Always proud to be here, since the momentous mod and API protest days at the orangered site, but we still have work to be done, including fostering discussion and quality fannish content beyond the bounds of the Western part of our globe.

Oh yeah, we are indeed in a sort of calm-before-a-storm moment regarding the Internet itself, as if the proverbial storm, as Emperor pointed out, is now big tech companies and their corporate cohorts, against a cache of genuine humanity at hand.

Still on Touhou 8 (Imperishable Night), and then, vivid/statis, of which its latest tournament quarterfinals tiebreaker just came out and I was far no less impressed with how I managed to almost teeter on gaining any Fails on the Middle Chart, just a few Goods, due to my laptop sometimes overloading on RAM while the application’s running.

As for the former, I’ve been taking small steps on figuring out routes for Keine’s second spell card attack on Normal Difficulty; on Easy, my new run-ender’s on Reisen’s second spell card attack, where shotgun bullets fade in and out whenever those blood red eyes periodically flash.

For what it essentially entails, Analog Obsession’s busterSE does quite a bangin’ job at being a analog-style stereo compressor, with the ability to tilt whatever part of the frequency spectrum you wanna have spread out, in spite of its limitations on the surface. Kicks, snares, pads, even the entire mix, you name it.

Of second, yet equal, mention, is ChowDSP’s Chow Tape Model. which I’ve found so far to be both versatile and not that CPU-hungry. not only at those tape-esque warm flavors, but also at aiding modern, multigenre music compositions. I use them both, or either one of them, depending on the situation, and both are forever free high-quality.

Although not traditionally a DAW, OpenMPT’s currently my main (especially when I use VSTs and soundfonts alongside pure samples for audio rendering duties. Caustic 3, though, that was my first proper DAW, and taught me some basic and advanced techniques in music production, in a fairly-accessible, yet deep-rooted audio-visual interface.

Now that sort of piques my exploration juice, especially with roguelikes/roguelites that have extensive, deep-enough systems and lands to dive into, and the bit about resolving fights and incidents with practical real-life measures and techniques common to the usual adventurer, instead of the usual HP- and MP-decreasing system seen in most other games… alright, into my wishlist it goes.

I first encountered this rather soothing ambient-esque theme through, of all things, a particular mashup with “Beach, 7AM” from OXENFREE (the latter composed by scntfc), years ago. Might take a deep listen through its entirety some time.

You again? You have activated my flamin’ spellcard attack, Greg!

For the record, I did reply with something akin to interconnected bamboo rafts in the middle of the ocean, with some tethered to seashore docks and cliffs.