#Audio Visual Design for Events

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Revolutionize Your Event with Innovative Audio Visual Design

Creating unforgettable experiences through innovative audio visual design for events has become an essential component of modern event planning. From engaging corporate gatherings to dynamic experiential marketing campaigns, audio visual (AV) design shapes how audiences connect, interact, and remember an event. In this blog, we explore the art and science behind audio visual innovation, its role in experiential marketing, and why hiring the right audio visual design company for your event is crucial to success.

What Is Audio Visual Design for Events?

Audio visual design combines technology, creativity, and logistics to create captivating atmospheres for events. It includes audio systems, lighting, visual displays, and interactive technology tailored to achieve an event’s goals. From LED walls that display striking visuals to immersive surround sound, AV design transforms spaces into multi-sensory environments.

The Importance of AV Innovation in Events

Innovative AV solutions elevate an event from ordinary to extraordinary. Here's why:

Enhanced Audience Engagement: Interactive displays and dynamic visual effects draw attention and keep audiences captivated.

Brand Storytelling: Through synchronized audio and visuals, companies can tell their brand stories effectively.

Memorable Experiences: State-of-the-art AV setups ensure that events remain etched in attendees' memories.

Core Elements of Audio Visual Design for Events

To craft a seamless experience, AV design integrates several key components:

1. Lighting Design

Lighting sets the mood and highlights key elements of the event. Options include:

Ambient Lighting: Creates a warm and inviting atmosphere.

Dynamic Lighting Effects: Enhance performances and presentations.

Projection Mapping: Turns ordinary surfaces into interactive, visual experiences.

2. Sound Engineering

Clear and balanced audio ensures every participant hears and feels the event. Whether it’s a keynote speech or a live concert, sound engineering is vital.

3. Visual Displays

High-definition screens, projectors, and LED walls present vivid images, videos, and brand messaging. These are essential for experiential marketing and product launches.

4. Integration of Technology

Cutting-edge tech such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and motion tracking captivates audiences and encourages participation.

Audio Visual Design for Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing uses live experiences to connect brands with their audience, making AV design a cornerstone of this strategy.

Why AV Is Crucial in Experiential Marketing

Creating Immersive Environments: From virtual tours to sensory walk-throughs, AV technology immerses participants in brand narratives.

Interactivity: Touchscreens, AR games, and VR setups make marketing campaigns interactive and engaging.

Social Media Appeal: Stunning AV setups often become share-worthy content, amplifying the event’s reach.

Examples of AV in Experiential Marketing

Car Launches: Using projection mapping to showcase features.

Pop-Up Shops: Interactive kiosks powered by AV tech for enhanced customer engagement.

Trade Shows: LED walls and live demonstrations to attract foot traffic.

Hiring the Right Audio Visual Design Company for Your Event

Selecting an experienced audio visual design company for your event is essential for ensuring flawless execution. Here are some factors to consider:

1. Expertise and Experience

Look for companies with a proven track record in your industry. Their portfolio should demonstrate expertise in designing for similar events.

2. Range of Services

An ideal AV company offers comprehensive solutions, including sound, lighting, and interactive technology. This ensures seamless integration across all aspects of the event.

3. Customization Options

Every event is unique. A good AV company tailors solutions to meet specific goals, whether it’s a product launch or a gala dinner.

4. Technical Support

From setup to takedown, reliable technical support ensures smooth operations, even when challenges arise.

5. Innovation

Partnering with a company that leverages the latest AV technology keeps your event ahead of the curve.

Emerging Trends in Audio Visual Innovation for Events

The world of AV design is rapidly evolving, with new trends shaping the industry.

1. Immersive Technologies

AR and VR are now staples in high-end event design, offering guests unique, immersive experiences.

2. AI-Driven Personalization

Artificial intelligence tailors the attendee experience, from interactive displays to personalized soundscapes.

3. Sustainable AV Solutions

Eco-friendly technologies such as LED lighting and energy-efficient sound systems are becoming popular choices for environmentally conscious events.

4. Hybrid Events

With the rise of virtual and hybrid events, AV innovation now includes live-streaming setups, virtual platforms, and audience interaction tools.

Planning Tips: How to Integrate AV Design into Your Event

Understand Your Objectives: Define what you want to achieve, such as engagement, brand awareness, or education.

Collaborate Early: Involve the AV team from the planning stages to ensure seamless integration.

Test Everything: Run through rehearsals to troubleshoot potential issues.

Focus on Accessibility: Ensure your AV design accommodates all participants, including those with disabilities.

Conclusion

Audio visual design is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity for creating impactful events. From dazzling displays to immersive soundscapes, AV design transforms venues and enhances audience engagement. Whether it’s a corporate conference or an experiential marketing campaign, choosing the right audio visual design company for your event ensures success. By embracing innovation and understanding your event's unique needs, you can craft experiences that resonate long after the final applause.

FAQs

1. What does an audio visual design company do?

An AV design company provides comprehensive solutions, including sound, lighting, and visual setups, tailored to an event’s requirements.

2. How does AV innovation enhance events?

AV innovation captivates audiences, facilitates interaction, and creates memorable experiences through cutting-edge technology.

3. Why is AV important in experiential marketing?

AV creates immersive environments and interactive experiences, making marketing campaigns more engaging and impactful.

4. How can I find the right AV company?

Look for companies with experience, a diverse portfolio, and a commitment to innovation and technical support.

5. What are the emerging trends in AV design?

Trends include AR/VR integration, sustainable solutions, AI-driven personalization, and hybrid event technology.

6. How can AV design make my event more engaging?

AV design enhances engagement through dynamic visuals, immersive sound, interactive setups, and personalized experiences.

[sarihablog]

BUTTERFLY SIGN STUDIO WINGS OF WONDERS ADS/EVENTS/FABS

Planning an event in the vibrant city of Madurai? Look no further than Butterfly Sign Studio. Customers can get unforgettable experiences with butterfly sign studio. It is a top choice for those who want best event management services in Madurai. In this blog, we’ll explore why Butterfly Sign Studio stands out among the best event management services in Madurai. Get ready to discover how their innovative ideas, personalized service, and  professional touch can elevate your next celebration from ordinary to extraordinary. They provide a complete package to fulfill all event needs, from excellent planning and execution to outstanding design elements.

Our Services:

Butterfly Sign Studio provides a wide range of event management ,creative ads and fabs. We provide a quality and cost effective services for our lovable customers

Out-Door Advertisement

Butterfly Sign Studio in Madurai is at the forefront of creating high-impact, visually stunning outdoor displays that captivate and communicate.

Whether you’re a local business, event organizer, or brand looking to boost visibility, their outdoor advertising solutions are both creative and practical.

Flex Banners & Hoardings

At Butterfly Sign Studio, we design and print premium quality flex banners of all sizes ideal for:

Political campaigns

Event announcements

Storefront marketing

LED & Glow Sign Boards

Seeks your brand or message put on display — literally? Their illuminated LED boards and glow signage are designed for maximum impact both day and night. These are popular for:

Retail outlets

Clinics & salons

Restaurants

Event venues

For extra visual interest, they can set the lighting effect (static, blinking, or color-changing). 

Acrylic & 3D Letter Signage

Acrylic boards and 3D lettering can give an extra modern edge. Butterfly Sign Studio crafts:

Raised name boards

Backlit 3D logos

Cut-out brand names

This is most commonly used for logos appearing on walls, building faces, and doorways for business branding.

Directional and Wayfinding Signage

They also create functional signage such as:

Event or campus directional boards

Parking and safety signs

Festival, stalls and public functions informational placards

In large venues or multi-day events, wayfinding signage is crucial for streamlining user experience and navigation.

Outdoor Branding For Events Specifics

Butterfly Sign Studio frequently collaborates with event organizers to offer:

Welcome arches

Branding of the venue (gates in and out of the venue, refresher banners, side banners, etc.)

Tuxedoed cutouts of VIPs, newlyweds or mascots

Selfie frames and branding walls —

These are created from weather resistant materials and styled to suit the occasion.

In-Shop Branding

We are specializes in custom, eye-catching in-shop branding solutions that transform ordinary interiors into attractive brand experiences. We are promoting your business to enhance your interior ambience.

Product display branding [Custom-designed product hangers, table-top cards, and shelf strips.]

Backlit Boards & LED Display Panels [ Great for showcasing Brand logo, Tagline and Key products/services]

 Danglers, Posters & Standees ]

Vehicle Branding

We offer flexible solutions for all types of vehicle branding whether a simple logo or full wrap of your businesses.

Full vehicle wrap [Covers the entire vehicle with high-resolution printed vinyl.]

Partial wrap

Reflecting and High glow Sticker

auto rickshaw and bike branding [Great for local promotions and campaign visibility.]

ACP With LED Signs

ACP (Aluminum Composite Panel) boards are thin, rigid panels composed of two aluminum layers bonded to a non-aluminum core. When combined with LED light, the outcome is a modern, polished, and lit-up sign board that:

Enhances brand visibility.

Looks premium and contemporary.

Withstands weather conditions and lasts for years.

Seasonal window display

Butterfly Sign Studio provides seasonal window display services for shops, showrooms, and companies trying to make a statement during holidays, discounts, or special campaigns.

During holiday or promotion seasons, this is even more effective.

Services offered

Thematic Design Ideas : Specific season-based, product-based, and brand-based custom ideas.

Printed Graphics & Glass Stickers : Removable and reusable vinyl stickers, frosted and transparent effects.

 3D Props & Decor Elements : Life-size cutouts, product display stands, festive hangings, themed backgrounds.

 Lighting Effects : LED strip lights, fairy lights, spotlighting to create warm and attention-attracting sheen.

Interactive Elements : Selfie frames, QR code scanning areas, spinning displays, and more

Tent and Canopy

Tents and Canopies are mobile shelters created to offer ambiance, shade, and shelter for events. They are available in many different types and sizes based on: Event types, Number of guests, Weather conditions & Aesthetic preferences.

Types of Tents and Canopies Offered

Traditional Wedding Tents (Mandap Tents)

Canopy Tents / Shamiana

Gazebo-Style Canopies

Exhibition/Promotional Canopies

Pagoda Tents

Customized Stage & Covering Tents

Tent Packages May Include:

Main tent or canopy framework 

Decorative drapery and backgrounds for themes

Seating and tables with coverings 

Floral arrangements and LED decorations

Audio and lighting arrangements (if necessary) 

Directional signs and branding displays (for trade shows)  

Expo stall branding

Butterfly Sign Studio provides Expo Stall Branding services that are perfect for businesses aiming to establish a professional and eye-catching presence at trade shows, exhibitions, and corporate expos.

Services offered

Stall Design and Construction

Wall Graphics and Panel Branding

Acrylic Logo Cutouts & 3D Lettering

Promotional Materials

Furniture & Fixtures

Lighting & Electrical Setup

Marketing Materials

Rollup stand

Frame stand

A4 table stand

Promotion table

Que manager

Umbrella

Office stationery

Catalogue

Brochures

Flyers

Letterhead

Envelope

Poster

Stickers

Registers

Vouchers

Certificates

Dangler cards

Offer coupon

Die cut…

Rental from us

All types of Tables & Chairs

LED wall

Stage

Audio system

Carpet

Air cooler

Pedestal fan

Focus light

Podium with branding

Generator

Vertical standing lamp

Special effects

Manpower

We have an excellent team, so you don’t have to worry about taking a job.

Welcome persons

Distributing flyers

Wall poster pasting

Catering supplier

Bouncers & all type of workers

Why Choose Butterfly Sign Studio?

Quick Respond to your inquiries

Respect for clients

Affordability 

Every stage of progress is informed

Honest and fair approach

Committed and dedicated team

Specialized in

Designing

Printing

Fabrication

Flex works

Board works & LED board services

Logo creation

Reach us

📞Call: 807 222 3511

✉️Email: butterflysignstudio@gmail.com

📍Address: Muniyandipuram, Vilachery, Madurai – 625 003

They offer consultations where you can discuss your theme, budget, and ideas, and they’ll come back with a custom concept designed just for you.

