Wowzers, we out here doing numbers haha.

Not that that's what I'm here for, or I would be on Twitter haha. NG is hard to get traction on due to sheer size and lack of traditional algorithmic content promotion.

But that means you can at the least be assured that you're reaching real people, who are here for real content and real interaction, not just oodles of hearts and NPC shit, and that's awesome.

So as a little celebration, I wanted to do a survey.

The idea is not just for me to read your answers and reply. That's cool and all, but it'd be even cooler if everyone started a spreadsheet. In it, take note of what your peers are doing -- the stuff that interests you -- and how best to contact them! (So you can make friends in your interest groups!)

It's kinda hard to do that when you don't know or can't remember all the most interesting details about a person at a glance. So for that I got 5 questions.

1. How did you find me?
2. What do you do on NG (or just the internet in general) that you think others might enjoy?
3. Your favorite Newgrounds submission. Doesn't have to be a link. The name is fine.
4. Three things about you no one would guess from looking at your profile.
5. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Rest assured I'll be taking note of these and adding to my existing spreadsheets!

Now for the answers! I'll go first.

1. Uh, I was born and looked in the mirror. Just kidding. I probably stumbled across one of your replies in my feed or the forums. Or maybe you DM'ed me with "You're a mod, please help me with my audio stuff" lol.
2. What might people wanna check out on my profile? Well, I mean, look at my oodles of audio. That's like, my whole life outside of my cat, my girlfriend, MMOs, long walks, and late night drives. Most of my songs are either written about things that actually happened to me, or things I saw. But I do love the occasional absurdist shitpost.
3. My favorite submission is a tie between Newgrounds Buddy and Newgrounds Sim 2.0. These are relics of my childhood, the good old days, man! I also have a softspot for Monsters' Den, though the full version of that was only on Kongregate.
4. I'm actually a girl, I'm a disabled vet, and I have IMDb Credits to my name. XD
5. In five years, I'd like to be doing this music promo thing right, have my content schedule consistent. Probably still doing metal and DnB covers of every song I ever liked, especially of t.a.t.u -- and with enough income to pay for the licenses for them comfortably. Definitely working on having my studio gear set up, settling down, and starting to record videos with my camera, so you guys can see how silly I look recording vocals.

For real, I got that camcorder a year ago and I did take some videos -- mostly just events I went to -- but none from the studio because I either didn't feel like doing my hair that day, or my "office time" was laying in bed with my laptop.

I've been moving around a LOT the last few months. Not exactly easy to set up a nice shot for recording when you're living out of a suitcase and your room looks like a storage unit.

Anyway, that's about it. You guys know how I can get, so before I go on and on forever, I'm gonna have to STOP and get back to work, lol.

Catch you later guys. Love you bunches! <3

-A

PS: AS A BONUS, ASK ME ANYTHING! I'm feeling it, Mr. Krabs

Hey guys, I just wanted to write something short so that everyone doesn't think my world is ending.

First, we managed to save mom's house. Awesome. Mom sends her hugs and a thousand thank yous to the folks who donated $40 to her expenses. Even that little bit helped!

Second thing, my godmother/aunt passed away about two weeks ago. I took some time off to be with mom, but I'm back. A little sad, but making it. Usually I'm the strong silent type with stuff like this, at least on the outside, but as I've gotten older, it's really started to hit.

So many of you have sent me kind words and been an ear when I needed to talk. In this world where we're so disconnected from people that actually care, it means a lot. Thanks guys.

Third, the winners of the Re-Remix Me competition have officially been announced, and pending payouts! Congratulations to @KI1, @G2961, @anthonyragus, @3manonmusic, @Jotrocken and @Aalasteir for making it through this wild ride and surprising finish.

Contest Playlists

And finally, my usual sample projects will have yet more brothers and sisters added to the pile.

Gonna be working on a vocal pack and per Aalasteir's request some quirky, distorted drums and FX. Those might just end up in the next update of Adreanaline, since I tend to dip into my own samples for these a lot.

I have several music projects waiting to hit the net. Couple collab pieces here, several covers there. Also steadily cracking away at getting the book presentable enough to make it an open document.

And soon this bad boy should come out on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube Music. Probably about 2 weeks. Meanwhile, here's lyric video.

Download, and disparage here:

Seriously, all comments welcome. Good or bad, your input has helped make me into the producer I am today, which is awesome, since music is the most joy I've had in life.

