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marmaligne · 3 years

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1/1 Hello! headcanon S/O makes good covers of songs and music videos(like those YouTube videos)? Swerve, as a lover of Earth(this is how it was mentioned in the comics) walks on the Internet and finds various covers performed by their human friend, watches and listens to them all and then runs to show Rewind.

[TF MTMTE] S/O Who Makes Song Covers

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* At first, Swerve was having a particularly slow day in the bar.

* He had just dealt with another one of Whirl’s shenanigans which accidentally blew up into a huge scuffle between Whirl and Skids, which got Chromedome and Rewind involved after Whirl stole their drinks in order to drench Skids in energon.

* The resident liaison, aka you, had watched from afar as everything turned to scrap between them and the whole area erupted into a bar fight.

* Swerve was embarrassed to say the least—the one person who ever seemed to pay attention to him on this damned ship, and they witnessed him unable to control his own patrons.

* He decided to close the bar early and retire off to his habsuite afterwards—better than sticking around.

* Turned on a datapad while sipping a cube of highgrade because Primus knows he deserves it.

* Began surfing through the internet and stumbled upon his favourite video streaming and uploading site: youtube.

* At first he scrolled through recommended cat videos, DIY’s and gaming streams, until he found something strangely out of place on the home page.

* He’d stumbled upon the music section and saw your face plastered to the front of a video image. Beneath it captioned “Born this way [Cover by s/o]” and featuring a plethora of other musicians and background singer mentions.

* He clicked on it, immediately entranced by the thought of you having a secret life or hobby, possibly whatever you did for a living before joining the LL crew.

* Absolutely astounded by the sound of your voice—he truly believed you were the incarnation of clarity based on the effortlessness of your rhythm and lack of lisps or vocal breaks.

* Swerve used to invest a bit in musicians back on Cybertron, he never owned a bar back then but understood that Cybertron’s versions of human ‘Harlems’ contained a lot of organized musical entertainment.

* When he opened a bar on the ship after finding the distillery with Skids, the first thing he thought of was music.

* Never found a decent singer cause everybody on the LL sucks.

* Immediately after finishing the first video, he clicked on your profile and continued scrolling, finding the oldest one on your account and beginning there.

* The post itself was 8 years old, which meant you had been in the industry of cover songs and albums for a decent time before you joined the LL on their adventures across space.

* He listened to every single one of them, with themes ranging from jazz and reggae, to rap and pop music from disney movies.

* Fell in love with your personality even more through your music; surely someone who sounds so beautiful has a beautiful heart as well!

* Immediately after finishing the last video, he ran to show the only other over-appreciator of media: Rewind.

* Rewind was astounded as well by your abilities, immediately began recording and downloading the recordings to a private database for future purposes.

* Both of them immediately called a bar meeting at like.... 3 am.

* Ultra Magnus (Minimus Ambus) arrived first and demanded to know why an emergency meeting was called.

* Rodimus and Chromedome arrived next because Roddy thought there’d be a fight, and Chromedome heard that Rewind sounded the emergency alert.

* As soon as everyone gathered, and Swerve stated it had something to do with their dear human liaison, everybody shut up.

* The room fell silent until Rewind began streaming the music to the bar speakers.

* Immediate awe from everyone in the room.

* This melodious voice belonged to s/o? Their little liaison? The one everybody used to ignore?

* Crushes and developing friendships all around the room and you hadn’t even arrived yet.

* The moment you stepped foot into the bar, everybody once again went quiet. When you asked why, an immediate response broke out.

* “You sing?!” and “I didn’t know your original function was a musician?” and “I didn’t know you had such a sweet voice!” rang out across the ship.

* You were evidently startled, and Swerve could tell—Rewind as well—and Swerve had to smash a clean glass against the counter to gain everyone’s attention again.

* “Let’s hear what our friend here has to say, shall we?”

* Everybody once again turned to face you.

* You explained that it was rather embarrassing they had stumbled upon an old ‘hobby’ of yours, but told them that you used to be a well-loved solo-singer back in the early days before the lost light.

* You never gained much fame beyond the internet media streams and sometimes group choreographs, but found a joy in music anyways, hoping to make your life long dream of finding fame and happiness out of singing come true.

* When you realized that such a thing was hard to achieve, especially in your national industry, you basically gave up on trying to achieve it, which is why the date of your last upload was about 2 years before you came to the crew.

* They listened intently, Swerve especially, and their expressions changed from astonishment to sadness.

* “So you.... don’t sing anymore?” came from a slightly downed Megatron—he thought there’d finally be someone to appreciate his poetry.

* You told him no, and the entire bar began to beg. About 100 bots shoved into a small bar, begging and pleading with you to continue your dream and make new music—some offering to teach you Cybertronian if it meant you could produce it in their language.

* The hesitancy in your voice was obvious, but you did eventually agree.

* The LL broke out into cheering, and Swerve reopened the bar for the night so that the others could party away. Ultra Magnus and some other tired bots slipped off down the halls to recharge again, but not before offering their congratulations (and bribes).

* You smiled slightly and exited the room, heading to the internal flight deck for some alone time.

* Swerve eventually made his way down after everyone had had their drinks, wanting to speak with you about the past.

* “Why’d ya’ give it up in the first place? Singing I mean.”

* “I don’t really know, I suppose because I realized that my dreams were unobtainable.”

* “Then maybe you’ll find that here on the Lost Light, there’s a lot more room for change.” he spoke to you.

* He didn’t know it that night, but you agreed with him. There was a lot that the world could offer, even more so now that you knew the universe was so vast.

* Maybe you went unappreciated on Earth, but you now have hundreds of bots ready to fight for a simple song from you.

* And who knows? Music videos would be 1000% cooler if you filmed them with giant robots out in space.

BONUS:

* Your voice alone singlehandedly turned Getaway back to the good side.

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✨ Hope you enjoyed ✨

#transformers x reader #transformers mtmte #transformers #idw mtmte #mtmte #mtmte swerve #mtmte rewind #transformers imagine #transformers headcanon

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seasurfacefullofclouds1 · 3 years

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Okay, something bizarre has happened. Louis’ recording of Copy of a Copy of a Copy from the livestream has been slightly cleaned up and as of a week ago, was uploaded to a few of Louis’ official channels, without any announcement.

This is obviously not a separate studio recording, but the livestream performance slightly engineered to remove noise.

Soundcloud:

Tiktok.

Instagram.

The cover photo is a free download from peakpx.com. (Thanks to @silverfoxlou for the search!)

Deezer. (Removed?)

Amazon Music.

So far, the song hasn’t been uploaded to Louis’ Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Music.

Louis was obviously not 100% onboard with releasing ANY version of Copy:

Then there’s Louis liking this post from High Snobiety three days ago. This post discusses Anderson .Paak’s tattoo specifying, “"When I’m gone, please don’t release any posthumous albums or songs with my name attached. Those were just demos and never intended to be heard by the public."

This is different from the earlier leaks of Louis’ unreleased music, Help and Secret Heart, whose HQ versions were leaked by @HLD.

Those demos were not linked to Louis’ official channels.

Even a day or two later, Copy has been pulled from Deezer and Amazon Music. But it was undoubtedly there on the official channels. Someone with access to Louis’ official channels (LTHQ? Sony Music? A fan?) added the song. And now, after fandom discovered them, they are being removed.

This strangeness comes on top of a total lack of promo for the “big” event Louis had been planning all year.

With ten days to go until the festival, we have no indication that the band has been rehearsing. Matt Dinnadge posted rehearsal photos for a different event yesterday. No word at all from LTHQ or Louis himself. Very little concrete information from any official UK music press. We have ten days to go.

The irregularity on Louis’ official channels, and the fact that it was detected by fandom first and took several days to correct, raises real questions about the ability of LTHQ and Matt Vines (who was on vacation until recently) to advocate effectively for Louis.

The contest for the HMV prize vinyls, which involved a bizarre Google Doc fandom survey, was announced on 25 July 2021, but we haven’t heard another thing about the winners or results. It’s been almost a month.

Not only is there no news AT ALL about the Away from Home festival, but the stewardship of Louis’ channels is a mess. Who is this team working for? They aren’t simply incompetent. LTHQ actually has reduced the value of Louis’ brand since Walls was released.

Summary thread.

#Coacoac unauthorized upload #Coacoac official #louis tomlinson #20 august 2021

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coppicefics · 3 years

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Masked Omens: Week One

New chapter here, or read from the start here!

(Right click picture and select ‘View Image’ or ‘Open Image In New Tab’ for hi-res version.)

[Image Description: Image 1 - A simple rendition of the Masked Singer UK logo, a golden mask with colourful fragments flying off of it. The mask has a golden halo and a golden devil tail protruding from either side. Below, gold text reads 'Masked Omens'.

Image 2 - A newspaper page from the Capital Herald, dated Saturday, 26th December, 2020. Full image description and transcription below the cut.]

The Capital Herald, Saturday 26th December 2020 News, page 11

GODLEIGH MANOR RESTORATION SET TO BEGIN YouTube Community Comes To The Rescue Of Historic House In Unprecedented Donation Spree Restoration work on Godleigh Manor, Little Dyvyn, is set to proceed at last after years of stagnation – thanks to an unexpected influx of donations from interested members of the public. A house has stood on the site since at least the early 13th century, but most of the current building was constructed in the 18th century by its then owner, Lord Michael Godleigh. It remained a private residence until 1914, when it was commandeered as a military hospital for officers injured in the First World War. When the war was over, the officers went home, but the Godleigh family had suffered severe losses, and those who had been involved in treating the injured officers had many bad memories associated with the place. What was left of the family moved out, and – barring the operation of a second temporary hospital during the Second World War – this once-busy house has remained empty and silent ever since. Left to its own devices, the house began to crumble. Water found its way through the roof, and weeds forced their way up through the floor. By the time the deed to Godleigh Manor was passed on to its current owner, Lucy Godleigh, in the mid-1990s, barely a few rooms were anything close to habitable. “I set up in a mobile home on the grounds,” Godleigh told The Capital Herald, “and basically just started trying to secure the few rooms that hadn't been completely exposed to the elements. Then I contacted a restoration expert to find out what could be done for the rest of it.” The experts' verdict wasn't what she wanted to hear. “There was no chance I could pay for it myself. The rest of the family opposed me moving back here; I was on my own. And to get the whole place back to the way it was, we were looking at anything from fifty million to three hundred million pounds. I was going to need help raising the funds, so I started campaigning. But it was slow going. Nobody's keen to put their hands in their pockets to restore a stranger's old family pile.” And, for over two decades, it seemed that a pile would soon be all that was left. Godleigh moved into Little Dyvyn, and the property was abandoned once more to the tender mercies of the elements and the frequent trespassers who came to explore. “I'd go up a few times a week, but it hardly seemed worth it. I'd all but given up. But then one of those visitors saved the day.” A YouTube personality known as Sergeant Shadwell, famed for his urban exploration videos and the occasional paranormal investigation, contacted Godleigh to ask to film in the house. “I said yeah, whatever, do what you like, it's a mess,” Godleigh recalled, “and he saved it. He saved my home.” Shadwell uploaded a video of Godleigh Manor in the last week of November. In it, he speaks frankly about the challenges and benefits of preserving such old buildings. “I don't know about there being ghosts here,” he tells viewers, “but there's a lot of wasted potential. Stately homes like this can and should be used, and it'd be a real shame for this one to crumble. I'll add a link to the fundraiser in the video description.” The Wytchfynder Army, as Shadwell's fans call themselves, have so far contributed £80m to the Save Godleigh Manor campaign. The fundraising page is filled with messages of encouragement and support, attached to donations ranging from £5 to £1500. Some donors have even explained that they raised the money through sponsored swims, bake sales, and car washes. “It's enough to get started, to make a really good start,” Godleigh explained, “I can't thank him – all of them – enough. They really came together to help me – a complete stranger – and it means so much, it really does.” So what's next for Godleigh Manor? First, says Godleigh, the surviving rooms will need to be stablised. Then the house's ground floor will be restored to its former glory, and Godleigh hopes to work with local historians to ensure that it is both a functional and educational space. “I won't charge people any more to use it than I need to cover the cost of maintaining it,” Godleigh said. “How can I? It's being restored by this huge community; it belongs to the community, and to Little Dyvyn. It's going to be a great space for everyone to enjoy.” Work is now set to begin on the Godleigh Manor restoration project as early as April this year, depending on local planning committee approval of plans first drawn up in 1998. MARY HODGES. To find out more, or to contribute to the renovation costs, visit www.savegodleighmanor.org.uk.

[Image Description: A sepia photograph of a large, grand house. Inset, a colour photograph of a hole in a wall, through which weeds can be seen growing. End ID.] [Caption] NEGLECTED: Godleigh Manor, pictured above in 1980, was once the heart of a thriving community. Inset, weeds grow in what used to be a service corridor to the rear of the main building. (Photo: Annie Spratt on Unsplash. Inset: E. Diop on Unsplash.)

THE NEWS IN NUMBERS 800 years of a house on the site 300 years in its current form 23 generations in the same family 29 bedrooms 40 acres of land £50m lowest estimated renovation costs £300m highest estimated renovation costs 198k subscribers to Wytchfynder 291 Wytchfynder videos 10 years Sgt Shadwell served in the Army £80m raised by the Wytchfynder Army £91m renovation funds raised so far 15 years estimated to complete renovation

[Image Description: a rectangular ad with a picture of Dr. Raven Sable. His name is signed beneath his photograph. Text reads: Don't settle for a balanced diet when you can have a SABLE DIET. End ID.]

Corner Cuppa with Esther James

[ID: Photo of a young woman's face. She has black hair cut into a bob, and slightly gothic makeup. End ID.]

