50Steaks's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[Happy Days!]

This is so cheery despite the minor key at times! It’s rare I get this emanating feeling of pure joy from a piece of music, especially on Newgrounds. There’s no tinge of sadness or reminiscence to be found, just pure unbridled joy. Definitely deserved the FP, this is catchy af. Chromaticisms at times help keep this from being repetitive. Can I just say this is probably the best ending to a song you’ve made yet?! How fitting lol. Triumphant yet still asking a question, looking to the future like no other. Zero complaints here this is awesome.

Edit: oh yeah I knew I recognized this from somewhere!

Tangerine responds:

Thank you SteaksMakesMusic123, I wanted to truly represent the sheer joy and ecstasy I felt reaching the milestone. Not gonna lie, I haven't made something in a true major key in so long. Whenever I do, I usually go to G major and use a borrowed chord at the end to give the feeling of nostalgia/longing. So it's not even true major xD.

But you might actually remember this song. I uploaded it a little while back as a sorta edm type thing but removed it and told you on Discord "I'm probably gonna use it for something else later" (or some quote like that). and uh, here it is!

[Metal Liquid]

Very interesting sounds here, although not all mesh together as nicely as I'd like, particularly at sections like 0:31 and 1:41. Oddly enough, my favorite part has gotta be 0:50-1:11. I actually didn't know beepbox could make stuff like that. Seems like you're ready to graduate from it to be honest and move on to something a little more capable (although me on my FL mobile probably shouldn't be talking). This does deserve a scout though so yeah.

PolarDraws responds:

Thank you so much! I’m flattered.

[Falire 2]

This has got a lot of experimental percussion in it as well as a completely different take to the original. The piano and instrumentation is exactly what I wanted out of a new falire remix, but I can’t help but feel like it’s a little empty without the energy that the original had. I say that because it’s a lot slower now and isn’t as jumpy. To be honest if this got frontpaged I don’t see why the original didn’t. I mean I get that this is mixed better, but compositionally it has a lot of the same traits and basically retains the same chords and the same main melody. The virtuosic solos in the middle were pretty neat as well.

I find it funny that falire has basically become your version of my far less popular/successful Missouri series. You adore the melody so much that you can’t stop coming back to it. I mean I literally made 5 of them! And then the finale ended with that same melody. And just a few months ago I was thinking of making Missouri 6 as some major reboot of the series with a combination of electronic and classical elements in a grand symphonic style. This is me rambling lol. So between falire, falire rock, falire 2, and my SoundCloud remix I did, which one is your favorite?
Great work as always.

Tangerine responds:

Yeah in the original the percussion is bland, so I thought it'd be fun to sorta give it a solo in this one. I could see how this one feels a lot more empty compared to the original with its slower speed. but with this remix, I wanted to make it a lot more relaxed and less rushed. The original was at 150bpm and the remix is at 130bpm.

I think the reason why this one got frontpaged and the original didn't is that the original was way too flawed. In my eyes, the melody is the only thing the original had. Everything else about it was pretty bad. Simple triad strings in the background with the boots and cats drums. a pre-chorus section which was pretty bad and a cute little solo which didn't really do much.

Compositionally my remix is actually far different from the original, I just disguised it really well. The chords are actually completely different as well while keeping the same progression. The chords in the original go: Dm, G, C, Am. However, the chords in the remix go Dm6 Dm Dsus, G Gsus, C Cmaj7, Am C. So it still has the same progression but more spiced-up chords. The commas in the chord listing represent the bars.

Also, the rhythm in the remix is a lot more elaborate than the non-existent rhythm in the harmony that the original had. The only real interesting rhythm the original has is with the melody, which again, is why I believe the original is carried unbelievably hard by the melody.

Not to mention the lack of variation and progression in the original. The instruments barely change from the violin and the guitar. Nothing interesting in the drums or bass as well as every section other than the chorus was uninteresting. Not to mention how long the chorus goes on for. It repeats more times than it ever needs to.

Not to mention the mixing. Back then I didn't even know how to pan instruments, so the violins are just in the left ear lol. Also, the strings don't change on the beat which has always bugged me xd.

I know it sounds like I hate the original haha, but I don't. I love it and it's very dear to me, but I can see how incredibly flawed it is. It was a giant step in my musical career and that's why it'll always be dear to me.

But ye, with this remix I wanted to keep the parts that I liked from the original and change the parts that I didn't. As well as taking it in a new direction :)

I feel like every musician has that one little melody that they always come back to. Missouri 6 sounds exciting