[vcraftstudio]

Trade Show Booth Design in USA

Whether you need eco-friendly modular booths, hybrid solutions combining custom features with modular flexibility, or fully customized wooden booths, we ensure seamless execution—from design to installation and management. Our team focuses on creating visually striking, high-quality booths that make a lasting impact at trade shows and events.

[sadagios]

Icarus, and the Sunflower

A Desert Duo/Scarian AU about an avid player meeting his favorite, comfort character in a death loop video game.

I can’t write a fic, nor have time to draw comics like i used to, so we are doing bullet points on a tumblr post

PART ONE: BEFORE THE ALPHA TEST

PILOT: PART TWO

2.1k words below the cut

SOME BEGINNING NOTES: - This AU is only character shipping, and references a lot outside the life series events (evo, hermitcraft, empires, etc). This is not meant to ship the CC’s themselves and if anything alludes to it, it is purely unintentional. - This is not canon-compliant ermmmm i do what i want and i will put every idea i have into this - Tags for this part? Game dev AU, Grian is whipped for Scar, some characters are real and some are fictional, this is only the pilot, absolutely not beta'd i only have one impulsive braincell

A. Gria

Gria is a single man in his late 20s; he works at a game company called E.V.O. Games (Entertainment Virtual for Everyone). He was an architecture graduate who dabbled in game dev in his spare time during his undergraduate studies. Although he didn’t pursue that path, he utilized his skills in level design. He used to work in several indie game companies, one of which was a company founded with friends, before he was hired by E.V.O. Games. He was excellent at his job, and his ideas and inputs always improved whatever project he worked on. Because of this, after a few years, he was promoted to creative director.

His latest project was “The Evolutionists’ Portal,” a 3D pixel-style puzzle game in which the player has to navigate the world to find portals hidden in each level, and these portals progress the game. With each portal traveled into, the world becomes bigger and more complicated, making each portal harder to find. However, with multiplayer, this task is easier through working together (and doing fun shenanigans together).

It had a buggy release, especially for multiplayer, but it built a decent player fanbase; the story itself was short and simple, but it was replayable thanks to its multiplayer mode.

For visualization, it’s 3D with a top-down perspective like “Pokemon Diamond/Pear/Platinum” but has gameplay similar to “Stardew Valley”

Gria and his team get along well, and he is quite close to some of them:

Martyn: an audio engineer. This is the first game he’s worked on since he was first hired in the company.

“Big B”: a VFX artist. He and Gria joined the company around the same time and bonded over stressful deadlines and annoying seniors when they started out.

Jimmy: the project manager. Although Gria takes a lot of joy in teasing him, he is hardworking and great at keeping everyone in check with the calendar. Out of everyone, he is the one Gria is closest with. He also works on another game by the company called “Empires.” 

Pearl: an environment artist. She joined the company a bit later in the development. It is her first time dealing with pixel graphics but she did it incredibly well. She also works on “Empires” with Jimmy.

“Empires” is a free-to-play fantasy open-world action gacha RPG. It is the biggest game of the company and their title game. 

For visualization, it’s just “Genshin Impact” and “Honkai: Star Rail”.

Recently, there was a buzz around that their game, “Empires”, will have a collaboration event with another big name. Gria was too busy and overworked to take notice of this, though. 

The fruits of his labor later came as game nominations for “Best Multiplayer” and “Best Audio Design.” Gria was happy their work was acknowledged by players worldwide, even if they didn’t win.

B. Hermitopia

After so long, Gria finally took a week off. It was foreign to have no obligations for even a day. He doesn’t use this time to travel; instead, he sits at home and lurks on the internet to keep up with gaming news and updates. He uses the username “Xelqua” with a red macaw as his profile picture.

He stumbled upon a “Redstone tutorial” post by the user ”Potatonutshell”. Curious and intrigued by how such a complicated contraption is possible in a game (and bored out of his mind), he asked this user what game it was for. Potatonutshell briefly, and over-excitedly, DM’d Gria with a huge wall of text about this game called “Hermitopia 6.”

In the beginning days of his break, Gria spent time messaging this Potatonutshell fella, named “Mumbo.” Mumbo named himself after a character named “Mumbo Jumbo”, who is one of the most skilled “redstoners” in the game. He related heavily with the character and took a lot of interest in the redstone circuitry game feature as he is a programmer in real life. Gria thought the game was interesting, but not enough to install a 36 GB game for $39.99. He changed his mind when Mumbo told him more about the game, especially its base-building mechanic.

“Hermitopia 6: Hermit Civil War” is an open-world fantasy action RPG known for its base-building core mechanic. It is the sixth game in the franchise, and each game starts in a brand-new world. The player and the lovable NPCs are called hermits, a band of humans, fae, hybrids, and other species who live together on an island and work together to live a sustainable life amidst the hostile creatures that roam the world. 

For visualization, it’s like “Skyrim” with “Baldur’s Gate 3” graphics and dialogue UI.

Gria planned to try it for a few hours, only humoring his new internet friend, until he met this beautiful NPC named “Scar Goodtimes” — a human-vex hybrid with scars all over his “handsome face and carved body”, as Gria would personally describe him. He was also a builder who lived near Gria’s very odd underwater base. Throughout the remaining days of his break, and his weekends after that, Gria played Hermitopia 6 religiously.

Scar calls him “GRIAN”, which was a typo error — Gria pressed enter early in the name selection screen and he didn’t realize it until Scar first mentioned his name 3 hours into the game. He can’t be bothered to fix it, though (and he's grown fond of it.)

Gria continued to play the game in his free time, slowly falling in love with the game as he kept on playing. He also kept talking to Mumbo, who he fanboyed about the game with. He found out that Mumbo lived close by too, so they hung out frequently and bonded over the game.

Gria: I genuinely thought you had a big mustache, y’know, like Mumbo Jumbo. Mumbo: I do too! It’s... it's there! [he shows his very faint mustache] It's there! Gria: sure.

Xelqua started off as a lurker, to an active Hermitopia fan account. He was interested in the base-building aspect of the game and shared his designs online.

Hermitopia is not a dating simulator. There is no romance mechanic in the game. Anyway, Gria installed (and tweaked) a romance mod because no one can stop him from flirting with his fictional vex boyfriend.

Mumbo: Grian, if I hadn't met you personally, I would've pictured you as a crazy Scar fanatic. Gria: Wha— How— I’m not crazy. Mumbo: You downloaded a romance mod just to flirt with Scar and commissioned an artist to draw a scene from it, and now you have it framed on your bedroom wall. So, Grian, I think that’s crazy behavior. Gria: … I do what I want, Mumbo!

Gria's love for the game and Scar grew more as another hermitopia game was released (Hermitopia 7). Then, he, as Xelqua, became a notorious name because of a supposedly harmless poll about the sexiest character in the game. He was known as the insane Scar fan.

He's got every Scar merch, though there isn't much Hermitopia merch released in general. However, if someone posts about a new Scar fan merch, a certain username might appear in their notifications, like a hound trailing a scent. Haters and trolls are also dragged to hell and back because, if they aren't regretful after being berated by this insane man, they will not be able to surf through the web in peace as long as Xelqua holds a grudge. 

As insane as this Xelqua person is, Scar had become a popular character within the fandom, compared to his old status as an underrated sweetheart without much attention or fanfare thanks to Xelqua constantly (for years without missing a day) talking about him. Xelqua also organized or helped some Scar fan events and constantly supported merch creators with hermitopia merch (especially if it involved Scar.)

User Xelqua, about Scar: He is my little sunshine, my precious sunflower. He might’ve killed some men, but he was hot while doing it.

C. The Collaboration Event

Back to Game dev stuff, Gria isn’t open about his current obsession with his coworkers. When the collaboration event with the “Empires” games was finally announced, two representatives from the other company came to visit. “Skizzleman” has been a writer for Hermitopia since the 3rd game. A character from Empires, Gemini, will become a new character in the next Hermitopia game, and there will be a DLC that will add a new small map with many biomes and new materials. In Empires, Hermitopia characters will be featured in a limited-run gacha banner and a limited-time story event. 

Now a Hermitopia fan, Gria tried to interview Skizzleman about the game (while making it not obvious how obsessed he is with it). Skizzleman was the one who wrote the lore for “Impulse” as well as most of his dialogue throughout the games.

Another representative for Hermitopia, the lead designer Joel, came to visit for the collab event. He is a fanatic of Empires and a diehard “Shadow Lady” fan, which is why he is so excited to work with E.V.O. Games for the collab.

Accompaniment art for this here: link

Gria was never into gacha games, but with a mix of Pearl and Jimmy convincing him to try the game they worked on (not to mention the fact that it is free-to-play), and showing him an initial sketch of what some hermitopia characters will look like in the game (this isn’t allowed, but Jimmy and Pearl found the thought of their serious coworker playing a gacha game amusing), he finally caved. Little did they know, showing a topless concept art of Scar is more than enough to reel him in.

When the collab update was finally released, Gria grinded Empires just to get Scar. He practically paid his own salary back to his company just to get Scar to max level and his additional skins. (He loved his new “HotGuy” skin the most)

With the release of “Hermitopia 8: Moon Collision” and the introduction of co-op multiplayer mode, Gria invited Pearl to play with him with the excuse that they're only going to see how Gemini looks in the game. Gria successfully got Pearl hooked on the game.

D. The Watchers Studio

Before Gria properly applied to a game company, he developed small-scale games with his high school friends. They called themselves “The Watchers.” He met them in a small art club and they bonded over their favorite games. Gria’s favorite game growing up was an old zombie game with a title he can no longer remember.

One of their unfinished games was “The Life Game.” It was a battle-royal death game where the players had to gather resources and have limited lives.

Two of their old friend group recently reached out to Gria to catch up. They said they wanted to work on “The Life Game” again and wanted to ask Gria if he wanted to join again. Of course, Gria already had a job himself, so he declined. However, he hung out with the two and checked in with their progress, nostalgia hitting him as they relived their old game ideas.

The two invited Gria to do an alpha test and asked him to invite any friends who might find it fun. Gria invited Jimmy, Pearl, Martyn, and Big B, as well as Skizzleman and Joel who he’s been acquainted with. He also sent an invite to Mumbo, who was unfortunately busy with his job at the moment. 

To Gria’s surprise, the two had turned their game into a VR game. All seven of them played in a medium-sized studio, and although the game was fun, it was nausea-inducing, especially for Joel. They all lost to the Computer-AI characters, which concluded their Alpha Test.

After the meetup, the two lent them their CD copy of the game with the VR Headset they used (which was suspiciously generous of them).

Skizzleman liked the game a lot and asked if they could do it again sometime, which Gria relayed to his two old friends. Pearl shared the same sentiment but is too caught up with work which makes her unable to join their next session.

The gang kept discussing the game they played and its potential to become a hit with a little more polish. This made Gria feel proud of his old team and his past self, reminding him of the time he was passionate about making games despite his lack of experience. 

With limited coding knowledge and a little help from Mumbo, he made a server to host “The Life Game” online instead of LAN. He sent copies to Mumbo and Pearl in case they’d join later. According to the two, the game had more improvements to it since the last time they played it, which was months ago.

Gria had a small voice in his head telling him this was a bad idea— well, he did get a bit sick in the last session, but everyone had fun. So, he ignored the warning bells and hit “Join World.”

This marks the End of Pilot Part One Next Chapter > PART TWO: UNFIXABLE ERROR

ENDING NOTES: I've been brainrotting and hyperfixating on the idea for a while now, and I don't know how to let it all out so I'm going to try out this format. Hopefully I could add more to this! Thank you if you've read this far into the post. :) Made a spotify playlist too in case anyone is interested (I'm still working on this though)

[dontbesoweirdkira]

How would Platonic! Yan! Batfamily react to Reader with Narcolepsy?

A/N:Thank you for requesting. I hope I did okay with this, please respectfully correct me if I got anything wrong or unintentionally offensive with this as I do not suffer from narcolepsy.