Why do we know you? I'm the captain of the Red Roses, which is the England Women's Rugby Team. What are you passionate about? Rugby! Also, my girlfriend Jane (Adams, also on the squad), and my charitable causes, of course. I support the NSPCC and the Albert Kennedy Trust, in particular - both fantastic charities helping young people who've been let down, in many cases, by the people they should most be able to rely on. I'm really glad to be involved with them. What's your favourite holiday of the year? Pride! I love getting dressed up and going to the parades – most of the time Jane and I get to march, these days, which is great. Last year we even got to ride on a float at one of them, which was really surreal – we got to cover ourselves in rainbow feather boas and just have a laugh waving at people. What a great time! What's been your proudest moment? So far, it's a tie between coming out as bi in a press conference – which was really scary at the time but which led to such good things and such good conversations – and being made captain of the Red Roses. It's an honour just to be selected for the national side, but to be chosen to lead from such a talented group of women is even better. I was walking on air for a week! If you could do anything in the world once, what would it be? Only once? I'd hate to do something and enjoy it and never get to do it again. But, OK, hypotherically... Something completely different and mad, like getting up on a stage and performing a song like I really mean it, or bungee-jumping. What scares you? Bungee-jumping! Which is exactly why I'd like to do it. I think it's good to get out of your own head and your own comfort zone and just do something that scares you, if you can. What's your ideal day? Taking a day off of training and just lying on the sofa watching films with Jane for the whole day. We love what we do, but we don't get a lot of downtime to just relax and snuggle. But then, when we do get a day off, it's usually at the same time, so that's lovely; we're always together and it hasn't started getting on our nerves yet! If you could go anywhere in the world right now, with no complications or restrictions, where would you go? I've always wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower, but somehow whenever I end up in France I don't find the time. Jane's never been to Disneyland, so I think we'd have to combine the two if we got a no-holds-barred trip somewhere. And, obviously, I wouldn't exactly hate getting to meet Mickey again! What's the best advice you've ever been given? My gran was as tough as old boots, and proud of it. She once sat me down, when I was quite young, and she said, “Essie,” which is what she called me, “Essie, you'll do all right in life if you remember this simple rule. Make sure you keep your nose clean, but don't be afraid to get your boots dirty.” I'm not sure she meant me to take it quite so literally! But I think what she meant was, don't get into trouble unnecessarily, but don't be so scared of getting it wrong that you can't do anything right. That's stuck with me, I've held onto it all these years, and I think it's a good motto to live by. What's one thing you wish someone had told you when you were younger? I wish they'd told me it was OK that I fancied girls, that things were getting better. I think we've still got a long way to go, as a community, but I never could have dreamed that a bisexual woman could captain England when I was a little girl. Let alone that it would be me! Finally, what's one thing you'd like to tell younger people now? Be true to yourself, be true to your friends, and be kind. I think the world will turn out fine if we all just try to be kind to one another, above all. Next week's cuppa: Ligur Mortice, head of the Ligur fashion house.

[End of page.]

#masked omens #very much fake news #mo week one #fanart

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patreonblr · 3 years

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The upward thrust of Patreon – the internet site that makes Jordan Peterson $80k a month

In 5 years, online membership carrier Patreon has attracted two million shoppers supporting a hundred,000 ‘creators’ to the song of $350m – inclusive of almost $1m a year for rightwing psychologist Jordan Peterson. So what’s the secret of its achievement?

The internet has converted creative industries. Words, music, video, pictures and games can be disbursed international, right away and at no cost, turning in a cornucopia of delights for your displays and mine. The problem is that, historically, it’s now not been pretty so top at ensuring the ones equal creative industries get paid. Ad-supported media did the task pretty nicely, till multiple years ago, while it didn’t. Streaming services seem to be making a variety of cash for someone, but that a person is rarely the creators who exist on those platforms.

All of which is going a few way to explaining the marvel (and jealousy?) that observed the information that Jordan B Peterson, the alt-proper’s favorite psychologist and dispenser of such advice as “get up directly”, is making simply under $1m a 12 months on-line, thanks to the guide of some nine,500 enthusiasts on the club provider Patreon.

In reality, Peterson isn't always even the maximum a success writer on the web site; that honour is going to the leftwing American podcast Chapo Trap House, which pulls in only shy of $one hundred,000 a month from 22,040 “purchasers”.

Those success stories, at contrary ends of the political spectrum, highlight the quiet increase of Patreon from a last-ditch try at the part of a YouTube musician to earn a dwelling, to the economic infrastructure underpinning a giant bite of the indie net.

The carrier become started out in May 2013 through Jack Conte and his antique university roommate Sam Yam. Conte became a reasonably successful YouTube musician at the time. His solo YouTube channel had more than a hundred and fifty,000 subscribers, accumulating one million perspectives a month on his common releases, and as one half of the band Pomplamoose he had collaborated with the likes of Ben Folds and Nick Hornby. But despite that, he became taking domestic just $50 a month from the web page. “We’re speakme about a soccer-sized discipline of lovers who love a person’s content material, can’t wait to see the following weblog or make the following recipe,” he told National Public Radio on the time. “And the artist is making perhaps $50 a month off of it. It’s outrageous, and actually it doesn’t upload up at all.”

Patreon hack turned into the answer. Rather than focusing on the thousands and thousands who watched his videos, or maybe the hundreds of lots who preferred him sufficient to hit “subscribe” on YouTube itself, the intention changed into to convince only a few hundred of his biggest enthusiasts to open their wallets and hand over a small amount of money, on a ordinary basis, to fund his persisted innovative sports.

In the quit, sarcastically, the ones lovers ended up doing the other. By early 2014, whilst lots of purchasers have been giving him greater than $7,000 for each new video, it become clean that the web page was something that might underpin a new sort of online economy – and additionally something that turned into so massive that running it wasn’t like minded with being an indie musician.

And now it’s larger still. On the date of its 5th anniversary, the agency employs 140 people from its San Francisco places of work, website hosting 100,000 creators who're supported via two million patrons. Since its foundation, it has paid out greater than $350m, and this 12 months alone it’s on route to pay out “properly over $300m”, in line with a spokesperson; twice what it allotted in 2017.

(Keen readers will observe the similarity to the club model employed here on the Guardian, which Patreon executive Colin Sullivan, who heads the web page’s criminal and accept as true with and protection teams, hasn’t missed: “I assume if not anything else, it’s a high-quality validating feeling, to look different surely mounted stores transfer over to this version,” he says.)

Writer Laurie Penny is one of these receiving guide from her enthusiasts at the web site (625 purchasers, giving $4,146 a month). She signed up in January 2017 despite the fact that, she says, “It took me approximately two years from first seriously considering it to giving it a pass. I felt weird about overtly requesting cash in a manner that can be cultural, that can be gendered, I don’t understand. But then I figured my target audience has usually been online, and the community I write for, it would be a lot better to be beholden to a huge variety of people who like my paintings, in place of be beholden to the whim of an man or woman editor, or or three.

“What it has supposed for me in the final 12 months and a 1/2 is that I’ve been able to do research and deep work that I had by no means taken into consideration earlier than. I’m wrapping up a e book right now, which I truely wouldn’t have had time to do.”

Penny is, by way of the standards of the web page, pretty an vintage-college consumer: her buyers are by means of and huge supporting the paintings she’s doing somewhere else, instead of deciding to buy get right of entry to to some thing especially. “I had big, concerned plans for writing for Patreon first,” she says, but personal situations nixed those plans quickly after her campaign released. “I changed into sincere with my network, and that they have been like, ‘We’re right here to assist your writing, it’s because we like what you’re doing. We’re no longer paying for a product, we’re paying to see what you may do with this.’ Which turned into, again, outstanding to me.”

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peachymilkshakes · 4 years

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Thoughts on Project Diva Mega39s

I thought i’d write a little blog post about this, since i’ve had this game for a few days now. There are a few things i’m happy with, and a few things that i’m dissapointed with. So i’d like to talk about that. Keep in mind that I am a NintendHOE. I do not own much Playstation stuff besides my Vita and my brother’s PS2. So this is coming from the perspective of someone who has only played PDf, PDf2ND, X and Project MiraiDX.

Since i’ve learned to end with the compliments while giving a critique, i’ll start with the things that i wished were different.

1. The setlist I’m missing SO many songs from older games! Since this game is calling itself MEGAmix, i would’ve expected way more. I’m missing songs like Nyanyanyanya!, Love is war or Glasses. (seriously, how else am i gonna look at Racing Swimsuit Luka in awe if it isn’t for that slowmo bit at the beginning of Glasses?) If i had to list every single song that i’m missing i could have written a book instead. So i’m not going to do that (yet!) The video that i’ve linked in paragraph 3 under this lists a few more that i think deserve a spot. 2. The PVs Then there are songs like Dreaming ChuChu, or Suna no wakusei, who, don’t have a 3DPV at all, but rather their original PVs the way they were uploaded to Youtube/NicoNico. Excuse me? SEGA, if you’re going to charge me 60 euros for the full game (current DLC included) I’m expecting nicely animated story PVs. I haven’t even talked about the Roki PV or all those PVs that just has the vocaloid dancing on a stage and that’s it. Sure, for some PVs it works. Like for Clover Club. But other than that it’s just utterly boring man.. Where has the time gone where we got fully animated story PVs? Like i dunno.. the VOiCE PV? Who remembers that? I miss that!

Roki’s PV was made by slapping the dance motion they made for the concerts onto the models and bam there ya go. Originality has been found nowhere. I mean sure, they’re allowed to do that. But at least tweak it a little. This is just boring and unoriginal. But hey at least Roki has a 3DPV unlike other songs i would’ve loved to see have one. Exhibit A Exhibit B (Timestamp 2:15 but watch the whole video)

3. Something else Going from the PDf and PDf2nd on my Vita, to this, has been a rough transition. I’m dearly missing the hold notes. Sure, we have a different type now, but it’s not the same. Although I’m sure it’s just an issue of getting used to, I will most likely just go back to my vita to play certain songs the way i like to play them instead. It’s not a big deal, just a thing that i’m personally missing.

Then I heard that SEGA Japan overcharged their people for the game as well. The English translated game was significantly cheaper than the Japanese game, which is interesting since Japan is Miku’s origin country. This is just something i’ve learned from a video on youtube, and i think you should just watch it yourself rather than take my word for it. You can find it right here.

Another little gripe i have is that when you finish a song it’ll have replay preselected and i end up accidentally pressing that instead of back. But that’s just a tiny little nitpick.

I miss the diva room so much!! Why don’t we have any diva rooms anymore? I wanna pet Teto and feed her dangos :(

Oh and, the module selection screen couldve been more nicely ordered. I have to go through like 20 other modules to get to the one i want. It’s really messy looking and i get really overwhelmed by it.

Honestly my biggest issue has to be the setlist, the unanimated and dance/stage PVs, and the oddly looking graphics of the game. (Toon shader on the models but no toonshader on the stages. It looks off. I just don’t like it.) At least the models aren’t looking like the Dreamy Theater models. Good grief was that an eyesore. But i don’t like the toonshader either. I guess it’s more of a taste thing, but i’m not into it.

4. So, which game is the worst. X or Mega39s? Honestly, in my opinion it has to be X. I’m sorry, but despite it having my favourite setlest out of every Project Diva game, I just really dislike the premise of the whole thing. At least the Arcade type Project Diva games lets you play every song freely without any burdening annoying objective like filling up a crystal and having to clear live shows and medly songs in order to advance. And besides that, the Arcade games have way more songs added by all the loids that arent called Hatsune Miku. I’m more of a Rin and Luka stan, so i’d prefer more songs by them, or even Meiko.

And yeah, we could criticise the other games for this as well, but i suppose it’ll always be like this since Miku is Crypton’s flagship product much like what Mario is for Nintendo. She just sells well, so we get more songs involving her, and i get that.

5. What do I like about Mega39s? The sliders have been a lot of fun. Although i miss the star icons from PDf, it’s a great way to keep the gameplay feel fresh. And I feel like especially in songs like Unhappy Refrain they fit in great and add to the feel of the song. I also like the clean menus and the music that plays during them.

Overall the setlist isn’t bad. I love the songs we have. I’ve been dying to play Tricolore Airline outside of Project MiraiDX. (Which by the way, Rin’s version is the most superior one of all of them)

I’m glad that they’ve included the fact that you can change the icons into the old Playstation ones. I’ve changed them into that and have gotten better scores because i’m just more used to that. Although i still have to stop pressing B when i should be pressing A to select something since we’re playing on Nintendo after all.. Yeah, i have trouble SWITCHing if you get me.. haha..

I’m curious of what’s to come for the franchise’s future. I hope they’ve learned from the debacle of PDX.. but who knows really.

The game is fine. You could argue they should’ve just marketed it as Future Tone but on switch, since it is essentially that. But for people like me, who do not own a Playstation, that is not much of a problem. You could always just not get MegaMix if you already own Future Tone. (Honestly, if you own a playstation, please just buy future tone)

But that’s all i have to say on the matter. I also have been thinking of writing a post like this for ACNH since i’m sort of a “veteran” but we’ll see wether i’ll feel like writing another essay by then. If you made it this far, thank you for reading <3

#project diva #hatsune miku #Sega #nintendo #rythm game #vocaloid

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noona-clock · 5 years

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DaySense: Winter ❄️

A Day6 collab series with the lovely @cramelot 💋

Genre: College & Soulmate!AU

Pairing: Brian x You

By Admin B

Part 1, 2

Since the Halloween party had been a success, Brian had been thinking of other ways to get Day6 out there. Other ways they could showcase their music, try out the new songs they were writing, attract a new audience.

They couldn’t just keep doing coffee shop gigs and uploading band practice videos on YouTube.

I mean, they could and they would, but they shouldn’t keep doing only that.

An idea didn’t come to him until almost mid-January, though, after the crazy hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

Plus, both Jae and Sungjin had been a little less occupied with the band and a little more occupied with their new(ish) girlfriends.

Although... it was safe to say they were more than that.

It hadn’t been a coincidence that Jae had suddenly started seeing in color when he met the girl he was now madly in love with (and, in turn, black and white had been added to her own vision color spectrum, so to deny the fact they were soulmates would just be silly!).

And Sungjin’s absolute adoration for anything his own girlfriend/soulmate cooked or baked... I mean, honestly, it wasn’t a sure sign they were soulmates because the guy had always loved food. But he (and his girlfriend) both insisted the food the other one made was just better than normal, so Brian took his word for it.

He was happy for both of them, truly. Jae and Sungjin were two of his best friends, and he wanted nothing more than for them to be happy. (False: he wanted nothing more than to annoy the crap out of them, but in a loving way, but we don’t have to count that.)

...He would be lying just a little if he said it wasn’t just a tiny bit annoying that their main focus was no longer 100% on the band, though. Many times in the past several months, he’d asked for input on lyrics or melodies or ideas for performances, but they had been too distracted with their love lives to be of any actual help.