Anyway, I've gotta go to bed at some point. I'll catch you guys later, and hopefully with even better news. Wish me luck with moving over the next few months, and pray none of my studio breaks haha.

Love you guys!

~A

Hey guys, I dunno how to tell you this, but life is kicking me in my non-existent balls right now. It's looking like I'll be moving between August and October. Not exactly news, since I planned to do that anyway, keyword being eventually.

I'm still going to be judging Re-Remix Me and shooting for NGUAC, but if you're wondering where I've been the past week, I've been packing slash working up cash for rent and deposit... and I have some bad news.

I'm gonna be hard to reach for a bit. On top of moving, I found out my mom is about to lose her house to taxes.

Mom has been behind on them since she got laid off, her husband died, and my grandma got seriously ill, needing constant and expensive medical care up until her death, which was also her burden to manage.

Mom's up in years. She's technically supposed to be tax exempt, but she lacks one last payment before the exemption kicks in. Meanwhile, some rich asshole bought her house in the tax sale. Meaning, if she can't afford to pay her last round of property taxes, she'll be on the street.

I can't let that happen.

Without naming names, this property sniping crook has already taken two houses from my family. He's known for it, snapping up homes from the poor and unfortunate and renting them out for more than they're worth.

My mom doesn't deserve that. She bought this house from her grandparents and worked hard for every penny. It was the first thing that was truly hers, that really meant something. I'm not letting him have it.

Like the rest of my family, it's been through a lot. For 50 years, someone has always been there -- growing up, planting flowers, leaving treasure, burying beloved pets, coming, going, and yes, dying.

It's been struck by lightning (three times), burned down, rebuilt, swarmed with bees, sacrificed a porch awning to appease a tornado, and been the site of many, many fond memories -- like Verniece's violets, which bloom every so often.

Verniece worked for my great-grandma at the dry-cleaners and cared for my mom and her brothers. Our families were very, very close, which was scandalous, because our town was still pretty racist back then.

Verniece died before I was born, but my mother talks about her and her beautiful violets often. She and her children were frequent guests.

Several generations later, everybody's kids are gone, and mom is old. She's struggling to hold onto the only thing she has left: her home, where she lives with my disabled uncle. They have nowhere to go and no family (besides me) who can help.

So, I'm trying to make an extra $1000 doing gig work before the end of the month. That's what I'll need to make things happen AND cover my own ass.

The kind of hours I'll need to pull it off are brutal, so just suffice to say I'll be extra, extra busy.

As a hail mary, in case there is some other catastrophe, my girlfriend has been looking at aid programs for mom. She also made a GoFundMe, which will go directly to her expenses.

I'm also looking at getting a loan to be triple sure she's covered. Though I dread going into debt, knocking out her last year of house taxes will mean she can support herself for as long as she's with us and remain financially independent. For as many people as she's fed and clothed through the years, I feel like I owe her that much.

But please don't feel obligated to give. You guys have helped me out so much already with my car situation. It's because of you that I can even do this. I just needed to finally let it all out. So thank you again!

The only thing I'm worried about is...

Depending on how things go for the next couple months, the prize money for Re-Remix Me may be delayed or partially distributed until September/October. I don't want that to happen, but @KI1, @G2961, @anthonyragus, @Jotrocken, @monsanto64, @3manonmusic -- be advised. I will absolutely get that done though.

PS, you have until the 11th to submit your tracks!

Just... Jeez, what a crazy year.

I moved twice. Looking at moving again. Girlfriend's tires exploded right after replacing my own. Still haven't fixed my car, which is... not exactly thriving, but still driving. Then my girlfriend got run over during a delivery, by her own car. It took out the garage and pinned her to the customer's vehicle.

Absolutely nuts.

PSA: Buyer beware, insurance companies are SUPER crafty about not doing the job you pay them for. If you don't have ride-share in your policy, they will not cover anything, even if your accident is only tertiarily related to ride-share activities.

I think that should be illegal. Unless there's a passenger in your car, picking up Taco Bell for some rando is no different than doing it for yourself. Thank God for that poor lady's house insurance, or my gf be out $1000 for the garage.

Anyway, I'm still working on as many projects as I can manage while holding down the bills.

I would have been utterly screwed without you guys. Just, I'm really grateful to still be left standing after everything.

The big things I'm working on are soundfonts for AFMD in my spare time. Programming them consistently is a challenge, but we're making it. I'm renaming the samples to better work in polyphone, organizing the chops and grooves, adding some new cymbals, and cleaning everything up, including cutting and pasting releases with iZotope's repair tools.