Warnings: Toxic and abusive family dynamics, infantalization, medication tampering, worsening issues

Masterlist

Requests: always open

Oh my gosh that would be the worse thing to deal with in a Yan! family. Especially with one as affectionate as them.

Can you imagine trying to avoid Dick or Tim but just falling right asleep in their arms from the stress...then when you wake up moments later, they aren't allowing you to leave their grasp...oh how terrifying that'd be.

Anyways, they are rather attentive to your needs and observant. If one of the siblings notice that you are showing signs that you will abruptly collapse, they will rush over and quickly guide you to a safe area where you can rest.

The family is very strict on not giving you certain tasks that may be hard on your body. Especially if you deal with cataplexy. If you need help with moving something, or completing a task, just ask someone. They will be very upset if you get yourself hurt.

The down side of not having great muscle control or overall weakness is the constant babying. They treat you as if you were made out of glass. It can be quite annoying when you need to strengthen your muscles even if it's very difficult for you. They also might enjoy keeping you weak and vulnerable because you have less of a chance to escape and no real ability to fight back. You are far to precious to not be in their care.

Your family is strict about not allowing you to hang out with friends and staying only in the home. Occasionally they'll allow you to have a supervised visit. They even may force you to take up schooling at home and you're not allowed to work. It's all far too dangerous when they aren't near to assist you. You cannot trust anyone outside of them.

If you suffer with hallucinations, whether that may be audio or visual, they will be very understanding. You aren't the only one in the family to suffer with symptoms like such. Many days Jason and Bruce are struggling with those things. I can't imagine anyone would poke fun, they'd just redirect you.

But his can kind of suck given that sometimes you cannot tell if something that happened was real or not. Your family may say that you were just having a hallucination but you swear that you heard them talking about tampering with your meds.

Speaking of such, they most definitely do. The medicine that is supposed to help with your EDS seems to have the opposite effect on you. Some days it seems like you've been sleeping for weeks. You swore that you feel asleep in the living room...why are you now in an entirely different sect of the mansion..???

If you suffer with memory issues, that will be a huge problem because so many things they get away with or manipulate you about and because you have no recollection of any events..you are just forced to go with it, even if your gut says something is wrong.

Sometimes the family can get a bit worried if you are up all night..they worry you might wonder off or get hurt while they are either on patrol or sleeping so one designated person must be up with you at all times.

Even when you're sleeping. Someone is monitoring you and your health. Usually Alfred or one of the siblings if they are free.

Often Tim will take the shift since he is usually home and doing work anyways. Too many times have you randomly woken up in his dark room with him in the corner watching you.

Your constant fatigue is an excuse your siblings may use to just carry you around without your consent. Yes, you were struggling up the stairs. but no. you didn't really want Dick to just come and pick you up and carry you around the house like a pet. It's worse when it's Jason because he throws you over his shoulder...he's working on it.

Alfred has a specialty diet for you, which kind of sucks sometimes when the others are eating your favorites. But it's for the best he tells you. It's supposed to help with your symptoms but...every time you eat his cooking, you just feel sick then super drowsy..Alfred says it's the adjustment period to the new diet..but you can't shake the feeling that the food is worsening your conditions

[bullyingfictionalmen]

LaDS Men x Blind/Visually-Impaired!MC Headcanons

A/N: Not my usual style of writing, but I’m a blind/ADHD girlie myself and was inspired by lovely posts like this one sharing HCs about the LIs interacting with disabled/neurodivergent!MC. I tried to account for a variety of experiences myself and other blind friends have had, but blindness is a spectrum, so please take my preferences and interpretations with a grain of salt :)

cw: fluff, soft LADS boys, brief mentions of ableism

🐦‍⬛ Sylus 🐦‍⬛

also a light-sensitive king, so he inherently gets needing spaces to be dark and glare-free

Buys you all the assistive technology you could ask for. High tech magnifier, Brailler, braille-note, monocular, e-reader

Modifies them all to an excessive degree to have, like, infrared mode in addition to contrast filters to reduce eye-strain

always scouring online for new cane tips, gps and self-driving cars to increase your mobility and independence

if you have a guide dog, that’s his new bestie. Also picks up on the training super fast

teaches you how to fight with accessible techniques, helping you drill the sensation of the correct movements into your muscle memory

you find yourself able to relax around him because he’s so considerate without making you feel like a burden

loves reading to you, whether it be poems, stories, random posts online. He knows you love his voice

anyone trying to deny you an opportunity or entry into a store/restaurant will catch those hands, or the full might of Onychinus

✨ Xavier ✨

buys you the softest blankets/pajamas/scarves because he knows the textures you prefer

really good about using tactile labels around the house and buying products you could easily recognize by touch

uses his Evol to adjust lighting or to teleport you out of overwhelming situations

Low-key jealous of your service animal but his gratitude for their hard work wins out

went through training blindfolded to better understand your needs

consciously and habitually covers your blind spots in battle without being prideful about it or discounting your skill

always stands on the side nearest the road when you’re walking together and points out stairs, curbs and steep inclines

gently reminds you not to apologize for advocating for your needs

🍎 Caleb 🍎

grew up with you so he understands this whole song and dance. He deeply gets the nuances of what you need without asking

can sense it if you’re tired of explaining yourself to a new person and will swoop in to do it for you

enthusiastic about taking you anywhere you need to go, brags about being your chauffeur

overprotective as hell but he does his best not to infantilize you. He just really cares

smoothly points out or guides you around obstacles and rough terrain

offers to read any restaurant menu that has bad contrast or is far away, highlighting items he knows you like

you video call him anytime you misplace something and he has a knack for knowing where you left it

jokes that he is your guide dog

extra-passionate about disability rights and unfair wages

very considerate of your needs when planning dates or outings, but will run new activities by you and never assume you can’t do something

🐠 Rafayel 🐠

tries hard to make his exhibits and pieces inclusive— loves experimenting with tactile elements in his art and arranges for braille and large-print signs at every event

personally narrates the audio explanations in the gallery/ museum tours for your benefit

makes you custom cane charms, labels, helps decorate the cases for your technology to make using it more fun

checks or sometimes does your makeup himself if you’re not in the mood to painstakingly perfect it

woke up in a cold sweat one night and spent the next three days designing and refining a Braille alphabet for Lemurian

will body-block any bikes or people coming at you from an unseen location

goes full Karen in your defense if someone is rude about your needs or refusing accommodations

“watch where you’re going.” “Um, she’s blind??? Feel bad now?”

his blind jokes are pure art—he was wary of offending you at first, but now he’ll participate in banter with you and make you laugh your ass off without being mean-spirited or degrading (unless you’re into that)

❄️ Zayne ❄️

the king of sided-guide, will navigate you calmly and seamlessly through any crowd or tough situation

when someone pulls a stunt like “oh, you’re blind? How many fingers am I holding up?” Zayne will give them the blankest stare and then launch into a dry medical explanation of your condition to make them feel awkward

has extensive knowledge of your medical records/schedule and will remind you of or accompany you to appointments

you catch him reading ophthalmology books in his spare time and have to beg him not to get yet another specialization

the first to notice when your eyes are strained or you’ve got a headache. Ready with a cold compress or painkillers

gently chastises you if you’re overworking or wearing yourself thin. Very aware of activities that consume more energy for you or stress you out

doesn’t usually make blind jokes, but every once in awhile he’ll make the sassiest deadpan comment that makes you cry-laugh

[lemonsoured]

A Statement on @patricia-taxxon

After recent events over the past couple of months, my co-director and I have decided that we are no longer working with Patricia Taxxon, and her score/sound design will not be used in the final release of our animated student thesis In Your Orbit. She has rights over all of the audio files that she created, and she is free to use or alter them for whatever other projects may come up for her. We only retain the rights to our visuals. On the off chance that the last festival that is showing the current version of the short gives us any prize money, she will still get a cut of it. She is free to continue to state publicly that she worked on the film originally, and use the soundtrack in her portfolio, but we will not be posting it or promoting it. 

Patricia Taxxon has proven to be a person who is irresponsible at best. She has allegedly had inappropriate sexual conduct with minors as young as 13. She also regularly posts her extreme sexual fantasies on her main Tumblr, and has made claims regarding the nature of pedophilic art that she is not qualified to be making. She has also posted from behind closed doors that she has intentionally been manipulative regarding her apologies for her alleged sexual misconduct.

The original victim who accused her was harassed off the internet both times she came out about this, and no longer wishes to be contacted on this matter. However, the idea that any of the allegations were ever rescinded due to misinformation, or proven untrue, is false. In my opinion, I believe the victim’s testimony. It lines up with what I remember the environment of Taxxon’s discord server being like when I was there.

During the production of the short film, I was already aware of some of the accusations made towards Taxxon, but as I was a close friend, I wanted to believe they weren’t true. I was told that she was groomed into doing these things, that she didn’t remember doing them, and that she was likely to commit suicide. She told me she was suicidal on a regular basis during production, especially when the alleged victim was making and then posted a video recounting the allegations. Before that video even came out, she was telling me it was likely to ruin her life irreparably. She had a mutual friend with the victim who was supposedly playing double agent for her, so I heard all about it before and after it came out. I was under the impression that she was in imminent danger of harming herself several times. You can imagine what this might do to a person who cares about her. So, I willfully ignored the allegations for a long time, up until the point that Taxxon showed outward bigotry towards my demographic in a Tumblr meltdown. I deserve criticism for this, and I won’t begrudge anyone who feels like I waited too long or came out with the leaks that I did for selfish reasons. That is your right, and I’m sorry. I decided that all I could do was come out with what I do know and stop supporting this person, even if it costs me opportunities down the line.

Taxxon has also repeatedly shown herself to be extremely unprofessional, even for the standards of an internet drama cycle. She started by vaguely posting about myself on her Tumblr, stating that I am a threat to her, implying that I used her only to “dump her without warning,” and has repeatedly twisted my actions in order to gain sympathy from her Tumblr audience. She even begged her followers for someone else to take her to the Omaha Film Festival, before deleting that addition because she realized it made her look bad.

Her newest gripe with me is that I did not pay her for her work on the film, supposedly finding out partway through the project that she was not being paid. This is untrue. Luka and I were forthright with the fact that we were a team of two college students in Missouri with very little spending money. Thus, we offered her a cut of whatever we ended up making from the film in the festival circuit, planning to split any possible winnings among the three of us based on creative input. We also stated that we would not be taking a cut of any earnings she made off of the sale of the soundtrack, and that it would belong completely to her, just as my characters would to me. If any film companies approached us about the film to license it and the soundtrack, or if they wanted to use her music for another project involving these characters, that money would have gone to her. If she was confused about or had an issue with this arrangement, the time to bring that up would have been when we were discussing the agreement with her, or after any of the many critique sessions we went through with our professors and we were all discussing next steps, or really, any time at all during the year and a half that we were discussing and working on this project. But at no point before, during, or after production did she bring it up. She never suggested a rate, asked about other forms of payment, or anything. I was not holding a gun to her head. She could have brought it up with us at any time, and I am not a mind reader. Her only bringing up the subject now, after all of this time, points clearly to her attempting to extort me or use this issue as a way to gain sympathy from her Tumblr audience. It comes off like she wants to hold this over my head.

All of this not even mentioning that Taxxon was the one to say she wanted to work on the film, years before production started. This started as a collaboration between friends. Luka and I structured our agreement to be a partnership, where none of us were making guaranteed profit off of this project, especially since it is a student work, and we are not established artists with an audience. If anything, the person most likely to make any money off of this arrangement was Taxxon. We considered her an equal participant in this short film, and we wanted it to lift us all up. We gave her full artistic control over what vision she had for the soundtrack, and we often tried to cater our animation to best match it. This is why I found it strange when I asked if she was willing to contribute to festival fees, that she was very flippant with me about it. She stood to gain just as much as us from the film festival circuit, and I had already taken on the workload of doing research on and writing cover letters to each festival. Especially given that I pitched the festival circuit to her as a method to help her get her career offline and away from Kiwifarms, she had a lot to gain from all of this. As someone who had considered her a creative partner, her dismissal felt weird.

