50Steaks's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Taunt Me With Your Smile]

This definitely shows huge potential within the realm of melody, harmony, and I’d even argue progression. However, it’s missing one major thing: polish. It feels like none of the instruments were tampered with at all to be honest, and I’d consider heavily modifying things like the piano to get a softer, more echoey sound that reflects the mellow nature of the chords better. I also can’t be the only one who doesn’t see the point of including that part 1:42, since it’s more of the same from the previous drop (except without percussion) and doesn’t advance the story much like the part at 2:30 does (by the way, I appreciate the variety here). And as you said, it does seem a little rushed regardless.

The last thing I’m going to mention is how jealous I am of the tempo modulation. I wish they’d just put that on the mobile version already! It would be so easy to add it as something you can add an automation track onto, why haven’t they done this yet?! Anyways, good job here, and keep improving!

Rici-Ellipsis responds:

Yes lol, to be honest I was really lazy with sound design and actually just forgot to mix 80% of things. Again this isn't an accurate depiction of my full skill but I really really appreciate the feedback, thanks so much.

[New Frontier]

I like the atmosphere and the cool chords in the background, but I think it could have benefited from a more concrete melody/melodic structure that the listener can follow along with to be told a comprehensive story throughout. Other than that, I think it absolutely does a great job at immersion and atmosphere, despite using the same two chords throughout.

JacquesKeyword responds:

Thanks for the comment! I'm glad you liked it, it really means a lot to me :)

[Playground]

Right so I think I have found the most unrecognized and underappreciated artist on Newgrounds. This is really good, you should have more than 5 fans, and I find it hilarious how you came out of nowhere and got frontpaged immediately like some non copyright songs label

Gravii responds:

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!

[resignation]

Nono don’t go yet! Your weekly streak was doing so well!

In seriousness, this is a really nice way to end the year, your most prolific yet. I love the harmonies here, I feel like they contrast the high pitched melody really well.

trevor8 responds:

haha, thank you for the kind words as always!

[|36| Mediator]

iPad mini 5? Hey, that’s what I use to make all my music.

This is one of the most interesting of your songs. Of them all, I feel like this tells the most complete story. I would have to knack the percussion for being a very basic rhythm for most of it, and also being used in two sections. I’m not sure how to export with audacity via FL mobile (something I thought was impossible but you say otherwise), can you just upload it as a file into audacity and call it there with no sacrifice to volume? I’ve had to work around that issue for as long as I’ve used FL mobile by increasing the volume of the entire track manually JUST enough to not be distorted, but it results in a quieter track, though not as quiet as if I used the “normalize level” feature when exporting as an mp3. Anyway, enough about that, the melody is nice and somehow seems less repetitive than your other music, good job on this one.

PartyBalloof responds:

You can export the file to MP3/WAV using FLSM3, then transfer the file using iTunes... which is a big hassle and annoying but it's a heck of a lot better than waiting for the cloud to update and downloading the track from there.

Oh for the record I never touch normalize level, the drawback of how much volume you lose when you use it far outweighs the benefit of not having a single clipping of audio. Usually just having a limiter at the very end of the effects is enough to catch most clipping, and those that get past aren't significant enough to ruin the song.

What I used to do on audacity was import the song, increase the volume until it clips a reasonable amount, then just soft limit it and call it a day. No one noticed, and everyone was (hopefully) happy.

[xaura2k x exinto - маленький плов]

Scouted, this isn’t bad, also very unique music for Newgrounds.

xaura2k responds:

Thanks you so much <3
I will try to make better music

[RealGares - Freedom]

So this is the same song as Summertime, as far as I can tell. You’ve changed the name and I think a few sections, but the main issues with the original seem to carry over here of course. I think the main issue with the melody is the fact that the rhythm is just 3 16ths over and over for 8 bars with little to no variation on that throughout the song. It’s a little hard to explain, but it basically makes it feel run-on and therefore less catchy. I have been a victim of this myself, specifically with my song Maryland that falls into this same trap. Still great mixing and progression though so you retain the rating.

Upon relistening, I see you’ve added the thing where the pitch decreases. More importantly though, you’ve added another harmony. It’s subtle, but it’s definitely there, and it nearly completely fixes the issue. Combined with the new percussion that brings a lot of originality to the song, the listener now doesn’t have to focus on the melody the whole time, and they can enjoy the song more especially upon their second or third listen. You’ve earned another star in my books, for what they’re worth.

RealGares responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Fixed it up!

[Devil's Note-The Gate]

Scouted. Probably one of the most tragic topics to make a rock song out of, and have you seen a picture of Marshall applewhite? He looks just about as insane as his philosophy.

suburbanhavoc responds:

Wow thanks! I watched all their recruitment material and the "exit" tape before writing this, and yeah, he had the crazy eyes. Hard to believe a guy like that could convince people to follow him, but that's the lesson here I guess.

[windyhill]

Wow I’m here early lol. Really getting 70s synthwave vibes from this. Loving those instruments and the mixing as always is excellent. It is a little slow for my tastes, but that might just be me. This is great music to relax/study to and I could see this getting a good amount of well-deserved attention.

I just realized, you started uploading a song every Friday. While this is good for keeping a sustained viewerbase, a new song once a week is bound to get tiring after a while. I prefer to stick to no set schedule, even if it means I haven’t uploaded for weeks and weeks. Just a suggestion :)
By the way, what software do you use? My guess is FL but it could really be anything…

trevor8 responds:

haha, thank you for your kind and thoughtful words as always! i use "Reason", some of my favorite patches sound like an oberheim or arp. the brass and string patches sound so vaporous and warm.

[The construct]

Takes me right back lmao.

While this is a cool novelty, unfortunately, there’s a reason dubstep moved on from the “yay” sounds: compared to today’s, it sounds significantly worse. Therefore, my favorite part is from 0:00-1:01, really nice atmosphere there. Good job anyways!

Gietler responds:

Thank you!