#Percussion Software

[ariyan24]

Toontrack – Superior Drummer 3 Complete Download

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[svnmouth]

the worst part about technology is when the problem you have is unknown to wider internet searches and the problems that sound similar are not actually that similar.

[brevemusicstudios]

7 Best Percussion VSTs for Music Producers (2023)

Best Percussion VSTsToontrack Superior Drummer 3Getgood DrumsXLN Audio Addictive Drums 2Toontrack EZdrummer 2CinePerc (Cinesamples)HZ Percussion (Spitfire Audio)Berlin Percussion (Orchestral Tools) ConclusionAdditional Reading Best Percussion VSTs Looking for the best percussion VSTs? Here are seven of the most popular percussion VSTs that every music producer should consider: Toontrack…

[sleepanonymous]

Remember when I made this post talking about Jaws? A good friend found one for Thread The Needle.

George Lever, the man that you are.

Intro

Sleep Token are different, like super major big time different. Softly spoken pop aesthetic meets discordant percussive metal different. Different is great. It tests and pulls at the boundaries by which we choose to asses music by. All in all ST (sleep token) is very close to my heart in terms of what its intentions are and how it tries to achieve it. I worked very closely with ST on the song framing and ensuring that every phase of each song was being presented in the way they originally intended. Much like a prog record there isn’t any sense of an ABAB type repetition that’s common in pop music, instead it’s a textured journey down multiple avenues and pathways, showing and highlighting different perspectives of the song along the way. I could write about this project for some time but I’m very aware that this is supposed to be an engineering / mixing focused blog so I shall move on.

Tracking // Drums

In terms of the space, we ended up at Monnow valley. This happened to be my first ever solo flight session at MV, although nerve wrecking I think it came together rather harmoniously without any negative turns.

The initial outline from ST was to achieve as much as humanly possible without the need for rigid quantisation after the fact. Every play / part, had to emphasis what else was going on. Tricky, but great fun to achieve.

Tracking // Guitars & Bass

All tracked back here at G1, using an array of options like the Kemper, Axe fx and plugin amp sims. The attention wasn’t so much on ‘authentic amp sounds’ but more along the lines of ‘how cool can this sound, can it sound more cool?’ Quite a different approach considering some would be more enclined to try and ensure that ‘this does definitely sound like a 5150’ over what it actually does for the context that it is sitting within (the songs DNA)

** Cool bit, for the end part of TTN, the guitars were tracked 6 times. 3 different takes / tones each side. More tone, more drone.** – George

Bass, I think is a combination of my jazz bass and some software stuff, obviously my poor 4 string won’t handle going down to drop ZZZZ so that’s when the synth stuff needs to kick in, however I do believe at those parts the Jazz is playing the upper octave for that sense of movement and clank.

Tracking // Vocals

How freaking amazing is this dudes voice? Seriously? I used a different mic for each song, each time he sounds amazing. This is what it’s all about, right here. A great voice always sounds great. We used my modded Oktava m319 for one track, the AKG c414 b-uls for another and the sm7b on one more. Who cares what processing went on, just listen to how mega dope his voice is. Can you tell I appreciate his voice? Haha!

Gear Used

Drums – Tracked by G1 at Monnow Valley Kick In – Beta91a + D112 Kick Out – U47 Snare Top – 57 Snare Bottom – 441 Toms – md421 HH – 7b Ride – c451 China – c451 OH – Modded Oktava mk012 in ORTF RM1 – R121 RM2 – C414 RM3 – U87

Guitars Kemper / Driftwood Profile Pack (along with other bits and bobs too for the multi tracked parts) Bass Dingwall Darkglass > FabFilter Saturn

Vocals Different mics for different sections C414 BULS / 7B / Oktava m219

[myriadlabrynth]

Kiridai Hobby Ramblings

Some of these are repeats from other posts, but wanted to consolidate them here.

Hanamiya - Reading

Has expressed some interest for visiting the Starfield Library in Seoul (same for Furuhashi)

Has a soft expression whenever he is reading, which can somehow be off putting for some. Hard to tell what’s going on in his head.

Is above-conversational fluent in a few languages, enough to read some foreign novels in their original language. For these novels, he will include a couple of sticky notes here and there within, whenever he has to look up an unfamiliar word or phrase.

He’ll commit it to memory soon enough but with foreign languages being a little more tricky to learn, especially the slight nuances, he’ll take notes.