This screenshot from the time shows what she said to me regarding the fees, and also shows that she was aware of the arrangement. Thankfully, a lot of this took place on her new Discord account, so I do have the evidence for this portion.

Then, a couple of days later, she asked me if she could stay in my co-directors house or mine for the duration of the Kansas City FilmFest International (or KCFFI). Given she had not contributed to us submitting to that very festival, and had been flippant with me in that same week about the subject, I found it disrespectful. A good friend of mine compared it to “staying at a friend’s house and refusing to help with the grocery tab.”

And the fact that she decided to contribute to the DCP of all things because she “had a vested interest in [the film] sounding good,” as if festival fees were beneath her, but this, now this was something she could be bothered to care about… It was very telling with regards to how she viewed this film.

If she wants to get her 30 bucks back, I can PayPal it back to her.

I stand by everything I said in my testimony on the stream with CrimsonEnder. Honestly, I feel I was much too forgiving on the subject of sexual misconduct, especially since at the time, all of us were trying to gloss over the specific allegations for the victim’s sake, as like I said, they did not want to be involved. As much as Taxxon blustered about “ad-hominems,” I never called her names during the stream. I didn’t even directly call her a transphobe or any kind of bigot. I did not diagnose her with a paraphilia. I specifically stated that her being a trans woman should have nothing to do with why she does the bad things she does. I discussed the things she said and the actions she took. I stated what I remember of our relationship and the events that took place during production, because she had already taken to misrepresenting me in her Tumblr posts. I wanted to lay everything out for full transparency, as she was telling a very specific story about me and who I was. I wanted to present my counter-narrative. I got vulnerable, upset, and fiery at times, but for a public crashout taking place very soon after my falling out of a six year long friendship, I think it gets my points across fine. Especially considering I was still freshly feeling the shock of her outwardly going on a tirade about trans men. The stream is still available on Crim's channel for those who want to hear what I said. Taxxon only presented a couple of my basic notes on the subject that were made to keep me on track.

Taxxon also, notably, sent her followers after CrimsonEnder in a purposeful attempt to incite a harassment campaign against him. She reblogged a reply from him, implying as much, and then he immediately received an anon referring to him with a slur, and saying he was now in “a Panopticon.” Taxxon would later be seen replying in a different but related conversation, misusing the word “Panopticon” in the exact same way (Hint: the term for many people watching one would be a “Synopticon.” A Panopticon refers to one person watching many). You can find Crim's full statement about this incident on his blog.

She also referred to him as a “violent misogynist” who "threatened her in public" in a DM with me where she waved around the fact that she would be justified in “dragging me publicly” for my “betrayal” but wouldn’t, as if it was some big act of charity from her.

Only to, for some reason, make a request to CrimsonEnder (from behind a block) to take my testimony out of his stream and out of his document in a recent post. She is very vested in sowing division between myself and Crim, for what reason I’m not sure. All I know is that she is not above harassing the people who criticize her, and given that, it’s very rich for Taxxon to posture like her not sending her followers after me thus far is an act of goodwill. If I were to guess, now that I have made this statement and cut her off from the project, she will feel much more comfortable going scorched earth. She no longer has a project to protect her connection to.

In Your Orbit will be released at some point in the indefinite future, with a new score and new foley work. I will not be attaching Taxxon’s name to it at all, positively or negatively. I will not be using any of the work that she produced, and I will never work with her in any capacity ever again. I cannot promote the work of a person who acts like this, who hurts others without remorse and uses her power as an influencer to get away with sweeping serious allegations under the rug. Especially given that none of our agreements were set in stone with a signed contract, I have no obligation to continue to associate with her after all she's done. I would be a hypocrite if I used her clout to profit or to expand my career opportunities. Even if it means I have to lose out on networking possibilities, lose the guaranteed audience, and pay out of my pocket to have the film re-scored and have a new foley track added. I am sticking to my principles on this. I refuse to coast on her coattails, and if this means that the film won’t be as successful, then so be it. Any recognition gained through affiliation with Patricia Taxxon is recognition that I don’t want. I don’t want her endorsement, and I don’t want her audience.

I cannot control what Patricia Taxxon says or does. She can do whatever she wants with her life and career, but leave me and my art out of it.

-Jules Hydes

[felassan]

Dragon Age™: The Veilguard - Patch 1.0.0 Release Notes

(patch notes under cut due to potential spoilers)

"Hey everyone, We can't believe it's been a whole week since Dragon Age: The Veilguard launched. Whether you've already been playing or are jumping in for the first time, we have our first patch releasing today with a few quality of life improvements and bug fixes. We'll also be supporting the game with additional patches in the future to help make your playing experience even better.  See our full Patch Notes below.  N7 Day Content:  - Rook can find a new N7 day appearance in the Lighthouse. This is a cosmetic only armor."

Bug Fixes: - Fixed an issue where DLSS options could end up “grayed-out” on a 40-series Nvidia GPU. (PC Only) - Eliminated the cause of a small number of crashes. (PC Only) - Updated XeSS version to 1.3.1. (PC Only) - Fixed an issue where some customizations were not applied to the Inquisitor correctly in one of the ending scenes. - Fixed a bug that caused Companion Skill Points to reset. - Adjusted Companion Approval notifications so they remain on-screen longer as scenes end. - Harding now has arrows in her quiver and is ready for battle. - Global banter should no longer start too early. - Harding and Taash banter no longer repeats indefinately. - Fixed potential issues that could occur if a player fast traveled during a quest. - Changing your party members on the way to certain quests no longer breaks the camera for in-world missions. - Updated a number of assets to improve visual performance over long distances. - Fixed several distance “pop-ins” on level art assets. - Added collision to several assets that were missing it. - Fixed a minor texture issue with codex art. - Added haptics to a number of interactions and events. - Fixed lip sync in some ambient scenes. - Adjusted audio balance on several assets. - Changing equipment no longer disables helmet voice processing. - Fixed several objective markers that were spawning improperly. - Cleaned up certain interactions between Skills that caused them to not behave as described. - Apparitions generated by Iron Veil will now attack Razikale. - Entropic Spheres now behave properly on vertical surfaces. - Fixed a bug where Taunt would sometimes be cleared early, which caused enemies to ignore it. - Fixed a rare issue where Rogues would not hold their bow while aiming down sights. - Made the detailed-stats screen more readable. - Balance changes made to certain fights to match design intent. - Balance adjustments made to several player skills. - Fixed leashing exploits on major encounters. - The Rage Demon’s Ring of Fire should now be appropriately dodgeable in all situations. - Slowed down the speedy raven in Hossberg. - Adjusted creepy corpse movement while they moved on/off-camera. - The Dalish elf in the Unwanted Guests quest is now an actual elf. - Fixed a rare blocking issue in the Sea of Blood quest. - Halla should no longer float during the In Entropy’s Grasp quest. - Fixed a blocking issue in the Pinnacle of Its Kind quest. - Adjusted timing on epilogue text cards. - NPC necks no longer grow unexpectedly. - Corrected instances where NPCs would not properly look at each other or at Rook. - Long hair should now properly mesh with certain armor. - Fixed several issues with makeup in character creation. - Venatori crystal VFX should now disappear properly. - Added scroll wheel support to the sell screen. - Opening the journal while on the map no longer causes it to continue scrolling. - The Faction Achievements will now be gained properly upon reaching max Faction Strength instead of the Faction Cap."

[source]

DA:TV's first bug fixes are out today on all platforms. future patches to come.

[marveltrumpshate]

Want to participate in Marvel Trumps Hate, but don't know what to offer? Think outside the box!

Stumped on what to offer because you don't write fic or draw? Marvel Trumps Hate welcomes a huge variety of fanworks and fan labor (see our sign-up post), so there are different ways you can contribute. You'll be amazed by the breadth of skills, talents, knowledge, and types of creative expression found in fandom!

Here's a smorgasbord of offers that we've either had before or seen people discuss as possibilities for MTH 2024 or future years to help inspire you. What you can offer is not restricted to the list below; these are just examples to get you brainstorming about what you can auction off because trust us, even if you think you might not have something to offer, you probably do!

ART (VISUAL/ILLUSTRATIVE)

Drawings/illustrations

Single-page and multi-page comics

Pixel art

Paintings (oil, acrylic, gouache, watercolor)

Mixed-media artwork on canvas

Ink-on-bristol art

Embroidery on canvas

Pour paint/spin art

Rotoscopes

Digital coloring books

AUDIOVISUAL WORKS

Fan music or filk inspired by characters, ships, or fics

Podfics

Videos (fic trailers, themed edits, vids set to songs)

Animations (making original art/animation or turning existing art into animation)

BETA SERVICES

Editing

Cheer reading

Soundboarding/planning/development work

Fact-checking

Culture-picking

Sensitivity reading

Knowledge about specific topics or experiences (e.g., identities, lifestyles, professions, interests, fields of study)

Research

CRAFTS & MERCH

Candles

Lip balms

Soaps

Stained glass/suncatcher

Scented beanbag-style sachets

Candy/chocolate/baked goods/jellies/sweets

Fic/character/ship/theme boxes (like book boxes)

Pins, magnets, patches, charms, standees, key chains, ring holders, calendars, stickers, bookmarks, temporary tattoos

Sculptures and clay figures

Ceramic mugs and other ceramic items

Apparel/wearable accessories (shirts, jackets, scarves, gloves/mittens, hats, face masks, regular masks, cowls, pajamas/onesies)

Backpacks, tote bags, itabags with custom window shapes, leather dice bags, wallets, pouches/pencil cases

Plushie animal or Tsum Tsum versions of Marvel characters

Dolls (crochet, needle felt, matte board, hand-sewn)

Embroidery hoops/wall art and cross stitch pieces

Jewelry (diamond painting, macrame, metal, crochet, wire, beads)

Woodwork/wood burning (cheese board, box/chest, USB stick, coasters, photo frame, alphabet blocks)

Glasswork

Custom Funko Pops

Paper cut light boxes

Pillow cases, quilted pillows, baby blankets, dishcloth/washcloths, potholders

Handmade leather journals

Linoleum stamps

Dog/cat/pet toys

Artbooks, paper doll books, and coloring books

Hand-dyed yarn skeins

Custom tea blends

DIGITAL (GRAPHIC DESIGN)

Gifsets

Graphics/edits

Mood boards

Photo manips

Fic covers/posters/banners

Icons and headers

Webweaving

Tumblr or website layouts

Digital calendars

Wallpapers

Custom Discord emojis

FAN LABOR & TRANSLATION

Typesetting

Bookbinding

Recipes based on characters, ships, or themes

Names, tags, and summaries for fics

Audio/sound editing and/or soundscaping for podfics

Book cover design and printing

Art/comic/fic translation

Website/game/AO3 skin coding

Fic rec lists

Fic playlists/fanmixes

Knitting/crochet patterns

Art coaching

Help with launching and organizing fan events

WRITING

Fic

Poetry

Meta posts

Social media AUs

Physical letters written by characters to the reader or between two characters

Remixes of your fic or an existing fic with the author's permission

Whether you can do something on this list or something else altogether (we're sure there are a lot of other things that you can do that we haven't thought about or seen before), we hope you'll consider signing up before the deadline: September 28, 11:59 PM ET.

[atthebell]

games that use music and sound as narrative/gameplay devices

I think oftentimes people think of visual elements of games as part of game direction, but I think sound and music can be just as important, and I've been thinking recently about a few games that use them as significant gameplay/game design elements. If you've ever played a horror game that built tension with its music or had super gross sounds to accompany the gory visuals, or a puzzle game that had musical motifs that connected related clues together, or even a mobile game with super satisfying sound effects for matching tiles, these are all different ways that sound design and music direction in a game can contribute to better gameplay experience. Having different soundtracks for different regions of a game and having good sound effects for important gameplay elements are really important parts of overall game design, and something that I do really think is undervalued and under-discussed when it comes to games analysis/criticism. We can talk all day and night about yellow paint and ugly HUDs, but getting into the nitty gritty on music and audio as part and parcel of directing players and creating an atmosphere, along with being built into gameplay itself, is something people don't do super often.

