50Steaks's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[TGRI - Phantom over the Ocean]

What? I never reviewed this? I could have sworn I did. Anyways in the review I thought I posted, I talked about how I had some “strong opinions” about the piece of artwork associated with this song, despite the song itself being really good. You’re really getting better at creating progression and integrating different musical ideas. Not to mention, it feels like you use at least one new instrument every song; here you used the organ. It’s a good soundfont for the organ; to be fair, it could use a touch more reverb. Either way, the atmosphere that the art attempts to encapsulate is emulated really well here. The melody here isn’t quite as melancholy as I thought it would be, but that’s fine I suppose. I was expecting a wistful, almost nostalgic vibe, but it came out as more of a mourning tone, which is also fitting. Overall, really well done yet again.

Tangerine responds:

I'm running out of new instruments to use D:

[|21| PRINTIN' (yELLOW) COLOURS]

I fail to see how this or the other four color songs correlate at all with the colors you gave them: I would imagine this one being blue, for example, because it’s chill and smooth. Either way this is probably your best song because I have a soft spot for atmospheric tracks recently lol.

PartyBalloof responds:

I was never good with associating something with other things, thus whenever I do an analogy my friends have no idea what I'm talking about!

[TGRI - Frosty Breeze]

And this is where I forget that you guys are all upside down. The Christmas season is usually associated with snow, warm fires, and Christmas trees, all of which is just not present in the Southern Hemisphere. Imagine having Christmas be filled with days to the beach and tans.
About the song, I really liked this one. It must be strange naming a Christmas themed song frosty breeze having never experienced a frosty Christmas lol. Either way it’s executed really well here. I will say the flute hanging around leading up to the outro was a little artificial sounding, almost like it was a post production addition to pad out the song. But that’s entirely made up for by the surprising accelerando at 2:13 that really ups the intensity, followed by the most overture parodic (a parody of… is parodic even a word?) section where the same 8 not3s repeat with cymbals at a faster tempo. I’m glad to see it randomly here because it brings a lot more immersion with the second half. Of course the first half is simply leading up to that though so it did fade into the background a little until then, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Overall really well done here of course, and I’m glad to see you take more advantage of the software.

Tangerine responds:

gomp

[TGRI - Neon Lights]

This is interesting. If you remember I’ve tried jazz songs twice now, and neither of them have been what I really wanted out of a jazz song. Louisiana was an ok start but lacked any real substance and Idaho was just a failure all around, so this might be what I’m looking for in my jazz song perhaps. The melody isn’t the catchiest thing you’ve ever made but it still works well, and the development and percussion in the background is what sets this apart.

Tangerine responds:

Jazz is probably one of the most trickiest genres. It's so flexible so I tend to feel lost at first and only start to grasp the essence of the song around the second phrase.

" so this might be what I’m looking for in my jazz song". This song is in between regular jazz and cabaret. Regular jazz embraces clashing and dissonance whereas cabaret doesn't. Cabaret is probably the cleanest genre of jazz (in terms of dissonance and clashing). If you wanted to make a song like this then I would recommend using lots of jazz. I remember seeing a pretty good brass sample when I was watching a friend make a song on fl studio.

[Ravenous Sandstorm]

I can tell you’ve taken a lot of inspiration from game soundtracks with this one. Like your other songs it has an absolutely incredible atmosphere that puts people like GRmusic to shame in my opinion. The use of sound effects, especially when you’re just starting out, is amazing. I don’t know where you learned these audio techniques but they really almost carry the song. The guitar is nice but the lack of a real outro is a concern. One thing I do see you being able to do in the future is creating an extremely intense song (DnB, dubstep, or something else) that works hand in hand with the urgent atmosphere your tracks contain, as in the intro, bridge, and outro would rely on your atmosphere but then there would also be a pretty major drop in between. I could see that being the next logical step, and it’s one you are working towards especially with the previous track you made. Really nice work here and can’t wait to see what you have in store for the future.