Booktok was a mistake

Prefers borrowing books over purchasing them. Not really interested in having shelves lined with books in his home. 

It would have to be books he truly truly enjoys, or books that his mom purchased for him.

Despite him insisting that his mom not buy him gifts, he will have those books displayed where they can be seen clearly.

Furuhashi - Gardening

First, a really sweet hobby, and interesting that it's one that requires some level of delicacy and gentleness.

It’s an outlet for him to relieve him of some stress, out of the recommendation from someone, since he used to have…other means of doing so.

For sure is all “Plants >>>>>> People”

Cause plants are pretty and quiet and stay still,  letting you take care of them with no resistance  :)

Spends a lot of his time in his greenhouse, even when he’s not taking care of his plants, just being in there and taking in the scent gives him solace.

More into gardening outside than indoors, but he has a few indoor plants.

His parents were initially not sure about the gardening, since they normally would have their hired gardeners take care of it. But they soon grew accustomed to it and now enjoy the literal fruits of Furuhashi’s labor, taking advantage of the fresh crops that are available. 

It’s certainly a bragging point whenever people visit the home.

His parents got him a hydroponic system, but he’s not really into it.

His parents had also made suggestions of how to make the gardening more “efficient”, with some tools that would supposedly “speed up the process”, but Furuhashi refused.

He doesn’t feel the desire to rush the process, as the process itself is what he enjoys.

Enjoys the "repetitiveness" of it and how he can shut off his brain and go on autopilot for some of it.

For your sake, please do not disturb him while he is at work.

Has an area in his garden with plants that are good for honey bees. 

Uses organic fertilizers.

Has a dehydration machine for drying out flowers for tea.

I can see him treating relationships similarly.

I know his type is a masochist, but for those he loves, he treats them with a similar delicacy at times.

Hara - Music

Has a playlist of songs that he plays drums to regularly.

Comes up with rearrangements of his favorite songs in his head, but has never tried to create it irl.

Related to the above, he purchased high-end music software, out of impulse and from  the recommendations of videos he’s seen. But he has yet to use them.

Also has other instruments in his house, catching dust. The only other instrument he dabbles with occasionally is his acoustic guitar.

Great at master level difficulty for rhythm games. 

He loves when he zones out and his hands move almost automatically, still getting perfects. (the closest we’ll the “zone” from Hara)

Had once thought of making reaction videos that are titled like “Drummer reacts to (insert artist and song) MV”, except they would be click-baity as he wouldn’t put too much intellectual/drummer related input, just to piss people off.

They could also be random, not music related videos like, “Drummer reacts to best fighting compilation videos”. And these random videos are when he would commentate on the “percussions”, even though it’s not relevant.

Yamazaki - Fighting Games

The most we’ll get out of Yamazaki as far as injuring people.

Gamer rage for sure, has gotten kicked out of arcades a couple of times for manhandling the machines too roughly or just being loud and disruptive. He’s toned it down since.

One incident was caused by Hara, who was just standing behind him, backseating or distracting him. 

The backseating being particularly infuriating cause Hara doesn’t know much but will just make suggestions like “Have you tried dodging? Can’t you use your super strong ultimate  attack?”, cause he knows it’ll get under Yamazaki’s skin.

Has a decent MMR/ranking in games.

Takes new character reveals very very seriously (like new Smash or Tekken character reveals). 

Has a separate group of online friends that he enjoys playing games with.

Some of these friends include members of other teams, but he doesn’t know that it’s them. Like in the drama cds where Hanamiya has played games with Imayoshi, Riko, etc but doesn’t know it’s them(presumably anyway).

Seto - Memorization

I think the facts that we do know about Seto, including his hobby, go hand in hand.

His motto of “Free and unrestrained”, the reason he joined the basketball club, and even the fact he sleeps most times.

Dabbles in and jumps around new activities and skills. He like to learn new things and doesn’t like to be tied down to any one particular thing. The exception being basketball since that is because of Hanamiya.

But I think that’s part of why Seto was ok with joining the basketball club, because it was something new for him to learn.

His sleeping is a key part of his ability to memorize and learn things quickly and thoroughly. Sleep is known to help with memory retainment after all.

“I’ll sleep on it”

That’s why Hanamiya is chill with Seto being asleep during games, because there’s some “productive” element to it.

Throwing this in here, but I think Seto being really smart was something that developed throughout his life. 

It wasn’t something that came natural to him at birth. And I think that created a bit of an inferiority complex for him, especially when he was often compared to his older brother.