I mean, except for the fact Jae had contributed some really nice lyrics for a love song. Brian had almost 100% decided on calling the song ‘Hi Hello’ but he still wasn’t ready to make a decision; it was about meeting someone for the first time and suddenly not being strangers anymore.

Jae, obviously, had some quite recent experience with that. Brian, on the other hand, was writing from his imagination.

Maybe that’s why he felt the song wasn’t ready just yet...

But, anyway. Back to the idea he had in mid-January.

“What if we just set up our instruments outside and do a set?” he asked the guys during one of their rare dinners together at the house.

These days, either Sungjin, Jae, or both usually ate with their lady loves. (Sungjin, most definitely, preferred to, but that was understandable.)

“...Sing outside?” Jae asked with one raised brow. “It’s January. It’s freezing.”

“Yeah, but it’s unexpected. And you know nobody else will be doing it,” Brian pointed out.

“Nobody’s going to want to stop and listen because they’ll be too cold. Or too busy, on their way to class,” Sungjin countered in-between bites.

Brian was about to retort with a semi-snarky remark about nobody else coming up with any other ideas, but Wonpil spoke before he had the chance.

“I’m down,” he stated, lifting his shoulders into a small shrug. “I think it’ll be fun.”

“Yeah,” Dowoon agreed. “Something we’ve never done before.”

“We can only play a few songs if you’re that worried about freezing to death,” Brian smirked.

“Yo, shut up, dude,” Jae tsked, trying to hide an embarrassed blush.

“When were you thinking?” Sungjin asked.

“Can we do it this weekend?” Wonpil pleaded, letting it be known with his slightly whiny tone that he had quickly adopted the idea and was now desperate to do it.

“No one’s on campus during the weekend.” Jae rolled his eyes before reaching out and thwapping the back of Wonpil’s head.

“Friday, then,” Brian suggested as Wonpil reached around to nurse his stinging cranium.

Sungjin opened his mouth to say something, and Brian just knew he was going to say he had plans with his girlfriend on Friday. He threw his friend a Look, though, and Sungjin’s mouth quickly formed into a forced smile.

“Friday afternoon works for me,” Sungjin said instead. “My last class ends at 3.”

Everyone else confirmed they were done with classes either before or around then, so they decided to meet at the house at 3:30 and set up on the North Quad around 4pm.

As Brian and Dowoon began cleaning up after dinner, Brian had to admit that he felt... he didn’t want to say ‘uplifted’ because that made it seem like he was discouraged or depressed about his current situation.

And he wasn’t at all!

But, still. He felt like things were back to the old days as far as the band went. Except not really because they really had come so far in turning things around since Battle of the Bands over six months ago. But you know what I mean!

“All right, Friday at 3:30, yeah?” Jae asked as he grabbed a coat from the hall closet.

“Friday at 3:30,” Brian confirmed. He carefully handed a freshly washed dish to Dowoon who dried it off with a towel and set it in the dish drain.

“Friday, 3:30,” Jae repeated, sliding his coat on and reaching for his keys on the key hook.

“Wait, where are you going?” Brian asked, his brow furrowed. “We should probably start rehearsing for that.”

“I’ve got studying, bro,” Jae told him.

Brian pursed his lips in slight annoyance. “Jae, the semester just started. There’s no way you already have an exam.”

Jae paused for a few moments... and then he rolled his eyes in a sort of guilty way. “Okay, fine, I’m going to study my girlfriend’s face. Sue me. We can rehearse tomorrow!”

Brian opened his mouth to issue a rebuttal, but Jae had hurried to the door and fled before he had the chance.

Sungjin, who was standing behind a chair at the kitchen table, began drumming his fingers on the seatback. His facial expression was that of someone who was trying to be cool and casual but also trying to be obvious. He might as well have been whistling a suspiciously jaunty tune.

With a soft sigh, Brian shifted his gaze from the plate he was scrubbing over to his slightly older friend.

“Go ahead, then,” he murmured. “We’re rehearsing tomorrow. Go have some dessert with your soulmate.”

A smile split Sungjin’s face, and he rushed to grab his own coat from the closet in the hallway.

“See you guys!” he called out as he dashed toward the door.

As Brian and Dowoon continued to do the dishes, Wonpil leaned against the kitchen counter, resting his elbow on the granite surface and setting his chin in his palm. A dramatically mournful sigh escaped his lips, and he waited until Brian looked over at him to voice his thoughts.

“When are we going to find our soulmates?” he asked pitifully.

Brian let a tiny smirk tug at his lips, and he shook his head. “The whole point is that we don’t know,” he reminded the sweet but sometimes naive keyboard player.

Wonpil pouted slightly and let out yet another sigh. “Yeah, I know. But still. Aren’t you lonely?”

Brian shrugged as he handed Dowoon a clean glass to dry. “Not really. I’m focused on our music. That keeps me company plenty.”

He just wished all of his bandmates were the same way...

By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, the guys had managed to get in a few rehearsals - at least, enough to be fully prepared to perform four songs out in the most crowded area of campus in near-freezing temperatures.

As agreed, they all met up at the house at 3:30 and began to gather up their instruments in both Jae’s and Sungjin’s cars. The two guitarists took their acoustics, Wonpil lugged his keyboard, Dowoon brought along the wooden box he used in lieu of actual drums, and Brian simply brought all the microphones.

Brian didn’t own an acoustic version of a bass guitar, so whenever they decided to perform a song scaled-down and raw, he simply used his voice as his instrument.

Sungjin led the way with Dowoon and Wonpil in his car, Jae following up with Brian in the passenger seat.

“How’s that song going?” Jae asked as he turned onto the main road toward North campus.

“Which song?” Brian murmured absently. He was already getting into the performance zone, and his mind was on the four songs they would be singing.

“The one you’ve been working on for a while. About the moment you stop being strangers with someone?”

“Oh, yeah, that one. I...” Brian inhaled sharply, quizzically. “I don’t know. I just can’t seem to finish it. It doesn’t seem quite right yet.”

Jae scoffed and glanced over at Brian with an overly offended expression. “Dude, I helped with some of those lyrics. What do you mean it doesn’t seem quite right?!”

Brian smirked a little, letting out a soft ‘you’re something else, Jae’ chuckle. “It’s not your part I’m having trouble with. It’s mine.”

“That’s because you haven’t met anyone lately.” Jae briefly took one hand off the steering wheel and reached over to nudge Brian’s shoulder. “You need to get out more. Sungjin and I have met our soulmates...”

“Not because you were looking for them,” Brian pointed out. “Besides, you know I don’t need to write lyrics from experience. Let me just sit on that song for a while longer. Something will come to me.”

“All right,” Jae sighed. “Whatever you say.”

They drove the rest of the way in silence, arriving by the quad only five minutes later. Jae parked next to Sungjin, and all of them began unloading instruments and sound equipment.

The frigid air spurred them on to set things up more quickly than they usually did, and it wasn’t even 4 o’clock when Wonpil stepped up to his keyboard and began to play the opening notes of the first song they’d chosen to perform.

Jae had barely sung one line before people walking by noticeably slowed their steps. Of course, Jae and Sungjin’s girlfriends were already there forming a two-person audience, but it had grown to a substantial handful of people by the time they got to the first chorus.

As Brian began to sing his part of the bridge, he noticed someone coming to stand next to Jae’s girlfriend at the very front. Instinctively, his eyes locked with yours, and...

Why were you staring at him like that?

And why was there something so familiar about you?

He had definitely never seen you before (trust me, he would have recognized your face), but he just had a very eerie feeling that he already knew you?

For some reason, he figured you would leave after the first song.

But you were still there as they sang the second... the third... the fourth and final song.

And you still had that look on your face. Come to think of it, you looked kind of how Brian felt. You were gazing at him with a clear question in your eyes: Do I know you?

As the crowd applauded and cheered after they finished the fourth song, Brian heard Sungjin explaining who they were and why they were out here singing in the freezing cold. He asked everyone to introduce themselves, and after Brian greeted everyone with a smile and a wave, he set his microphone down and stood.

There was no way he was going to let another minute go by without talking to you. He had to figure out why you seemed so familiar.

Your eyes widened slightly as he headed toward you, and Brian tried his best to look friendly rather than seriously curious. The last thing he wanted to do was scare you away.

“Hi...” Brian said a bit cautiously once he was close enough to you. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but notice...”

He tilted his head slightly as your eyes gazed up into his, your eyebrows raised and wrinkling your forehead. It was just so weird that he had absolutely no idea who you were, but still had the unquestionable urge to ask:

“Have we met before?”

Part 2

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bbyboybrock--archived · 5 years

Text

Serendipity (C.B) | Chapter 16

Summary: Serendipity: (n) the chance occurrence of events in a beneficial way

Popular youtuber Isabella Hart, known as Bella to her audience, bends over backwards to separate her youtube life from her private life. Known for her overall clean content and her bubbly attitude, Isabella has a wild side to her that only those inside the youtube community know about. When Bella meets Colby during one of the trap house parties she finally meets someone she can be her genuine self with. When trouble arises after their meeting, will Bella be able to hand the pressure or will she destroy her relationship with Colby as well as herself in the process. [This starts in 2018]

Written: 2019

Word Count: 2,944

Warnings: swearing

Serendipity Masterlist

I knock on Corey and Devyn's door. I wait a few seconds until Devyn opened the door. She looks around and then looks at me.

"Can we talk in private for a second?" I ask. Devyn and I hang out all the time. I don't know why I'm nervous about talking to her. Maybe it's because Colby doesn't know I'm here yet and I also wanted to surprise him. Devyn lets me in and closes the door behind me.

"What do you need? Help with a prank?" Devyn sits on her bed and pats a spot for me to sit.

"Well, I'm not going to be here long. I just wanted to know if you were going to be busy in 2 weeks? And in two days, but two weeks is more important."

"Oh? I'm free, why?"

"How would you like a makeup job? I have a super-secret project going on and I need a make up artist."

"I mean, I'll definitely need more details but yeah. I'll do it."

"Okay, I can tell you. But you can't tell anyone, not even our boyfriends. Literally, nobody knows except the people who are working on this project."

"My lips are sealed. Now spill!"

"So, basically, after these past few months, I decided that I'm going to go back to the whole social media thing. This time I'm going to actually post things I actually care about and not act online anymore. I've known about this for weeks, that's why I haven't been around lately. I've been meeting with managers and planning content and the new set up of my brand. I even a few more secret projects lined up."

"Spit out this big project!"

"Fine. As you know, I sing. So my first video back is going to be a whole music video. It's for a song I wrote, so that's exciting. I'm going to need three main looks that are going to be used in the video. Two of the looks you're going to be replicating both sides of me that have been seen by the media and the third is me now. They're versions of me that have been born from this chaos. My new manager just wants to get you in so you can sign some contracts and all that."

"Actually, I love it. I have so many ideas already. We can..."

Devyn and I talk until Corey comes home. I take my leave and decided to hang out with Colby in his room. I feel bad for hiding my whole youtube comeback from him. Devyn is the first person from the group that I've told. I want to tell everyone else but I have a whole video planned where I surprise everyone individually and get their reactions. I have a big plan to reveal my comeback to a lot of people.

I've kept this secret for the past few weeks. I spent days wondering what to do with my life. I could go back to normal schooling next semester and keep my head down until I graduated and then get a normal job. But the idea of that didn't sound fun. I wanted the excitement that I had when I first started youtube and began getting popular. The buzz I once had when I created content that I once loved. The buzz I get from doing music. I'm still going to do normal videos, but I'm going to start doing things that I like. All last week was busy with me meeting potential managers that were willing to take me on and planning the music video.

I plan to have a party where I invite all of my closest friends and reveal the video to them, just as it's uploaded on my youtube channel. Get everyone's raw and honest reactions. It's scary and nerve-racking, but it will hopefully work out in the end.

****

Devyn and I sit in the back of an uber driving back from the last day of the music video shoot. It's Friday night and after a week of waking up early and getting home late, I just want to sleep until the big party reveal. But I have a mini reveal that I have to get out of the way. For the last of the three looks, my team and I decided to go all out. Not only did we cut my hair, but we also dyed it pink. A dark pink that will hopefully fade over time. Devyn also suggested that we shave a line into my left eyebrow. The look is complete with a fake lip ring and my first tattoo. Besides cutting my hair and having a fake piercing, these are all things that I wanted to do but couldn't without fear of ruining my reputation. I never wanted to cut my hair, but after all of this, I felt like I needed a change. Of course, I planned this change for after Thanksgiving where I went to meet Colby's parents for the first time. I couldn't have my first interaction with his parents be a total shit storm, which it wasn't

Other than Devyn, I didn't tell anyone that this was happening. Because I'm planning on uploading a behind the scenes video, I thought it would be best to also get everyone's reactions on camera. It doesn't look bad. Strangely, it feels like I've always looked like this. Like there was never a change. I'm only nervous about how Colby will react to the new me. The general public may not like it, but they hate me so much already so what's new. Colby, on the other hand, is the person I love most in the world and his opinion matters to me.

We pull up in front of the house and all my nerves are suddenly gone, or maybe they're hidden. We get out of the car and walk into the house. I let Devyn go in first so she could set up the camera. Devyn made up an excuse for us that she is practicing new makeup looks on me. And because I'm on a hiatus, I gave her my camera to use for the time being. So every night she brings in the camera and sets it up in the same place so that nobody gets suspicious. This has been a long elaborate plan, but in two weeks, everything should be back to normal.

After a few minutes, I walk casually and wait until everyone notices. The first two that see me are Kat and Colby. Kat's first instinct is to scream, which causes everyone to look up.

"What the fuck is going on? Am I high? Baby, pinch me." Corey sticks his arm out at Devyn for her to pinch.

"Holy crap, I didn't recognize you for a second. I thought a fan broke in or something." Aaron says.

"That is definitely not how you looked when you left this morning. Is this real?"

"I think Kat and Colby are influencing you too much, Isabella."

"I can't do anything about the tattoo, but I can't tell if you guys like the hair or not. I can fix the color but the length is going to be like this for a while."

"No, baby, it's fine. It's great! What, uh, inspired this new you?" Colby's face has this slight scrunch to it. It's not noticeable to the naked eye, but people who actually know Colby can tell. He absolutely hates it.

"Just wanted to try something new. Anyway, I'm beat from today so I'm just going to go to bed. Night everyone."

