50Steaks's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Struggle]

Hey! I know we've had quite the DM chain about this song already but I originally did sign up to review this anyways, so here you go.

There is so much emotion behind the performance of this, I'm surprised it didn't quite make it. Most of the feedback I had was about production, but you've (finally) resolved basically all the issues. I don't have any problems with the structure or theming other than that it just feels too short! If this updated version were the one to have been submitted, I'm pretty sure it would have made it (though I guess we'll never know). Regardless, you're now able to take all the feedback and the 30 mixing versions into account for all your future compositions. I will definitely be keeping an eye on your future works! Good luck next year!

Solacitude responds:

True that I got pretty active in DM with you and a couple NG judges too to get my sound right after the 3/10 shock. I was quite stunned by the production result, but in the end if it can be used to make sure I'm not releasing bad audio quality in the future, it's a big win!

Otherwise it's still a very positive surprise regarding everything else, so all in all I'm happy with the results, and feedbacks. It's important to take that as well into account.
I'm glad you liked this piece, that it connects with you! The impressive score you gave was a big weight in the balance to offset the bad feelings of reading the disastrous production scores. At least it made it a bit less of a task to you to listen to my endless versions if you like the composition. I'm now at the 27th :) but it's only getting better! Now with a clearer sound the fine tuning is way more efficient. I'll update again soon.

Thank you very much for the chat, encouragements, and suggestions!

[The Lord has Come]

This is interesting because it probably only wasn’t frontpaged because the larger collab was. It’s also interesting because of the grunts and the different angle you took with a traditional Christmas song, that’s honestly super cool.

But there’s a broader issue I’m beginning to notice with your pieces. They’re all incredibly professionally made and have a lot of thought and care put behind them. In a vacuum, I do feel like your recent pieces this year on their own hold up really well.

But I feel like the general experimentation that used to characterize both of our portfolios has started to fade. Like oh cool, another tangerine well made amazing cinematic choral piece. And to be honest I’ve really been wanting to talk about this for a while, pretty much since you switched to FL and went a bit more… predictable? Not sure how I can call this predictable. It’s a massive cinematic remix of a classic Christmas song with a completely different tone! But… that’s kinda it?

In the same way that I eventually made a few more electronic works to balance out the classical ones which, let’s be honest here, are way easier to make? Like there really isn’t that much mixing involved in my classical pieces, at least nowhere near to the level of my electronic ones.

Maybe it’s time to step outside your comfort zone. I’d love to see you take a wild new step in a new direction! Make a jazz song again! Try to get adventures of a lost clown frontpaged while staying as close to the original as possible! Not everything you post HAS to be groundbreaking and amazing.

Ignore everything I wrote here I’m just late night rambling about something that has been on my mind for around 2 years. And to be honest you don’t have this issue nearly as much as other popular artists here on the site. I just don’t want to see your work become stale. That’s all.

Tangerine responds:

Thanks!

I kind of feel like I never lost that experimentation side of my music, though it just looks a little different now. Before, I would experiment with different styles like, jazz, rock, cinematic and sometimes techno. Now I'm experimenting more within the cinematic genre. Making songs from Middle eastern tracks to creepy circus tracks.

I honestly would like to make more edm and dubstep-type tracks, but I just can't seem to get through them. For some reason, I just get so bored after a few hours of making them. During 2022, I make like, 100 edm tracks but I finished none of them because I just go so incredibly bored during the process.

That's why for the past 2 years I've been making primarily orchestral tracks. They're the most fun to make and I'm more proud of the end result. I also just like that music genre more. Though, I have been warming up to the idea of making more jazz tunes. That's something I still really enjoy. The piano one I sent you earlier is one I want to make into a proper full song.

But yeah I absolutely do get what you mean. I made Massacre at the Carnival and then never looked back lmao. Orchestral music is so diverse and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface in terms of the subgenres. But I do step out of my comfort zone quite often, Newgrounds just doesn't get to see it :p

Oh my god imagine the absolute journey it would be trying to get Adventures of a Lost Clown to the frontpage. I don't think anyone is skilled enough to do it. But yeah, I also hope my work isn't becoming stale because that would be really sad

[The Start of...]

I'd scout this but theres like 20 seconds of silence at the end and I don't think the portal likes that sort of thing. This is a great start though, just need to make it a little longer with more distinct sections or themes of some sort.

TheSolarDude responds:

Yeah I just figured out how to delete the silence at the end. I am working on something much better which will be coming out soon maybe

[Five Quarters]

I'm a sucker for odd time signatures (yes that is a musical term btw) and for overly long, in depth descriptions that outline a lot of decisions you made in detail. No seriously I still struggle with this.

Never played touhou but do know Bad Apple of course. And I can see how this might be from the same game that originated from. I would say though, the piano constantly doing its arpeggios of the same chord at the 5/4 parts does get a little repetitive even with the meter changes. But it's mixed super well and definitely puts me on edge during those sections. Feels like someone is about to spring out from behind my closet door.

Pheanir responds:

I appreciate your feedback.
I was also feeling skeptical about the ever-repeating piano arpeggios, but when I tried listening to parts without it, it felt oddly off -- like some depth was missing for the track. But I think I won't overdo it like this in the future. It was a first and I didn't take the time to (re-)evaluate the presence it has in this piece.

Again, thanks! ♪

[Drum Spum]

Always appreciating a fellow FLM user! We’re few and far between that’s for sure. But I feel like the $14 value is better than the $100 value on PC not to mention it’s way easier to use and learn imo.

But the song itself could, funnily enough, use some bass. Lol.