Since the original pack was something like 400 samples, and I've added more since, it's gonna take a while, but it's getting there.

I've also started condensing my book down into more easily digestible sections and ironing out tables of contents and so on for each big section. I'm considering making it an open document, so y'all can read it while I work -- just in case it does end up taking a year or longer to write!

But that's about it. Without repeating stuff I said last time around, at least!

PS, happy late 4th. Here's a picture of a kitten that jumped out in front of my roommate's car and is now officially ours.

Hey guys, just a quick update. I'm taking a few days vacation from active comms like Discord and/or non-urgent messages until the 10th, when I'll be judging Re-Remix Me Comp.

I'm currently working on making some soundfont instruments and sample packs, writing on my book, and teaching myself to format Google Docs. So a lot of drafting and dinking with programs.

I will have quite a few more freebies to share very soon, starting with these:

In YELLOW are NEW soundfonts in draft. GREEN represents finished work.

I've also been working on some samples

Peep the only full sample archive of Wave Race 64 on the internet -- or at least within 14 pages of every search engine I've tried.

If it looks like everything, that's because it is. All the beloved announcer lines (male and female), rider callouts, crashes, splashes, and more await.

GET WAVE RACE 64 SOUNDFONT ON GUMROAD!

Previously, this soundfont/sample rip was not available ANYWHERE. The few files that I could find were partial sound and SFX rips, or sf2s that were plain corrupt. Wanting to have a copy of these samples for myself, I decided to make my own.

It's not perfect, but unlike the alternatives, it has all the sounds, and it works.

***I would like to improve on this library some day. If you come across any information about the synthesizers and equipment used for this soundset, let me know!***

Sneak peek inside another sample project I'm working on:

Thanks to the lovely folks behind N64 Tools, chiptune.app, and XModits, I was able to cobble together the XM files from another of my favorite N64 games, Top Gear Rally.

My objective is a bit different here, as the samples are highly compressed and garbled -- but the XM files (sample cue data) played nice in MilkyTracker. I knew they could be made usable, so I spent a day batch converting the files via XModits to wav.

Then, I upscaled each sample using the minimum required Audacity version (3.7.1) to run OpenVino AI plugins, editing away any resulting hisses and shrieks in iZotope RX.

Note: XModits can be used to rip virtually any tracker files. Should you find any .xm files over on Chiptune App, which is a MASSIVE searchable videogame music and mod library, you can acquire some really cool samples!

I have spent several hours in the last few days alone sifting through cool tracker music on here. It's a jungle head's dream!

Other Sample Projects

Cyclick Guitars

Between my old hard drive, BTDigg, Johnny Pumphandle's index, and seeking after archives of specific Computer Music Magazine, which I have written about (see BBS >> Audio >> Lost Media), I was able to recover some awesome sample sets from Cyclick Samples (now defunct).

These were given out for free on coverdiscs of CMM and various other promotional packs. They are old, old samples, but sound good as new!

My favorites of these were a spacey guitar lead, multisampled, and a beautiful set of spicy guitar chords, which I made into multiple patches with velocity switches. These soundfonts are 90% finished. I may need to edit the gain for each velocity layer and adjust scaling.

Creating the soundfont solved the main problem I had with the latter chord library -- not knowing which chords or inversions to pick, and which flow together. I adjusted the root keys, so that they can play together chromatically, harmoniously, and most importantly easily.

In short, it's going to be a lush, gorgeous set of patches, a real treat!

I also found a range of bass oneshots with slap, pop, and finger articulations, which I expanded in pitch and number round robins using Melodyne. Soundfont is 50% complete. I still need to pitch, splice, and program the pops, and then apply loop data for the many, many samples.

Do I expect the resulting sf2 to fully replace a proper Kontakt or AmpleSound bass? No, the one thing it lacks due to sforzando conversion errors is custom releases.

But it's usable. In fact, I might double up a patch with velocity ranges to get some of these pops and slaps. You can never have enough bass articulations.

Simple Kick, Snare, and Stick

These are quality of life patches I'm making for myself. They include the processed custom layered snare and kick I made for my last single, YOU. Nothing fancy. A few velocity layers and full keyboard range for ease of pitch shifting.

I did these as practice runs for the real challenge, attempting to convert my Free Metal Drums to soundfonts!

No, I haven't done it yet, but since the library is due for an update, I suppose I can start small and work my way to the full set!