That’s also why Seto started to wholeheartedly learn things and expand his knowledge.

At first it was to try to surpass his brother but he started caring less about that, and now just learns things more out of enjoyment of it.

[plurpaws]

how do u find all ur samples!? how do u write music so fast its literally called speedcore!? do u click with your mouse in a MIDI synthesizer!?!?!?!?!? its a rlly cool genre but not only do i hage... uh.. like no musical exp... but i also have no idea where people get all their samples.

Ive downloaded polyphone already so i can just Make soundfonts once i have enough samples

I find a lot of samples either by friends sharing them/recommending them or by searching "(genre) sample pack" online and pirating the ones that cost money (if there's a torrent available) or just downloading all the free ones. I honestly haven't gotten new samples in a while so I don't have the best tips >_< but this should get you Somewhere, at least. Sometimes artists I like also put out sample packs and I like getting those when I can! Fun to play with!

If you just mean samples as in other music or funny bits I have sampled in my music, I don't really have specific advice for finding those, I just tend to sample things I like the sound of or things that make me laugh (like all the meme samples I have sprinkled in my music)

As for writing music/speedcore... I can't tell you everything because I'm not really a great teacher/I'm bad at explaining things, but I can try to explain some basics?

Speedcore is typically classified as 300+ BPM, but I honestly never really make my tracks more than 260BPM. I compensate by doubling or quadrupling or whatever-ing my notes constantly, like so:

When I make kickpatterns I tend to go "in between the lines" where the notes are so small/fast that many of them can fit in between two lines of the grid... like how there are 4 in one cell below. Ableton has a really neat tool for this (as well as other handy MIDI manipulation tools) that allows you to chop a note into as many parts as you want very quickly, (but as you can see when zoomed in I did this by hand because I hadn't found out about that feature yet >_>)

But yeah, a big part of speedcore is the kick pattern(s). It can be as crazy or as uniform as you like, I tend to go either way, just as long as it sounds good to me :) For general structure, try listening to other speedcore artists and really listen closely for variations in the pattern.

Other parts I typically like to include in any speedcore-esque thing I make is a breakbeat/amen break, usually some sort of melody(? is that the right word), any additional percussion, and, optionally, whatever sample(s) you want to include.

Obviously this isn't all there is to it... you still need general knowledge of whatever software you're working in, which is best learned by just sitting down and watching a long, boring tutorial (try to pause and follow along/copy what they're doing, because just watching it and not trying it is like... information just goes in one ear and out the other without you actually understanding it... at least in my experience). It sounds pretty painful, I know, and figuring it out all on your own IS an option, but you might be a lot less frustrated if you just sit down & take the time to listen & learn...

There are also tutorials/guides for specific genres out there, and I'm very sure there are probably some helpful speedcore ones that go into way more detail than I did here.

I have a WIP page on my website that talks a bit about music-making, but again it's very WIP and there's a lot of information missing...it might be a little helpful though

If you have any other questions feel free to ask, I tried to keep this short but kinda failed and I feel like I'm definitely forgetting a lot of things anyway... >_>

[th3-0bjectivist]

So, folks, earlier this year I tried my hand at music creation and uh, it didn’t go so well! Long story short, I was completely out of my depth and ran into unforeseen issues which ran the gamut from software/hardware compatibility problems to the fact that I would have to spend some serious coin on instruments that I have absolutely no room for! For me to record the kind of music that I want to make, I estimated I’d have to spend several thousand dollars on a drum set for an organic sound, a good keyboard, microphones, amps and software. What I ended up creating were some beats using an electronic drum set (which I had to borrow incidentally) and some sequencer keys. I’ve always been personally drawn to playing percussion because I happen to be able to carry a decent beat. The track just above is the ONE AND ONLY piece of music you’ll ever hear that I personally made. I’ve decided to leave music to actual professionals and stick to what I’m actually good at (art, voice work, writing). I actually like how it turned out; it starts off kind of mystical and the tone is kind of menacing. That said, this post marks the beginning and end of my musical career. It was a very abbreviated career, but man, what a ride! And at least I tried something different this year! Smash play and enjoy dear listener!

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Currently at an industrial software conference catering heavy industry, mostly mining and energy. The amount of money in display for this extremely frivolous corporate do. You can tell this is where society's productivity is really being funnelled; what our system really cares about.

Massive screens and auditoriums lit up in company colours while the working class budgets. Endless talk about sustainability while half the people in the room make buck from oil processing.

