50Steaks's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Party in the Concert Hall]

I never noticed you uploaded this… why?
Alright well this is the largest change I’ve ever seen you make yet. I suppose you’ve been planning this a while, haven’t you? From literally 0:00 it’s just unlike anything you’ve made so far. This is the first time I’ve heard you use sidechain, a heavy kick drum, automation; you’ve learned a lot so quickly. While I regressed from the pc version due to its complexity, you’ve taken on the challenge and made this. It’s not perfect; some instruments are too loud especially the square thing at 1:23. Also is it just me or is it kinda hard to latch on to a main melody? That’s not necessarily a problem, it’s more a personal taste thing. I do tend to have “main themes” in all of my songs, it’s just something I took from my childhood musical endeavors.
In other news, you’ve used reverse snares, making me really want to put this as “modified orchestral dubstep.” Basically orchestral dubstep without the dubstep sounds. You’ll watch these dubstep tutorials and it’s just a lot of work and know-how, and they act like it’s easy to do when it’s really not. I tried this with my most recent song Nevada and ended up just using one of the presets and changing it from there. I really don’t know how to rate this one since there’s not much to compare it to. I know you probably had similar difficulties rating some of my songs like Georgia and New Hampshire, extreme departures from the norm are difficult to rate accurately. For the purposes of the review, I will give you a 4/5. Good job, I hope it will get even better in the future with this new direction!

Tangerine responds:

beannssss

[mount bloodrest (2022 edition)]

Like this is actually cool sounding. I’ll give this a decent score for it being really cool sounding in the beginning, but I will knock it points for not being in time.

Mikas0Pikas0Pog responds:

Yea, the timing is shit.

[crystals]

You’ve retreated to the dark side and betrayed those who trusted you most.
In seriousness, I left a comment on your news post about this.

Mikas0Pikas0Pog responds:

You have forced me to change.
Let me choose what i need. (also beepbox is with customizable instruments btw)

[No Limits]

I like this song. It sounds nice and it’s mixed really well, but there’s a HUGE issue with it: the drums. If this was literally the very first DnB song, I would endlessly praise and commend the unique drumming pattern. However, apparently being a DnB song means you need to reuse the EXACT SAME PATTERN every single time. I point this out because you did it with your first two songs as well, only with different instruments. In a vacuum, this song is great, but it has been done before many times.

Lenxty responds:

Thank you, 50Steaks, for your comment and advice! :3

[Barrett's Privateers Singalong]

Alright I’ve come down to see what songs are on your account, and after doing some digging, I found out that the same song here is uploaded on all accounts listed as producers. I’m surprised you managed to work with these big names, and the song is really nice too.
I’m going to assume that the main voice is of none other than Tainted himself. Given his experience, of course he did a good job here, and the backup voices were nice as well. I also love the description, nice work.

Ceevro responds:

On this particular one...the main voice be me! Ya boi Ceevro! I had actually expected someone else to jump in and sing it better than I did, but it seems they decided to leave me there. HOWEVER...the master of the harmonies was TaintedLogic, he did the high male parts, and I literally duplicated his parts two octaves lower. What amazes me is how well the ladies harmonized without any part to follow...I know I'm not skilled enough to do that!

[TGRI - The Swing of Things]

Getting back into the swing of things, I see?
I’m sorry, the opportunity was too golden. Anyways, my opinion of this song instantly shifted when I heard you describe it as a jazzy battle theme. At first listen, I was unsure because I was expecting even more emphasis on the swing background harmony than what there was, and perhaps a harmonica to bring that feeling home. However, this uses brass more than those classic instruments, which implies a grandiose feeling associated with a boss fight. Two main issues with this song, despite how catchy it is:
1. The intro. Having JUST piano for like the first 1:09 gets a little repetitive. You mentioned this in the description, but this is repetition based on lack of variety rather than repetition of melody (I think you were right that the melody works well for the feeling of the song).
2. The outro, although this one is more of a personal taste than a real issue; the fakeout ending didn’t quite work for me, although I do appreciate you trying something new. My main hypothesis for his might be the fact that the piano at 2:45 just replays the same six notes as the melody at 2:43, just adding another measure to the melodic phrase. It might have been more satisfying if you instead just finished the phrase with those six notes instead of playing them twice. Anyways that’s really honestly a huge nitpick and, so you’ll still get the five stars for taking a well established type of music and putting your own spin on it in a fleshed out way.

