raid/ludcrousfalcon review

1 files changed, 19 insertions, 24 deletions

diff --git a/album/i-warned-you-about-stairs.yaml b/album/i-warned-you-about-stairs.yaml
index d8362d4a..612ab8ac 100644
--- a/album/i-warned-you-about-stairs.yaml
+++ b/album/i-warned-you-about-stairs.yaml
@@ -148,19 +148,19 @@ Referenced Tracks:
 - track:highscore-panda-eyes-teminite
 - Moonsetter
 Commentary: |-
-    <i>Raid:</i> ([YouTube description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCJ2Z0HOSLs), excerpt)
+    <i>Raid:</i> ([YouTube description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCJ2Z0HOSLs), excerpt, 4/13/2024)
 
     It's April 13!!!! Here's the Homestuck tune you were promised. I present to you Out of Breath, a tune I worked pretty hard on. It's got real electric guitars, a little chiptune intro, some intense drumming, a lot of quoted material from songs I like, and an 80-bar piano solo. There's a LOT of piano in this tune. It's very piano-centric, for reasons apparent to anyone who's ever read the comic.
 
     This is the first of the three new tracks to be released on my upcoming compilation album of all my old Homestuck music, titled "I Warned You About Stairs". The album will come soon-ish.
 
-    <i>Raid:</i> ([personal blog](https://raidsrc.me/content/posts/6-out-of-breath), album progress and commentary, 4/12/2024)
+    <i>Raid:</i> (["album progress, out of breath, and more"](https://raidsrc.me/content/posts/6-out-of-breath) blog post, 4/12/2024)
 
     <big>ASDFJASDFASDFAKSDF UDPATE AGSDHDFGJHKL</big>
 
     Yo! Update time. I've finally begun listening to my old Homestuck tracks and polishing the mixes to get them ready for <i>I Warned You About Stairs</i>. I've got some preliminary mixes done. And lemme tell ya, they sound so much better now that I actually somewhat understand what I'm doing. I released the first versions of these tunes years ago. Some I released as far back as 2020 or 2021. And back then I didn't know a damn thing about mixing. I was just recording myself playing the instruments and then smushing all the tracks together and exporting the whole mess and calling it a day. It's not like I'm a mixing gneius now, either, but at least now I know how to work a highpass filter (at the very least!). And I understand the basic principles of mixing multitrack recordings. So expect the remastered versions of these tunes that will appear on the album to sound a lot better, a lot clearer, a lot smoother.
 
-    So. "Out of Breath". It's a tune about [[flash:3696|that one time John got stabbed through the chest by Bec Noir and died.]] He came back to life soon after, but for a brief moment, he was... Out of Breath. <i>cue uproarious applause</i>
+    So. "Out of Breath". It's a tune about [[flash:3696|that one time]] John got stabbed through the chest by Bec Noir and died. He came back to life soon after, but for a brief moment, he was... Out of Breath. <i>cue uproarious applause</i>
 
     This tune was a lot of fun to make. It took me forever, and so much blood and sweat and tears was shed. But I'm proud of the end result. A lot of stuff went wrong because I tried to expand my horizons. You know how it is. I'm always wanting to try something new, and grow, and learn, and all that jazz. And that usually results in me making a lot of mistakes and getting a lot of stuff wrong and learning from the experience. I've never incorporated electric guitars into a tune this extensively, for one. Mostly because I only recently learned to play electric guitar at all. Recording guitars is hard in ways I wasn't prepared for. Fret buzz, string noise, feedback, amp hum, improper muting... ugh. Guitar is hard. Mixing is hard too. Music in general is hard!
 
@@ -177,8 +177,7 @@ Commentary: |-
 
     Now let's talk about the future, about the other upcoming tracks, and about the album's release. As is the case with most things in my life... I didn't really plan this out. I just kinda announced that I would be compiling all my old Homestuck music, applying a fresh coat of paint, remastering it all, and composing a couple new tunes, and then wrapping all of it up into a nice neat little package and releasing it as an album. My first ever "real" album, I guess. I think I will shoot for a release date of 10/25. Because what other date would I possibly pick? Plus I've got to give myself time to get everything ready. I still need to figure a lot of stuff out. I'd rather give myself more time and get everything right, and not rush it and mess it all up.
 