And here I'm talking about sound design not just in terms of having a great soundtrack or having some element of music as part of the game, but as sound design as a part of the game design itself, leading players to make certain conclusions or better understand the narrative. Sound and music can direct players in the right direction of further gameplay, contribute to character development and background, connect different concepts and provide clues, and even in a super subtle way can make a game feel more realistic or more visceral, but they can also be a literal part of the gameplay, whether that means players are using the music as a lead for part of an investigation or it contributes to understanding the narrative or tells you where to go next through actual direction and detection (a la using a radio to find where music might be coming from).

This list is by no means exhaustive, I'm just being a nerd about a few games I'm familiar with, so if anyone can think of other games with really significant sound design and musical direction, particularly that tie in with gameplay, please feel free to add on!! Most of these are puzzle/investigation games because that's what I play the most of, and where I think this really hits in terms of adding to the gameplay itself. This does also come up far more often in games involving music as a subject matter, go figure, so I think that's an interesting meta element as well.

Outer Wilds - Outer Wilds uses music, both diagetic and nondiagetic, to signify certain characters, groups, and events. The character associations in particular are a significant element of gameplay, and help differentiate the various characters throughout the game. Outer Wilds also uses music and sound for other gameplay aspects-- the player can use the signalscope to track down quantum signals, distress beacons, and other leads on the mysteries within the game; all of which are needed in order to fully complete it. I don't want to put too many spoilers here, maybe I'll add more in a reblog, but for now I'll just say that I've never seen a game that so successfully used sound and music to create a really spectacular gameplay experience.

Immortality - Though more subtle than Outer Wilds, Immortality also uses music and sound to direct players and build connections across the game, allowing the player to put together the mystery of Marissa's life and career. The music provides hints about a certain significant gameplay element and ties across characters to allow the player to make the right connections and know when to focus on a particular scene.

Return of the Obra Dinn - Return of the Obra Dinn, similar to the above games, uses its music as part of its game design, having particular themes and uses of the music to direct players in certain directions or to show what gameplay aspect a player is doing/meant to do. The music swells when you're looking at a specific scenario, the sounds when you fill out the journal are absolutely banger, and the voice acting and sound effects during the scenes helps to build the larger picture of what happened on the Obra Dinn.

Enigma do Medo/Enigma of Fear - Enigma do Medo is HUGELY inspired by Outer Wilds (I'm working on a very long post about all the inspirations and references, never fear) so it makes perfect sense that it would also include a lot of sound and music elements within its game design. The use of several tools and the significance of music within the game is a huge part of the gameplay, making sound design a really important element of the game because you have to use the music and sounds as clues, just as much as anything visual or found in documents, to put together the mystery of the Perimeter. Enigma do Medo has some really brilliant game design that comes in part from those Outer Wilds inspirations and in part from the devs really understanding how to direct people to find the right pieces of the puzzle, how to make people curious and interested in the mystery, and how to make sure it all stays nonlinear but still easy to follow (for the most part). And the overall sound design and music direction is just incredible, cannot stress that enough, it's one of the strongest elements of the game outside of the investigation side of things.

Killer Frequency - I think Killer Frequency has a bit less of the game direction side of things here and more of the gameplay element-- finding and using the right music during certain moments of the game does become significant, but the music doesn't itself direct you towards further investigation or gameplay really, and the gameplay itself is limited to mostly playing records/tapes/CDs, which, while relevant to music and sound, is less interesting, at least to me, than the music actually relating to the mystery. But I think it does build on itself and do some interesting things with the premise, so it's definitely not a bad game by any metric, and if you're into the interplay between video games and music (and enjoy horror), you'll probably enjoy it.

Sable - Sable doesn't do anything as gameplay-centric as the rest of these games do, but the sound and music are INCREDIBLE, the latter done by Japanese Breakfast, and the way the music ties in with each region and the relationships between the player and the atmosphere, the other characters, and the central gameplay element itself (your glider) is really significant. Also I absolutely adore this game and I wish more people would play it. (It's even on sale on Steam right now!!)

[dreamings-free]

‘A dirty nightclub in an arena’ – behind Louis Tomlinson’s Faith In The Future World Tour

Louis Tomlinson and his tight-knit touring crew traverse the world in close to 80 shows, fulfilling a ‘dirty nightclub in an arena’ brief with a dynamic live campaign.

Production Profiles 5 January 2024

Following the success of his record-breaking Live From London livestream, which reportedly raised over £1m for touring and live events personnel and charitable organisations, Louis Tomlinson and his tight-knit crew have toured the world twice over. This time, visiting sold-out arenas in Europe and the UK with a cleverly networked live production with abstract video and lighting and a ‘no frills’ approach to sound, which guaranteed that every ticket holder experienced the same show, regardless of where they stood, sat, or screamed (more on that later). With close to 80 shows under their belt, TPi visited London’s O2 arena ahead of the production’s penultimate date of 2023.

Words: Jacob Waite Photos: Justin De Souza and Oli Crump

------

Following the success of his record-breaking Live From London livestream, which reportedly raised over £1m for touring and live events personnel and charitable organisations, Louis Tomlinson and his tight-knit crew have toured the world twice over. This time, visiting sold-out arenas in Europe and the UK with a cleverly networked live production with abstract video and lighting and a ‘no frills’ approach to sound, which guaranteed that every ticket holder experienced the same show, regardless of where they stood, sat, or screamed (more on that later). With close to 80 shows under their belt, TPi visited London’s O2 arena ahead of the production’s penultimate date of 2023.

“A team effort is required to get this show off the ground,” explained Technical Manager, Sam ‘Kenny’ Kenyon, who has been a fixture of Louis Tomlinson’s live output since joining as Lighting Crew Chief in 2019. “This has been a complete redesign, and the production has expanded and gotten more complex, which requires different solutions to make it happen.”

Kenny and the team oversaw the deployment of an A and B rig. “We’ve been fortunate for the European stint that the venues we’ve toured have, mostly, been arenas. The main difference between the A and B rig is the addition of IMAG and further lighting header trusses. Aside from that, the A rig fits everywhere. If anything, we’ve run into weight issues, which we can overcome swiftly by removing overhead trusses.”

For the first few shows, Riggers, Ian Bracewell, and Alex Walker incorporated load cells on trusses to get an accurate rate and account of the weight of the load of each truss. In the UK, The Brighton Centre had a particularly low-rate roof with weight limitations. Production Manager, Craig Sherwood and Tour Manager, Tom Allen’s vendors of choice included: Altour (travel), Beat the Street, BPM SFX, CSE Crosscom, Colour Sound Experiment (lighting, rigging, and video), Hangman UK, Boxcat Studio and Two Suns Creative (video content), LED Creative, Ox Event House (custom light housings), Sarah’s Kitchen, Seven 7 Management (artist management), Solotech (audio), Stardes Trucking, and TANCK (production design and video content).

There was no video director, as the show’s visuals were programmed and interspersed with live footage and triggered by a lighting console at FOH, thanks in part to an intricate network setup. “There’s a lot going on in racks that people never see, but it has been stable thanks to the quality of kit supplied by our vendors, who have invested heavily, and the team taking the time to programme the show,” Kenny noted.

Key to the success of the operation was the incorporation of Central Control software, which takes a signal from a lighting console, be it ACN or Art-Net, and translates it to talk to various products – in this case, video. “There is a giant brain that nobody knows exists other than those that have programmed it,” he added.

Additional crew members joined the tour in Europe to aid the video deployment and lead to far more efficient load-in an -outs. “We are close to 80 shows in and on days where we have access to multiple trucks, it comes out very quickly, which for a show of this scale is impressive and credit goes to the team,” enthused Kenny. “The biggest hurdle is when you’ve only got a two-truck dock.”

Prior to the tour, the team had five days of production rehearsals spent in Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun. “When we came to Europe a week later, we had a week of re-prepping with a day of rehearsals at Hamburg’s Barclays Arena, the day before a show,” he described. “It’s been a fun and long run,” added Stage Manager, Torin Arnold. “We’ve visited a good range of venues and countries – especially the Eastern European legs, visiting places you wouldn’t ordinarily tour and experiencing how they operate. This show is designed so it can be accomplished in any part of the world.” Carpenter, Harry Reeves was also on hand to support the build.

The routing, however, was sometimes challenging with some late arrivals and difficult border crossings. “There were a few times in Eastern Europe where we were doing a ferry back-to-back to arrive at 11am, sitting at a difficult border crossing. We usually start with a 7am mark out, so knocking hours off your load-in is tough but everyone pulled together to overcome it,” Arnold explained, noting that touring without staging, and instead, using venue stages (particularly rolling stages), was a blessing during those late arrivals. “As with any tour, as dates progress you build a rhythm while maintaining the safety of the build,” he noted.

Arnold also highlighted the benefit of Lead Truck Driver, Neil Thornton and Truck Drivers, Matt Marlow, Ben Woods, Sarah Goldsmith, Bob Miles, Alam Minshall, Franco DeRosa, and Ollie Thornton who “speed up the process” and maintained a level of consistency.

The transitions between support acts before Louis hit the stage was equally seamless, with ample downstage space for the singer-songwriter to traverse during his performance. “Having a clean frontline means we have space to get the bands on and off,” he added. “Our vendors have also provided everything from an audio package standpoint for support acts, which also speeds up the load-in and -out.”

Highlighting a ‘bucket list’ show at Hollywood Bowl, working closely with US union officials as a “fun” and “interesting” experience, Arnold reflected on the entire tour with crewmembers he now considers close friends. “This is a close team and I’ve made some great memories and stories. It’s been a fun year!”

A DIRTY NIGHTCLUB IN AN ARENA Production Designer, Programmer and Director, Tom Taylor, and Francis Clegg of TANCK have worked with Louis Tomlinson ever since he made the leap to solo artist. “The production design has evolved into an angular, grungy, asymmetrical setup, borne out of the ‘dirty nightclub in an arena setting’ creative brief I was given,” Taylor said, citing the creative influence of Matt Vines and Seven 7 Management. “Louis is a phenomenal performer, and the crowd is captivated the entire time. We started knocking ideas around, speaking to Louis about his inspirations and influences, which we then developed into a creative deck, which I sketched in Blender, and imported into WYSIWYG for visuals, to create stills and pre-visualise.”

Taylor spent 10 days programming the visuals at Colour Sound Experiment, a firm he shares a “longstanding” relationship with. “They are always a call away regardless of the day or time. Their team is easy to get along with and I like their whole ‘production sphere’ – sometimes it’s nice to split lighting and video, but for a show like this, aligning those departments with one line of communication is ideal,” he said, underlining the support of Colour Sound Experiment Account Handler, Haydn Cruickshank.

With production rehearsals under their belt and recordings from Louis Tomlinson World Tour (2020–22), where TANCK piloted Central Control software, the creatives understood how the singer and his band moved on stage, developing a rhythm and consistency of when to implement visual cues and which camera angle fit best. This allowed the team to pre-programme the visual content to timecode.

Video content was made by a combination of TANCK, Two Suns Creative, and Boxcat Studio, with the latter creating 3D models and rendered content, all of which was broadcast across a unique set of video surfaces. “Having the abstract video columns on stage makes it much more interesting than your standard slab of LED at the back of the stage,” Taylor noted.

On stage boxes created by Ox Event House housed GLP JDC Line 1000 strobes with reflective panelling and fabric that were printed to look like heavy concrete slabs, ladened with custom LED Creative solutions. These boxes then moved up and down using Wahlberg Motion Design winches to provide a “low-level, clubby feel” to the set.

