Tangerine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Kentucky (Finale)]

Man, what a journey it has been, haha. You've grown so much since 2020 when you started posting on Newgrounds. Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end, seeing as there are only so many states in America. It's good to see you finished it with a bang. I'm glad you decided to go with the medley idea (or a variation of it), I was secretly hoping you would. Also, I'm very sorry about not existing for a whole month, I wanted to wait until I had enough time to properly comment on this. I'm so good at being on time.

It's kind of odd that Fl starts to explode after 7 minutes. Your Tennessee one was 13.5 minutes long. Maybe it was all the plugins/soundfonts you added in or maybe you just have a lot more going on in this one.

00:00 to 01:28, of course, it wouldn't be a 50steaks piece if it didn't have a long intro, haha. Despite the intro being a minute and a half long, you spaced and introduced new elements and sounds in a way that kept my attention and made it not feel like a minute and a half. Also love how used your iconic kick on every beat thing. It's a lovely throwback to a bunch of your other songs and their intros.

The sustained high notes along with the electro swells makes for a very interesting and mysterious start. at 00:35, I like how you held that idea a little longer than what would have been expected. I think it was a really nice and effective way to transition and create the desire for the next section. I'm not sure what the actual term is for it. The same way as a diminished chord resolves to the tonic of a key. That along with the slight increase in distortion made for a really clean musical transition. It's very subtle and simple, but for me, it made the intro that much more enjoyable.

With your transition done, you seamlessly introduce the drums to maintain the listener's attention. Again you use the same transition technique that I like, but you added up the intensity of the distortion. I feel like using the same technique twice in a row may have had an impact on its effectiveness, but not enough to worry about.

01:27 - 01:56. I think the melody is the weakest aspect of what you've made so far. Not to say that it is bad or anything, I just think it is a little repetitive and you wouldn't be able to listen to it for a long period of time. You also tend to do these small 3 or 4-note chromatic runs, which give off a sort of spooky vibe, which I'm not sure if you're going for or not. Perhaps it may give off that impression because of the synth the melody is played on, not sure.

01:56 - 02:25. In my opinion, I think this section gets a little messy. A good rule of thumb that I often use is not having the harmony leave the chord progression too often. Especially if you have a melody with discordant elements. I do have to say though, despite the messiness, it is charming hearing everything still shift with the chords. A sort of order in the chaos. Very cool, if that was intentional, haha.

02:25 - 02:54. I like how you changed to a more monoharmonic style in this section. Complete stylistic contrast to what you had before. Going from a little messy and all over the show, to the complete opposite. Everything playing together in unison. I really like the brassy textures you have here, I think it goes very well and it introduces a new musical idea without it sound unrelated to what you had before.

02:55 - 03:07. Nothing much to say about this section, other than its cool and sounds awesome. I really like this section.

03: 06 - 03:21. I feel like with the way you set yourself up with the previous part, you didn't leave much room to add much more. The new additions you made to this part sound a little out of place and that it's clashing with the perfecting that you had just had. Creates a sort of unbalance. Perhaps shifting the notes by a few semi-tones, just so that it works and doesn't fight with what you had going. Shouldn't be too big of a fix, just shifting around the pitches to see what works.

03:22 - 03:51. The start of this section went so hard. The melody was simple yet catchy, and then went in a different direction and sounded diminished, in a way. Everything else in this section is fine except the bassoon (or the synth that sounds like a bassoon). I feel like there's too much going on with the bassoon and it might be beneficial to tone it back a little. It's taking away from what the melody is bringing. Also, it clashes with the melody every now and then.

03:51 - 04:20 (blaze). For me, I think this section may be the strongest yet. The melody is the best so far and the harmony elevates the melody. I really like the bends you have on the synth/instrument that's playing the melody. It reminds me a lot of something and makes me feel nostalgic. I just have no idea what it reminds me of. Overall, pretty strong section.

04:22 - 4:50. This section has the same issue as some of your previous sections. there's a lot of clashing and things happening. I think that if you want to have multiple ideas playing at the same time, you have to pay close attention to what notes are being played and what chord is currently active. I do like how you came back to the melody though, I think that's a nice touch. Helps the whole piece feel more connected and helps with overall development.

04:50 - 05:20. A nice climactic section. I really like what you did with 04:53. I think its really cute and was a nice change to how the melody usually goes like. Bringing more emphasis to the repetitive notes, making them a lot more enjoyable to listen to. This section fixes a lot of the melodic issues I found in the earlier section with the melody. I also like the white noise riser at the end of this section.

05:20 - 07:11. Haha, this is very cool. I like the complete shift in tone and atmosphere. I think this is a very cute way to end the piece and I appreciate it. I can see how you wanted to go further with the way you express your musical ideas because this section sort of seems like it wants to start up something like a second movement. But unfortunately fl mobile has to explode and prohibit you from doing more with this project.

Overall:
I really like this piece. I can tell you put a lot of effort into it, and it shows. I think it's a very fitting end to your 3-year-long journey. Just as you turn 18, a new chapter of your life begins, just like how a new chapter of your music will begin as well. It was a lot of fun being able to listen to your music and watch you grow as a musician. I hope I was able to help advance you with your music the same way you helped me and my music.

All good things come to an end. But with an end to your 50states journey, I'm sure even better things will come. One final congratulations, friend!

