Tangerine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Montana]

Hey, sorry for taking so long to comment on this. I saw it ages ago but I wanted to wait until I got good sleep and it never came until now.

I think you nailed the length and feel of the intro. In the past, I've mentioned how your intros may be a little long and the same effect could have been made with it being shorter. You kept it short and sweet with this one which I think suites the song a lot.

As for the rest of the song, I think it's a good work of art. I can tell you worked hard on the melody because it is very catchy. The melody definitely not the reason why this isn't 5 stars.

The harmony I feel is lacking textual variety. When I am at 00:59 I can skip to 01:49 and not be able to tell a super huge difference. It's just slightly more involved than 00:59. Personally, in music, I find having each section have its own special thing to it helps keep the viewer's attention and helps with the replayability. There are parts in the song in which I believe you did this really well (01:09). This section has to be my favourite part because it's very unique and it has a nice contrast. The harmony feels more than open chords with very quiet arpeggios. This section specifically feels like it's telling more of a story than all the rest of the sections combined. 01:20 just adds a nice touch onto it as well.

Overall, I do think this is a really good piece. There are sections in it where I can feel your compositional mastery start to shine and other sections where I think more harmonic variety would have been nice.

Do I think this is your best piece so far? No, but that's only because you're an amazing composer who has made phenomenal works in the past. It's going to be difficult for you to surpass yourself but there is still room to improve and I believe you can do it. You've come so far in your composing and I am very excited to see what you produce next. Take care 50Steaks and keep on improving!

50Steaks responds:

I’m a bit surprised you had nothing to say about the key change, especially since if I’m not wrong, it’s the first time I have done that on this account. At 1:19, the overarching goal was to create a melody that could serve as a bridge for both the key change and the second drop. As you can imagine, this is what I was talking about when I said that I had to keep redoing the song over and over to get it right. Not to mention I had to upload this in a completely roundabout way that took forever, meaning that what would have been finishing touches was sort of neglected. Originally, the harmony was actually more complex (you could hear the instrument at 1:09 in the first drop much more clearly) but I changed it because I didn’t want to have too many instruments doing arpeggios at once for fear of it sounding messy. What I probably could have done is bake an actual harmony into the instrument playing the chords, sort of like how I did with Nevada in the second drop. I personally think that the key change tells the best story, which was the point of the key change.

So anyways, the “big thing” about this track to me is what I did with the lead instrument, making it the harmony in the second drop. Unfortunately the percussion did take a hit here which is probably why you think it was repetitive. Maybe I relied too much on the melody again, like in Virginia (although here the melody is actually good).

I think I’m gonna have to rethink a lot of things going into my next song. Probably the reason this one didn’t get frontpaged is because of an issue you neglected to mention: the mixing. I mean just look at the waveform; why does it only cover half the space it could? Again that’s an issue with the exporting, but I think I could have done way better with the choice of lead instrument anyway. To be honest I’ve been finding it difficult to improve on my previous song (although with this one, I definitely did). Maybe I just need to try a new genre again.

So while this might not be my best song, in my opinion, it is my best melody. That’s really what this song is, then, just wasted potential on a decent melody. I definitely will be doing the video game thing again though at some point.

Anyway, thanks for the compliments, I’ll try my best to genuinely surpass Nevada like I’ve always wanted to.
Edit: to those who read this, I don’t believe it’s wasted potential anymore now that it’s updated.

[Feel Free [Big Room]]

Very nice benji!

Benji-G responds:

Thank you!

[Nebraska]

Wow, I can't believe I missed this one. I really need to not follow so many people, haha.

For your intro, it's effective but I feel like it's a little long and from a listener's standpoint it could drive people away. Especially with the short attention span of people nowadays. I don't really know how to say it, it's good for setting an atmosphere for someone who is committed to listening to the whole thing; however, if the viewer didn't care to read or see the song through, they may get bored from the long intro and leave. The intro is as long as the duration of some of my older songs. I guess it's just a situation where you have to sacrifice one of the other. 01:47 is a really nice cinematic transition.

There's not much I can say about this song because it is very small (despite it being larger than a majority of my songs). You use the intro, A, B, and outro format which is why it felt so small. I get the feeling that you spent less time and effort on this one when contrasted with some of your other works. When you remove your nearly 2-minute intro then it leaves you with under half the song actually being the main segments. I may be bashing the intro quite a bit here, but that's because I'm trying to look at this from the point of view of a normal person. Someone who will click off the instant their attention is gone.

Your outro, however, is amazing. The way you made the song go suddenly quiet works perfectly with the story of the song. I could absolutely picture the water rushing in whilst you're stuck under a heavy vehicle. The music really made me picture the point of view of the victims of a tragedy I wasn't even aware of. The outro definitely conveys the message of life suddenly being taken away as water floods your lungs.

The overall thought of the song. I like it. Despite the majority of this review being mostly negative, it's a really neat piece of work. The reason for the majority of my review being negative is that I don't want to sound like a broken record saying the same things over and over. The reason why I highlight the negatives is because you're constantly improving and with improvement comes new problems as your standards are raised. Also, I am very sick right now so it might also be because of my grumpiness. Keep up the good work!