I'll be starting soundfonts after I'm finished cleaning sections of samples. I noticed some bleed and room tone here and there that needs to be removed first.

I plan to follow these up with a double-tracked guitar library by the name Poor Man's Metal Guitar, or PMMG for short.

This library is still in the alpha stage, with the same release issues as Service Bass, and some other issues with Nyquist frequency related aliasing.

That's probably on me throwing my favorite amplifiers on the samps. So, this one is about 25% done. I'll see if I can use the melodyne trick to get around it. It worked really nice with the bass lib.

And that's about it for sample project updates! More to come soon!

This and all future projects are free thanks to support from viewers like you.

Thank you: @AED-4, @BrandyBuizel, @CrimsonKero, @Cyberdevil, @Droid, @FarFromSundown, @liljim, @jimmythecaterpillar, @KI1, @Mariogd, @MATRVG, @TeffyD and the Mall Music Collab Team, @theOve, @TomFulp, @Whirlguy and the Newgrounds 30th Anniversary Collab team, @zeroizerozero, and @Yatsufusa

https://ko-fi.com/adr3_n

The petition for major labels to drop the 78 RPM Lawsuit against Internet Archive has officially reached 88K signatures. A stay in the case has extended proceedings until June 4th. Awesome.

Petition: https://www.change.org/p/defend-the-internet-archive

I encourage those of you who have yet to sign or record a message to do so. For those who don't know, labels are suing Internet Archive for hosting a collection of dusty, degraded 78 RPM records, which are primarily accessed by students researching antiquated recording technologies -- not music pirates.

They pose NO harm to major record labels, any more than finding said records in an unmarked box at a flea market. None of these records are in demand for their degraded state. They are not for sale, with rare exceptions that may be remastered on DSPs. In short, no one outside of researchers and audio repair coding techs are looking at them.

The 78 RPM collection is yet another flimsy excuse in a line of many to shut down the Archive itself, which hosts a wealth of educational, software, textual, and historical information you cannot find anywhere else. Read more about the Archive, implications of this lawsuit, meaning, and consequences here. (Source: Yatsufusa)

Below is the update from Internet Archive.

88,000 strong—and growing. Thank you!

Internet Archive (archive​.​org)

San Francisco, CA, United States

May 20, 2025

We’re blown away by the response to our campaign: 88,000 people (and counting!) have signed the open letter to Defend the Internet Archive and Protect the Wayback Machine.

That’s 88,000 voices standing up for preservation, access to knowledge, and the idea that libraries should be able to do the critical work of preserving culture—even in the digital age.

Your support couldn’t come at a more important time. The judge presiding over the lawsuit has extended a stay while the parties continue to work towards a resolution. The new stay extends through June 4th.

What’s next?

This is a critical moment as we head towards June 4th. And you can help.

🎯 Let’s get to 100,000 signatures.

Together, we’ve built something powerful—let’s keep going.

Invite 5 friends to sign the open letter today:

👉 https://www.change.org/p/defend-the-internet-archive

Thank you again for being part of this movement. The Internet Archive exists because people like you believe that the past shouldn’t disappear—and that the tools to preserve it are worth fighting for.

Onward,

—The Internet Archive Team

What have I been using the Archive for lately?

In a word, recovering lost media. My recent fascination has been with Computer Music Magazine, a publication which ran in the UK from 1998 to 2024. Sister to Future Music Magazine, it came with cover CDs, lots of tutorials and sound design tips. Often, it included software, product demos, plugins, samples, and full video walkthroughs.

Through this magazine, I discovered a pack by Cyclick Samples, now defunct, and I became obsessed.

Here are some issues I found containing their samples.

And here is a 2009 magazine from Computer Music preserved on the Archive. I couldn't find this stuff ANYWHERE, not even on eBay, and I am still looking for more issues.

These are the kinds of things I look for -- legacy software, quality samples, and magazines no longer available in print. These resources help me to make my own instruments, samples, and music production articles. In fact, they are my primary source, and favorite rabbit holes.

What do you use the Archive for?

Hey guys, me again. First, thanks for rocking with me through this insane season of my life. As I mentioned, my car situation is under control. No more pesky loans frustrating attempts to keep a roof over my head. That's the best news I've had since 2022, thanks to you, the Newgrounds community!

About $900 was graciously covered by your donations. That's more than anyone has helped me in my entire life. I do still have repairs to make, since the shop didn't fix my original problem, but now I can focus on saving for it while I work on other projects. Oh, and eat more than just $1 macaroni and hotdogs. Wow.