-    On 6/12 I will release the next of my newly composed tunes. This is the tune that a lot of people seemed to get excited for. It was the tune that played during the announcement/teaser video that hyped people up! What's it called? What kind of tune is it? What does the whole track sound like? You'll just have to wait until June 12th.
-
+    On 6/12 I will release the next of my newly composed tunes. This is the tune that a lot of people seemed to get excited for. It was the tune that played during the announcement/teaser video that hyped people up! What's it called? What kind of tune is it? What does the whole track sound like? You'll just have to wait [[track:i-warned-you-about-stairs|until June 12th]].
 ---
 Track: I Warned You About Stairs!!!!!!!!
 Duration: 5:51
@@ -190,15 +189,15 @@ URLs:
 Referenced Tracks:
 - Atomyk Ebonpyre
 - Endless Climb
-- track:routine-silent-siren
 - track:re-re
+- track:routine-silent-siren
 - Love Theme from Spartacus
 - track:synthesis-tn-shi
 - track:ill-face-myself
 - Showtime (Original Mix)
 - Crying for Rain
 Commentary: |-
-    <i>Raid:</i> ([YouTube description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbt75VrB9YA), excerpt)
+    <i>Raid:</i> ([YouTube description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbt75VrB9YA), excerpt, 6/12/2024)
 
     It's 6/12. Have some Homestuck music. From the composition to the arrangement to the performance to the mixing to the everything, I really like how this one turned out.
 
@@ -208,7 +207,7 @@ Commentary: |-
 
     The guitar solo isn't very fast or flashy. I'm still a guitar newbie, mind you. But I spent a long time practicing, and I played it with heart!
 
-    <i>Raid:</i> ([personal blog](https://raidsrc.me/content/posts/7-iwyas-tune), album progress and commentary, 6/8/2024)
+    <i>Raid:</i> (["i warned you!"](https://raidsrc.me/content/posts/7-iwyas-tune) blog post, 6/8/2024)
 
     <big>i warned you!</big>
 
@@ -224,15 +223,13 @@ Commentary: |-
 
     I played this one to a 150 BPM click. Sometimes I like doing that and sometimes I don't. I usually prefer to play freely, without a click, which makes playing feel better in some ways and worse in others. It definitely helped around 0:18, when I just started spamming notes on the snare, floor tom, and bass drum as fast as I could, knowing I could easily hop back on beat because I had a click in my ear. That's something that's a lot harder to do well without a click. I dunno if I could do it well without a click.
 
-    And all these J-rock quotes! It's now very clear how much J-rock has been influencing me lately. I've always kinda sorta liked J-rock and anime music ever since I was in high school, but it's only recently (over the past 2-3 years) that I've gradually come to REALLY love it. I've watched my [fair share of anime](https://raidsrc.notion.site/Frequently-Asked-Questions-cd033f8c10334d298e9418ec117e7d91#89a16353cffe4f778cabbc885618a182), but it's mostly older stuff. I haven't watched a lot of new shows. So if you can recommend me a new anime to watch (that's actually good, because I'm not wasting my time watching some fucking garbage), go for it in my YouTube comments somewhere.<br>
-    And say that this blog post sent you there.
-
-    The next and last new tune from this album will come out sometime between now and 10/25. It will be quite different than what you've been getting, and yet, somehow, sort of similar. Stay tuned for that.
+    And all these J-rock quotes! It's now very clear how much J-rock has been influencing me lately. I've always kinda sorta liked J-rock and anime music ever since I was in high school, but it's only recently (over the past 2-3 years) that I've gradually come to REALLY love it. I've watched my [fair share of anime](https://raidsrc.notion.site/Frequently-Asked-Questions-cd033f8c10334d298e9418ec117e7d91#89a16353cffe4f778cabbc885618a182), but it's mostly older stuff. I haven't watched a lot of new shows. So if you can recommend me a new anime to watch (that's actually good, because I'm not wasting my time watching some fucking garbage), go for it in my YouTube comments somewhere. And say that this blog post sent you there.
 
-    <i>Raid:</i> ([personal blog](https://raidsrc.me/content/posts/7-iwyas-tune), blogpost edit, 6/12/2024)
+    The next and last new tune from this album will come out sometime between now and 10/25. It will be quite different than what you've been getting, and yet, somehow, sort of similar. [[track:on-still-wings|Stay tuned for that.]]
 
-    You hear the [[track:ill-face-myself|Persona OST]] quote in the guitar solo? Fuckin, sick, right?? Just letting you know, I've never actually played the game. The reason I know the tune is because I played a <i>Five Night's at Freddy's</i> parody fangame called <i>Five Nights at Fuckboy's</i> in 2016 or so, and that tune from Persona was used as battle music. And for some reason, I remember the melody of the tune, 8 years later!
+    <i>Raid:</i> (["i warned you!"](https://raidsrc.me/content/posts/7-iwyas-tune), blog post edit, 6/12/2024)
 
+    You hear the [[track:ill-face-myself|Persona OST quote]] in the guitar solo? Fuckin, sick, right?? Just letting you know, I've never actually played the game. The reason I know the tune is because I played a <i>Five Night's at Freddy's</i> parody fangame called <i>Five Nights at Fuckboy's</i> in 2016 or so, and that tune from Persona was used as battle music. And for some reason, I remember the melody of the tune, 8 years later!
 ---
 Track: On Still Wings
 Duration: 8:24
@@ -247,7 +244,7 @@ Referenced Tracks:
 - Bec Noir
 - Another Medium
 Commentary: |-
-    <i>Raid:</i> ([YouTube description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnrl2l3kZOw), excerpt)
+    <i>Raid:</i> ([YouTube description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnrl2l3kZOw), excerpt, 10/12/2024)
 
     I present to you On Still Wings, the tenth track and final new composition on I Warned You About Stairs, the compilation album of many of the Homestucky tunes I've made over the years (coming October 25th!!!).
 