50Steaks responds:

The first time you mentioned me using an extended swell as a transition, my intention there was not for it to be a transition but instead as a way to increase tension slightly and differentiate it from the very beginning. I used the same thing again because I enjoyed the way it resolved back to the primary minor chord.

I was going for a spooky vibe at the first drop, but the repetitive nature of the melody is something that was somewhat intentional, as it was by no means meant to be the most intense or dramatic part of this song.

As for the shifting of the chords, that was fully intentional. Even though that section is messy (I needed to find a way to begin the actual medley part of the song), I still wanted the driving force to be the bass’s chords with no question, and I succeeded there as I now realize.

Interesting your take on the saxophone, as I now realize I made have gone a bit too far with it especially in the second half of the first part of the song.

The new additions at 3:07 were a deliberate choice, but in terms of mixing you’re absolutely right and I shouldn’t have crowded it so much. I just wanted it to overall be more intense than the previous section but it may have led to too much reverb there.

I considered toning down the sax there right before the guitar solo, but then it sounded too much like just a cheap rehash of the original Massachusetts. I wouldn’t have done that there if it weren’t for the fact that I was recycling a major melody.

Yeah so I’ve finally found out how to properly use the guitar sample for this one. It was THAT section that kept motivating me to finish the finale. It’s the best part of the piece, no doubt about it. I see a pattern: you like the intense stuff but are not a big fan of the “verses” if you will. I can’t help but agree.

The last section is missed potential but I wasn’t able to continue the song much further than it currently is. Why was I able to make Tennessee, then? Because what I did there is split it into four separate projects, make them audio clips, and place them together with extra reverb to transition between them, thus helping performance and allowing me to have different tempos and time signatures. Here, it was all just one big project, not 4 separate ones. That’s why performance suffered, and that’s why there’s audio clipping in the last part. Take that and multiply it by 100, that’s what I was dealing with while making it.

So glad this series is over, but I must say it does leave a void. I’ll probably fill it with MSM remixes or something.

[Undivulged]

Hey, this is awesome. It's nice to hear orchestral pieces from you.

You have a very strong start with the tremolo high strings and the sustained low strings. It sets up the atmosphere for the rest of the piece nicely. I really like your use of woodwinds too.

at 01:53, I think the idea of having staccato strings works well with the context, but I think it would have worked better if you added a little more reverb to them. Just to give it that extra bit of impact. Also to make it work better with everything else, because it sounds slightly displaced.

Not quite sure what happened at 02:04, but I'm sure you're aware of it, haha.

It would have been nice to have a little more brass to even out the timbre distribution, but the piece works regardless.

The orchestration is well done, and everything comes together nicely. My only real critiques are on the mixing, but since you're not using your native daw, it's more or less to be expected. I'm not quite sure what musescore is capable of in terms of composing, I've only used it to find sheet music when IMSLP doesn't have it.

Also, the strings soundfont you used is really good. It's been quite a while since I've used a SoundFont haha. You blended the strings so that you couldn't tell at first glance.

I also like the use of the snare drum in the tragic climax. it adds a lot of power to the piece and what you're trying to convey.

Overall very nice!

50Steaks responds:

I would’ve loved to add reverb but unfortunately, I don’t think that’s possible on musescore. The primary intention with those staccato notes was to increase tension but I can see how they might not fit perfectly when every other instrument (other than the bass which is playing faster notes there as well) isn’t quite following along. The pause before the final climax is something I wasn’t ever able to properly fix so I was forced to leave it in.

As for the sound font, don’t worry I didn’t just use the fairly bad default soundfont. Rather I used the free new musescore 4 sound fonts which took AGES to download, and I took advantage of their tone qualities to make this piece. Thanks for enjoying it

[Trip to Egypt]

oh wow, this was made before I even knew what a chord was

DustifiedGD responds:

I still don't know what a chord is so

[Takeover]

goes hard ngl

DustifiedGD responds:

best dubstep song of all time??????????????????????????

[The Funky Friend]

same

DustifiedGD responds:

me 12 yrs old making this:

[Pachelbel's Canon]

10/10 this piece still gives me nightmares

DustifiedGD responds:

Based piece honestly

[AIM - Bellowers of Grief]

This is wonderful. I love orchestral music so much, haha. Not only is it fun to listen to, it's also fun to make. Best of luck with the NGUAC!

Everratic responds:

Thank you!

[Darkness Rising]

I can never get over those action drums. Putting them along with the low strings makes for an epic sound. I also love how you used the snare and high hat sounding percussion in the middle section to build suspense. Awesome track Benji!

DauntingForce responds:

Thank you Tangerine!

[Far Beyond]

I really love the mix of orchestral sounds and the wubs. I love this so much. I also love the percussive strings in the intro. As well as the vocals later on. Did you record yourself?

Benji-G responds:

Hey Tangerine, thanks a lot! And yeah I recorded the vocals myself, I'm glad you like them :)

[GizzyKittyMusic - Experiment 501]

Omg, I love your harmonies, haha. Ending on a borrowed minor chord gives the biggest feeling of nostalgia. Also, I didn't realize I loved pizzicato so much. You have such a lovely combination of instruments.

What soundfont/vst plugin do you use? It reminds me a lot of an old soundfont I used to use called SGM.

Also, Laura Shigihara's music is lovely haha. I can't stop listening to Graze the Roof.

GizzyKittyMusic responds:

Thanks for the kind words! All of the sounds I use come directly from the free MIDI instruments provided in the BandLab app