OrangeFluff responds:

Thanks for this wonderful review, it was such a pleasure to read it honestly :3
And you are right! I would like to create an intense track that would be consistent throughout without breaking the atmosphere, it sounds like a hard task but I'm woking towards it :D
Also I agree about the outro, I should've worked more on it, I just was tired of working on this track already so I decided to stop o-o
Anyways, thanks again, have a good day! =w=

[Nearing the End]

I disagree, creating descriptions really helps outline the piece in a way I couldn’t really successfully do in a news post or a comment. There always happens to be things I want to tell my audience as they listen to my new song, with maybe 3-4 exceptions. I’ve been to make longer descriptions in an effort to give some input on my decisions, especially since I began truly experimenting with what I was creating and trying to take full advantage of the software. It is for that reason that I feel I am improving as an artist over time, and there will be mishaps along the way but by the end my goal is to create a harmony between these different features in my future songs, like a professional producer (although I have no intentions of becoming one as of right now).
Anyways, the song. I go on a big rant in every review I leave now I guess. This feels different than your other songs which I like a lot. There was a period before the summer when I honestly could not tell which songs were which based on instrumentation, mixing, and structuring. But that has changed for the better: this has much more of a “surprise” feeling (I stole that term from the surprise symphony); very stop-start which works here I think. I just don’t know why it’s called “nearing the end”….
Is what I would have said originally until I heard the ending. I’m starting to wonder if this is some sort of foreshadowing of a big event, and leaving us hanging on that ending is the perfect way to show that. I hope you aren’t going to stop anytime soon because I do enjoy writing these reviews. And about you being late on my last one, I understand because I literally uploaded it 2 days after I uploaded Connecticut and didn’t expect a review from you that early, I doubted anyone expected me to do it that quickly. Since then it’s been 3 weeks+ as I lost all my progress (it wasn’t that good anyways, I’m sticking to mobile for now).

Tangerine responds:

Yeah, I can see why someone would value their author's comment. I just feel that it's better to let the viewer listen and let the music speak for its self.

Don't worry about ranting. It's fun to listen to.

For the foreshadowing part... you cracked a case that I didn't even layout. This song wasn't initially meant to foreshadow anything but you are actually right. I am working on my biggest project yet. The first time that I have had to collaborate with someone on a project of my own. It's been in the works for more than two months and it's nearly done. I just need to send a few things around and edit a few things here and there to complete it.

Don't worry, I'm not intending to stop any time soon. If I have suddenly stopped posting and disappeared for over a month and a half, then I'm probably dead or something horrible happened.

Anyway, thanks for the comment!

[BattlePix]

A name change? What is this! I didn’t really have a problem with the old GRMusic but I did also change my name at the new year. Decided to go for a new brand of my own for this account rather than trying to leech off of the previous. It’s a long story, I should talk about the song now.
The pitch bend is probably the most original thing here, it gives it a sense of uniqueness and kinda past the late 90s into early 2000s in my opinion. I liked the melodies, and the percussion is limited by design of course. I used to make video game songs back in December as well and they couldn’t hold a candle to this. Well done.

VariableGR responds:

Thanks for your support and history teaching, the name changes its because i want a original name, GRMusic was used by many mexican pages on internet.
So i change it to variable = prone to changes
like my style music

[Just Another Crime 2]

A follow up to one of my personal favorite tracks of yours. This sequel has all the stuff needed to be a good follow-up: a new set of instruments, mixing improvements, longer and better structuring, etc. But there is something missing here that was present in the original, and that was the element of surprise. The original ended with a gunshot while this one just a piano solo. The original really emphasized the brass which fit very well with the jazzy mafia theme, and for some reason it's completely missing here. Another thing that's missing is the telephone sound, probably representing a call from the mafia themselves about to do a crime. Maybe here it could have been somewhat humorously replaced by the iPhone calling sound. As much as I love the piano/bass as an instrument, brass does something to pieces like this that can't be replaced. Probably take that lightly as I have yet to use brass in one of my songs though. Bizarre impressions, I seriously would love to give it 5 stars like the original but it wouldn't be justified. Reminds me of basically every movie sequel ever, it makes the original's legacy tarnished even if it's just as good or even better than the original. Maybe part of the reason is that this doesn't really experiment with what the first established all that much.
Edit: came back here to potentially hear both at once to make sure I agreed with this review. Came back to hear a completely different song that far more effectively takes the essence of the original and improves on it in the best ways. The distorted, dissonant piano works way better than in the first version. Brass is present here which I initially recommended. Love the return of the telephone as it helps set the atmosphere and mood. Changing from 3.5 stars to 5 stars. Interesting how it begins with the telephone sound and ends with the telephone sound. Only slight issue is that the classic gunshot sound at the end is a little quiet. Other than that not much else to say. One thing I forgot to complement was the melody at 2:30, it’s now become one of your best imo, especially in the context of the climax. Very well done building on what the original did while keeping its best aspects. I think this might be your best yet. I say that like every song you make lol.

Tangerine responds:

I'm glad you liked the song. After hearing your comment I realized my mistake. In the original, I utilized brass far more and I feel I neglected it this time. The sound effects are pretty much the signature of the song so I added them back. Thank you for the feedback!

[|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...

[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.