At the start they a group come out on stage covered in paint and do a sort of tribal percussion performance banging on oil drums. Compelling, but it feels sort of perverse, in a way. Not like it wasn't appropriate set dressing, though. The human race does not change; we still have people whooping and drumming in ecstasy at the front of the cave, all that's changed is the size of the fire we're burning. It encompasses the whole planet, now.

[educatedinyellow]

Vid WIP meme (continued)

Thank you so much for the ask, @thetimemoves!

"How fun! I would love to know more about the two Sherlock vids: Memento Mori and Headlock. I’d also love to hear more about the songs you associate with different characters."

Memento Mori is a song by the group Fish in a Birdcage. I actually started to make this vid in the somewhat frantic run-up to the most recent round of Holmestice before switching tacks to fic writing. I was introduced to the song via a wonderful Sherlock & Co. playlist on Spotify, and as soon as I heard it, I thought the darkly playful sound was perfect for the more frenetic Holmesian adaptations, like BBC or the Ritchie films. The theme of the song seemed to me to be about the adrenaline rush that comes with mystery + the fascination of death, plus the abhorrence of mundanity (my mind rebels at stagnation, give me problems, give me work!) That repeating chorus ("I never wanted to sleep") plus the self-aware, mordant cheek of the verses ("ashes to ashes, dust to dust, filling up my coffee cup") -- there's an awareness here that this character craves the stimulation of violence/danger and the exultation of being constantly in overdrive. The "hound" references in the bridge obviously lend themselves to Baskerville. The verse "inside the timeless cage, I never wanted to sleep" definitely brings the Mind Palace sequences to mind, especially in The Abominable Bride where he mentally retreats so far into another time and place that he temporarily loses his sense of reality.

I started this vid with images of water cascading down paired with Sherlock stepping up onto the ledge at Barts in The Reichenbach Fall. Then we cut to a shot of John choking on smoke inside the Guy Fawkes pyre paired with a shot of a beautiful, flickering flame. The title card comes up -- Memento Mori -- and we get Mycroft's dialogue ("You're not haunted by the war Dr. Watson. You miss it. Welcome back.") That's all timed over the opening instrumental and when the first verse starts (ashes to ashes, dust to dust) we cut first to the shot of dirt flying around John at Maiwand as he's shot, then to the opening of ASIP and the glimpse of the gun he keeps in his drawer, and a lingering shot of him near tears in his bed, post-nightmare, "I never wanted to sleep." I timed out some of Sherlock's riding crop swings at the corpse to match the initial percussion when it comes in. Plus: "Memento mori leaves a debt, you haven't paid it yet" = Sherlock rotating the IOU apple after Moriarty's visit in TRF.

Anyhow, that's about as far as I'd gotten. The process is slower than it used to be because I lost all my old vidding programs when my former laptop died a year ago, and I'm only slowly learning new programs/finding alternatives that work. It's still an open question whether I'll get any new vids done, especially anything that would require me to rip new footage (the software to do that is increasingly elusive, at least for me). But we'll see :)

Headlock by Imogen Heap is another song that I thought has the right sound for BBC Sherlock. The theme seems to be about self-sabotage, a person -- or two people -- who have convinced themselves they aren't cut out to let their hearts rule their heads ("You say too late to start, got your heart in a headlock"), which works as a running Johnlock theme. There are little phrases that remind me of John and Sherlock's first meeting ("throw a stranger an unexpected smile". And then John being at a loss how to be anything but a soldier -- "with big intention, still posted at your station" -- transforming into something joyful in that crazy rooftop chase when he first jumps after Sherlock and forgets his limp: "still going on about the day you should have flied.")

The song's bridge is perfect for a Mycroft-Sherlock interlude ("You've been walking, you've been hiding, and you look half-dead half the time. Monitoring you, like machines do, you've still got it, I'm just keeping an eye"). The sound of a pulse monitor flat-lining in the middle of the song before the big instrumental kicks in would work perfectly with the whole Mary shooting him business. I don't know, I just see lots of story hooks in these lyrics, and it seems right for the frustration of an unrealized love story that ends with a tentative try at believing that a new start is possible after all.

