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14/08/2016

Gaming Mix 2016

After that lengthy post yesterday, I wanted to make one that will hopefully not represent the last thing I publish in a long while, but also give it the chance to be that if I genuinely stop here.

So, there was a gaming event. For most of today. And yesterday. Held by and for the Approaching Nirvana community. And it just so happened that I was one of the people asked to do a 2-hour set to be played in the background. So after trying genres I wouldn't normally work with for the past two years, I decided it's finally time I go back to my comfort zone. Trance. And a bit of electro, europop, dubstep, you know, things like that. But mostly trance. And to make this clear from the beginning, I start with my favourite trance track, Carte Blanche. And I hope everyone finds it at least half as wonderful as I do. There's also a lot of PPK, a Russian trance band I absolutely love.

So yes, please love this. I put a lot more work into it than usual, and for once I actually used all the knobs on the mixer. This is when I realised DJing is hard. Beat matching, pitch matching, equalizing, levelling, and all of that on the go. There are still two transitions I didn't manage to figure out though, and both on the same song. I'm looking at you, 2.99, with your irregular drum patterns and funky time base. I feel sorry for the DJs back in the days.



13/08/2016

Still alive somehow

...I promise.


So, it's been a while. I haven't released an album since 2014, and the last time I tried to release a DJ set... well, it was a livestream, and it stopped after the pre-show. That was the first time I tried using Twitch, and it suspended the stream like 4 minutes after TVU's opening set started. And when you think that I only used Twitch because I thought it would be easier...

But yes, letting my definitely last livestream ever, no I'm not going to do that ever again, I'm absolutely positively sure – aside, uhm... yes, I was trying to get back to releasing more stuff. Now, I know this might sound like a cliché thing to say, but bear with me. I have a lot of stuff that's practically finished, but I never published, and I'm not really sure why. Of course, after years of collecting dust, I just can't release them in their current state. I have to polish them, at least a bit. And I presume that will take a while. A very long while. But I have a plan.


First, all of those cancelled, abandoned mid-stream, postponed to eternity, finished without a release date, never started with a long-passed release date, forgotten about DJ sets, will be released in a bundle on 22nd of May. Which one? Hopefully 2017, but I'm scared of making promises anymore. Then there are the 6 albums I'm working on—the rest of Level UP with its 16 unfinished songs, the 24-song cinematic LP started in 2014 (yes, it has a very well defined story; no, I came up with the idea before Λ→И), the space-themed long EP started in 2015, the Eä-inspired EP imagined in 2013, the metal LP started in 2014, and a collection of my mostly unfinished/barely-started remixes intended for 22.05.2015—which will be released individually across the next 10 years.

Then there are the many videos, mostly machinimas, started all the way back in 2011, those will probably still take many years to be edited. I have recorded a small amount of them years ago, and most of the scripts are close to finished, but editing is a thing that I just can't motivate myself to do. Talking about editing, would anyone want to help me with mixing and mastering songs? It seems to be the part that delays the release several years. Also, some help with the production wouldn't be bad either. Actually, I need a band. Things get finished faster in a band. And chances are, if you're still reading, you might just be the person I'm looking for. A PR guy would be nice as well. I'm too bored by social stuff to be capable of doing that job, which is most definitely slowing my audience growth quite a lot. An entire film crew would be nice too. I wrote several shows in the past years, and I'd quite like at least some of them to be made. Also, does anyone remember those game/music awards I said I'm doing a few years ago?

And then there are the things I never make time for. Like game developing. Or painting. Or rail modelling. That blog hasn't seen something new since 2012. And surprisingly, it still manages to get 500-1000 views monthly. Like, I can remember celebrating when I reached 1000 views after about 3 years, and now that's a monthly amount for a long period of silence. I wonder if any of those people know what I'm doing over here. I should have tried a bit harder to send my readers to my other work back when I had them. But then again, I had practically nothing released at that time.


So yeah, this was a post I wanted to write for forever, something to remind myself of what I'm doing and why, but lacked the motivation for. I always said the time is the problem, and even though that was true 4 years ago, it's now just a cover for not working. But no, not anymore. I'm sick of saying that I still don't have anything done. I miss creating. All those nights spent working on something that needed the entire 24 hours of a day to be finished before the deadline; yes, that wasn't a healthy way to motivate myself, but it seems it's the only way. Though I do need to do that without a fixed deadline, so I don't limit the quality. Take Level UP I, for example. I was working on 30 songs at the same time, until I realised I had 2 months left. I rushed the 6 songs that had the basic structure finished, and they ended up quite nicely, until I massively lowered the quality during the final week left for mastering. Silently suffered the most from that, since it went through many re-mastering sessions, all layered on top of eachother. I'm not even sure I have the raw instruments anymore, but I will definitely remaster it if I find them. Or rather, do the club mix after I finish an orchestral remake, which is where I wanted to point the track initially.


Right, I'll leave this off here. Hopefully this post will turn up to be a useful source of information for anyone who wants to know everything about me in the future. And to complete that wiki, this post was indeed created after this wonderful song was released.