Second, thanks to everyone who has taken time to support @Porter, who recently had an accident and outrageous repair bill. Porter is a fantastic digital artist, open for commissions to make ends meet!

Some of Porter's recent art:

Now for your regularly scheduled programming: Important events and free music producer stuff!

Top of the list, the Re-Remix Me Competition is accepting auditions until May 15th! You may have seen it on the calendar or Audio Forum. Re-Remix Me is a three-round competition, the Top Five finishers of which will receive $225 in cash prizes and frontpages.

I wanted to make the competition more exciting and personal. So, I switched up the format in a few ways.

Besides following Newgrounds Audio Portal Rules to enter, a short introduction is mandatory. Community interaction is encouraged from competitors and spectators, so if you're a fan, root for your team! (And leave some tasty reviews)

Submissions will receive a 4-category breakdown of score as well as personalized reviews from yours truly. Production, Mixing, Mastering, and Style are what I'm looking for. The latter represents concepts that are difficult to define in isolation, such as imagination, cohesion, uniqueness, expression, and wow-factor.

The overall spirit is different by design. Instead of remixing the promo artist right away (me), you'll remix your fellow competitors first (Round 2), after which, all competitors will receive licensed remix stems for this track.

That means, even if you don't make it to the final round, you'll still get to remix me, and yes, distribute the resulting work according to the license provided.

If less than 15 people enter by the submission deadline, May 15, all participants will advance to Round Two, which will mean everyone is a winner.

Detailed breakdown of contest structure and prize distribution lives here. Looking forward to everyone's submissions!

Music Producer Freebies! May 2025

Finally! And thanks for your boundless patience, because I've been swearing I'd drop this for a while now. Let's not waste any time!

Sonixema has released not one, not two, but three free instruments for FREE Kontakt Player.

This is huge, because if you didn't already know, many free libraries require paid Kontakt. And that's expensive.

These libraries are: Delicate Strings, Whispering Woodwinds, and Emotive Brass.

Lancaster Audio's Pulse 2 allows you to load and export your own Impulse Responses

I see massive potential for crafting your very own metal guitar cabs with the blending features described here. Not something I've ever tried before -- I've been using Bass Grinder cab on top of different amps for some time now.

Unison has released 50 free MIDI and sample packs

These include YouTube tutorial presets, as well as some pretty okay samples. If you can tolerate the relentless marketing emails, go for it!

DiscMakers has written a solid guide for successful album releases

Considering I'm writing a book of my own, I'll definitely be taking notes.

Reddit DrumKit - Every 808 You Will Ever Need

Okay, maybe not every one, as I still use a LOT of my 808s from Adreanaline, which you can demo on Sample Focus, but I was certainly happy to find these for my archives.

Reason Recycle is now free!

One of the most legendary tools for sampled beats. Recycle is no longer a relic of the mid-90s but a retro workhorse with a modern facelift. Oh, and it's free for the masses.

Green Oak Plugins releases seriously rad plugins, Tungsten and Cesium!

Author of some of the most infamous plugins in the noughties -- with a hand in modern heavy hitters such as Trilian, Omnisphere, and Keyscape. Green Oak has now unleashed Tungsten delay and Cesium chorus on the world.

Having used the latter extensively, I'm impressed. There's nothing like it I've ever seen. It nukes the competition at frying, baking, muffling, and otherwise blowing your synths to demonic levels of unintelligibility when you need it to -- and doesn't, when you don't.

From delightfully devilish to tastefully tainted, Cesium is the bomb.

SoSouthernSounds has sent me at least 5 more free kits in the mail. They're still kicking. Get them here.

SoSouthern has freebie after freebie in their archives, lots of codes, and lots of hip-hop kits. Simple and light, I have to say, while I might not like the website formatting, I do like their style!

Bloom Drum Percussion Lite is free for a limited time!

Trying to check if this freebie is still good, but Plugin Boutique is offering Excite Audio's Bloom Drum Percussion Lite (regular price $19) free when you enter code g032itmp at checkout, and it sounds pretty awesome!

TugImg synth

How do I even explain what this is without it sounding just as weird as it looks -- this is the most avantgarde, interesting little synth I've ever heard. Make a wavetable out of the Mona Lisa, if you dare.

I can't think of a use-case in my particular set-up, but if you're feeling uninspired, give this guy a shot. You can create and modify wavetables from images in realtime, drag them about and destroy them on the track.