“The winches can only carry 50kg and the lights alone are 35kg, so we had to be careful not to overload them, but the result was cool. We also have one single lightbulb on a winch which comes up and down above Louis to create a classic lighting moment,” Taylor said, further highlighting Ayrton Huracán’s prismatic colour wheel as a ‘fan favourite’.

The lighting design saw a wall of GLP impression X4 Bar 20s at the rear of the stage in 12 columns. Further lighting trusses over the stage carried the Wahlberg winches for several automated looks. The DMX winches were utilised for three or four songs, either statically or moving up and down, while JDC Line 1000s provided colour and strobe effects, to achieve varied looks, with a relatively minimal overhead lighting package.

Taylor elaborated: “There are some shutters for one specific track which go directly in-front of some of the GLP X4 Bars to get the aura of the lights, instead of the lenses, which I really like the look of. Lighting and video complement each other during this show – there’s also a section with flickering fluorescent tubes on the video content with the X4 Bar 20s behind the LED screens flickering in a similar way.

Taylor was delighted with the performance of the crew. “Overall, it has been a great run, executed flawlessly,” he commented, citing the support of Lighting Crew Chief, James Box; Dimmer Technician, Rick Carr, and Lighting Technicians, Amy Barnett, and Kieran Hancox.

The wider lighting rig comprised Ayrton Eurus, CHAUVET Professional Strike Array 4, Claypaky Mini-B eLumen8 Endura 1Q120, and Robe BMFL fixtures with robo cameras, all fixed on various HOF MLT3, Litec QH40 and Thomas James Thomas Engineering Superstruss. The lighting riser featured Ayrton Huracan LT and GLP JDC1 fixtures.

Robe Spiider fixtures were situated on the up and downstage video trusses, with the floor package boasting the deployment of further Ayrton Eurus, LEDJ Spectra Flood Q15 and Chroma-Q Color Force 72 units, the latter chosen for key light. Atmospherics came in the shape of Smoke Factory Tour Hazer 2, Martin Professional JEM ZR45 and MDG Atmosphere ATMe hazers with TMB ProFans. “We had some challenging shows, implementing an arena-scale design into sheds in the US, but it’s been good to return to Europe and witness the fans enjoying the show,” added Lighting Crew Chief, James Box, who pinpointed the use of the multicoloured glass gobo in Hurricanes as among his favourite looks.

“There is a lot of effort put in by TANCK to ensure we get the utmost from every fixture on the rig, which is great to see, when the team has gone to the effort of assembling the show each morning. Seeing the looks they achieve from the rig and the extra details, with each advanced cue within the show, is a pleasure.

Almost every pixel on the JDC Line 1000 and X4 impression Bars are being used.”

Video Crew Chief, Dave Mallandain, formerly of Colour Sound Experiment, supervised the video build and the team of Video Technicians, Ed Driver, Frank Wlliams and Tim Curwen.

“Working with Colour Sound Experiment again, in a freelance capacity, certainly has its benefits,” he stated. “You get to know the workflows and personalities of the company. There is an element of trust there and our relationship is stronger because of that.” The 2.5m by 2.5m video screen, made up of Leyard CLM6 LED panels with Colorlight Z6 processing on the back end, was built in an abstract configuration – hung from varying size steel structures fixed on to lighting truss, spanning the entire stage, as opposed to a traditional backwall. “This setup requires us to build it quicker, so the backline can start building their world, but it’s very lightweight and easy to use, so once the local crew are up to speed, it flies up in no time,” he reported.

During the show, there was a lot of camera angles fed into a Blackmagic ATEM switcher, with content then fed into Resolume media servers which was processed and treated with video effects and filters to manipulate the content, monitored by the video team, and pre-programmed by Taylor via an MA Lighting grandMA3 console, operating in MA2 mode.

“The fan camera, which was one of Tom’s ideas, has evolved to the point where Frank and I are on stage during Out Of My System, pointing these cameras fabricated in an old VHS-style shell at Louis’ face in reference to the fisheye-lens inspired music video.”

A mixture of Marshall Electronics and Panasonic PTZ cameras ensured the wider on-stage action was captured. “While the visual content is the same, the shots differ based on the energy of the crowd from night to night,” he explained. “We have an overhead shot for the drums, and another behind Louis, which shoots over his shoulder to the crowd. We also have a PTZ camera on the ground in front of Louis which can rotate to capture crowd scans along with a little ‘bullet camera’ for each musician. It’s been a fantastic tour; everyone on this team has been phenomenal.”

The special effects and pyrotechnics package supplied by BPM SFX included Galaxis PFC 10-way receivers running Galaxis, with a main and a backup controller, which ran through an MA Lighting grandMA2 console, to trigger MagicFX Stadium Shot IIs and a single shot of red streamers. The latter, a “signature of Louis Tomlinson live shows”, according to BPM SFX Technician, Jack Webber – who toured with a new custom control rack, with much of the hardware integrated in one rack.

BPM SFX Account Handler, Matt Heap and SFX Technicians, Blake Harward and Phillip Mathew also provided Webber with support. “The one major change on this tour was putting the Stadium Shot IIs at the downstage edge, and adding lasers for the O2 arena show,” said Webber, who has been involved in past touring campaigns with the camp. “This is the first touring camp to take me to the US, so I feel incredibly privileged.”

Safety was paramount for the BPM SFX team, who implemented the safeguard of warning notices on-stage to ensure the band knew exactly when an effect was triggered. In closing, Webber referenced the ‘rainbow-inspired’ track, She Is Beauty We Are World Class, which demonstrated the strength of the special effects package. “There are about 22 rapid fire chase Comets all going off at the same time with a big lift, which differs in comparison to the other looks with eight units.”

MIXING IN A SEA OF SCREAMS FOH Engineer, John Delf mixed on an Avid S6L 32D console with onboard plug-ins. “I use the onboard plug-ins as much as possible because I want to keep it as simple as possible and know I’ve got a show out of the box without any added extras, which is particularly useful during fly-in gigs, where I have to use a house console or have limited time to set up,” he noted. Delf also toured with some choice pieces of outboard gear including a Rupert Neve Designs 5045 primary source enhancer for vocals, an Empirical Labs Fatso two-channel compressor for drums, and further Distressors for the bass guitar group and vocals.

“The bulk of my mixing is riding the DCA control groups and the vocals, balancing between them, and when there is a lead guitar solo, I’ll jump to that. Most of the mix should stay where it is, and I shouldn’t have to think about it, but every day you make major tweaks and refinements based on how the musicians are performing. Most of the gig is turning the band up and down without affecting the vocals because I have DCAs for drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, main vocal, backing vocals, and an ‘all’ DCA that includes everything but vocals,” he said, explaining his mixing wizardry modestly. “I also run snapshots in which I am changing the sub send amount for different songs, as well as reverb and delay times. If the band changes the set last minute, I have the desk synced to the timecode and that will trigger the snapshots.”

At the beginning of the set, the noise of the crowd can be between 112 to 116dB. “We have a little bit of headroom. When they are loud, I can push the mix, and when they are quieter, I can pull it back for the more introspective moments of the show,” he explained.

“My favourite section to mix is the transition from a cover of Arctic Monkeys’ 505 into Back to You. When that kicks in, I push the “All” DCA up to +10. We’ve built the set up to that point, where I’m able to throw it to the top before the end of the set. The three songs in the encore are also fun songs to mix,” he enthused, accenting the support of Solotech Account Handler, David Shepherd.

“I’ve worked with Dave for years, while he was at BCS Audio (now part of Solotech). He’s been my go-to account handler for a very long time, and Solotech has inherited this gig from them, so there was a natural transition.”

System Engineer and Head of Audio, Oli Crump walked TPi through the PA system: “We’ve been using L-Acoustics, which is our preference, since the start of last year’s tour. The main hang has been K1 with K2 downfill for both tours, however, we are touring with a much larger system this year with K2 on the sides instead of KARA-II. We’re flying subwoofers and carrying delays with us, which is also our preference in big arenas, like the O2 – it provides an even level of coverage across the audience,” the TPi Breakthrough Talent Award alumni said, explaining the thought process behind a larger sound system.

“The PA system is naturally bigger this year because we’re touring larger venues. The crowd is very loud, and we need to be able to compete with that at points of the show. The window of dynamic range we have without it being too loud is compressed because the background level from the crowd is so high, so we need to be able to get our level as consistent as possible from front to back. This setup really helps overcome that.”

Out of ear shot from Crump, Delf extolled the virtues of his partner at FOH: “Oli and I work well together. Every day, regardless of the venue, I know the system is going to sound consistent. We deal with different venue acoustics each day but as soon as I run up my virtual soundcheck, I’ve got the mix back to where I want it because the PA is at the same level every day. I used to walk the room a lot during sound check, but it always sounded consistent, so I’ve stopped doing that because I trust him explicitly.”

The PA generally sat in a standard location for an arena PA, 10.5m off centre and no wider than that, using the same basic system design as Louis Tomlinson’s past touring campaign, which Crump worked on with Kenny to ensure it didn’t impede the production design. “The number of boxes we deploy varies from show to show, based on the venue. The worst-case scenario [visually] is that the PA needs to be a little lower than usual and gets in the way of the IMAG screens slightly,” Crump detailed.

He designed the system using Soundvision, then imported his file into Network Manager, with a DirectOut Technologies PRODIGY.MP chosen for system processing. “I have visited many of the European arenas before so I’ve got fairly accurate plots, however, sometimes you will stumble across an error someone has made in building the models,” he continued. “Madrid’s WiZink Center had different CAD drawings for each layer of the venue and one of the layers was accidentally scaled wrong, so the bottom floors were fine but as you went up everything was out. You get curveballs like that occasionally but that’s why it’s important to verify drawings.”

An audience also changes the acoustics of a room, generally for the better, but sometimes not, so Crump was on hand at FOH to make tweaks when required. “As rooms get larger, they generally get more difficult, reverb time will go up purely as a factor of the room size, regardless of how you treat it. The O2 is quite tall seating-wise, so you end up having to angle the PA up into the roof a lot,” Crump noted.

Over by the stage, Monitor Engineer, Barrie Pitt mixed the five-piece band and frontman using a DiGiCo Quantum 338 console. “Louis and the band are good at verbalising what they want. They’ve been playing a long time, so it’s my job to translate those desires into the mix,” he explained. “DiGiCo has been my ‘go-to’ brand of console for the past 15 years. The 338 is an incredibly powerful console, which can do as much as any other on the market and more in a much less convoluted way. I know it like the back of my hand and how to get the best out of it and do the most complicated things at the push of a button. The Capture features are ridiculously powerful.”

Pitt oversaw 85 channels, 64 directly from stage, with additional channels for shouts, sends, returns, communications, and routing, among others. His outboard rack included a classic Lexicon PCM 91 digital reverberator for vocals. “The way I set up the communications and shout systems are the same across the board. For the layout, a lot of people have instruments on one side and vocal and effects on the other, however, I tend to adjust my banks of faders visually, how you would see it on stage, left to right, as a nod to my analogue mixing days. My second layer is usually tracks and any track content with reverbs next to the vocals, so they’re changed in unison. Sometimes, I’ll do a custom layer of [drum or spill group, two lead guitar channels and vocal] the things I use most, particularly if it’s a busy show input-wise.”

Pitt referred to the basis of his mix as ‘static’ with minor changes. “Louis changes a fair bit between songs I’m running upwards of 60 scenes with a lot of songs having multiple scenes for verse and chorus or specific sections,” he explained. The Monitor Engineer is a big believer in unifying the in-ear monitors, so what he hears is the same as those on stage. “We use Shure PSM1000s, JH Audio Roxanne in-ear monitors for Louis and JH16s for everyone else, except for the drummer, who is using Ultimate Ears IEMs. Louis and the band are solid, and they keep their ears in from start to finish. Louis wants the rock star mix; he likes to feel the weight of the mix. It’s not an overpowering mix but it’s a full mix with his vocal on top with Neve 5045 primary source enhancers on all vocals. Everyone else has a standard band mix at moderate level with their instrument and vocals high. The drummer has the most straightforward mix with his drums and shouts layered on top.”