The second part of your question was about songs that I associate with particular characters despite not being tempted to vid with them. This can happen for a lot of different reasons -- maybe it's a song I associate with the character because someone else already made a great vid for them with it! Or maybe it's a song where the lyrics are right but the sound/tone is wrong for source material, or maybe there's one perfect verse but the rest of the song doesn't work nearly as well. Most often, though, it happens when there's a song focused heavily on emotions/interiority that perfectly matches my headcanon for a character but doesn't really lend itself to any specific story elements from the source material the character is in. That makes it hard to storyboard a visual narrative to go along with the song. So, to give a few examples...

This is a song I will forever associate with Sherlock because humansrsuperior made a wonderful vid with it over a decade ago (which has long since vanished from the internet): Hi by Psapp. ("Compulsive: every page I turn I want more. I never know the next thing in store, 'cause you excite me like a locked door does.")

Here is a Sherlock song where the lyrics are right but the sound is (in my opinion) not an easy match with the source material: Curses by The Crane Wives.

And for those headcanon songs that express a character's interior life/emotional truth vividly but are hard to visually storyboard, the two at the top of my list are love songs for my two favorites from SPN, Dean and Cas. Dean's song is a cover of A Modern Leper by Julien Baker. ("And is that you in front of me, coming back for even more of exactly the same? You must be a masochist, to love a modern leper on his last leg.") And Cas's is Two by Sleeping At Last. ("I just want to love you, to love you, to love you well. I just want to learn how, somehow, to be loved myself....I will love you without a single string attached.") Both a perfect summation of, like, 10,000 fics, but neither easy to vid with footage from the show itself.

And to conclude on a Holmesian note, for me one of those headcanon 'this is what he's like on the inside' songs for BBC Sherlock is All I Really Want (Acoustic) by Alanis Morissette.

<33333

[ariyan24]

XLN Audio Addictive Trigger Download

XLN Audio Addictive Trigger is a cutting-edge drum replacement software that revolutionizes the way you manipulate drum sounds. With its intuitive interface and advanced algorithms, Addictive Trigger allows you to seamlessly replace or augment poorly recorded or inconsistent drum tracks, achieving professional-grade results. The software employs Audio Fingerprint technology, analyzing each drum hit to accurately detect its sound characteristics and match it with a vast library of high-quality drum samples.

By downloading XLN Audio Addictive Trigger, you gain access to a wide array of preloaded drum samples, meticulously recorded to cover various musical genres and styles. You can also import your own samples for a personalized touch. The customizable and precise detection settings enable you to tailor the triggering to your specific needs, ensuring a natural and authentic sound. Whether you're a music producer, engineer, or drummer seeking to enhance drum recordings, Addictive Trigger offers a powerful and time-saving solution that significantly elevates your drum production workflow.

[jules-has-notes]

My Mother Told Me — VoicePlay music video

A song with just two short verses repeated over and over could easily become boring. But when you've got a lyrics as powerful as this Icelandic verse and singers as creative as VoicePlay, there's no danger of nodding off. In fact, you may have trouble staying in your seat. Just give them a few minutes before you pack up and head for the longships.

Details:

title: My Mother Told Me (feat. Jose Rosario Jr.)

original performers: Peter Franzén as King Harald & Jasper Pääkkönen as Halfdan the Black in Vikings (2013), s.4,ep.9 "Death All 'Round"

written by: lyrics based on chapter 40 of "Egil's Saga", a poem about Egil Skallagrímsson, likely written by Snorri Sturluson; melody composed by Einar Selvik for Vikings

arranged by: Layne Stein

release date: 23 April 2021

My favorite bits:

Jose kicking things off with a clear, confident tone

passing the bare melody to a new singer with each line

Layne singing in a slight thematically appropriate accent

adding hummed harmonies as Geoff takes his turn

Geoff just becoming a viking war horn with those subharmonic drone notes through the second verse

the increasing rhythmic and tonal complexity of the harmonies as the song progresses

Eli's threatening gesture to illustrate how he plans to ♫ "hew many foe-men" ♫

the series of body percussion hits to close out the second verse

that lush homophony in the first half of the third verse

Layne ramping up the percussion in the first bridge as he starts visibly beatboxing

the quick crescendo and crisp cut-off at the end of the bridge

fierce Eli soaring into the heavens as he asserts his destiny further

Jose and J.None's subtle ascending harmony runs

the slow, staggered canon of ♫ "stand up" ♫

building anticipation with the trio's dissonant chords and an extra bar of Geoff's reverberating bassiness

the speed and audio panning on Layne's percussion in the final bridge section

turning away from the camera to gaze upon their respective domains as they settle into those octave harmonies

Trivia:

This song was suggested by a number of Patreon patrons and other fans, so VoicePlay decided to take a crack at it.