Shoegaze vst

Curious little find I saw this week. It's exactly what it says on the tin, reverse-delay by spelltop! Since reverse-delay is a common effect in many genres, I thought I would leave it here.

And that's it for plugin news! Next up I have some updates and a short snippet from my book!

First off, if you didn't know, I'm writing an OH-LAWD-HE-COMIN sized music producer help book. We're up to 87 multi-page articles, most of which are complete or near complete.

What's holding me back are frustrating bits of hardware lore and plugin-reviews, which need a great deal of research and review. Following that, I have to edit first and second draft articles.

As you know, my content is stupidly wordy hot off the press. So, to save everyone's eyes, I took some advice: let things sit for two weeks, go back, and mercilessly cut things to size.

This tactic has been fruitful, and I recommend it to anyone who struggles to organize their writing.

BOOK SNIPPET -

Crafting the Perfect Bio

A lot of words are spilled into the void for these. Names, places, pronouns, job descriptions, cheeky quotes about how cool we are – expressions of how we see ourselves, and unconscious messaging of how comfortable we are to be ourselves.

How do you define a "good" bio? Is it the laugh or the crease of the reader's brow? How you feel having written such a masterpiece? How many follows you get with a blank PFP and that text alone? (I wish there was a test for that.)

Some bios are good at drawing attention, like a well-placed ad, but they're also personal, like what kind of ugly Christmas sweater you'd rather to be seen in. What good is a bio though, if it doesn't present you in a way that's authentic, or attract people who can relate to your music?

To illustrate, we're going to take a look at some real life artist blurbs.

This one is from Cameron, AKA VenusTheory.

If you’re the modest, underselling type, this is your go-to. Notice how he greets the reader. It’s not the already very low-key, “hi,” it’s “howdy.”

He talks like a regular dude, not “VenusTheory – the visionary sampler, essayist, and sound-designer.” Probably because that’s just not who Cameron is.

Watch him. He’s modest, reserved, and perpetually relaxed. The most exciting developments on his channel drop with all the rush of an old lady reading local news, and that’s part of his charm.

The same cannot be said of our next artist, who is publicly obsessed with teeth.

If you’re a bit of a weirdo, something like this may strike your fancy.

Note the curt text, formatting, nudity, and customized theme, a feature which is unfortunately lacking on most platforms today. 

Theme says more about boypop (and you) than you can imagine.

In this case, the name, single, and bio are supporting details, yet the profile screams an artist that is unapologetically different and proud.

It’s loud. It’s green. It’s abrasive. You can’t unsee it.

In fact, having seen it, I became only more convinced of the failures of modern social media to drive audience retention.

Let’s take a look at the same profile in Tumblr’s new (gross) Twitter-like feed for comparison.

The same profile has been completely neutered. Void of any expression.

Same person, same art, but the essence is stripped away, sanitized for the mass-produced conveyor belt of content.

My point: no biography stands on its own.

Cameron’s is part of his own professional website. Boypop’s is the centerpiece of a carefully selected theme.

Customization will always trump cheeky descriptions of who and what we are.

The further you move away from prefabricated homes for your art like Facebook and X, the better.

Social media is designed to keep you scrolling through mass-produced content, liking, sharing, and swiping – not meaningfully interacting with artists.

If you want to build a fanbase, you want intentional interaction, messaging, and branding.

Inspired, I made my own page for shiggles.

Not a lot of thought went into this tumblr. I grabbed a Windows 98 theme, typed up a shitpost based on the Xena Warrior Princess intro, and added some images.

The style and obvious nod tell more about me than a “cool” bio ever could. You’ve learned: I’m weird, I have history on Newgrounds, I make music, and I’m really into nostalgic 90s media.

All that in a matter of seconds, and it took precious little time to write.

Brevity is something I’m rapidly becoming a fan of. I realized, it’s not that no one reads anymore; it’s that no one has time for useless information. That’s why good bios seem to run short; if we wanted more, we’d check the encyclopedia.

You don’t have to be a weirdo or a drive-by to make a memorable bio, but creativity goes a long way. Give yourself the permission to say more with less, be yourself, and stand out!

Community PSA: @Porter has had a car accident and could use your help! See news!

Update: Interview with @Aalasteir!

---------------------

Regularly Scheduled Programming:

I don't know what's come over me, but get a load of this.

From May 1st to July 6th, I will be hosting the Re-Remix Me Competition!