I run upstairs before anyone can say something. If it wasn't for the fact that I was so tired I would just go home. I'm not upset. I couldn't care less about Colby not liking the several changes I've made to myself. If anything, I'm annoyed. I'm not annoyed that he didn't like it. I'm annoyed that he lied about liking it for my benefit. It's been a while since the whole 'me almost dying in a momentary lapse of judgment' situation and I thought we were past Colby treading lightly around me.

I have a new system to get through life. One that doesn't rely on Colby, because I can't always go to him every time shit hits the fan. The first step was to sit down and find a therapist. Might as well get some professional help to get everything in order. Then, I decided to work on making sure that if something were to happen to me, my family would get nothing. It felt weird to write a will considering that I'm only 19. And because I am no longer part of the family, I started the process of changing my last name. I decided just to use my middle name, Rose, as my last name. My good grandmother's name was Rose and her middle name was Jane. I just filled out the paperwork to officially become Isabella Jane Rose or Isabella Rose. The last step in me getting better was to change physically. Hence the rose tattoo and the short pink hair. Something felt off about all of these changing happening around and to me but still staring back at the version of me that I didn't want to be any more in the mirror. I got the tattoo because I've always wanted one and I got it in memory of my grandmother. The pink hair was the random part. I knew that I was going to cut it. But this morning while I was in hair and makeup I made a last-minute decision that I now love.

****

I managed to get all the makeup fast enough just crawl into bed. If it had taken longer than five minutes I would just give up and go to bed. While trying to go to sleep I hear the door open slowly and then shut quietly. I hear Colby carefully trying to move in the dark.

"You can turn the light on, I'm not asleep yet." After a few seconds of hearing Colby struggle in the dark, he manages to turn on the lights.

"Sorry, I know you're tired. I was just going to join you. Do you have to be up early again?" Colby changes out of his clothes and puts on a pair of shorts.

"No, I can start sleeping in again." I roll over to face Colby as he climbs into bed.

"So I finally get you all to myself? I don't mean to complain but I only saw you when it was time to sleep and when you left in the morning."

"Yeah, we can spend time together. I need your help planning a party. And bout the whole only seeing me at night and in the morning thing, think of it as practice for when we start living together. I mean, It's not going to be like that every day but there are going to be times like that. I'm going to have to get used to you leaving me to go do stupid demon chasing shit or doing illegal things."

"First of all," Colby props up his head in his hand, "we're not doing 'stupid demon chasing shit.' We're just going around and seeing what happens with these things."

"You call purposely going to super haunted places and actively doing things to store spirits and demons up 'just going around to see what happens?' That mentality is going to get you guys in some serious trouble. All I'm saying is that when we move in together, you do all of that stuff outside our apartment. Go do it at Sam's or Jake's place.

"Deal, I promise to keep the scary ghost and demon stuff out of our apartment. Now, what's this you say about a party?"

****

Unlike the guys, my parties are a lot tamer. I made the event exclusive. Only those who I am actually close to and who are my friends are invited. Basically, anyone who didn't turn on me before the big leak and I was friendly with before it happened were invited. Which is still a lot of people but not the normal amount of people that guys are used to destroying their house. I asked everyone if I could borrow the house for one night. My apartment is too small and renting space would be too big. The trap house was the only place that was perfect enough. They didn't even have to help me set up. I made the food and brought the drinks. Well, I bought the nonalcoholic drinks. Colby bought the liquor to avoid me getting into trouble.

Kat, Devyn, Xepher, Tori, and I got ready in Corey and Devyn's room. Tori was added to our little group a few weeks ago, we've been inviting her to hang out with us so she feels welcomed. After we finished getting ready we all went to set up a bit more. The guys set up the backyard, despite it being one of the rare days where it's cold in California.

I wanted to have a kickback. My circle of people when all hell broke loose was pretty much just the trap house. To everyone else I actually was dead. So I planned this even to Cath up and get back into the swing of things. While on my break both Colby and I avoided parties and events that were very crowded. It wasn't too bad considering there was a week where we were in Kansas for Thanksgiving. I can use this time to catch up with everyone as well as make my huge announcement that I'm rejoining team internet. And with Christmas around the corner, we decided to have a kind of small Christmas party.

"Corey, you better not be eating the dip I made!" I yell from the kitchen. Sam, Aaron, Kat, Devyn and I are currently in the kitchen cooking and making snacks. We had to kick out Colby, Corey, and Jake for simply causing trouble.

"I'm not! It's falling into my mouth and it would be a waste to just spit it out." I finish cooking the mac and cheese and put it in a food warmer before walking into the living room. Colby is sitting on the couch on his phone while Jake and Corey hover over the chips and dip.

"Really?" Colby throws his hands up in defense.

"Hey, I tried to tell them."

"It's a good thing that I know you guys and put out the store-bought dip first and hid the one I made."

"No wonder it tastes so good." Jake mumbles. I smack him on the back of the head. I turn the music on and head back in the kitchen to see how everything is going.

A few minutes later people start coming and the party started. I organize the presents for the white elephant event that's going to happen near the end of the party. I socialize and catch up with Kian, JC, and Chelsea. I talk to David and talk him out of leaving early and promise him something fun will happen. I'm hoping something will happen, if not I might have to do something crazy for his vlog later just to make up for it. As everyone is eating I go and stand up on a free space on the couch. To get everyone's attention I turn off the music and use a megaphone that David had in his car.

"Hey guys, I just wanted to say a few things. I'll try to make this as short and painless as possible. So, as we all know, I've been going through a rough patch in the past few months. And I know that some people here were worried about me, which is why I decided to throw this party. Just to let you know that all is good in the neighborhood. So good in fact that I have a surprise that some of you will like and some of you may not. Just consider this, dinner and a show." The lights turn off and the small projector turns on and plays my music video.

While everyone watches I step out into the kitchen where I go and quickly change all my profile pictures and profile banners. The video was scheduled to go out at this exact moment so I don't have to do anything there. The video was sent to me early this morning and I watched it then. I send out a quick tweet and an Instagram photo before shutting off my phone for the rest of the night. When the video is over, I walk back into the living room.

"I know, I'm sorry for making you watch my music video. I honestly didn't know another way to say that I'M BACK, BABY! Which means, yes David, you can do whatever mean horrible prank you can possibly think of. Ki, J, you can make me do a ridiculous challenge video with horrible consequences. No, Sam and Colby, I will not do a scary exploring video with you but I will do literally anything else. And overall, because I know the guys are going to go back to throwing insane parties, we can all party together like we used to! So you guys can go back to eating and talking, that's all I had to say. Also, we'll do the white elephant in about half an hour so get your cameras ready because there is some vlogable content in there."

I hop off the couch and go sit next to Colby and continue to enjoy the rest of the party.

#colby #colby brock #colby fanfic #colby fan fic #colby fan fiction #colby fanfiction #colby brock fanfic #colby brock fan fic #colby brock fan fiction #colby brock fanfiction

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soundofseventeen · 5 years

Text

Everything You Are (Yoon Jeonghan)

I am...the worst. I’m literally so busy with everything in my life that I’m AWOL on most of my social media and I haven’t responded to anything or anyone. I’m iffy about this but I needed to post. And a happy birthday to our ever wonderful Kim Mingyu! Credits to owners for the gifs. -Bee

Word count: approximately 5100

Inspired by: Everything You Are

March 31st: present day

“So,” Mingyu said in the midst of slurping his noodles, “what are we doing for the greatest day in the world?” The hotness burned his mouth, but that only prompted him to shove more inside than he could (literally) chew. He almost choked when he locked eyes with Minghao, who only stared at him in confusion.

Jihoon shook his head. “The greatest days in the world are those that don’t require alarm clocks and we won’t be getting those anytime soon.” He swiped a piece Soonyoung’s fish with his fingers, playing with it and then eating it before telling Wonwoo to high five him, which his elder declined and moved away. (Not that stopped him from throwing lettuce.)

“April has great days...earth day, Easter Day, April Fools Day, Arbor Day...Mingyu sunbaenim’s day.” He shrugged. “You know, just to name a few.”

“Those don’t sound like fun though.” Seungkwan.

“No one asked you.”

“Then why are you asking?”

“Are you really gonna brush off my special day?” He placed his chopsticks on the bowl when half of his brothers nodded, sticking out his lower lips in a pout. “But oh, we had to take the maknae to out to a movie and give him this fancy dinner and buy him everything he pointed at.” He ruffled Chan’s hair affectionately and rested his head on said boy’s shoulder.

“Did you have anything in mind?” Joshua.

“We haven’t done a proper birthday in awhile. And we haven’t really talked to any of our other friends besides when we bump into them at the shows, so I was thinking we invite them all and just hang out. Maybe bust out a cake, a piñata.” He counted his fingers as he ticked off his plans. “And either get some takeout or pizza. Oh! And we can hire strippers!” At that, he had everyone’s attention.

“Why the hell…” Minghao shook his head. “Never mind.”

“It’ll be funny to throw them off.” He slammed his hand down in front of Jeonghan who sat across from him.

He jumped, clearly not expecting to be acknowledged by the dongsaeng. “What?”

“Can you invite Y/N?”

“Y/N?”

“Yeah. You remember Y/N, don’t you? The best friend you swore you never had? The one you kept away from us for a long ass time? The one who’s currently somewhere in South America since your last update? How long ago was it that we hung out?”

Jeonghan swallowed subtly. “Oh that Y/N. I’ll see what I can do.” He offered his best version of his mischievous smile. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?” Give or take six months if you don’t count birthdays. “But do you really want that?”

“Hyung, I don’t ask for anything except for clean dishes and rooms. I can’t even remember the last time we had a conversation that didn’t start and end with ‘I miss you’, and that’s just on Instagram!” He rubbed his eyes, “We were all friends too, not just you two.” Mingyu’d mumbled that last part so lowly, anyone would’ve missed it if they weren’t paying attention. But they didn’t know you didn’t speak anymore.

April 6th: three years ago

“Dinosaurs?” Seungcheol asked in disbelief as he saw Jeonghan’s choice in balloons. “You’re getting a grown-ass man balloons in the shape of a dinosaur?”

“It’s his birthday,” Jeonghan shrugged. “You know better than to deny Mingyu anything…”

“You binge-watch The Land Before Time one time-”

“No, apparently it was the Disney movie Dinosaur.”

“Disney did not do a dinosaur movie. I would remember...I had a phase until I was 11!” Though the T-Rex sticker on his phone was a subtle reminder of his younger days in Daegu that he never quite outgrew it.

“If I’m gonna have to fight you on this, at least get me a soda and a bag of chips.” He pulled out his phone, typed in the movie in question and watched Seungcheol’s face scrunch up in disbelief in amusement. “Pay for lunch too while you’re at it.” Jeonghan then turned his attention to the person at the register. “Hi, how are you today?”

“Hi, I’m good. How are you?”

“Another day in paradise. I have a question. Are these all you have?”

“Yeah, a few others came in about-” A quick look at the clock, estimating a time, “maybe 20 minutes ago, and took just about everything. Are dinosaurs like a thing here?”

“Not that I know of.” Jeonghan found himself squinting his eyes. “Are you new here?” He asked when he realized he didn’t recognize you.

“Overall, yeah. I’m not too crazy about switching jobs but I need to survive, especially when I don’t get enough. C’est la vie, you know?”

No, he wouldn’t. The Louis Vuitton wallet in his pocket confirmed it. He watched as you blew up the foil balloons and rang up everything. He didn’t miss the way your eyes widened slightly when he saw the designer logo on the leather material nor when he handed you his American Express card Joshua convinced him to get when they were in America. “Thank you,” he finally said when he signed his name on the receipt.

“Thank you. Have a nice day.”

Not one to make impulsive decisions, he surprised himself by scribbling some information on a scrap of paper and handing it to you. “This is an address from where we work. I don’t know if they’re looking for anyone, but if you tell them Jeonghan sent you, they’ll find you something.” His angelic charms hadn’t failed him yet, and he’d be damned if this started now. “Don’t hesitate to call me, uh-”

“Y/N.”

“Y/N.” He could feel Seungcheol tugging on his sleeves. “Well, it was nice to meet you.”

“Same here. Thanks for this, really.”

“We’ve been there and done that. It’s no problem.”

*April 2nd: present day

Mingyu’s constant question of, “Have you called? Have you called? Have you called?” played like a broken record inside his head throughout the day, irritating him more than he cared to admit, the longer he thought about it. He hadn’t bothered trying because he knew it would go straight to voicemail and it’s not like Mingyu would find out if he didn’t. You wouldn’t have broken your evading streak...well, besides calling for a happy birthday...scratch that, Mingyu would have Jeonghan’s head for that. It was late when he got home, Seokmin’s King Arthur rehearsal taking up more time than he thought it would. He had already flopped into bed, granted, the yellow toothbrush dangling dangerously from his lips as he tried not to gag from the baking soda when he saw his phone light up with a notification. You had uploaded a video from your time on your tour. Jeonghan found himself shaking his head, feeling a smile forming. Who would’ve thought you were gonna end up as a famous YouTuber when you’d struggled with jobs in the past.

He loved seeing how happy you’ve been looking, despite the fact you’d never smile the same way again. He laughed at your introduction, eating whatever you scrambled together at that moment, rambling a bit and then diving into your story, not even realizing he was dialing your number at three am, foam dripping into his sheets and hoping for once in your life, you’d pick up. With every passing ring, he felt nervous. He figured it’d play a key role in where you stood at the moment. Just when he was about to give up, he heard someone pick up, his heart pounding with anticipation on how this could go.

“Hello?”

Jeonghan swore it took you four days to actually show up to Pledis Entertainment studios, and his charismatic streak lived to see another day. And because you were recommended by him, the head of said Pledis only saw it fair that you become an assistant to not just him, but the entire group. It scared you for the first few weeks, what with learning their names to figuring out who spoke which language to who was in charge, you considered yourself lucky that you didn’t crack under the pressure. It wasn’t because they looked much too perfect to be real (though it was a factor), but because your world flipped upside down when you realized Seventeen were kpop idols, not part of the staff.

The boys were friendly, thankfully enough. Seungkwan, Seokmin, and Soonyoung were obviously the ones who welcomed you the fastest and the ones who spoke for everyone else when it came to opinions and the ones who made sure the rest had an ounce of energy to get through the dance or song or whatever required physical exertion. Hansol, Wonwoo, and Jihoon eyed you dubiously at first as if waiting for you to expose yourself as a sasaeng or someone who worked for a sleazy tabloid magazine. They watched your every move whether on break or on call and had Jeonghan not confirmed the story of him reaching out to you, they would’ve continued to give you the cold shoulder until you quit. Once you gained their trust, everything simultaneously fell together and apart.