It brought in a fair number of new fans, as well, mostly folks who already enjoyed the Vikings TV series and/or sea shanties in general.

Although many people associate the song with the Assassin's Creed: Valhala video game, it isn't actually featured in it. The game does share several historical characters with the Vikings TV series in which this version originated, though, which is probably the source of the confusion.

This was VoicePlay's first collaboration with Jose. They had mutual friends both through the local Orlando performance community and in his Rockapella bandmates.

They were filmed individually against green screen at the PattyCake studio. Jose documented some of what they got up to behind the scenes. [scroll through for photos and videos]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jose Rosario Jr. (@joserosariojr_11)

The landscape backgrounds were created by Eli using Unreal Engine, software usually used to make video games.

The only additional crew member in the studio was makeup artist Rick Underwood, who applied their tattoos.

The symbol on J.None's forehead is a Norse bind-rune, tónlist, meaning "music". All of the guys have one as part of their makeup somewhere, though the others are a bit less visible.

Some of the guys didn't bother removing their makeup before going home for dinner… or meeting people at a restaurant.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Geoff Castellucci (@geophr3y)

These things happen when you marry an artist, I suppose. 🤭

Their new looks received some mixed responses from friends and family on social media.

(The guy giving Geoff a hard time is his brother Greg, who is a Naval officer like their dad. Boys. 🙄)

A few days after the video's public release, they posted a live excerpt from Geoff on their social media accounts in the hopes that it would lure some more viewers to the full version.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VoicePlay (@thevoiceplay)

This song was a bit of a trend for a while. Several other popular versions were recorded by VoicePlay's friends and colleagues, including The Hound + The Fox (feat. Adam Chance), and The Wellermen.

Peter Franzén, the actor who played King Harald in Vikings, also recorded a version with the original Norse lyrics as a collaboration with Swedish band Hindarfjäll that was released in July of the same year.

Dr. Jackson Crawford, a scholar of Old Norse, provided a brief history of the saga, a more literal translation of the lyrics, and a reading in the original language a few months later. There's even a bonus (more bawdy) shanty from his former sailor neighbor.

The VoicePlay vikings returned almost exactly two years later for a bombastic rendition of "Valhalla Calling".

[steambot-shenanigans]

I’m making a post about some fanbots I haven’t discussed much on here!

I made them originally so I could have more characters for the spg rp server I was on, but I would like to revisit them sometime.

Basically, they are 3 yellow matter bots created by the direct descendants of Rex Marksley. For the purposes of this, yellow matter represents time. Here’s a lore dump about the three of them!

The first bot to be built, representing the past, is Milo Samuel Marksley (Milo coming for the greek word for speak, and Samuel coming from Samuel Morse). He was invented in 1850 by Roy Marksley, the son of the legendary gunslinger himself, who was inspired by the telegraph. It is a very old bot and is very worn down. They keep getting more rusted and straight up loosing parts.

It was built before voicebox technology, so it can only communicate outwardly through the beeps of morse code. Its younger siblings worry that one day it will get so worm down they will stop working alltogether. Its appearance is very rough, having no mouth, or exterior plating, so their simplistic mechanical insides are on display, aside from a few places. Their clothes are very much outdated, it breaks down frequently, and is generally fairly slow. Despite that, they still manage to keep the peace between its bickering siblings.

Its antenna is centered, coming out of the back of it’s head and going through its top-hat. It is curled at the end and has a small ball at its point. It plays percussion (mostly drums and piano).

In December 1906, a second bot was invented by Roy’s youngest daughter, Ray Marksley, inspired by the existence of the radio. Named Echo Reginald Marksley, this bot has stayed in much the same condition as when he was first built. (Echo comes from the greek word for sound, and Reginald comes from the first name of the violinist who played the first song to be broadcast on the radio- O Holy Night).

He doesn’t upgrade well, as his chassis will accept nothing but identical parts and his systems reject any software updates, much to his dismay. He hasn’t gotten any new malfunctions and is a pretty durable and consistent bot. He is most at home making radio broadcasts, as he knows his best feature is his voice. It’s low, velvety and melodious, despite the slight staticky quality that worsens when he is feeling strong emotions. He tends to act confident, composed, and a bit flirtatious, which is how he naturally is on the radio, but is less natural and more facade when talking to people face to face. The biggest hit to his confidence is his physical appearance, as his inventor, Ray, cared more for function than form. So while he was painstakingly programmed with intellect, creativity, great memory storage, and an extensive vocabulary, and the best voice possible for his purpose as a radio bot, his exterior was not afforded the same care. His body is fine when covered in clothing (which it almost always is), but his face is harder to hide. It’s asymmetrical, and the features are not quite right, looking almost more like a radio than a human face in such a way that puts him squarely in the uncanny valley. He once had a listener who fell in love with him because of his voice, and then quickly fell out of love and ran away when he saw the bot’s face.