Summary: Three rounds of competition, including an audition in which participants submit their very best Newgrounds track, a knockout round of remixing randomly assigned fellow competitors, and the final round, remixing my latest single from dry stems! Let the best remixers win!

Prizes:

Half of all participants will receive free copies of my remix stems -- that's everyone who makes it past auditions. This includes a license to use them commercially, with 50/50 splits. I will frontpage the top 3 from Round 2.

Finalists: 1st Place - $100, 2nd - $50, 3rd through 5th - $25, for a grand total of $225. Plus frontpages!

Get the details here!

Album Art:

Ps: You may wonder how the heck I can afford $225 of prizes after my last few news posts. Well, see, I NO LONGER HAVE A GIANT DEBT hanging over my head! Thank you, Newgrounds!

Also, turns out a couple months is enough time to make that kind of extra money.

If you would like to donate to the prize pool, you can! I'd like to extend the prize pool down to 10th place.

If you couldn't read that, yes, the labels are at it again, suing Internet Archive. (See @Yatsufusa's much more well written post)

Why? Because they couldn't suck any royalties out of a few old records, and/or they want you to forget old media exist and buy new junk.

Imagine PETABYTES of lost media -- art, history, and entire websites. This is what will happen if the labels win.

If you've downloaded a sample pack, read a book, or used the Wayback Machine even once, I urge you to sign this petition, and share with a friend!

And if you have not already, be sure to donate to the Archive! $10 a month is a small price to pay for the fight against internet impermanence. If you can't donate, archive!

Below is the full text of the petition.

The Issue

Open Letter to the Record Labels Suing the Internet Archive

We, the undersigned, call on the record labels and members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)—including UMG, Capitol Records, Concord Bicycle Assets, CMGI Recorded Music Assets, Sony Music Entertainment, and Arista Music—to drop your lawsuit against the Internet Archive.

Your $700 million lawsuit, targeting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve and provide access to historical 78rpm records, is not just about music—it’s about whether our digital history survives at all.

These fragile recordings are part of a vanishing American culture. They capture early jazz, blues, gospel, and folk—voices and sounds that might otherwise be lost forever. The Internet Archive’s Great 78 Project seeks to preserve that legacy, and make it available for research.

But your lawsuit doesn’t just threaten these recordings. It threatens the very existence of the Internet Archive, including the Wayback Machine, a vital public service used by millions every day to access historical snapshots of the internet. Journalists, educators, students, lawyers, and citizens use the Wayback Machine to check sources, investigate disinformation, and preserve public accountability.

This lawsuit is an existential threat to critical infrastructure for the internet. At a time when digital information is being deleted, rewritten, and erased, preservation is more important than ever. We cannot afford to lose the tools that safeguard memory and defend facts.

We urge you to drop this lawsuit and support, rather than punish, the preservation of our shared cultural heritage.

Defend the Internet Archive. Protect the Wayback Machine. Drop the 78s lawsuit.

42,014

Verified signatures

@TomFulp, @CyberDevil, you may find this of interest, since Newgrounds is an archive of sorts itself!

Hey guys, popping in for a quick update. We are officially 94% of the way to me being able to pay off that stupid loan and getting back into music! I'm currently not dying of starvation, working odd jobs, and of course plugging away at my book, which is what I wanted to share with you!

I wrote this chapter today, while I was fiddling around with cymbal samples for AFMD (ADR3-N's Free Metal Drums).

It's one of 71 articles I've drafted since the whole financial debacle in March. If you spend a lot of time working with cymbal samples, you'll love it.

Without further ado:

Cymbal Sampling Hax

So you downloaded a pack of cymbals off the internet – only to realize they’re all oneshots… of different cymbals. Not much you can do with that, right?

Wrong! Turns out, you can make them a little more musical – with DIY cymbal chokes!

This method works best for MIDI composition.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Some cymbal samples
• A MPC style sample plugin
• A release knob!

For this experiment, I used a pack of Paiste cymbals from Internet Archive, but it works with any cymbal samples – maybe even any sample VST.

In my case, I use Mixcraft’s built-in OmniSampler. It allows you to drag and drop samples directly into the plugin, and the “global” feature allows you to adjust all the parameters at once. You’ll see why this is useful in a second.

Step 1: Load Your Samples

First thing you’ll want to do, drag the samples you want into OmniSampler – or your sampler of choice.

You’ll be doing this twice, so keep it to just crashes – or hats. Whichever is your preference.