@@ -257,11 +254,11 @@ Commentary: |-
 
     I've also got a video with more information about the album coming out at some point. I may release that video before or after I release this video. I dunno.
 
-    <i>Raid:</i> ([personal blog](https://raidsrc.me/content/posts/8-on-still-wings), album progress and commentary, 10/12/2024)
+    <i>Raid:</i> (["on still wings + album progress"](https://raidsrc.me/content/posts/8-on-still-wings) blog post, 10/12/2024)
 
     <big>An egret descends on still wings.</big>
 
-    I just dropped On Still Wings, the final new track on I Warned You About Stairs. I've wanted to make a track like this for a while. Tough, angry, villainous, and a little ominous. I really like how it turned out, especially considering that I jumped into recording the instrumental parts with only a half-baked idea of how I wanted the tune to go, and composed and arranged most of it as I went along &#1F635;. That's not actually a good idea, by the way. You should have your shit planned out before you get to recording. Don't do what I did &#1F635; &#1F635; &#1F635;
+    I just dropped On Still Wings, the final new track on I Warned You About Stairs. I've wanted to make a track like this for a while. Tough, angry, villainous, and a little ominous. I really like how it turned out, especially considering that I jumped into recording the instrumental parts with only a half-baked idea of how I wanted the tune to go, and composed and arranged most of it as I went along 😵. That's not actually a good idea, by the way. You should have your shit planned out before you get to recording. Don't do what I did 😵😵😵
 
     I'd wanted to make a tune like this for a while, and I was 90% there, but what really gave me that last 10% of motivation and pushed me over the edge was when a friend introduced me to an album called ["Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven"](https://godspeedyoublackemperor.bandcamp.com/album/lift-your-skinny-fists-like-antennas-to-heaven) by a group called Godspeed You! Black Emperor. There's only 4 tracks on it, but the tracks are long, dark, atmospheric, moody, and god they sound cool. I was especially blown away by the buildup to around 16:00 on track #2, titled ["Static."](https://godspeedyoublackemperor.bandcamp.com/track/static) The sense of urgency, the gradual acceleration, the harsh timbres of the instruments.. all colliding and crashing, washing over me like waves against a cliffside. Shit blew my mind. After hearing that album I thought "alright, it's go time" and got down to business.
 
@@ -273,7 +270,7 @@ Commentary: |-
 
     You are horizontal.<br>
     I am vertical.<br>
-    We divide the heavenly bodies.<br>
+    We divide the heavenly bodies<br>
     And the four directions between us.<br>
     We come from the place of becoming,<br>
     Pass by here,<br>
@@ -286,13 +283,13 @@ Commentary: |-
     Quietly make an appointment,<br>
     Climb to far apart hillsides,<br>
     And look back from the summits.<br>
-    A pure white feather float down.<br>
+    A pure white feather floats down.<br>
     As the feather floats down,<br>
     Oh, at that moment<br>
     We both hope that happiness<br>
     May also be like a white bird,<br>
     Quietly descending<br>
-    We hope-<br>
+    We hope—<br>
     Even though birds<br>
     Are creatures with wings.
 
@@ -311,8 +308,6 @@ Commentary: |-
 
     I plan for this to be the last Homestuck tune I make for a while, because I've been pumping out Homestuck related stuff every single 4/13, 6/12, and 10/25 for like, 7 years straight, and I would like to wholeheartedly dedicate my time and effort to some other stuff that I've put on the back burner for a while.
 
-    But fear not! Homestuck is special to me, Homestuck music especially, being one of the primary motivating factors behind my decision to start recording my own music as a teenager all those years ago. The melodies and instrumentation and styles of Homestuck composers have become a permanent part of my musical vocabulary.<br>
-    Homestuck has inspired me endlessly. It'll always be a part of whatever I do!<br>
-    Nothing can change that.
+    But fear not! Homestuck is special to me, Homestuck music especially, being one of the primary motivating factors behind my decision to start recording my own music as a teenager all those years ago. The melodies and instrumentation and styles of Homestuck composers have become a permanent part of my musical vocabulary. Homestuck has inspired me endlessly. It'll always be a part of whatever I do! Nothing can change that.
 
-    I'm pretty sure I'll return to making more Homestuck music sooner rather than later. I'm just tryna take a short break from that for a while so I can compose other kinds of music and release other kinds of videos.
\ No newline at end of file
+    I'm pretty sure I'll return to making more Homestuck music sooner rather than later. I'm just tryna take a short break from that for a while so I can compose other kinds of music and release other kinds of videos.