Because he is quicker and more charismatic than his older sibling, and more experienced than his younger sister, He generally considers himself the leader of the siblings, both in taking care of them, and in matters of the band they are in. His younger sister takes issue with this. If you think he’s abnormally flirtatious normally, you should see how mushy he gets when he genuinely falls in love with someone! Echo has one antenna above his left audio receptor (which really looks nothing like an ear). It can fold down across his head, or retract and extend as needed to broadcast radio signals remarkably far considering he’s not as tall as a broadcast tower. He does occasionally climb things to get better signal if he’s trying to communicate with someone far away.

In 1941, Ray’s eldest and only daughter Rue Marksley goes on to complete the trio with Cathode Ray Marksley. (Cathode comes from the cathode ray tubes original tvs were built with and Ray was her grandmother’s name).

Cathode, or Cathy as everyone calls her is inspired by a tv, and as such has one for a head, her screen almost always showing her pretty face. Rue had wanted to make Cathy since 1930 when she was a little girl and found out about TVs, but due to not being old enough, and the Great Depression, it had to wait. When first built, people didn’t understand why Rue would build a feminine robot, and so Cathy presented as male for a while, about until the early 2000s. Cathy is stylish and modern, always getting their current caretaker to upgrade her with the latest things, whether its color television, more modern displays, more pixels, or a flatter screen. Beyond her chassis, she also cares about the clothes she wears. Though her siblings usually always wear the same thing every day, Cathy is constantly changing her style based on what’s trendy, and she is not stopped by what gender clothes are associated with.

Being the youngest and being spoiled with upgrades and shopping trips has caused her to be a bit bratty and prideful, but she still cares for her siblings even though she can’t go a day without getting into squabbles with Echo. She’s quite flirtatious and even if she complains a lot, she will still get the job done if it’s something that needs doing or is for a friend. She plays electric guitar, rhythm guitar, saxophone, and trumpet. Her antennae are two classic bunny-ear tv antennae that she kept around despite her upgrades so she could still transmit and receive radio signals from her siblings.

The Marksley bots have a radio/video show together of playing music, a combination of old and new, covers and original songs. They mostly live off their family’s fortune, as they aren’t incredibly well known, and they’re not affiliated with the Marksley Weapons Company (though they could be if they wanted to).

Also in case you were wondering, Cathy is a lesbian, Echo is bi, polyamorous and asexual, and Milo is aroace and agender

[elliespectacular]

Hey there! I know you're probably very tired of talking about Sammich on Parole by now but I was wondering whether you happened to know if there was ever an extended version of the dubstep section, whether fan made or created by yourself

The dubstep-sounding track (where Valjean is wobbling and the colors change) was unfortunately made by someone who was later credibly accused of being a child predator, so while technically there is an extended version of it that exists I will never promote it. That's also why the music is replaced in the reanimated version.

The part where Javert and Valjean sing over some beats was made by me using default FL Studio percussion. Very quick-and-dirty and anybody familiar with the software can tell it was a practically-no-effort mix. Same with the reanimated version, though slightly more sophisticated since I've learned a couple things over the past decade! I didn't make an extended version and I don't plan to. I'm not aware of any fan-made ones either, but ultimately it's just Look Down quantized and played over some stock beats so someone could easily make it if they wanted.

[sky-snz]

lazy hillside concept I started in may xx

-

A steep hill, a carpet of green grass. Someone odd and beautiful, lecturing you on the capabilities of video-mapping software as you lay on your stomach. Their tone is clumsy and passionate, and altogether pleasant. You’d catch certain words and the nuances between their dialect and yours, and then a good expectant stare, because perhaps they’d asked something and the words didn’t quite reach you.

They’d chuckle lightly to themself, and the smirk wouldn’t be any less distracting. And the next thing would keep your words in an airtight jar, more soft cycles of breathing, but ragged, wobbly. Then intentional; a deep, lengthy inhale. And then they’d sneeze.

Percussive and quick and as natural as the fresh air, taking up the space it needed.

