A small news update on what I'm doing this week, and what's to come!

TLDR: AIM judging finished! See @RealFaction's newspost for details. New song released; changes to upcoming planned releases. Launched Patreon per your suggestions! Now also judging NGUAC with @TaintedLogic and crew through Saturday! ... I mean, Sunday!

Next up in a series of newsposts:

• AIM announcements -- where to get the album/artwork, playlists, links for posterity
• Upcoming projects, artist news, possible stem releases and sample packs
• NGRC roster update -- and huge thanks to everyone who turned out for AIM this year!

Complete:

• Patreon, just rolled out this month so we can get working on the projects YOU want!
• NGUAC judging, round complete Saturday, 77 submissions
• Art Appreciation post, for @HeadmistressSeven

Status Updates -- The Skinny

A lot has happened since last update, some of which I'm saving a FP post for, but now that AIM Judging is concluded, I've got a couple minutes to sit down and talk.

Let's start with my latest release, Since We Fell Apart. Full details in the track description, with plugins and stuff. Pretty much the first track I've been able to render since January, when I managed to track and record Re:Reveris, a metal cover of @Troisnyx's gripping original, which you can find here, and I do intend to revisit.

For the past year, I've been more concerned with just getting mixes out there rather than properly attending to the finer aspects of music like good mastering simply because the risk of corrupting files or needing to rescue my system with a repair disc after a crash was starting to outweigh the benefits of my usual 5 beta-mixes and masters, and really, had I known it was going to get as bad as it has, I would have skipped out on copping most of my gear earlier this year and gotten a new computer somewhere around Cyber Monday.

What had started with the occasional switch-off rendering larger files in Sony Vegas two years ago eventually turned into crashing on mixdowns in Mixcraft 7, both of which I wrote off as buggy software until they became more and more frequent, occasionally whenever playing the occasional PC version of say, Mass Effect 1, accessing videos from the hard drive, or even something as simple as longer YouTube videos. I thought this may have been my RAM at one point due to usage statistics, so I upgraded to maximum capacity and began testing my other components, which all turned out mysteriously fine! I mean, video card underperforms, but it's a Lenovo T410. It is what it is.

Everything was fine, or so I thought, until one day I made the mistake of trying to render one of my upcoming projects, Open Your Heart, one too many times. After about six tries with my computer fainting at about 50% of this relatively modest track, even with every track already rendered to .wav, I restarted my computer to find an error code. Hard drive failure.

Funny, since I'd scanned the drive, kept it clean -- no reports of bad sectors or crash reports, nothing.

Needless to say, I downloaded a rescue disc program via my phone, burned it on another computer, and fixed it, including reinstalling Windows and restoring the boot options, since that also somehow was corrupted. Microsoft denied my Windows product key at that point, which tells me my PC was hacked by the seller before I bought it; possibly even had this same problem.

Suffice to say though that I've been unable to fix the underlying problem, and issues have been gradually compounding. I'm not copping a $100 dollar Windows disc with product key for a dead computer when I can get Windows 10 pre-installed with all the bells and whistles on a new PC, and until recently, projects have been sitting on the back burner as a result.

However, this week I've been fortunate enough to be able to borrow @LittleMisfortune's laptop, install my plugin suite to her DAW, etc. This isn't going to be a one time thing, either, meaning I should be able to render projects not quite frequently, but more often. Now, since I actually have something to offer my fans, I've set up a Patreon with a little more detail on what's going on and some upcoming releases.

From now on, I do plan to get a little more organized and start releasing tracks to my Patrons first, anywhere from a couple days to a week ahead of time, just because it gives me more time to take care of what I need without micromanaging a hot-off-the-press release, using my hours unwisely, if you catch my drift. There will be all kinds of benefits as I'm able to provide, like stems, .wav files, tutorials, and more, so hit that Super-Subscribe button and don't be shy! Everything is up on a pay-per-project basis, no monthly charges, and you can cancel any time.

The whole idea of this project isn't just to get around to pulling old projects out of the pipeline, though. My end-goal is to get this show on the road, to where it's financially feasible to start producing the content you want. Whether that's commissions, covers, or creator resources, I've got the time to spare, and with your help, I can put it to good use.

Anyway, thanks a million for all your support over the past decade I've been making music, guys. I wouldn't be here without you! Subscribe and lemme know any suggestions you have for updates to come in the comment box!

~Adrean

Subfam: @BlueAlpha14 @CyberDevil @littlemisfortune @maorrichan @RealFaction @Xtrullor