For starters, any requests made had to go through the ‘95 line. It wasn’t necessarily ice cream for dinner stuff, but if so and so could come in late the next day because they wanted breakfast. Four books and a game console were always required in their dressing room when they were scheduled to perform. They could never decide on what they wanted to snack on before they were due on stage, so you’d find yourself running back and forth to satisfy their cravings. (Though you did notice that vocal unit had a soft spot for gummies.)

Because you were still getting used to the boys’ hectic schedule, they left you in the hands of the Nu’est boys while they attended KCon in the late summer. While it meant learning the names of more boys, you preferred that over fucking things up because of jet lag and possibly getting fired for not being able to follow instructions. (Though the vibe was different than what you were used to, you were glad you treated you just as well as Seventeen. The only difference was that they used your respected honorific instead of just “Y/N” and you were home a little after midnight as opposed to two, three am.)

It was the ongoing prank war between Jonghyun, and Jeonghan that got the ball rolling between you and Jeonghan. Jeonghan had texted you to see if you could swipe Jonghyun’s water bottle and replace it with vodka he had smuggled into Jihoon’s locker and to send him the reaction when he drank it and in return, he’d bring you back something from the (not so) great Los Angeles. Instead, he found himself sending you pictures of Six Flags Magic Mountain, and the famous Santa Monica Beach and how beautiful the ocean looked from above the Ferris Wheel and began looking forward to your text messages and your overall company while you were on opposite ends of the world. He realized how much he missed having someone to talk to that wasn’t the 12 boys he loved and how it had been a while since he felt attracted to someone, felt wanted.

Upon coming home, you surprised each of them with a single balloon and new speakers for when they practiced a new choreography and they treated you to a late late-night dinner and a million stories. (Jonghyun got Jeonghan back the following day by shoving all the baby powder he could manage on the inside of Jeonghan’s towel.)

Jeonghan managed to keep your flirtationship inconspicuous, both on the clock and off although the fact that everyone played a part in treating you special (because one on one things became a common affair.) No one really had a second thought when you started carpooling with him because you lived in the same neighborhood and nobody said anything when he asked you to help him bring all the cup holders containing coffee and tea. And nobody had any questions when you and Jeonghan would smile at your phones during their practice break. (That was mostly due to the fact that he sent links to everyone in their group chat.) He’d wink at you when everyone was watching and playing it off as you being their favorite assistant.

The first time he kissed you was on Halloween during a party hosted by Pledis. It could’ve been the fact that it was a day no one was themselves or because the vibe was stress free but all you knew was that one minute you were fighting over the last can of beer and the next, he had you pressed against the counter and shuddering from the way your hands tangled in his hair. He remembered admitting that he had wanted to do that for a while. He would’ve leaned in again, but he heard someone coming in and he stole the can from you and skipped away, bumping into one of the boys but he forgot who. From then on, he’d kiss you whenever he felt like it, always making sure that no one was around. He liked the feeling of sneaking around, knowing that while recording was going on in one room, he’d be in the broom closet next door with you, fighting for air and grasping at whatever you could. And it was an unspoken thing to never mention what you had going on, which you naïvely agreed to because it was Yoon Jeonghan, the angel and the boy whom you couldn’t say no to.

Jeonghan knew it was reckless and irresponsible what you were doing but he couldn’t stop. It felt different than he was used to. He had someone at the palm of his hand. He felt something for you and he had planned to pursue it as long as possible, although that plan was short-lived.

April 3rd: present day

Why Jeonghan had picked to meet you by the street vendor who sold snow cones, he didn’t know, but it would’ve been better than looking like he was sneaking around. He sipped on his sofa, letting the fizziness calm his nerves. He couldn’t believe you agreed to meet with him. While he waited, he took pictures with the lucky Carats who found him completely by chance and even Jonghyun, who he hadn’t had the chance to say a proper hello to since...it felt like forever ago due to increasing demand of kpop and how they rarely saw each other outside of Pledis because of it. Their war was no longer a counted thing, but they enjoyed pulling their pranks here and there for the sake of nostalgia. (The matching scars on their pinkie fingers being a subtle sign of their idiocy.)

He didn’t know how long he waited, but it was worth it when you tapped his shoulder, waiting for him to respond. He knew seeing you would be a shock, but he didn’t expect for his vocabulary to fly out at the window and stare at you dumbfounded, nor for his first reaction to just reach out and grab you in a hug.

He missed this so much. He was a fool to think he could’ve fucked with your mind and expect you to be okay with it. He lived with the regret of lying to you when he said he wasn’t in love you everyday and when you hugged him back, he swore he saw his future flash before him. You pulled away first, expecting him to say something. “Hi.”

“You called me up at three am just to tell me that. Now, what is it?”

“I miss you.” Well, not the greatest start, but it’s something.

“I miss you all too. How is everyone? Congrats on the comeback by the way. You guys doing great.” You broke eye contact with him, peering past him.

He waved off your praise. “We’re all good thanks. I just wanted to talk to you about Mingyu. He, ah-” He scratched the back of his head. “He just wanted you to know that he’s having a party on Saturday and he’d love for you to stop by.” And he would too. Maybe, he’d be able to talk to you then.

“Saturday?” You racked your brain to see if you had any commitments for the day, coming up short. “I don’t think I’m doing anything, but I’m not sure I should go,” you admitted. Talking to Jeonghan always brought out your honest side, even when it was best to lie, like now. But the irony was that Jeonghan was the master of deception. You’d know. You’d fallen under his spell one too many times to not know him.

“Why?”

You shook your head. “Jeonghan, hhhhhh, never mind. You wouldn’t understand. I’ll see.”

“Wait.” He stepped closer to you, taking off your scarf and readjusting it so it’d look right. “There.” He was close, really close like he could smell the winter mint chewing gum you had in your mouth. If he really wanted to, he could steal a kiss, something he hasn’t done in so long. So he went for it.

Only instead of getting caught up in the moment like you were used to, you stopped him. “I can’t do this again.”

“Why? You afraid your boyfriend’s gonna see you?”

“As a matter of fact, he will, and I’d appreciate me doing myself a favor and not fucking this up too. Goodbye Jeonghan. I have to go; excuse me.”

Late December: three years ago

Jeonghan loved to admit it and he would always say it: he enjoyed watching you stress over birthdays because everything seemed inadequate due to their lavish lifestyle. But he expressed his appreciation from the homemade card and a new phone case and he saw the appreciation in the boys’ eyes when they opened theirs. And once he saw how you were fretting over Joshua (because “what the hell do you give an American boy who sings show tunes and eats his soup with a fork?”) he gave you clues as to what his best friend out on several wishlists. Once you figured out what to get him, you ordered it and the day it was to come, you invited Jeonghan to your place after they were done for the night to get his opinion.

And one moment you were showing him a thing of the Hollywood sign and the next, you were a tangled mess of limbs on the couch and Jeonghan knew he had crossed the line. Even worse was his realization that all he wanted was a friendship with you. So he ghosted you that night and gave you the excuse that Soonyoung needed everyone in the practice early. (Which wasn’t true, of course, because performance unit were recording their song while the remaining two basically had a free day.) From there began the end. Suddenly, he felt that everything you did had an ulterior motive to wanting an actual relationship and he started feeling annoyed with your presence and gave you the cold shoulder.

You knew everything that had happened before that was a mistake but it didn’t stop you from trying for more. Your feelings for Jeonghan ran deep and you would’ve sworn you had fallen in love but you bottled it up, letting him take the lead. The way he ignored you broke your heart and you weren’t as cheerful, nor did you treat the boys to anything like before. Your quieter than usual manner worried them, once Seungcheol going as far as asking if you wanted to see a doctor before they had to leave for the airport, which you declined, blaming your mattress for lack of sleep. You bid them a fun trip and to let you if they needed anything done while they were away.

While away for three months, Jeonghan texted you on occasion, mostly for business (and once in a while to fulfill his pranks) and how to handle some personal affairs. Again the distance made him miss you so he tried to keep you close, but he couldn’t; not when you eagerly replied to him and sent him photo after photo of irrelevant things, once again thinking you could regain what you had. He didn’t really blame you since he was the one who initiated your affair (if you could even call it that) but he knew if he continued to go down that road, the basis of your friendship would go up in flames. So he began looking for companionship in the wrong places, self-destructing himself in a way, not that he told you any of this. As far as you were concerned, he went straight to bed after a long day. He did, however, try to set you up with the pizza girl who delivered to Pledis but when that backfired, you yelled yourself to the point where Jonghyun sent you home until you could talk without killing yourself. (Seventeen still left you with Nu’est at this point because they liked how you worked with them, and it didn’t seem right to let you go with them when Nu’est was just as busy.)

When they came home it was only for a month before they were needed in Japan for promotional purposes and they left you once again. Jeonghan had only vaguely talked about his actions, but still felt guilty and tried to make it up to you while he was gone. The plus side was that he got to know you on a deeper level and understood the way you were and promised to help you help others because he saw it’s when you were your happiest. The long calls started again and it felt like old times. The downside was that no matter how much you opened up to him, he never did, so he never told you about his love interest who was nothing like you and let you believe something could happen when he came back home. True to his word, when he came home, he decided the fastest and easiest way to help people was to start your own YouTube channel and he readily provided the audience.

Two months into your unofficial commitment, YouTube’s management contacted you about being interested in making a career out of it and once you expressed your interest, they wrote down your information and told you they’d be in touch. You burst through the doors to Pledis that day, ready to shout from the rooftops about that, smoke all but visible behind you as you ran to Seventeen’s wing, and when you threw the doors open, there was Jeonghan in the middle of a tonsil hockey game with someone you’ve never seen and it was all you could do to not make a sound and just walk away quietly. You managed to sneak out of the building unseen and call Seungcheol that you came down with something and wouldn’t make it.

For three days, you stayed in bed, not eating or drinking anything, just crying your heart out for letting him lead you on. You would’ve gone the whole week like that, had one of your friends not forged a note from the doctor they worked with saying you needed bed rest and when you came back, they jumped at you, wanting to know why you didn’t say anything about being sick sooner, and you thanked your higher power at how oblivious they could be. And then Jeonghan had the audacity to stoke your hair, playfully telling you you looked like shit and you visibly flinched away from his touch, blaming it on a nonexistent headache. And suddenly your good news didn’t seem so good when you told them and bless Seungkwan’s heart when he asked if it meant you were quitting which you nodded sadly, and that meant a party for everyone.

That party was held the following month, in which your heart felt heavier than the day prior because of how Jeonghan acted like nothing had happened, and you suppressing everything. The boys bought liquor and alcohol like it was the end of the world and you used that opportunity to drink the image away. Not your brightest idea you’ll admit since you ended up hooking up with Joshua when he tried telling you that you had too much to drink and you begging him to make you forget.

And that was only the beginning of your own self-destruction, falling deeper in the rabbit hole, the closer your days as Seventeen’s assistant ended and the closer you became an influencer. The bags under your eyes never faded, feeling more sluggish by the day. You had only coffee in your system, not being to stomach food. Your headache never went away and you couldn’t stop crying. Everything hurt; there was no remedy for your pain.

Naturally, you worried everyone until Jeonghan confronted you and didn’t let you leave until you told him what the hell happened. He pushed you to your limit, finally telling him everything you felt, everything you saw, how nothing seemed to matter, to which he yelled at you, words feeling like venom as he spewed his own thoughts and piercing deeper into your heart and disintegrating parts of your soul. He cared about you, but not in that way. You were a wonderful person but you weren’t his type. He wished he could change everything but he was happy who he was with. He regretted everything because he was afraid this would happen.

You quit the next day but that wasn’t the last time you saw Jeonghan. He didn’t last much longer with his fling and his first reaction to the split was to call you, even though you had to work on your first ever video where you worked with introductions and whatnot. You had the faint naïve hope for reconciliation each time he called you up when something went wrong, each time ignoring the fact you were nothing more than an emotionally unstable human blinded by your love and him taking advantage of that. On Halloween of that year, you quit him cold turkey after sleeping with him one last time, realizing that he was nothing more than someone who fed off your energy and you couldn’t keep living like that, not when you had so much to offer the world and knowing you had a younger audience watching your movements.

It took time but you finally managed to get him out of your system.

You didn’t hate him. How could you when he not only made you but was a friend when you needed him? You wished him nothing but the best because at one point he was the best to you though it took a while to admit you were angry. It took you some time but you dedicated a special video for your situation, not mentioning his name for the sake of his image.

April 6th: present day

During that time, Jeonghan learned just exactly what he lost, and his mistake was meeting you again after those six months. He had grown up and he had hoped you would see past it and give him one more chance. He was lonely; he knew that now. All he wanted was for you to hold him one more time. He remained skeptical about you having a boyfriend though. You never mentioned it to anyone, so he chalked it up to you lying.

He didn’t expect you to show up tonight. He didn’t expect to stop singing his duet with the birthday boy to open the door and you forcing a smile on your face when you saw him. Jeonghan couldn’t even say hello because in that moment tipsy Mingyu came to the rescue and hugged the hell out of you, scolding you for hiding away and not even bother to check in on them and then enveloping you in a bone-crushing hug, swinging you back and forth and actually hearing your bones crack at his strength and laughing like his night couldn’t get any better. Everyone surrounded you, asking questions and catching up and you enjoying yourself, gossiping with Pristin and BlackPink, playing musical chairs with Monsta X, swapping stories with BTS and complaining to Seventeen when Nu’est was arriving because you were here for them. It was everything you needed: a fun night catching up with old friends.

Eventually, you ended up in the kitchen, looking for a water bottle to soothe your throat, coughing in an attempt to catch your breath from laughing so hard and bumping into Jeonghan, who was serving himself a slice of cake. “Great night?” He asked you, motioning for you a take a piece which you accepted.

“The best. I missed everyone. It felt like old times.”

He had to agree. “The only difference is we’re not hiding away, eager to rip each other’s clothes off.”

“And it’ll stay like that.” You wrinkled your nose at his words. You’d never felt awkward around him, but now knowing everything was different, you didn’t know what to say. He knew you well, and at one time you, him. He put his hand over yours as if he knew what you were thinking and you retracted it just as fast. “I-”

“Are you sure you have a boyfriend? The words were out before he could even stop himself. “Or are you just giving me an excuse?”