And you’d make no sound, suddenly attentive. Far gone from hanging off of their every word, free-falling into the pits of hell. Like Dante at the end of Canto V.

“So now you’re listening?”

Blush. Blood rush. They’d draw another breath in the form of a long, whistling sniff, wonder clouding their calculating eyes as they linger on you. They’d blink and cough and begin right where they’d left off, with words of a slightly thicker texture.

“Well. *snff!* As I was saying…”

[davidisen]

Mardi Gras 2025 at Mona's

Mardi is French for Tuesday, and Tuesday means Mona's.

Mona's bartender and chief instigator Aidan poses for a pre-music selfie with Tama. The decorations were by Aidan, the food was by Aidan, the music scene is curated and egged on by Aidan. He's also a world-class photographer who doesn't need to crap up his work with cartooning software.

The second line came in, and the party started.

The house band was Jared Engel on bass, Dennis on reeds, Ben Polcer, in from New Orleans, on trumpet, and the impressive Sam Chess on trombone. Not shown, but appreciatively heard, Bill Malchow on piano and Ahmed Johnson on percussion.

Another reason why I like Mona's.

Kayla Lewis' singing and brother Kerry's bass were the highlight of the second set for me.

[reedsofintimacy]

How smart are you? You’ve given some hints before but how many degrees do you have? What are you studying? What do you want to do in live professionally and passionately? What’s your purpose career wise?

Also hypothetically would you be open to being your wives employee if she had a really successful company?

I actually don't have any degrees! I'm a nerd and smart but also certainly have my flaws.

For context, I was an honors student all growing up. Always tested in the 99th percentile for state aptitude assessments. I got a 33 on my ACT, did well on a bunch of AP tests and went to a non-ivy-league but prestiguous state school in the top 25% of the incoming class and as a university scholar, in an accelerated chemistry PhD program, and lived in an honors community on campus.

I learned to speak some Chinese, became an instructor for a traditional Korean percussion group, led a bible study, tutored students in organic chemistry, and did excellent in my humanities courses writing on topics like a linguistic study of gender conception in viking-era icelandic society and designing an interventional plan to address youth homelessness in the community.

College was the best 2 years of my life, I adored everything about it but I also completely overloaded myself. Turns out you need more than raw brains for success. I was conflicted between prioritizing my studies vs my faith, and had unadressed adhd and anxiety i wasnt ever aware of and didnt know how to cope with. When my 19 credit hours were drowning me, I couldnt own up to the shame of overwhelm and failure, couldnt look my teachers in the eye and ultimately stopped showing up to class and dropped out.

I'm now back in school with a better understanding of myself, an absense of competing priorities and a lot of experience. Im pursuing working in Radiology doing either CT or MRI. A lot of my friends growing up are finishing their PhD theses and I love discussing them with them, but I myself don't have even an associate's to my name.

Career wise, I originally wanted to be a professor of either Chemistry or Materials Science. I debated majoring in Linguistics or teaching English as a second language but i don't speak anything fluent enough to really do that yet. I've since considered pursuing a career in comedy, as a science communicator and journalist or PIO, as a university student advisor, and taught myself to code to maybe pursue programming.

I love learning. Currently I'm putting the most effort into Chinese classical literature. I've done personal units on nutrition, skincare, fitness, urban planning, economics, and some software like adobe illustrator and game dev with Unity and Godot.

For my professional future, I think I'm for now planning on being a travelling technician in healthcare. It'd give me an opportunity to see lots of different places which is a goal of mine and shouldn't have too many commitments keeping me held in place. Maybe I'll finally get over my fear of casual hookups and become a traveling nurse by day and city-to-city clit servicer by night sampling all sorts of delicious lady bits. Idk. For now I'm just focused on what I'm doing in the moment.

In terms of passions I want time and independence to pursue learning as an autodidact. I'd love to maintain access to university libraries and attend lots of public lectures and symposiums if i could live near enough a big university. I want to read about the things that interest me and someday get over my social anxiety and travel to make friends all over the world with fellow nerds.

In terms of working for my wife of course that would be really sexy I'd love to be my partners doting but slutty assistant 💕 depending on the industry i guess. I think something like insurance or real estate is kind of predatory tbh and wouldnt want to be associated with it. But if I didn't have an issue with it I'd adore being my partners employee. Or even just a supportive house husband or trusted personal assistant ❤️❤️ a role i've always thought I have the potential to be quite good at