ever tried FL Studio Mobile 2? You only had one effect rack, and each instrument was Nofx/normal/Fx. The reverb in FLM2 was also quite... "stylized"

... also autoduck? Lemme look into that...

[|08| Winged Dreamer]

Is there some type of lore hidden in those backstory things you always put? “Thankfully, he was a balloon” lol
Anyway I can tell you’ve really improved in the 12 hours since you posted the end of the last album (that for some reason isn’t up anywhere else I think), this has a lot more emotion than the previous tracks and I don’t know how you create 6 songs in half a day so we’ll see how the rest are.

[MADNESS (VIP/REMAKE)]

Honestly really well mixed but unfortunately I think it lasted too long/didn’t vary enough from beginning to end. Also it gets worse at 3:09, the fast beat doesn’t fit at all with the first half, and the ending literally blasts my eardrums (and not in a good way). Always wanted a bass like that though but never knew how to make it. If you gave me just the first half I would rate it 4 stars or even 4.5

[Night of the Skeletons]

Why was I expecting an undertale medley from the title…?
Anyways I’m glad you’re back from your hiatus. This song is catchy despite its melody being disjointed and dissonant at times, that works for the theme of course. I as well am finishing a song that literally completely defies everything I’ve ever made thanks to a new pad trick I’ve found. It relies on tritone dissonance and… you’ll see. But one thing I’ve found it very hard to do is stop using the mobile version when there’s still so much to be done there and it feels a lot more fluid and intuitive than the pc version. They both have their benefits and drawbacks, so I’m thinking to use both somehow, like drafting a melody on the mobile version and using the pc version just for mixing and such.
Anyways enough about me, the outros are improving steadily which is good and the harmony is nice as well. Just not sure about how it switches to major key in somewhat sudden ways throughout.

Tangerine responds:

Yeah, I really played with the discordant notes with this one. I'm sure you'll figure out some way to incorporate all the good features of each version of Fl. And for the major minor thing... I didn't actually use a key signature for this one. I found a chord progression that sounded nice and hell broke loose from there. I tried my best to keep the chords mostly in the minor keys but it just got really difficult to find something that sounds good with the aesthetic of the song. Anyway, thanks for the comment.

[|05| Rave! Rave! Dave! Rave!]

Of all the seven songs, this one is probably the best. I have a weird tradition of reviewing at least one song of everyone who reviews my songs, unless they’re already super popular. I saw that you weren’t impressed with the views on this first album, I’m just going to say that it takes time and lots of effort. It took me about 3+ years to get one track that got a lot of listens (Wyoming with ~700), which isn’t even that much in the grand scheme of things. Haven’t even broken 1000 so don’t feel too bad if you aren’t getting what you want in that regard. But rather than worrying about the numbers I just do it as a hobby, not really caring if something doesn’t even get 100 after 2 weeks. I don’t plan to make my music into a career in the slightest, but I do enjoy making it, sometimes even more than I enjoy playing it which is just amazing to me. But yeah this song: it’s a good “bop” for lack of a better term. I can kind of see why you liked my most recent track after looking at what you’ve made. Progression is better down here than in your other tracks and the synths are more varied. I also notice that we use the same software (although I did end up slowly abandoning the mobile version for the PC trial version very recently). The whole balloon animal wolf Dave thing is a little bizarre but I suppose it does set you apart. A lot to say this time I guess.

PartyBalloof responds:

Yeah, I don't know why I expected my music to take off instantly, I gotta tune down my expectations and go back to my humble ways.
Anyways, thanks for taking a look at my songs! Most are rather simple because I haven't used the program much and my music skill is amateurish.

(Sorry that I don't have much to say in return, most of my prior music experience was messing around with iOS Garageband loops)

[The Mantis Relic]

Clearly this is some well made trap beat. I fail to see how this at all connects to a crystal-esc mantis other than the high pitched bells, but it still sounds nice nonetheless.

VariableGR responds:

I honestly did not make a good concept for the song, so it has nothing to do with the song or there is no relationship with it.
Thank you friend for your support

[tomorrow]

Probably not as good as mount blood rest because it just feels a lot more repetitive. The fade out at the end was well done though and the beat, despite not changing much, wasn’t that boring or uninteresting.

Mikas0Pikas0Pog responds:

Yea, it's less great since my cousin wasn't guiding me.

[Bored at the Midnight]

Ooook this song is fine on its own, but there’s a huge problem I’m noticing with most DnB songs that I didn’t even realize was an issue until now. They all use a very similar beat. Necromancy by zirconmusic literally uses the exact same drum pattern at its drop as in this song. I’m so conflicted as to whether that was on purpose or not, but there are other examples as well, such as paragonx9’s three famous DnB tracks and some of other famous artists. My point is mostly the kick at the first and snare at second beats of a measure, the third beat’s second eighth note having a kick then ending off with another snare at the fourth beat, over and over. There are of course variations of this, but one specific one is adding hi hats in the exact way it’s done here, and most DnB on ng tends to do that as well. This I see as a huge problem because it’s literally called Drum and Bass, so there really needs to be a lot variety in the drum and bass for it to not sound repetitive. This genre has so much potential and it’s just being wasted by basically everyone using the same pattern. It’s pop music all over again and that’s a big shame.

[Saturn Flower]

Frankly a masterpiece. I fail to see why anyone would say this isn’t your best so far. I love the story, I love the orchestral thing going on, the piano is amazing, progression and pacing is amazing, everything is perfect with the exception of the voice sample but that lasts for like 3 seconds a couple of times so it really doesn’t matter. The reason I don’t like it is because it doesn’t really fit the theme of a desolate flower, as flowers can’t sing and it isn’t even an earthly situation this time around. Literally everything else is perfect though so you retain my 5 stars.

VariableGR responds:

I know that no flower sings or expresses an emotion, however I like to experiment with magical stories or fantasy events.
I really appreciate your support and feedback <3 thank you so much!!