“Yeah, I do. And I’d appreciate you not doing this anymore. I’m not who I used to be.”

“I love who you used to be.”

“I don’t. You made me hate myself.”

“I’m sorry.” He had never apologized for causing you grief before tonight.

“Y/N! You made it after all!” The familiar voice of Jonghyun filled the room.

“It’s for the one and only Kim Mingyu. I wouldn’t dare.”

“Well my love, you look perfect. I’m sorry I’m late.” He kissed your hair, his eyes widening in pleasant surprise when he saw you weren’t alone. “Jeonghan-ssi! I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything.”

He wanted to call out his seonbae for his latest prank, wanted to tell him he got him good. But judging from the way he pulled his arm around your waist, he knew it wasn’t. The cake in his mouth felt dry and found himself choking when he tried to swallow as you left with him.

He took shots the rest of the night, each time he saw you laughing at his words, every time he saw the look in your eyes, every time he shamelessly kissed you, feeling disgusted with himself because he wasn't courageous enough to do it when he had the chance.

He lost his lover and his friend from his actions.

Behind his truth lied everything you are; he knew that too little, too late.

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beindiymusic · 4 years

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Transform Your Song - Mixing and Mastering - The Basics to an Awesome track - 5 minute read

The Challenges of Mixing and Mastering and How To Get Started

Let's say you recorded a song and you need a way to make it sound better. That's where mixing and mastering comes in, but what is mixing and mastering? Sometimes a song you've made can sound muddy or under the weather. A studio engineer can improve this with mixing and mastering your track, but if you want to make music in a bedroom studio setting, achieving this part of music can benefit you in the long run. Mixing and mastering can be a challenge to tell apart, but they are quite different, and here's why: Mixing always comes before mastering Mixing is the process you start focusing on what tools you can use to remedy your song. Mastering focuses more on how to get any last adjustments in the track to cover anything an audience may hear at the last stage to make it sound better right there at the end. Well, you still need to know what tools to start with. I have been mixing and mastering for about two years, and it has been a learning experience. Learning to mix and master can be challenging, but fun if you keep your patience. I'll get started with the basics and then move onto the lesson.

Mixing Basics This is where you get the levels of your recording set. A simple definition of mixing is the time in recording a process that is used to adjust elements in a song. Mixing is not something professional engineers use to make songs sound "different" or to change their original performance. The mix is a cleaning stage. The song is passed down to mixing engineers to adjust the elements of individual tracks with EQs, compression, faders, and panning to fit into a genre. Grasping your tools in your mix is important because you cannot move forward into mastering if the mix is incomplete. Mastering Basics This is the process of finishing your song to be released and audible on all mediums, it will make it so your song can be played in the studio, clubs, headphones and the car, always sounding good! Not all songs are mastered, but you really should, especially if your goals are to get plays on the radio. The best way is to have your songs mastered by an experienced engineer. Mastering involves one file of the song being updated into a better version of the mix. Basically what mastering is, is the fine-tuned adjustments that are made like loudness, eq, and "tone" or "place" of the track. You don't want to master ever in your mix, using the Master channel and that's where a lot of learners kind of go south. Ideally, you would not Master your own track, as to get the best results it is good to have a fresh set of ears. Mastering can be a tricky thing to wrap your head around, but I am going to share a little insight later in the article.

Breaking Down Mixing Elements

There are certain ideas you need to keep in mind before you start a mixing process. Try to imagine the track as an orchestra performance, and each instrument has an assigned seat. That's also how mixing works. You don't want certain elements in the back, and you don't want certain elements too far in the front in your mixing process. If you are just getting started with mixing, allow yourself room for growth, and the mindset that each sound and section of your song can get pulled under, and it's your job to bring out elements using your daw's mixing studio. A lot of mixing can be generated for you or you can mix freely manually in your bedroom. The elucidation of each sound you hear in a track is crucial. Not everything you make will be the same, and it is required that you win a clear playback each time. It is not impossible to get the correct mix in your bedroom, but there will be techniques that you must apply for clarity.

Mixing 101 Mixing can be a challenging task at first, but that doesn't mean it can't be overcome. I want to simplify some tools that every DAW has. There are a lot of ways you can get a mix to do exactly what you need. If you need something in the background, try reverb and if you want something brought to the front, you can add an eq and less reverb. Realize that you can use panning or mono tracks to pull in a sound or a stereo track to expand your sound. Also, reverb and delay are some special effects that you can add to your tracks to keep it interesting, but weren't there initially. Keep in mind that a mix is the ONLY time you get to perfect any mistakes in a song. EQ EQ is a good tool that can fix a lot of mistakes in a recording. A big difference EQs can bring is eliminating the low end. Low end is a rumble of heavy bass that can easily way down any mix. Low end is extremely difficult to hear unless you know how to use an EQ. For example, the picture below demonstrates how an EQ looks when you cut out the low end in a guitar channel. Notice how on the left end, the frequency visualizer is brought down either manually or robotically to attach closer to the sound wave in the middle.

Volume and Panning Now, you want to focus on the volume. Every section needs its volume level. Keep in mind, when mixing, you can adjust volume levels on separate tracks. Lead synthesizers and vocals tend to be brought out and emphasized in front while drums can blend into your back. Be careful with drums, because you don't want to exclude them completely. I commonly use automation within the daw to lure loudness and volume along with panning to bring out each snare and hi-hat. One thing that I would point out is a lot of songs tend to sound bad because the low end wasn't helping in with drums and bass, so it's okay to add some breathing room for a drum track, in my opinion. Mastering 101 Mastering is the 1 percent left before your release. A good example of mastering is the overall hearing of an album. How will the song sound by all of the other songs on the album? Are the volumes levels the same? Does a couple of songs render any stereo issues? You want to make sure your panning and tracks are set to your liking in a mix. In mastering, the goal is to mix your songs in one setting to get a finished product. You are allowed to work with any mix, and it is better to work with all mixes in one mastering session. By that, each track should a single track and ready to be passed through for a final master. There are a lot of great mastering tools out there for anyone ready to learn! Ozone has a great selection of mastering tools for free and for sale. Every link I reference in this article uses Ozone to cut out any confusion of what to use! Limiting Limiting is a way you can adjust the volume to the overall track. If you have noticed that your track is soft or too quiet, limiting can help there. But you don't want to go heavy on it because it will distort any kicks or snares you've previously cared for in your mix. I want to share with you someone I found on YouTube that shares a lot of mastering software and tips to help you get started even more! Here is a link to a video that will help you with limiting. I will post another link for the entire lesson on mastering here. Here's what he posted about volumes peaks: Ceiling - Set at least -1.0dB True Peak. Potentially up to -2dB True Peak Ensure you select "True Peak" - This is essential. Average LUFS - Hit at least -14 to avoid Spotify limiting and then push it louder to your own preferences.In The Mix from YouTube Multiband Compression If you have never used a multiband compressor before, it looks very strange when you open one up for the first time. A Multiband compressor is known for a 4-split screen to independently edit transients and achieve adequate hi-end and low end. Multiband compression can be a daunting subject even for me! There are several tricks you can apply in your master that cut out any unwanted noises in your track with multiband compressors and EQs. EQs do not always get the job done, and that's where a multiband compressor can save the day. Check out this great multiband video here.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you have learned something about mixing and mastering today and what they are. Mixing and mastering can be a fun experience if you need to take your music needs to the next level. Most songs you hear on the radio or watch on TV have had professionals help with the Mixing and Mastering process. If you need help, be sure to check out our Mixing and Mastering service providers. For Mixing engineers click here For Mastering engineers click here Read the full article

#Challenges #How #mastering #Mixing #Started

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1-dollar-cd-sale-reviews · 7 years

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Decade: Ten Years of Fierce Panda (2004) - Side B

(I apologize for the blurry picture, it’s all I’ve got right now and it’s 4 in the morning here. I’d take a replacement picture if I could, but I just finished listening to this CD and I need to strike while the iron’s hot)

This is the second half, or “Side B”, of Decade: Ten Years of Fierce Panda. I reviewed the first ten songs eight days ago - frankly, I worked my way into a bad mood after that review and avoided the CD for a while. But I’m back to finish the review, because there are a couple of CDs I want to get to in time and I can’t do that without finishing this one.

For this half of the compilation, I turned my sound down to help combat the distortion - the main issue I had with the album in the previous review was the sound quality, and I decided to forego the same audio quality complaints for this review. By all means, it’s still a problem - but I’ve decided to focus more on the songs themselves this time around.

Surprisingly, I liked this half of the album a lot more than the first half. It could have been the lower volume making each song less grating, but I think there are just more tracks on this half that appeal to me.

It kicks off with a song by Coldplay - one of the names I bought the album for. I don’t mind Coldplay so much, they release good singles and I think the stereotypical “well, at least it’s better than Nickelback/Coldplay!!” statement is stale and trite - but as far as albums go, I’m no fan. Give me The Scientist and Yellow, maybe a handful of other tracks like Fix You, and that’s about it. This is a singles band for me.

The track on this compilation, Brothers and Sisters, doesn’t fit into that handful of tracks I just mentioned. Lyrics didn’t resonate or stick out to me, especially with Chris Martin’s singing style. The music was good though, I feel like Coldplay is a decent-sounding band as far as instrumentals go - pre-Sky Full Of Stars, anyway. Overall, kind of a letdown considering that Coldplay was one of the key draws to this compilation in the first place. I was hoping to find another track of theirs that I might like, but it’s no skin off my back in the long run.

Hundred Reasons’ “Cerebra” is more of a heavy rock track. Maybe emo, or alternative rock? I dunno. The music sounds good and the singer has a decent voice for this style of music. This is one of the better rock/metal-oriented songs I’ve heard during the course of this blog, which is to say it was well-produced and I liked it well enough.

The song Arienette by Bright Eyes was the first surprise of this half of the album. It’s got a very brooding, almost gothic atmosphere to it, played very well by the band. The vocalist sounds a bit wobbly in his singing, but I chalked this up to the sound quality - if only because I want to believe there’s a smoother, better quality version of this song in existence.

I actually checked out a higher quality version on Youtube, just for background noise as I wrote this review up, and unfortunately the vocalist still sounds like he has marbles in his mouth. Even considering this development, I still like how this song sounds very much. Hell, it works for the latter half of the song - all in all, this is a decent tune.

Hundredweight, by Easyworld, switches between a softer, more beat-driven sound, and a more pop-punk sort of sound for the chorus. I would have preferred if the whole song was in the more pop-punk-sounding style, the singer just sort of annoys me in the quieter sections. If this song was more like the chorus all the way through, it’d be a pretty good track.

Take the Long Road And Walk It, by a band called The Music, sounds like three or four notes being played for the entirety of the song. I hated it.

The Polyphonic Spree’s song “Soldier Girl” runs into a similar dilemma as Hundredweight, though I like this song for what it is. The song starts off with someone laying down a beat by... puffing into a flute the wrong way? I dunno. I had a try of my friend’s flute once, and the discordant puffing noise sounds like when you aren’t blowing into a flute the right way. This sound is what makes up the beat at the start of the song, and I kept hearing it through the song - for that reason, I found it a bit uncomfortable to listen to.

But the chorus gives way to more of a Brit-pop sound, or something a little rockier, and this part of the song sounded really good. It makes up the last third of the song, and I really liked that. This is a song that I can tolerate at worst, and have a smile and a nod to at best - it’s a pretty decent track.

Manhunt, by Winnebago Deal, is another hard rock sort of song. The band sounds good, but when the singer comes in, everyone decides to stop playing when the singer is yelling something out - but they’ll play tiny sections in-between his statements. I don’t know if that has a term, or if it’s a trope? I’ve heard songs do this before. Either way, I don’t like listening to it. There are also a handful of cusses thrown in there that just feel tacked on, like they’re pandering to an edgy teen crowd by saying “fuck” once and “bitch” a handful of times. It’s face level at best.

Six By Seven’s contribution, “Bochum (Light Up My Life)”, is what you get when you mix uplifting, soaring music with more of an airy, ambient atmosphere - and then give that song a tub-thumping drum pattern. The drums kind of reminded me of how the Lumineers would use a drum track, but I think that comparison does Bochum a disservice - it’s a bit distracting, but it’s still a good song. The only disservice that’s been done to this song is how flat the vocals are - otherwise, this is a really neat track.

That leaves two songs: Tiny Vessels by Death Cab For Cutie, and This Is The Last Time by Keane.

Death Cab For Cutie is one of those bands I know about solely from the name. They’ve never been on my radar, and I went into this song relatively blind. I felt like I might have heard a song or two from them in the past, but nothing really stuck out in my mind. This was a pretty clean track, the vocals were smooth and the instruments sound good. The tempo hooked me in, and the rest of the song really delivered.

And finally, This Is The Last Time by Keane. Yeah, this is the last time I listen to this CD! I’m excited, even if the song doesn’t end up being so good.

Keane is the last band that drew my eye on this disc. I have fond memories of playing a Singstar demo on PS2 with Somewhere Only We Know on it, and I was hoping to get some more of that goodness with this track.

This is the only brand-name recognition song on this disc - out of this, Supergrass and Coldplay - that managed to live up to my expectations. It’s got a lively piano line to it, and the vocals are strong right out of the gate. The chorus is very upbeat in its sound, and the vocalist hits these high notes that no other song on this compilation gets close to - the song just comes across as more lively. It has more range than any other song on this disc, and it appeals to me in a very bright, lovely, mid-00′s poppy sort of way.

So - with that last great song done and dusted, how does the whole album stack up?

I’m not going to mince words - I thought this compilation was trash.

I don’t say that because the songs were particularly bad - the first ten songs had some mediocre tracks, but I liked a couple songs on that first half and I liked a fair amount of songs on this half. I say it because the audio quality is terrible.

This could be me talking out of my ass - I’ve made no secret of my own ignorance in my reviews. But I’ve listened to the MP3s on this CD, and I’ve heard rips and official single releases on Youtube for songs that I liked, and the CD quality songs sounded much worse. Some songs sounded like they were buzzing when too much was going on, like they were clipping, and particularly heavy guitar playing or loud mixed instrumental songs would sound distorted as well as have that clipping sound to it. The mixing on this compilation is straight-up garbage.