A further pair of subwoofers stage left, and right were situated under the stage risers, providing the weight of side fills without the top end. “It’s a big rock show with drums and guitars, so the less noise I can have flying about the stage, the better,” he said.

The microphone package included a Shure Axient Digital AD4D two-channel digital wireless receiver, a AD2 vocal microphone with a KSM9 capsule for vocals. Sennheiser MKH 60 and AKG C414 XLS microphones captured the ambient noise of the room. “We track everything, including the two sets of ambient microphones for recording and virtual soundcheck, in case the band decides to do anything with the live content,” he noted.

Having collaborated with Solotech and previously BCS Audio multiple times, Pitt was pleased to see the company on the tour sheet. “They are a solid choice and I know Dave Shepherd well. They fix any problems swiftly, and all their gear is well packaged and maintained,” he said. “The band and crew are lovely. It’s rare to come across a camp so friendly on a show of this size.” Pitt thanked Solotech Monitor and Stage Technician, Matt Coton. “He is fantastic. He takes all the second guessing out of my day and is so meticulous and thorough that I know everything will be as it should be from the get-go. When there are issues, he knows exactly what to do to remedy it. He’s been a joy to work and hang out with.”

Audio Technicians, Matt Coton, Tim Miller, Kim Watson, Elliott Clarke, James Coghlan, Matt Benton; Bassist and Keyboard Technician, Chris Freeman; Guitar Technician, Dan Ely and Playback Technician, Scotty Anderson made up the sound team.

CURATING A HOME AWAY FROM HOME Sarah Nicholas of Sarah’s Kitchen and Caterers, Rebecca Henderson, Helena Robertson, Chris Carter, Matty Pople and Tamsin Manvell provided band and crew catering, ensuring morale stayed high and stomachs were full on the road. Making a name for themselves as One Direction’s caterers, the outfit now cater for each of the band members’ individual tours and private functions, amassing a dedicated online following. “I started catering for Louis and the rest of One Direction during their first theatre gig in Watford and I feel very privileged to have that connection. At dinner time, we perform a plate service, which I think is important – our reputation is not only built on really good food but the entire hospitality package, creating a nourishing environment away from home,” Nicholas said.

Sarah’s Kitchen provided a range of vegan, gluten-free and vegetarian options. “We also provide disposable products and water coolers, and our runner regularly collects fresh, local produce from markets based on where we are in the world,” she explained.

The wider European crew featured Security, Kristian ‘Ches’, Ross Foster, Ben Major, and Gav Kerr; Merchandisers, Jon Ellis and Maddy Stephens; Bus Drivers, Aivaras Arminas, Frederico Antunes, Scott Pickering, Chris Grover; Entourage Bus Driver, Paul Roberts; Merchandise Truck Driver, Warren Dowey; BTS UK Account Handler, Garry Lewis; Stardes Account Handlers, Tyrone Reynolds, and Alam Minshall; CSE Crosscom Account Handler, Hannah Evans and Altour Travel Account Handler, Alexandra Gati.

Having wrapped up the best-selling livestream of 2020 – a lofty achievement given the proliferation of remote productions amid the grounding of live events with in-person crowds – Tomlinson shows no signs of slowing down post-pandemic, making the leap from sold-out theatres to arenas across the globe with his trusty crew in tow. “Live From London was great because the crew and I really needed it,” Delf said. “It gave us some much-needed work amid the lockdown, and all the proceeds went directly to the crew, which was an incredibly honourable thing to do. To come back out on the other side of lockdown was great. It was a dark time back then for everyone, but to be back out on tour surrounded by friends, who feel more like family, it’s special.”

-> read here on Issuu

[thegreatsinnamonroll]

Obligatory Hypnosis Mic Post

Hey it's Emmet back at it again with HypMic posting! Because there's quite a few new fans coming in with both the release of Rhyme Anima+ last year and the expansion of HypMic events to the US, I figured I should explain what the hell is actually going on.

Hypnosis Mic is a multi-media music project created by King Records/Evil Line Records that consists of music, dramatracks, manga, anime, stage plays, live shows, and mobile games. It's target audience is women, though it can appeal to anyone who likes men in general. Before explaining the different forms of media here, there are a few fandom rules we tend to follow. This will be long btw so strap the fuck in.

Shipping wars aren't really a thing here. No seriously, there's 21 main characters and generally speaking any ship goes. With the exception of morally bad (BBcest, most main cast Jiro ships, and all main cast Saburo ships) and morally dubious (Samaichi and Hitojyu) ships, people generally don't care who kisses who. If you see something you don't like, block and move on. HypMic is also a multishipper paradise, so if you like that, welcome!

This is an M rated series for a reason. There are dark and adult topics far and wide, and trying to ignore them doesn't do the characters any justice. Here's a list of various potentially triggering topics that occur in the series: sex trafficking, general violence both with and without weapons, minor body mutilation, extreme manipulation, implied/referenced abuse including S/A, suicide including attempts, drug use and abuse, realistic depictions of PTSD and other mental disorders, lots of familial death, depictions of war and the aftermath, mild transphobia, and bullying.

This series is made for a primarily female audience. If you're a cishet man coming into this bc you think Ichijiku is hot, you will find no community here for you. The women are beautifully crafted characters and will be respected as such. That also being said, people who don't like Honobono are NOT misogynistic. She is designed to be a top tier villain and disliking her is not a bad thing.

We know the lore timeline doesn't make sense. Trust us. We know. Getting into this series means understanding that, being mildly upset about it at any given time, and talking to peers about it.

If I catch ANYONE using character trauma as a JOKE I will fucking find you and that is a promise, especially when it comes to Jyuto, Rio, Dice, Hifumi, and Jyushi. I will get you myself.

With that out of the way, onto the different types of media in this massive thang!

Main Canon

Drama Tracks: These are the primary source of the main Canon lore. These are simply audio tracks of events in HypMic, and they can be found on both YouTube and Spotify. There are translations for all of them on the Internet, but on the official HypMic YouTube and TikTok there are their own translations from the formation of the divisions through the first DRB. All of the lore contained here is what is part of the MAIN CANON, so if you're looking for story its going to be here.

Manga: The manga is an almost 1:1 replica of the drama tracks in a visual format, so the lore from these are going to be part of the main Canon as well. That being said, English speakers will have a difficult time finding any translation of the manga since the fan translations are kept under wraps for Reasons that Make Sense. Additionally, no screenshots of the manga translations are allowed to be made public for the same reasons, so it's incredibly difficult to access. Maybe one day we'll get a translation, but for now, if you're curious about the manga, dm me for more information.

Songs: The main appeal of the series! The absolutely massive discography doesn't have a huge amount of lore or plot relevance, and are instead just there to exist. A good 95% of the whole discography is, in my opinion, really good, but it's also up to taste due to the wide range of genres covered. Some songs that seem to have lore, namely Once Upon a Time in Shibuya, Murder at the House of Magic, and Stella, are actually songs based on Gentaro Yumeno's stories (they're also really good, if you like gay people who outright say they'd be friends in every universe go listen to Stella). Other than that, they exist and are Good™ but not all of them are on Spotify which is the biggest shame in the world.

Live Shows (Not Hypstage)

Hypnama: A weekly Livestream put on by the producers where some of the character seiyuus (voice actors) talk about various things. It's relatively goofy and unserious, though they do talk about upcoming news and merch for the series. It's fun to watch since they all tend to dick around on stage or get thrown into the rice field for enrichment time.

3DCG Lives: These are similar to Vocaloid concerts, where projections of the HypMic characters are animated while singing and doing little talking segments. There are a few of these out and can be found across the Internet, along with translations for them. The animation can be a little clunky at times, but they're a fun watch anyway.

Live Performances: These lives consist of the seiyuus (voice actors) going on stage to do live performances of a set list. There have been ten of these so far, with the discography all the way up through Block Party and RA+. There were also fan meetings recently that were in the same vein. Again these are just live performances of the songs, so no translation is needed!

Rhyme Anima

This segment doesn't need a bulleted list simply because of it only having two seasons. Rhyme Anima is the anime for hypnosis mic, and also has its own lore. I generally don't like recommending RA for new fans despite the fact that it's the easiest way to get into the series, mainly because it's not part of the actual lore and the characterization is...sadly, not great. It's got good songs, and season two has tragic yaoi, but other than that it should not be used as any sort of base for the lore.

Mobile Games

Alternative Rap Battle: Shortened to ARB, this is the legally required music media rhythm game. There's some semblance of story and lore, except it's all the most out there and absurd shit imaginable. None of it is part of the main Canon and the cards are decent, but the sheer ridiculousness of it is kinda worth it. It's not the best gatcha and it's really only for card collecting but the card art is available online if that's what you're interested in.

Dream Rap Battle: Also known as Hypdori, this is the newest game that came out. Once again the lore isn't part of the main story, but there is more of an actual story there this time. The gatcha is. Worse. But the gameplay is different and once again the cards are available online. Both of these games are only available in Japan, so you'll want a VPN or use the Qooapp (which is what I use).

Rule the Stage

Old Gen: There are two generations of Rule the Stage, which are the HypMic stageplays. Often just referred to as Hypstage, these shows have their own lore and canon. There are DRBs like in the main Canon, though there are different winners than the ones for the main story. Admittedly the focus isn't exactly the other DRBs, but instead the additional five divisions and 14 new characters, as well as the stories attached to them. There's even a cult following for these new characters who are collectively referred to as "Original Divisions" or Oridivis. There are five tracks with original stories, as well as BB vs DH, BAT vs MTR, and FP vs MTC. Each division also has a Rep Live with new songs and skits. The cast of the old gen of Hypstage all graduated last year, paving the way for the new gen. (That being said at least one of the old gen oridivis is coming back this July. So.)

New Gen: The new generation of Hypstage is still picking up and only has done three shows, but they're already proving themselves with absolutely outstanding stories. New Encounter was a retelling of the second DRB, Renegades of Female was a stageplay that centered entirely around the women of Chuuoku and the impact of the H Age, and Grateful Cypher was an interesting story around a group that were trying to make their way in the world without mics. There are also new gen oridivis, though as of right now we haven't heard anything insofar from them since Grateful Cypher. If I keep talking about Hypstage this post will be even longer, so I have to cut myself off but I am in fact one of the cult followers of Oridivi.

Wow this post was long but I hope this is helpful to anyone interested in the other medias of HypMic! Leave questions in the notes and I'll do my best to reply to them, thank you for reading!

[chynandri]

How to Survive Enstars Events Without Wanting to KYS

The event of my Enstars life is coming up next week on the English server (the only server I actively play on): Rouge&Ruby. I can’t describe what Melting Rouge Soul did to my brain in February 2023. It’s an incredibly important song, card, event, story to me! And my goal is to get max copy of Ibara’s card, just as I did for Bogie Time Ibara.

My pride and joy. It’s funny that this card is called ‘Extra Undurable Time’ cuz that is exactly what enstars events are.

However, we don’t play gacha games for fun. We play for collecting the little guy they make you get deeply attached to. If I get adhd hyperfixated I can deal with it. But how the hell did I get max copy Bogie Time Ibara in 2023. I remember how mind numbing it was, even if by some amazing stroke of luck God and the universe created the perfect situation to allow me to no life enstars that week.

So this post is to compile my personal ‘strategies’/mindsets, how to even want to keep playing this game - basically to steel myself for the biggest trial of my ensemble stars ‘career’. Because to me, grinding enstars events is always a battle of the mind more than anything else.

Song events just seem more daunting to me, even if they’re technically ‘easier’ gameplay wise because you can just spam autoplay - compared to manually playing 120 songs for a tour event (and then spamming autoplay). I will not say tour events are better. They’re all their own equally terrible hells to me.

Motivation Notes Staying motivated and focused is SUPER IMPORTANT. I find that visuals like ‘motivational posters’ I make for myself are fun and helpful. See above my specific home screen page JUST for enstars. I don’t really play cnstars, but since that server allows you to change the app icon I use it as additional visualization. Calendar can be helpful for keeping track of how much time you have left.

