50Steaks's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tinkerer's Workshop 2]

This one was a real rollercoaster (in a good way). As a sequel to the original (one of my favorite works of yours) it does an amazing job at expanding and telling a more coherent story using the motifs. And to me that’s the best part: the melodies and harmonic techniques used here are a step up from the original, probably up to the level of massacre at the carnival. But there are a few stipulations I have regarding some more nitpicky aspects of the piece. A really noticeable issue with what I assume to be the limiter in the last part seems to act sporadically in trying to reduce the gain of the instruments, producing a slightly disorienting effect in my opinion. But this is a super easy fix: just turn down the volume of the last part down to the volume of the first “emotional height” (or at least, that’s what I do; it lets me avoid all the issues with the limiter, of which I have never really been able to get to work for me).
But that’s kind of my only complaint. I love the way the ending is structured, and perhaps its sudden entrance was intentional. 1:28 the tempo changes could be made a little more subtle, as it might’ve taken the roller coaster thing too literally lol, but keep it if it fits what you wanted. Is it weird that this piece reminds me of hearts of iron 4? With the Victorian era thing you mentioned and the fact that the game’s soundtrack is orchestrated similarly. Anyways great job on this one as always.

Tangerine responds:

Thank you! A while back I changed the ending entirely making it a bit more dramatic and unique. You should give it another listen and let me know what you think :)

[Arcturus]

I can’t get GD out of my head lmao.

If you’re going to make a 6 minute song, you kinda have to change things up significantly as the piece progresses. I don’t really see that at all here; I was expecting a massive drop with lots of percussion and cool sounds but it just never happened. The main synth you use is cool but can’t carry an entire song like this, unfortunately. Cool musical ideas though!

Lirrezzz responds:

I'll have to disagree, but thank you for the comment and giving your thoughts :)

[Verge of the Void]

NG’s most underrated artist??

I do think this would’ve been better with just ambient voices/choir over some juicy cinematic textures for six minutes (like the intro). I definitely feel like the singing, while fairly decent considering your size (actually REALLY GOOD considering your size), took away from the potential I see in this song that’s just emanating from the poster you have in the description.

PixxlMan responds:

Thank you for your review! I really appreciate your points here. I've got more cinematic stuff coming up, and recently got my hands on a really nice "ambient"ish vocal vst which seems like a nice fit

[walmart photography]

Has a sense of sheer unease throughout the entire thing, giving off a cool vibe. It’s just too simple and has no dynamic contrast to speak of. But it certainly indicates that you can take things so much further. I also think it’s a little long and repetitive for what it is.

galoshe responds:

I made it in beepbox so idk if you can change the dynamics. Also, I should've just kept it to 1 loop since I only wrote 24 bar but had it loop twice while exporting.

[Arcadeus]

It’s simple, but it’s got potential. Work on making your next songs longer and more fleshed out with proper progression and melodic structuring. Also, I’d say try not to end your pieces so abruptly.

RoShamboMusic responds:

What program do I use? I use Beep box. I don't know what other music programs to use, but I want something simple.

[An Elegant Halloween]

You have the opposite problem to many amateur musicians on NG that I see. Usually the issue isn’t musical inspiration or ideas, but the mixing. It seems you have the mixing down pretty good, all things considered. The issue here is that the melody is incredibly repetitive despite being very groovy and there isn’t enough synth variety. But it shows so much potential for an awesome funky take on Halloween spooky music that I’m giving it four and a half stars regardless.

DancarMar responds:

Thanks for your advice, I try to keep my songs from repeating the melody too much, but it always happens to me that I can't make another melody to finish the track and sometimes I repeat the intro, I will try to make more music without the melody being repeated and have more variety :D

[Parasite Butterfly]

I don’t know what you’re talking about in the end of your description or your replies to some reviews, but this sounds awesome. You did an excellent job on this and I’m sad I haven’t discovered you sooner. No complaints and I love the time signature changes and unbridled dissonance; we really need more of that in today’s music.

LD-W responds:

Heya, thanks for listening, glad you like it!

If you do have any technical questions or you'd like any clarifications on anything else mentioned in the description or other comments, feel free to throw me a DM anytime and I'm happy to explain things

[itz - Ｃｏｌｏｒ Ｃｕｂｅ]

You’ve earned yourself a scout. I also think you should download the new sound fonts using the little muse thing if you’re on Mac. It will take your compositions to the next level.

ItzFlorriharzGD responds:

Thank you!

[The Pumpkin King]

I guess we both have really good Halloween tracks lined up right now.

This is phenomenal. Unlike with autumn wind, the discordant choir PERFECTLY fits with the theming. I’m not sure if you’re a nightmare before Christmas fan, but I could also picture a headless horseman type pumpkin king, especially at the very end with the rapid fire dissonant chords. It actually feels like I’m being chased and I have to run for my life. I also love the violin solo and the muffled piano.

I don’t honestly have any major critiques with this. Everything is so well done and incredibly tightly composed. You had a vision and went for it. Gotta love your trumpet soundfont, I think it’s actually better than musescore 4 which is saying a lot.

Now as I was saying, I’ve almost finished my Halloween piece. It started as a simple addition to the my singing monsters remix series I was doing, but it’s morphed into something entirely new. I think you’re going to love it. I want it to release on Halloween itself

Tangerine responds:

Thanks! I used to watch Nightmare Before Christmas a lot as a kid.

Yeah haha, after making autumn wind, I wanted to lean into the spookiness as much as I possibly could. It is probably also what made the climax of this song the most unique out of all of my songs.

Thanks, the trumpet vst I used is the Spitfire Studio Brass solo trumpet. I've also started using spitfire studio woodwinds for the woodwinds because I love their sound.

I can't wait for your track. Are you going to submit it for the spooktacular this year? All you gotta do is add halloween2023 to the tag of the song.