Because of that, I can’t recommend this album. If you see Decade: Ten Years of Fierce Panda in your local used multimedia shop, or on eBay, or whatever - grab the track listing, and take it to YouTube. I don’t say that as in “pirate this album”, I say that as in “don’t waste your money on gimped versions of these songs”. Hell, buy the albums from each artist featured on this compilation if you want to hear each song and show your support for their craft. Whatever. Just don’t buy this release.

Recommended songs are All You Good, Good People by Embrace, Porchlight by Seafood, Arienette by Bright Eyes and This Is The Last Time by Keane, There are some other songs that are worth a listen, but these are my favorites. You can find the first three on Youtube, I know that for a fact - and it wouldn’t surprise me if This Is The Last Time was uploaded on there as well.

#all you good good people #embrace #keane #this is the last time #britpop #fierce panda

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jes-wan · 7 years

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An eye behind shattered glass - Black Mirror S1- S3 thoughts

I just completed a binge of Black Mirror’s three Seasons. It’s hard to say if this was mentally a great thing to do, as the show has a rather down trend with it’s stories, for the most part. My thoughts will be in Netflix order, for whatever reason they have the season’s backwards, although it doesn't mater too much with each story being standalone. I suppose that is what makes binging a series like this easy, because everything is different and you only notice a few actors returning to play different roles. I thought I would write down my thoughts on these episodes and how they relate to real life, I won’t be talking too much about the episode themselves, because I don’t think that’s exactly what the writers of Black Mirror are after.

Obviously spoiler alert, so read at your own peril, you have been warned.

Nosedive

The first episode I watched in this series was also the first to make me feel guilty in real life. Of course I'm talking about relating this to using Uber. Where we rate our drivers and they rate you. A friend questioned recently how wrong the system is to be so open and have no guidelines for rating. It’s a good point and exactly what this episode is based on. Out of all the stories this one is the most realistic to actually happen. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine cafe’s starting to adopt the same system as Uber, and it spiralling out from there. I did enjoy the actress’ journey to discovering what’s the point in this system where you can’t be honest, or a breakup costs you, your job, the ending of the two of them yelling in some sort of lockup was perfect. Where, the language was ugly, that didn’t mater, it needs to be apart of our life. Sometimes you just need to tell someone, look that’s really stupid, without loosing your social standing. Speaking of which, going back to Uber, after watching this I found out how a passenger can see their rating. Mine was 4.96, which means someone gave me a four star, the feeling that you weren’t perfect right there is the problem. In the end conversations shouldn’t be rated for being meaningful, regardless of their outcome it’s all about interacting with another human, taking the good and bad.

Playtest

Buyers regret, that’s what VR feels like after watching this episode, or at least what VR might do to some people. Okay, maybe it isn’t that bad. Yet, it does make you wonder how fears could play a huge part in someone getting hurt in VR. Yes, the point of this story is playing off fears in a horror setting. Although in reality fears a deeper than that. You could be playing an adventure game and you have a fear of spiders. One comes up close to you and gives you a real life heart attack. How will we in the future combat actual fears, safe environment or not, that’s what the episodes asks. Instead, the real underlining issue is leaving things too late, putting something off because it’ s too hard. Well for the main character, doing so proved to be fatal, if he had just answered his mum a long time ago, she might not have called during the test and he would still be alive.

Shut up and Dance

You hear about people being blackmailed all the time, I couldn’t say if anyone has ever gone this far, but it might have happened to some lesser degree. The real question to ask yourself, is the risk worth it? If he had gone to the police right away, yes the video would have been released, but he would have had some backup, heck even the media might have been interested in hearing his story. It’s taking a bad situation and turning it better. Raise awareness, because as far as I know the web cam hijacks do indeed happen. In the end the troll, who I suspect was the kid in the hotel lobby, just released it all anyway. Not surprising, because someone who would come up with the ideas they did, probably isn’t someone with social empathy anyway.

San Junipero

I have to say this story was beautiful, I wasn't expecting the twist with it being a cloud reality. At first I thought it seemed like an excuse for a writer to put every 80s pop song into one episode. Big lessons here, even when someone tells you a story don’t assume they are selfish or whatever the case might be, ask questions. How long were you married is a good one. I’m not sure I wouldn’t struggle with the idea that after being uploaded living there forever would make me long for those who didn’t make such a choice. The ending was a surprise happy though and it was nice to see Greg was just someone willing to help out and get nothing in return, seldom do we see this today.

Men Against Fire

I was thinking this might be straight out action and not too thought provoking, at this point I should’ve known better. After binging the entire Alien series before this, I was glad to be wrong. I’d never heard the stats before about soldiers shooting over heads and the hit rate was so low. It’s sad to think that turning people into what we consider a monster would make them easier to kill. Even if they are expressing the exact same motions as someone saying people don’t shoot me. Not much of a choice for the ending, either watch those people die in an endless loop or be erased, no idea to be honest, both are bad. He got discharged anyway and now lives in a fantasy world, still bad I guess.

Hated in the Nation.

First of all, please no one make mechanical bees! Just don’t do it. Secondly what’s happened to all the bomb shelters in the UK. They could have put the third victim in one, a house surrounded by FLOWERS seemed like a terrible idea! Of course, social media plays a big part again, how often do we see people hiding behind their computer screen, shouting hate or even death in this case, knowing there is no consequences. That’s the lesson here, you can troll under your fake profiles, hate the world, think it’s funny to condemn, but really if someone manages to program killer robot bees, you might be in trouble. So consider this next to you decide to call someone on twitter. :P

Be Right Back

Tragic story from the get-go, the regret of putting work ahead of going with someone. Then dealing with a pregnancy, under a self imposed isolation. If you were offered the chance to talk to a passed person based on how they talked on social media would you? I couldn’t even try, to me it would be like forever putting yourself though the loss, every second you would feel sad after the conversation is over. Even more so with the android version of her late husband. In some respects it is nice for your daughter to meet basically a ghost of her father, but as she gets older what kind of impact will this have on her? Tricky, but a choice I can say I would never make.

White Bear,

Not what I was expecting, brutal but brilliant acting. Being ignored is worse than being yelled at, in my opinion. That people will film someone getting hurt rather than help, is something that does exist now. It seems to be instinct to pull out the phone and take video/photos before calling emergency. I heard that police actually hear about public crimes on Facebook first as opposed to people calling their emergency line. I don’t want to get to into too much about how she filmed her partner killing the child, there are no words and it’s hard to fathom that probably has happened somewhere for the writers to come up with it. A park for justice though, I know I couldn’t be a part of that, but with the rise of reality TV, I'm surprised something like this doesn’t already exist.

The Waldo Moment

I’m hesitant to write too much about the theme of this episode, due to the pure politics as opposed to social themes. I will say, is this really how the disenfranchised feel? If so, oh...

White Christmas

Realised what was going on after the lady and the egg scene, although I thought he was a police officer looking for a confession, I was close enough. However, I'm keen to talk about blocking people. The feeling of blocking people rather than facing them, easy isn't it? But can be cruel. If she had just come clean, he wouldn’t have gone through years or torment. Wondering why she kept the child, after the argument was seemingly about that. She may not have died on that train, if she was honest and her dad would still be alive same goes for her child. Of course he’s responsible for his own actions, and he did commit murder. Yet, the real lesson is, be honest, not mater how much it will hurt. You can’t possibly predict what you might set in motion by lying.

The National Anthem

You could just slap the media, which really did a great job in making a situation worse, anything for a story! Would everyone actually stand/sit there and actually watch such a horrible humiliation? No where in the demands did it say people had to watch it, yet the whole nation stopped. People laughed and smiled forgetting all about the reason why he is doing this. As a species do we really have such little compassion until it’s too late? Do we want to watch the train wreck? Of course, humanity's super power and after a year it’s pretty much forgotten and turned into a political vote changer. Although only three points up? I guess regardless of heroes, it’s not a popularity contest, which probably isn’t a bad thing.

Fifteen Million Merits

I’m not a big fan of talent shows, especially music ones, I feel it’s turned talent into image. Regardless, after watching YouTube videos recently on comments made by judges, it’s no wonder we are turning into a society of people who do not question our idols. What people will do for fame, she said yes to a life of sex slavery and he sold out to preach something no one is even listening too! It’s almost not worth it and looking for a way to escape the complex would have been a better use of time.

The Entire History of You

Would you become obsessed with the past if you could just rewind it? As someone who always tries to find the truth, I know I would be overusing this system. I’m not sure it was really that bad of a system, because without it he would have never found the truth and would have lived in a state of ignorance. Been played as a fool is much worse in my books. Irrespective of having this technology people didn’t seem to worried a conversation could just be rewound back and still followed their ways of deceit, shame really. Of course this sounds like a conflict with Nosedive, but the difference is honesty not avoidance.

Well that’s it, my thoughts on Black Mirror and it’s very good attempts at making you think about the society we live in.

Thanks for reading,

Peace out

Jes-Wan

#black mirror #scifi #netflix

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chriszxz · 4 years

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March 2020 - update

Hello all! Thank you for reading :) this past month has been a pretty good month and I'm fairly happy with the progress that I have made. To start with, I actually managed to hit all 3 video upload dates (just about) I had some hitches with the recordings and technology not working in my favour. However, I got them done. 2 of the said videos were original songs as well. Old songs of mine that I had decided to give a bit more life to and I'm pleased with the new versions of them. Also, whilst talking about videos, I do not like this "Made for Kids" feature you have to pick for YouTube. I understand it is to keep kids safe online. However, I can't progress as an artist. No one come comment on my videos, I can't use an end card and it's just a bad form. My videos are "safe" for kids, I don't cuss or talk about more adult topics. However, my target audience is older than that. I sing mostly swing. That's more of an older audience. That's enough on that though. I've also started on doing regular Live Streams on my twitter. I have been doing them whilst driving from wok to the gym (10-15mins) on a weekday evening. However, someone pointed out to me that I could get points on my license for that, that's something I don't need. So, from now on, I will be doing them at home once a week. No set day at the moment because my schedule varies from week to week. However, I will always keep you notified. At home, things have even been going through a change. I've had a deep clean of my living space and I feel more comfortable here than I have previously, which is brilliant. I'm hoping with the new arrangement I will be able to be more productive and actually have more time to work on my hobbies or to relax when I actually need it. I'm not setting any targets for March, simply because I haven't planned anything yet. For the latest updates please follow me on my Twitter :D Regards Chris

#blog #music #singer #singing #songs #YouTube #Original #original songs #update #March #2020

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howinteresting · 6 years

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There's a scene in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai where mobster daughter Louise Vargo (Tricia Vessey, with amazing marabou heels and bob hair cut) is lounging in a motel watching black and white cartoons. In this image, Betty Boop - stylistically appropriate- is slapdash added to the screenshot, but the point is all the same: this is an adult who watches cartoons, old ones, is mimicking the screen attire and appears cool doing so.

The film truly drags on, but in scenes where little black and white squares of animation flicker on the screen remind me of, well cartoons in general, and that they made up a core of my early life and that I have reached ‘Adulthood’. The end of VHS, basically, meant my interest waxed and waned and then I moved on. But there is much appeal: enchanting and technicolour-me-beautiful, easily digestible in short time blocks and there is always moral punch line. Are retro cartoons the antidote for Modern Life dissatisfaction?

The other day I was thinking about Donkey Island, as I call it, from Pinocchio. A maunder of boys are barricaded in a mad amusement park and grow, Animorph style, into donkeys, a horrific fate. This was unsettling to me as a child. All that high-pitched bucolic shrieking and disobedience, the message was uncontested: it is a fine line between boy and donkey.

Oddly, but not surprising knowing how my synapses work, another one I can remember vividly from a four-in-one video collection we had, presented a similar moral dilemma. In Educated Fish (1937!) a young fish -Tommy Cod- is causing mischief at the A.B.Sea School for Fish, but in the most charming way. Frankly I don’t know what his issue is considering how wonderful every element of aquatic education appears to be.

Ignoring the OH&S speech of his teacher, Tommy glides out of classroom library carefree and uneducated until he runs into trouble, hook line and sinker. Actually just watching this on Youtube I’ve realised this is not the animation I was thinking of. Similar yes. Still, what an ogre-sized fisherman would want with a diminutive cod leaves much to the imagination. Also, being an Adult, I immediately catch onto the worm on hook entendre. Tsk, tsk Paramount.

What I was thinking of was Small Fry (1939), also about a young smarmy fish- Junior Catfish- who skips school to join the Big Fry in the local pub, mastering pool better than I could and huffing and puffing to impress the layabouts and local bums. Big ambitions. Yes there is a Donkey Island vibe; everything I watch seems to fit into this type of niche. He swaggers back home, his sassy Mother says her two cents, and unimpressed with reality Jonah goes back. The Big Fry push him into a deep sea Ghost Train with the jingle “you’re not the biggest catfish in the sea” playing in time with the neon outlines of monster fish jumping around Jonah. The song also has the line about “practicing the law” so I assume Jonah goes on to become a lawyer and is routinely loathed by the rest of the population.

Is it a good thing to admit that I could watch these all day?

The point of this post was to actually upload a video of a favourite Silly Symphony and mention how humorous it is that when I need a mental kick up the arse this cartoon plays in my background of brain, and has done so for at least a decade. Nike slogans don’t cut it, this does.

The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934) is a Disney re-telling of the Aesop classic, not the expensive hand wash but the Greek melodrama. The fable describes how a carefree Grasshopper that sounds like Goofy in the animation, sings all summer and is ever so slightly condescending to the ants that methodically gather and stockpile food, like a parent going to Costco before the Christmas period begins. As well as spitting out a lot of saliva, the line that the Grasshopper sings is “the world owes us a living”. Foreboding. It is winter now in real life and in the Youtube video, and I am mildly distressed. The snow settles and the wind howls over the landscape, the grasshopper is feeble, cold and struggling. He finds the ant kingdom, food abounds and central heating and they take him in. Put his legs into tubs of hot water and ask him for a song, which is a re-worked version of the summer hit, “I owe the world a living”. I’m not sure how communist this ploy is, but it worked for me then and it works for me now.