Customizing your enstars in-game homescreen and profile to match the character you’re working so hard for is also fun. Overall, it’s like a vision board but for your goals in video games (important) instead of real life (not as important).

I have this homescreen for (Ei/)Chiaki purposes but honestly the small movements of the live 2D can be extra sensory input. Treat your brain and eyes like a sensitive little baby.

I REALLY should’ve done this for the Universe event, but as of writing this I’m nearly at the 1 million point goal of getting the Chiaki 4 star card. Now this is the most flat, ‘boring’ layout that will not subtly tire you out.

There needs to be minimal audio and visual stimulation in-game. I found that even changing the MV background to no image but the stage image to be helpful in reducing visual stimulation. Putting the game audio on mute is a good way to reduce audio stimulation. The UI/UX of enstars is clunky, tedious, and busy itself so any effort in reducing its sensory input is a plus.

Simple mode is the most basic you can get. Turn off lyrics here and in the details settings if you want even less stuff on screen.

As much as I love the azukisan notes, a note style that’s not too confusing/designed is probably better too.

Another thing I have not personally tried out for playing the game, but have done so to turn my iPad into an ‘e-reader’ is to turn on greyscale mode for the entire phone. I believe e-readers are usually greyscale to simulate a real book, and to limit distraction. This concept could be used for playing games too… Enstars is quite colorful after all and that is also - sensory input.

Here’s how to toggle greyscale on iOS: Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters

Beyond that, publicly sharing your progress is another source of motivation - whether on social media or with friends. Be careful not to reveal too much info about your account at the same time (exact dia count, don’t show ALL the cards you have, etc.).

But you have to be your own biggest hypeman. Channel the energy of the most annoying and loud characters you know (Chiaki, Madara, and Ibara are good examples - I say this with LOVE AND AFFECTION). Celebrate as many event point milestones as you can. RISE AND GRIND!!!!

Gameplay Notes

Important info to know for song events is what is your highest scoring song. You can use the search button in the Live page to filter all the songs by score.

Favorite it so you can make your song menu as simple as possible. This isn’t relevant for tour events tho.

Song Events: Have not maxed out a song event card before so I don’t have any experience to draw upon. I just go for 10BP sometimes 3-6BP each time as I can’t open the game that often during the day. Maybe it’s not technically efficient but I’d rather not be anxious over keeping track of BP regeneration. Very helpful to turn on notifications for Enstars so it can inform you when your BP and work tickets are at max.

Tour Events: I remember at some point I tried spending 10BP on EACH song even if that is not wise. But still mostly kept to the 3-3-6-10 format. Tried 3-6-6-10 too. Maybe I was just losing my mind during Bogie Time and wanted to mess around with the pattern for some sort of ‘fun’.

I can’t wrap my head around the technical aspects of BP spending strategies tbh. The consistent effort is what matters I think. I will not and do not spend much brainpower on this.

Spending Real Life Money: I did spend Real Life Money on prime mission and the 15 whistles per day perk for bogie time. Did it help? A bit. Did it make me want to die less? Idk it feels good to get extra rewards from playing the game so much from prime mission. I used to subscribe to it more often when I first started playing but have long since stopped. The autoloop song vip perk is useful but if you are playing on your phone - I need to use my phone for other things so I can’t keep the game open to complete loops that long. Perhaps a setup of grinding on a tablet instead would be less anxiety inducing/less to keep track of. But I also use my tablet for other things. So from this angle is it truly an upgrade…?

I think the best deal is to buy as many permanent whistle packs from the store as you can and save them for the event. But especially when they have special deals or at the same time as those top up reward events so you maximize your purchases.

I’m not sure if I will buy VIP or more packs for Rouge&Ruby. I had around 76k dia for Bogie Time and did not burn through it all. I must’ve spent around 50k dia. But I read that song events are much more expensive. I’ve saved over 100k dia this time, but I did also buy/win (thru minigames during events) over 500 permanent whistles. I have no idea how this will all pan out so it will be interesting to see how much I burn through. I feel very prepared, so that’s why I don’t see a need for more store purchases right now.

So basically - of course throwing money at things has its benefits. But if you don’t go all out on the perks and spending, it still requires some willpower I think. I got to 80k dia from clearing every single song/song difficulty in the game, clearing the story objectives, and completing all daily free missions in a period of 3-2 months. The rest came from freebies, stories, or seasonal events as they happened. I didn’t start from 0, I think I had somewhere around 10-20k dia before I decided to painfully farm dia from every single song. I used to diligently complete starry live but I don’t think it’s worth the time for a random amount of dia. This is also why I banned myself from scouting (unless it’s limited cards) - only care about what you can get GUARANTEED. Event cards do not rely on rng.

Event Point Ranking: The validation you get from having a high point rank is great. It’s hard for me to ignore and pushes me to grind more. But I also think it’s bad for my brain to care so much when my goal is NOT tiering for the sake of tiering. It’s an extra source of anxiety. I really don’t have any tips for this but to just try to not look at it. Progress - but also reasonably taking care of yourself - is all that matters. You can’t compete with the hardcore f2ps or whales. Just forget it. I’m not here to excel. I’m here to survive enough to get 22 million points.

Event Card Bonus: I had the 4 star bonus card for bogie time. It did feel helpful, but I’d rather not spend tickets or dia on characters I don’t produce so I won’t try to get them anymore.

Live Score Dia Boost: I’ve never tried using dia to boost my score as it just feels better to me to keep dia for BP purposes.

I think that’s about it… Writing this all out was pretty helpful for outlining what’s in my mind. I genuinely can get so over-excited for things. I was so excited/anxious for New Start Go I had trouble breathing right at the very minute the event started 💀 And I was only getting one card of Hajime. Hopefully this all will help me deal with the mounting anticipation of the Ibara event/song/card ever and maybe something was of use to whomever read all this.

[reneelovesrobots]

Okay. So. Having now seen the G Quuuuuux movie twice I has me some thoughts. In short:

In long:

This is so fucking peak! And April is so far away... is April even real? Has anyone ever seen it? Am I doomed to wander, Machuless, until I die a painful and deprived death?

The opening leg is a straight 0079 riff, classic What-If? stuff. Starts almost shot for shot identical, speedruns the major events after the divergence point, a classic of the style. Honestly it's well executed - especially the visuals mixing the old 70s looks and the new designs, and the audio direction sliding from 70s music into the modern style almost seamlessly as it goes, both of which are fucking phenomenally done - but the only thing that's a true standout prior to the finale of it is that while Lalah may be Char's problematic pick for MILF Challia is his DILF to the nth degree. Fortunately, there is the finale of the 0079 arc and what comes after.

Char can't help but be Char and betray Zeon at the last second to get that sweet sweet Zabi killstreak, leading to him facing off against a white Mobile Suit in the bowels of Solomon as it drops on Granada like a colony on civilians - except it's not Amuro but Sayla with the steel chair outta fuckin nowhere! Between that, her apparent escape (possibly swallowed by psycommu), Kycilia's escaping test subject (presumably either Lalah or Shuji shaped), and both whatever the fuck Char saw and whatever happened to him as the Psycommu blurped a chunk of Solomon into somewhere we have a lot of mystery established for the show to mull over as it goes. I for one cannot wait! I need Punished Sayla.

After that, Machu's arc kicks off with a bang. Her, Nyaan, and Shuji are all immediately likeable and incredibly entertaining. I love them all each and every one. Machu's impulsive to a fault, Shuji seems only tangentially connected to reality, and Nyaan is desperate, unlucky, and juuust knowledgable and competent enough to realize how in over their heads they are. I want to say so much more but rn I am tired and it's mostly just me goin "Machu.... good"

[stelladess]

My personal.... "review"? rating? for the gacha games that I have played, roughly in order but I do not remember exact order so... yeah Mostly just rambling to have my thoughts down in writing somewhere. No insult intended to any game here or the people who like them whether I like it or not. Chances are I was just not the intended demographic or that my tastes are just different.

HI3: Incredible story, some of the best characters in any media I have ever read, watched or played. However the gameplay is a very mixed bag, the gacha aspects are downright atrocious (even by gacha standards) and it has serious pacing issues. Also a lack of world building and the art direction has clearly shifted multiple times. The story has gotten me to straight up cry though and part 2 has alleviated or fixed a lot of my big issues with the game (more consistent artstyle, better pacing, far more fluid gameplay, better worldbuilding, etc), although nothing on the gacha side of things. One advantage is that it is relatively easy to ignore the gacha aspect and just play the story though since most of the time you get trial characters from the ones who are actually there doing the things in story at the time.

Genshin Impact: Beautifle world, great character designs. The character writing and world building is pretty great in this one.... but the story itself is a very mixed bag. And it has an even bigger issue then HI3 with large amounts of fairly pointless dialogue that neither progresses character or themes, this is improved in the latest regions somewhat from what I have heard but it is a constant frustration earlier. Also it is an open world game with all that entails, which is a type of game I am not particularly fond of. The combat gameplay is also not my favorite. I eventually stopped playing this, around the time of shogun banner...

Symphogear XDU: I am a huge symphogear fan, and it is great to have more stories with these characters and expanding on them in fun ways and putting them into new stories. This part of XDU is great, a lot of these stories are wonderful.... however as a game it is terrible. Also no official english version anymore so it is awkward to get running and to actually be able to read it. I stopped playing because the game side was just... bad. There are some fan translations of various events that are worth checking out if you are a symphogear fan though!

Blue Archive: Love the setting, in terms of visuals and audio it has probably one of the best presentations of any gacha game I have played. The character designs are also great, if a bit limited by the school theming.... I hate sensei so much. I think sometimes the story´s own themes are hampered by sensei being a creep. Now I am not the target demographic for Blue Archive, so me not liking or sticking with it is not a surprise. Just frustrating because of the parts I do like. But, again, just not for me. It was never intended for my tastes. Also the gameplay is basically an auto battle system with *slightly* more strategy on top of it. Which is not really my thing.

Tower of Fantasy: I played it for like a week with my friend. Like with genshin the open world nature turned me off, and the world felt like it stood out less to me, the entire art direction was to me not as strong. I did not hate it is just that I liked it less then genshin, which already could not keep me playing.

Princess Connect RE:dive: My friend recommended this and I had enjoyed the anime, so I downloaded it, the next morning crunchyroll announced they were ending the service for the global version. I took this as a sign of some kind and decided to not try and keep up with it.

Honkai Star Rail: One of my absolute favorite games! The writing is very easy to follow along but with quite a bit of extra depth to be found if you are interested, the gameplay is also simple but requires enough thought to feel like an actual game, visuals and music is some of my favorites too. The characters, story, setting and presentation is all incredible. In particular the comedic writing and the character dynamics are very fun. I play this on a daily basis.

Arknights: In terms of world building this is easily the best gacha game I have played, it also has probably my favorite art direction, with only star rail competing for that spot. The gameplay is strategic and very fun, the big downside is it needs a very big time investment to really enjoy. Lots of reading and the gameplay has a very high skill ceiling even if the skill floor is quite low. It also misses a lot of obvious QoL features that would drastically improve it (something as simple as bookmarking story nodes for one...), but despite its flaws the stories, characters and themes are great. And in particular how these are written in a way that makes it feel intrinsically tied into the world. The planet of Terra is one of the most important aspects of the game. I love that it has a very unique technology level for a fantasy setting too. Also the prose is often really really good. I play this on a daily basis.

Zenless Zone Zero: The chill slice of life vibes of this game are great. New Eridu is a really cool setting and the characters are all great. It is far less story driven but that is fine, it really gives off the vibe of being relatively normal people just living in a strange world. It does feel somewhat "incomplete" currently though, but it is still off to a strong start. Gameplay feels like a far more developed version of early HI3 gameplay, that grew in a different direction from what HI3 part 2 took it in. I lied earlier about the visual direction of star rail and arknights being uncontested, this game might even be better in this department. I play this on an almost daily basis.