50Steaks responds:

I’m going to be frank: the entire song is literally filler for the outro. The outro is why I made the song, the rest just builds up to it. Slowly trickling in more instruments, having a climax, and then ending on that note. This was a filler song in all, one that I could just throw out as a sort of apology for not uploading in a month. However I don’t think I put less effort necessarily into this, just less time. Equal magnitude of effort, but less of it in total thanks to reduced time.

I initially had the intro shorter. I compare this debacle with Oregon, where I shortened it in that one and extended it in this one. It’s all about atmosphere but I don’t think I pulled it off here as well as I could have. And you’re right; my standards for myself always increase, but I’m beginning to fear that my skill has stagnated after this song. I have already started a new one; I’m trying to make it my next best song by redoing things over and over in different ways so it’ll be a while until it’s done. However it is the summer now, so I should have more time to make songs now.

Enough rambling, thanks for reviewing and at least partially liking this song.

[Time to Slam Dunk]

Hey, I saw your name in the frontpaged section and thought to myself "I remember seeing that name somewhere". I'm sorry but I can't remember where I remembered you from if my life was on the line. This is awesome though. Keep up the good work and also congratulations on getting frontpaged!

edit: I remembered where I knew you from. I joined your discord server a while ago.

supermelon-creations responds:

Thx and, yeah, I also send you a message asking how you got your music on spotify, thoughs till today I dont have music on spotify :P

[Tennessee]

Wow, I was not expecting you to come up with something so long when you said you were busy with school. I guess I was right after all on saying that you're going to make something giant. I apologize for not responding sooner. I popped onto Newgrounds to accept a thing for a game I'm helping with (I only did the end part of it) and I made the same mistake as before. Anyway, I saw that you had composed a new song and I meant to review it but I never actually got back to doing it. The reason why I saw it now was because I just finished a song of my own :).

My first impressions

I do have to say, the SoundFont you used for the instruments are quite interesting. They don't sound realistic ( can't really say much haha) but they have their own sort of slightly nostalgic sound to them. It reminds me of early video game music.

Movement 1:

The beginning of the movement is very cool. It starts as this big and slow womp womp woooommp (My music vocabulary is horrendous) which then leads straight to a section which is much faster and lighter. I think that's a really neat contrast and it instantly hooks the listener. I really like the harmonies you used in this section. Everything is done very delicately and everything has such a clear and obvious purpose. I know you're probably thinking "Well of course, why else would I use them?" well, using too much and clogging everything up is something I really struggle with because I always want to keep adding. Listening to this I can get a few ideas on how to do layering really well and with purpose. At around 01:41, I really like the way you layered the two melodies. It sounds really nice. I really like the way you ended the movement as well. Bringing in the main ideas which were used throughout the movement and putting them in a new slightly toned down finish. Very nice! Anyway, sorry for keeping this so brief, it's just that I have 11 more minutes to get through.

Movement 2: 02:47 (Let me know if I don't get these movements correct).

I really like the slow and powerful beginning of the second movement. I really like how you use the lower register of the strings to hold the same chord for the duration of the beginning. It really builds the atmosphere and leaves you wondering what's going to happen next. 04:06, I really like the chord change. I don't really have much to say other than, I really like the way you did it. You really played with the lower register of the strings and other instruments and I really like it. It's a wonderful contrast to the first movement which used primarily used instruments with a higher register. I really like the melody in the second half of the movement. It is really easy to listen to. Simple yet sweet. This feels so different to what you usually make. It's a really nice change and I would love to see you produce more music like this.

Movement 3: 07:45

I think the transition between the two movements was a little rough and quick, but it's alright. I really love the chord progression in this movement. If you know anything about me, then you'll know that I really love descending chord progressions. 08:54, I really like the interesting rhythms. I feel like if you did the quick notes on the pizz strings less rapid at the beginning of this section then it would sound really nice, Then you bring in the normal version in the later part of it. I climax of the movement is also really neat. I don't really know what to say about it so I will move on.

Movement 4: 10:20

This final movement gives me vibes from the third movement and the first one. It reminds me of the first movement because of the slightly upbeat tempo with the drum set and the quick lightness of the melody. For the third movement, the instruments and general vibe of it carried over a little. 12:09, I don't even know if that's possible on a trumpet but I really wouldn't the surprised if it is. It sounds really really synthetic and it breaks the atmosphere for me a little. I don't know if it's a personal preference, but it throws off the flow of the song a little for me. Honestly, I am really just nitpicking here. 12:30 really reminded me of some of your older songs and the style I hear you use a lot. Maybe it's just the timbre of the song or the way you used the harmonies, but it's the sounds I correlate your music with. Not the fast notes or anything, but the general feeling of the ending. I hope you know what I mean.

Finishing thoughts:

Honestly, you kind of blew me away with this one. I didn't think it was going to be entertaining the whole way through, but you proved me wrong. I have a very short attention span and you managed to hold my attention full throughout the entire 13 minutes. Very well done, not even my own music can do that. This was quite the beast of a song to leave a review on but it was fun picking apart the sections of it which I do like. I apologize for not writing more feedback because most of it was just very nitpicky small things which just come down to my personal preference. Overall, I really think you did a great job and keep it up!