Had work brings rewards. Growing up with migrant parents this was an ethos that was embedded in everything. My Dad is the kind of man who used to say ‘Why are you reading? You could be working’ and my school holidays since primary school consisted of my brother and I sitting on upturned buckets cleaning bricks because my entire life is in the process of renovation. Some people claim their ideal holiday is to ‘do nothing’, to lie on a beach in South East Asia corpse-like and idle. This is my idea of hell. To ‘do nothing’, to literally watch minute by minute disappear forever, and then return from two weeks away with nothing gained, partly because of Bali Belly, nothing accomplished. This is also why I am obsessed with ‘self-initiated creative projects’ because I am so acutely aware that there is not enough time and there never will be. It has to be done NOW.

But more than that, The Grasshopper and the Ants presents a myriad of interpretations for someone like me, who is so obsessed with what I call ‘The Monday Morning’. The implication being that Monday is a new start, a new blank rectangle in the weekly diary; it is an erasure of the past. It is already over; it was over a minute ago. Forget about it. Move on. Watching the cartoon I can see liberal versus conservative, creative industry versus economic industry, spend or save, buy (ha ha ha) a house or go overseas, apply the retinols now before skin turns into a cracked leather handbag, do the project or read the book. Trainspotting monologue aside; you can see the appeal in this and such animations. The bottomless well of meaning, a single message that like a band-aid, can be ripped off and reapplied to whatever the context and situation.

Disturbingly, this entire post has been an expansion of what I initially posted, a quote from Nora Ephron’s Heartburn, specifically:

“And then the dreams break into a million tiny pieces. The dream dies. Which leaves you with a choice: you can settle for reality, or you can go off, like a fool, and dream another dream”.

In the film adaptation Meryl Streep utters this as she plants a cream pie in Jack Nicholson’s face, and pie in the face was the sensation I experienced recently as I came to the realisation that something I had planned on doing will never ever happen. Sad, like anything else in life.

So watching all of this what have I learnt? That I should consider an asymmetrical bob? That I should visit Luna Park, that I can’t play pool, that I have always hated fishing and am now remembering the time I went to a trout farm, paid money to fish in a stagnant pond and whatever was caught had to be clubbed with a wooden pole. The trout tasted like mud. I’m surprised that event didn’t lead me on the path to vegetarianism.

No wonder I stopped watching cartoons when I grew up.

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javleech-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on Jav Leech

New Post has been published on https://javleech.com/why-the-spirit-of-flash-gaming-must-by-no-means-die/

Why the spirit of Flash gaming must by no means die

From around 2009 to 2011 I edited a Flash gaming weblog referred to as Flytrap for AOL. A belated effort to expand the enterprize’s then-vast downloadable video games business, Flytrap was a tawdry, clumsy little component, all celebrity plugs and clunky-to-put in force gallery modules plus a bizarre dollop of tabloid sleaze. We had each day knock-knock jokes, FarmVille diaries and a section entitled “Hot Manly Action”, although no outright softcore content, thank god. I failed to assume an excessive amount of my work on Flytrap on the time – it becomes just there to fill gaps among articles on Real Games like Dead Space 2 or Uncharted. In hindsight, even though, it is clean that I had my heart inside the wrong vicinity. Games like Uncharted may be the industry’s obvious peaks, however, the ocean they’re poking out of – the bubbling innovative firmament with out which this art form could be actually impoverished – is Adobe Flash.

For many players nowadays, of direction, Flash is trash – a rickety plug-in for advergames and obnoxious video pop-united states that have been progressively sidelined by way of the major browser organizations. Just study the famous outcry, or lack thereof, over the assertion that Adobe will discontinue aid in 2020. It’s worth, then, a short refresher on what Flash has meant and way. For starters, Flash once intended YouTube. The video service that now draws around 400 hours of amassed viewing time a minute began existence as a Flash app in 2005 (the first-ever YouTube upload, a video of a co-founder’s trip to the zoo, continues to be to be had these days and a peculiar artifact indeed). Flash also intended FarmVille, the greatest of Facebook’s bucolic time-wasters, and Candy Crush Saga, which made its debut on King.Com in 2010. In fact, there was a length while Flash supposed so-referred to as “rich” – this is to say, lively and/or interactive – browser experiences complete forestall.

Icebreaker Nitrome has usually stood out among Flash sport developer thanks to its glowing, Nintendo-esque 2D art. In a charming hour-long GDC presentation from this February, Kongregate.Com’s director of premium video games John Cooney estimates that in 2009, ninety-nine in line with the scent of computer systems with net connections had Flash established. It’s easy, then, to look why so many up-and-coming coders opted for Flash inside the noughties. The mounting base of the most a hit console ever is chook feed by evaluation, and for a time, the Flash scene changed into reachable in a manner even dedicated middleware equipment and improvement groups on PC couldn’t rival. There have been no publishers to assuage – when you owned the development tools, all you needed to do become add your game to a domain. As Matthew Annal, co-founder with Heather Stancliffe of venerable Flash developer Nitrome, recollects: “When I installation Nitrome I desired to make unique games and even though I toyed with J2ME for cellular, Flash became surely the simplest space at the time in which you may make small scale original video games and discover enough audience to show a profit.”

The primordial model of the software program, FutureSplash Animator, wasn’t honestly designed for sport-making in any respect – created through Jonathan Gay in 1996 following an unwell-fated attempt to break into pen computing, its key characteristic turned into the guide for community-based animations run with a simple scripting language. Over time, but, Gay, his studio FutureWave Software and parent employer Macromedia added greater alternatives, culminating inside the debut of a “right” recreation toolset, ActionScript, in 2000. The toolset grew alongside the upward thrust of Flash animation and gaming portals like Newgrounds and Miniclip – its critical update perhaps being ActionScript 3.0, which offered full integration with ECMAScript, a programming language specification that is, in the shape of JavaScript, foundational to the sector huge net.

Nitrome dealing with director Matthew Annal on a career in Flash gaming In the start, there wasn’t a lot of competition, as maximum games were hobby initiatives that might be quite terrible. This made it easy for us to make our mark however additionally gave Flash as a platform a stigma that it was not an actual video games platform. To a diploma that feeling by no means fully left, though given the volume and best of many games on mobile/PC and even console down load shops, these days I think it changed into just showing the manner that matters could end up.

As a few years handed, Flash games were given more expert and early portals like Miniclip, Kongregate & Newgrounds gave way to many extras. There became unexpectedly lots extra money in it and from that also comes more competition.

Facebook got here onto the scene and all at once there has been lots cash there, and all of the speech was of entering into that marketplace and making it wealthy. This brought about Flash getting used for much bigger, extra informal video games than it generally had earlier than, and in-app purchases had been all of sudden a monetization model that far outperformed ads. In hindsight, all of it appears like what caused the cellular version we have these days.

Of direction Facebook video games kind of dwindled away, and at Nitrome we are glad we hadn’t jumped on that specific bandwagon. All seemed properly in the international of Flash games after which Apple brought out the iPhone.

The iPhone had a large effect on Flash video games, and not simply due to Steve Jobs’s refusal to allow the Flash player on iDevices. People all of sudden started spending greater in their time on their mobiles and much less on their browser on their computer. Year on year, Flash game audiences commenced to decline and as advert networks noticed the shift to cellular they too were increasingly transferring their consciousness there.

Flash games were never worthwhile on the same stage as mobile video games nowadays, and we noticed, separately, video games studios both close their doors or pass into different areas – normally, like Nitrome, to cell however often to PC or console too. It helped that at the equal time Flash started out to say no that mobile sprung up in conjunction with downloadable stores on a console.

The latest declaration may be the final nail in the coffin for Flash, but the community that got here from it in a whole lot of approaches keeps to thrive on other platforms and the use of other gear. Flash games portals at the moment are app shops, and the Flash improvement tool is now Unity or Game Maker, however, the spirit is an awful lot the equal. “Initially I sort of stumbled into Flash, however, got I bet ‘serious’ about it proper after ActionScript3 came out,” Adam Saltsman, author of Canabalt and the drawing close Overland informed me when I emailed for his mind at the software’s retirement. “ECMA is a fun and sloppy trendy for a scripting language – see all of the shenanigans you can do in JavaScript, as an example – and ActionScript3 gave you bitmap-stage/pixel-stage get right of entry to for each imported belongings and display/output. And it becomes… Nominally go-platform. And ran inside the browser. And in case you didn’t use huge song documents, the game sizes had been quite small – Canabalt became some hundred kilobytes perhaps. So for someone seeking out a type of sandbox for doing speedy development or iterative improvement, and looking to proportion games with online communities and solicit comments and gauge reactions, it turned into kind of a dream come proper.”

spider There are intercourse games after which there are intercourse video games. Anna Anthropy’s Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars is an arch exploration of masochism, featured on Adult Swim’s dependably adventurous recreation channel in 2011. It helped, of course, that the Flash toolset became so low priced. “Eventually they made the AS3 compiler without cost, so in case you have been programming-minded you could literally make Flash games absolutely at no cost. No revenue share in case your budget is just too big or some thing placing over you. This type of atmosphere I suppose helped produce numerous first-rate 1/3 celebration libraries (like Box2D, as an example).” Saltsman himself could release a free ActionScript development library, Flixel, in 2009, which has been used for hundreds of games.

Early Flash gaming was rife with copyright theft and reduce-throat business processes – it turned into not unusual for pirates to ask for bribes to eliminate games from portals that ranked higher on Google than the developer’s own website. Website advertizements have been extra profitable than they may be now, however licensing offers were also an awful lot much less beneficent. Across 2005-2007, but, the arrival of professionally-run systems Mochi Media and Kongregate plus the Flash Game License market helped stabilize the marketplace, sparking what Cooney styles a “renaissance”. By the top of the decade, the largest Flash games may want to attract upwards of $one hundred,000 in licensing prices, and an extensive minority of Flash recreation builders had been capable of work complete-time. There have been greater ways to earn money, too, consisting of the capacity to make payments within apps – the beginnings of the loose-to-play craze, and a formative have an impact on cell gaming, to which many Flash recreation studios would finally gravitate.

It changed into an excellent time, all advised, to be going for walks a Flash gaming blog. Among my favorites from that length are the primary actual-time physics puzzlers, or “puzzlers” – games like Crash the Castle, in which you release boulders at stacks of masonry to squish Monty Python-esque nobles, or Nitrome’s pleasant Ice-Breaker, in that you have to slice up the extent to free frozen Vikings. There have been the viral sensations, like the famously stupid limb-simulator QWOP or Adult Swim’s joyous Robot Unicorn Attack, and construct-and-proportion games like Line Rider, where you would pencil in a path for others to skate down. There were point-and-click on extravaganzas like Samorost from Czech developer Amanita Design, a fungal fairy tale with lush heritage art. There were philosophical platformers like Coma, a tour of a pastoral dreamscape with a few fantastically considered audio. There has been a stunning amount of video games with political and social issues, from Molleindustria’s powerful investigations of the quick meals industry through geopolitical sims like Oil God to a small avalanche of interactive satires about Israeli profession of the Gaza Strip.

Mcdonalds Molleindustria’s The McDonalds Game takes you via every degree inside the creation of a Big Mac. As that listing of weird bedfellows suggests, there has been a lousy lot of experimentation and sharing, with noticeably few overarching publisher or platform-holder preoccupations to fear about. “The Flash dev network has always been exquisite,” notes Matthew Annal. “Everyone wants to assist each different and display of new strategies. There became always someone looking to do matters that had been no longer designed for the platform. Way again earlier than Adobe added 3D there have been many 3-d hints going from SNES-style mode 7 to proper 3-d texture-mapped items. Whenever we had a trouble at Nitrome the solution was constantly on line someplace, or someone become inclined to assist. Many events sprung up across the platform, too, and it became constantly superb to meet with these compatible human beings. I assume a large part of this turned into there was never a cause to not get on with other studios. It never virtually felt like we have been in finishing touch for anything, so everyone desired desirable things for other devs.”

Many of latest higher-known “indie” builders cut their tooth on Flash. Ed McMillen labored on dozens of Flash titles before hitting the huge time with Super Meatboy and The Binding Of Isaac: I particularly love Time Cfuk, a room-based totally platformer with a time travel element which payments itself variously as about “finding logic in irrelevance” and “verbal exchange with folks who you don’t like”. Other standouts include the self-explanatory text journey Don’t Shit Your Pants, whose developers might go onto make cult hit roguelike Rogue Legacy, and Terry Cavanagh’s Don’t Look Back, a descent to the underworld.

CONTINUE? Xbox One backward compatibility of Xbox 360 games changed into Microsoft’s large surprise at E3 2015, and when you consider that debuting the feature… Pokémon Go guidelines, tricks, and cheats guide to help you trap ’em all Pokémon Go, the region-based totally loose-to-play recreation that has taken the iOS and Android app stores through a storm, permits gamers… Some Flash video games, such as The Behemoth’s Alien Hominid or Thatgamecompany’s Flow, have made their manner to different systems; others were updated to run on HTML5, lengthy trumpeted as Flash’s successor. But unfortunately, a huge wide variety of those titles are vulnerable to being misplaced forever. Last yr, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Firefox announced or implemented plans to dam Flash on their browsers. Apple specifically has constantly been keen to pull the cause on Flash, regarding it as technically deficient, a security legal responsibility and a danger to its own app commercial enterprise: in 2010, Steve Jobs penned a legendary 1700 phrase takedown, commenting that “the cell technology is ready low power gadgets, touch interfaces and open internet requirements – all regions wherein Flash falls short” (Adobe retaliated with some fairly cheeky adverts).

Qwop Charming novelties like QWOP cashed in on the popularity of aggregators like Digg, Fark, and Stumbleupon. Most Flash developers could agree that as a bit of technology, Flash has had its stand downs. “Linux assist became a disaster,” Saltsman says. “There have been like, three unique weird ways of manufacturing desktop apps out of your net plugins; games could be decompiled very without difficulty (I wager this become a pro and a con in a few methods); it became notably un-robust in terms of conventional game loops (with out 0.33 party libraries, I imply); the sloppiness of the language became very fun however may also hugely ambush you on the worst times; performance might be unpredictable and extremely black-field-y, and so on.” These are negligible downsides when set against the ethic of journey, freedom, and camaraderie that grew up around Flash, however – characteristics which can be usually well worth striving for, at the same time as the app itself fades into obscurity.

“I’m now not sure it will likely be remembered as such,” says Anna, “But in my thoughts Flash paved the manner for both current indie video games and unfastened-for-all-fashion app shops. I guess the legacy of Flash is likely that it brought about the self-published indie motion we see nowadays.”

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