Neutronex responds:

the song hella lacks melody, but sadly i can't make one's
in new songs i tried making something but still it sounds too bad

[Infinite]

Ok this is awesome but your BASS CLEF IS UPSIDE DOWN AAAAAAA

OVERSCORE responds:

Yeah I noticed that the next morning and was so disappointed in myself 😂😭

[Midnight RAVEn]

This is honestly pretty good especially for your age. When I was 13 I was making stuff like this awful garbage.
https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/835122
The main thing I’d do is just take that whole lead synth and drop it an octave at 1:25. That’s kind of it.

Damn 3:23 is super dramatic and cool sounding. You’re honestly so underrated the audio portal is a different beast this year lmao. You have a lot of potential so keep it up!

RottingTob responds:

damn this was made in only like 2 days and is one of my lazier beats outside of the drumming. thanks though.

[Return]

This sounds super cool at parts! Especially when there’s a new section. But it feels very drawn out and it feels like this could’ve been 3 minutes with a very similar effect by cutting down on the repeated measures. You start to do this around 3:19 but by then a lot of listeners probably already got bored :(. And then the rest of the song doesn’t really change or add anything from what we’ve already heard too much. I too had a bad habit of making super long intros which bored listeners before they even got into my song. The way to mitigate that is to add enough to keep them interested while calling back to the new elements you introduced in the previously empty sounding intro later in the song. Or at least that’s how I did it. Regardless, this is a very solid start.

DaveJMusic responds:

Alright, thanks for your advice!

[Final Farewell]

You gave me a heart attack with that title lmao. And yes, I am feeling deja vu (albeit for entirely separate reasons than what you implied. A final farewell? Also known as… a last goodbye?

Congrats on what I believe is over your ninth frontpage in a row (11th if you don’t count the brawhalla theme remix). Keep this up and you’ll finally beat trevor in ruling the audio portal. #roadtobeattrevor (and he has a 13 year advantage on you!)

Ok enough of that, the song. Your grandpa would be proud of you for making not one, but two popular songs in honor of him. And this is a huge improvement over the last version of course. Gotta love the intro here, which in a lot of your more recent works often tends to be my favorite part. You have a thing with intros and I don’t know what it is. It’s often the part I struggle with most lol.

The string swells at 0:22 into the chord progression is gorgeous, not much else to say. Then we finally get the familiar farewell melody which is now one of my favorite of yours, just because of this piece.

1:31 THAT SOFT CHORUS Jesus Christ. It hits so hard emotionally at that part. Even though the melody is constantly changing it still flows so well which is something I tried to do but it didn’t work as well as it does here. 3:52 quite the change of pace here. Honestly it’s very reminiscent of the big cinematic choir sound I’ve heard you use in a lot of your songs. Reminds me of brawhalla, a game I only associate with your music lol. As for the ending, I like it, but I feel like it wasn’t really that necessary? Like it could’ve just ended at 4:38, and if you wanted an abrupt ending it could’ve just been left unresolved there? I mean that’s basically exactly how I ended warbird I’m realizing, so I guess it wouldn’t have fit so well here. That soft piano from the beginning could’ve come back for a bit longer though instead of just more strings at the end. Idk there are so many ways to end this and it’s all just personal preference.

But yeah no this is excellent. Honestly I think I might prefer this over sandstorm since the intro to sandstorm is so much more memorable than the rest, but this feels like a complete package. Not sure if this can stack up to adventures of a lost clown though. In fact I’d say it doesn’t even hold a candle.

Tangerine responds:

It's payback for when you did it to me! I'm still super salty that a last goodbye wasn't frontpaged. Gonna send Tom a strongly worded letter over that.

I'm coming for ur ass @trevor8! nah jk, I don't have half the efficiency he has. I'm going to have to put in heaps more work if I ever want to rival him. The way he can create such good songs so quickly, man I'm gonna need 13 years to get there xd

Also side note: I love how the brawlhalla theme, to this day, is still the song that took me the most effort. Even this song took less effort than that one! Of course it's just my luck that the one that took the most hair off my head was the one that wasn't frontpaged xD. But I think it's maybe because I didn't change enough from the original, or because it wasn't my own original work. That may just be a cope tho

After I released the Punkin King song, I was expecting people to comment on the awesome ending that song had. To my surprise, nobody even said a word about it. So I assumed people weren't listening through the whole thing and probably got disinterested somewhere in the beginning.

So I make extra sure to have the intros to my songs be interesting, to hook people in to listen to the rest of it. It's usually a shame because the second half of my songs are often the better parts as I actively improve throughout making the song. So if they've already listened to the first half, they're more likely to listen to the rest as well, sunk cost. Thats why I focus a lot more on the beginnings ;0

I love this melody as well. It's also one of my favourites out of mine. For some reason, the tinkerer's workshop is my favourite one. I have no idea why, it's just always stuck with me. Tinkerer's Workshop 3 coming soon in a theatre near you xD

At 1:31 I realized I actually remade a part of an old jazz song I'd been sitting on for 2 years. I'll actually show you my draft! I don't think I'm going to release it any time soon, maybe you could use it for one of your songs ;). I'm sorta just waiting until I can get a vocalist to sing for it. The thing is, I've never worked with vocals before and I'm far too scared to ask someone on here to do it because I'm fairly certain the end result isn't going to be good xd.

I absolutely get what you mean with the ending. I was always planning to leave it unfinished... just not there xD. The real reason (our little secret) is because my dumbass corrupted and lost the version with that ending part, and working with those specific strings sucks so much, so I just decided to leave it there. I had gotten a recording with it, and didn't feel like recreating it xd.

Thank you! I think this is officially one of the longest songs I've ever made, with the most sections in it.

Oh god don't remind me of that song xD. fucking adventures of a lost clown LMAOO. My magnum opus, nothing has ever come close to rivalling that masterpiece.