Tangerine responds:

When a golden opportunity comes, you gotta take it. After listening to it back a little bit, I do see how it gets a little repetitive. Would you have any ideas on some things I could do? Bring the brass in a little earlier? add cinematic strings in the background when the melody is first introduced? I'll probably figure something out.

Yeah, the ending was a little rushed at the time I made this. I have a bad habit of holding onto songs for a while before I finally post them. I don't know why I do it. I just do. In my recent songs, I have been taking the endings much more seriously and I've put more thought into them. An ending is like the aftertaste of food. The food could be great, but a bad aftertaste will ruin the whole thing.

[automate]

I’m not sure how you keep pumping out these tracks, and they’re all bangers of course and just super fun to listen to one after the other. However, I also am beginning to notice that your style of music restricts variation to a certain degree; it kind of feels like all of your songs blend together, which is a double edged sword in my opinion. On the one hand, this is a very unique style of music and, if someone is looking for it specifically, you’re the only one who makes it properly consistently. On the other hand, if they’re looking for literally anything else, there isn’t much else to find. The reason I say this is because there’s a very tricky balance between variety and still keeping a baseline, and I also have been trying very hard to strike it. At first, I was solely trance/dance/techno, as indicated by the first 25 or so songs on my account. Then I decided I’d go completely off the rails after I released Wyoming and experiment with literally everything including discordant jazz, real instruments, remixing classical pieces (and remixing in general), and dissonant chords (note: I think you’d be really good at jazz music, but that’s just me). After that jazz thing I made I decided to tone it down and just start returning to my roots in the form of more electronic music, and I think I’ve found a happy medium at this point (subject to change). Point is, variety is the spice of life, and it would be really cool to see you try other genres or major variations on your favorite genre. Thanks for reading!

trevor8 responds:

thank you so much, i always love your analyses! i am definitely a creature of habit and branching out of my comfort zone has always been difficult. i consider everything on here as work in progress, and hopefully refinement? i am trying not to be cheap or redundant, but i absolutely agree that i have a cycle of about four or five types of sound design that i gravitate toward and it does keep me awake at night wondering if it is all blurring and what comes next. i have thought about taking a hiatus sometimes to sort of gain some perspective and space, but then i get really neurotic that i'll lose something in the process, or become preoccupied with something else entirely? sorry, i am kind of just wondering aloud here. anyways, i really appreciate your time and consideration.

[Allium]

Alright that’s one of the better of these types of beats, and for being someone who only started making music 2 years ago, I’m thoroughly impressed. I will say one thing: you need to go on discord and message a GD moderator to be whitelisted, although I will scout you nonetheless because this deserves to be heard.

Rainful responds:

Thanks for the kind words! I'll dm a mod :)

[9. Toaster Love]

This reminds me of the Wikipedia article on cock and ball torture; the heavy metal-esc screaming fits perfectly with what this character is actually doing in the song, which makes it quite interesting to listen to. Unfortunately you do get knocked down for making me wince every time he says a word (lyric-wise), but the weird and creepy outro is so random and unexplained that I consider it to be a representation of the remains of this dude’s destroyed cock.

guyfromKillerRAT responds:

I definitely do like to hear interpretations of things I did in songs without verbally explaining. I believe that your interpretation very much does sound like something I would do. Is it true though? Well, I'll leave you to decide that.

[carrier]

Wow. This blew me away, not just because it sounds so different than what you usually post, not just because it is in 6/8, but the structuring and melodic blending you use here is not of the ordinary. This is genuinely something I could just randomly hum the melody of, similar to a lot of classical music. The percussion is actually my favorite of all your songs so far, it’s great. The time signature really is the “signature” of this song and it was executed really well. I see some producers attempt a 3/4 or 6/8 time only to make a 4/4 track with swing, but this is anything but that. Also I love that outro that you can tell is coming, but only subconsciously so. Really really well done here, as always, and I’m glad to see you try something a little bit different.

trevor8 responds:

thank you so much!