Also congrats on getting frontpaged again. I really do think this piece deserves it.

50Steaks responds:

A behemoth of a review, not something I’d expect to see from you. I suppose I should respond by movement as well.
Movement 1: I really thought this was the worst of the bunch because it didn’t use any of the audio techniques I used especially in movements 3-4 when it should have definitely. I did layer melodies, that’s something I’ve always been doing, although here it was slightly different because I had to choose specific instruments to layer that I knew would sound good together.
Movement 2: I’m glad you enjoyed that one, because I would only come back to listen to the last two most of the time. This movement really wasn’t that hard to make at all, since I already knew that this type of slower music was exactly what the soundfont I used was for. I may do something like it again in the future, although I think my next song will not be classical (need a break after a 13 minute basically 4 songs of classical).
Movement 3: I’m surprised you didn’t seem to have much to say about this one. It was my favorite for a long time out of the four movements, and you can tell that I constructed the last movement to emulate the same feeling.
Movement 4: I’m very sad that 12:05-12:22 brought down the rest of the movement, but to be honest I’m not surprised. That part was not really meant for more than 1 person, and so I was like “haha just ignore this, it serves as a bridge and not much else.” Despite that part, I think this movement is on par with the third, especially with the surprise piano at the end that I really enjoy. Think of 12:05-12:22 as a comic relief for the song, after 9 minutes of nothing but intense atmosphere and minor chords.
No, you definitely wrote a long enough review this time that extended the scroll bar on the side to record levels.
In seriousness, thanks for the what amounts to an essay review like I’ve done for some of your songs. Just going to remind you to not feel entitled to making these types of reviews if you don’t really want to (knowing that in the past, you’d do like one word reviews).
P.S. I like for the listener to decide when the movements start and end, makes it more interesting that way.

[Overlord of Chaos Pt.II]

This sounds so intense. Good going dan! 00:24 I really like how you added a harpsichord sounding instrument to play alongside the guitar.

DanJohansen responds:

Yeah I love the harpsichord.. one of those instruments I keep coming back to. thanks!!

[Song for Stepford]

What a stunning performance

Little-Rena responds:

Thank you!!!

[Nevada]

Congratulations on getting frontpaged! I honestly feel that this song has the most character out of all your songs. You really did focus on the atmosphere and played heavily off it. The beginning is really calm yet intense (I'm not too sure how to describe it). The pacing and overall structure of the song are done fantastically. I am genuinely glad that this song got frontpage, it's a masterpiece. You played to the strength of your style, genre and atmosphere of the song. I am very proud of you and this song, well done!

Response: Oh, I didn't remember enabling the hide rating feature. I hope it shows now.

50Steaks responds:

Everyone seems to really like the pacing, and I think it’s because I left out a real end to the first drop. It just goes right into the second which I think was a risky decision, but ultimately paid off because it really did a great job at keeping the tension. I wonder why you decided to hide the review score, but considering you think this song is my best so far, I’m going to assume it’s 5 stars. In the future, this song provides an amazing baseline to work and grow off of, so my next song will be similar in quality to this, ideally.
Edit: yup, looks like my prediction was correct.

[Kansas]

Alright, time to do the last one I missed! I really like the general idea and flow of the song. It could make for a really good song if you were to complete it; however, I understand it's honestly easier said than done. I felt the same way with the fourth section of my most recent song. I just had no idea what to do there and nothing seemed to feel right. I really like how you sort of elaborated and expanded the melody in the second half of this song. It's honestly pretty catchy. I also want to mention the pancake tag. That's fantastic. Anyway, not much to say here since it's a loop. Overall, I really like this. It has a nice melody and the harmony flows the direction of the music really well. This may be a little nit-picky but I do say the percussion is a slight bit bland. Maybe that's just the genre (I'm not too familiar with trance) but maybe add a little more to the drums just to spice it up a little.

50Steaks responds:

You’re not familiar with trance? That’s like 80% of what I make lol. Granted there are different types of trance, like some leans more towards ambient and other more melodic, but so does my music. I don’t know why it was named “trance”, that name makes little to no sense to me, but it best categorizes my music.
Well I thought about trying to make it more full-length, but decided to end it there sort of like how I ended New Hampshire since I felt like everything that could have been done with that specific melodic structure was done. Of course I was wrong, but that was my feeling at the time, and both songs suffered because of it. I later went back to this song (the file), added additional harmony, and made it much more impactful but never got around to lengthening it which is the only reason I’d update this anymore.

[Arkansas]

This song is pretty good but the part that stands out to me the most is 01:04. It brings a nice level of depth to the song and goes well (in my opinion) with the main melody. I feel like this song would be benefitted from a calm peaceful section with a different melody as well though.

50Steaks responds:

That’s all 100% true, but I really used to like 1:29 because it’s the closest thing this song has to a peaceful section.
Note: you’ve now reviewed 40 out of 41 of my tracks, and the one you’re missing is Kansas.