If you want to do both crashes and hats, repeat these steps with a new patch.

Once everything is loaded, set your attack to 0 ms and your release to 600 ms. This is the most important step! 600 ms is about the average release time of a real life cymbal choke.

Now, when you trigger your cymbal samples, they should choke instead of ringing out. The length of the midi note will control the amount of time before the choke!

Step 2: Load Your 2nd Set of Samples (Optional)

A second set of samples allows you to swap between chokes and sustained hits. This is optional, because you might decide you prefer manually controlling the release.

Nevertheless, as far as quality of life improvements go, it’s super easy to set up.

Simply load the same samples an octave or two higher than their choked counterparts – in order. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose.

For OmniSampler, new samples import with a default release, which significantly decreases the amount of work you’ll need to do, i.e. you won’t have to do them manually.

With each sample an octave or two apart, you can select any of the chokes you write, or vice versa, and swap them to sustains with the flick of a keyboard shortcut.

In Mixcraft, this is as easy as select the note, hold SHIFT and UP or DOWN, and presto, octave jump. Swapping between octaves and DIY “velocity layers” is a snap!

Step 3: ENJOY!

Whether you decide to manually draw in your sustains or apply Step 2 for velocity control, you should now have a fully functioning, slightly more versatile cymbal bank.

This is ideal for open hi-hats with a couple round robins. Since pedals are hard to hear in a crowded mix, your DIY chokes will fool pretty much anyone into thinking you have a full library!

You can expand this technique with pitch shifting

For multiple cymbals, you can detune them. This will make it seem like you have more samples than you actually do. Coupled with the manual releases and some simple shifts in filter “resonance”, you might even fool yourself!

Still, it’s not a replacement for multiple round robins. Without them, your new cymbal patch will be best suitable for slower passages and those that are not very busy with repeat crashes.

However, if you’re using it to supplement an existing drum library, one that doesn’t have any chokes, or if the cymbals are a little ugly, congrats – you now have options!

Don’t forget to apply global FX to glue everything together, and of course save your patches!

And that's it!

I'll probably be working on this beast for a few more months, the way it's going. If you'd like an update on future articles, request an @! Once everything is ready to go, I'll drop the whole shebang on Gumroad for free!

Special thanks to the amazing people who made this and my continuing work possible:

@stevemaddenfootball (@Aalasteir)

@AED-4

@BrandyBuizel

@CrimsonKero

@Cyberdevil

@Droid

@FarFromSundown

@liljim

@jimmythecaterpillar

@KI1

@Mariogd

@MATRVG

@TeffyD and the Mall Music Collab Team

@theOve

@TomFulp

@Whirlguy and the Newgrounds 30th Anniversary Collab team

@zeroizeroizero

@Yatsufusa

And many, many more. I would not be here without you!

Hey guys, me again. Just a drive-by update on how everything is going since the predatory loan and everything else happened.

Well, I have a way to contact the outside world again. Your donations have saved me. My car still needs work, but it's looking like I'll still have a roof over my head by the end of this!

I won't @ everyone for the 3rd time, but thank you so much! Very soon, maybe even in a month, I can mark this as complete, and start worrying about NEW problems!

What all has happened since?

Well, my birthday came and went with little ceremony. Luckily I like it that way. I grew a few more grey hairs and lost some weight, but I'm doing okay!

I haven't had time for music, but I have been stealing a few hours here and there to work on my book.

It's a production help resource which will release on Gumroad for free.

It promises to be a serious undertaking.

ETA to be determined, but if anyone wants to beta-read or assist in translating to Russian, I'm open. You will receive copious amounts of credit.

So far I've written over 50 pages across multiple topics, including:

• hardware
• plugins
• common ills
• motivation
• mix issues
• mastering
• scams
• streaming hacks
• starting capital
• sales
• distribution
• licensing
• savings
• social media dos and don'ts
• investments

Basically, everything you need to start your music career off right.

I even wrote on how to get paid to play video games, for those who can't afford the serious expenses a music career typically demands. You know -- distro, licensing, interfaces, microphones, plugins, the next doo-dads.

I even plan to go over ALL of my essential plugins, which could be a masterclass in itself.

It goes without saying, it's not just comprehensive. It's a lot to unpack.

I still have some cutting to do, which is hard.

Every day seems to bring with it another bright idea, which I guess is to be expected when you're me.

But this is crazy. I'm legit sitting here cramming 20 years of music experience into one book.

You'll be heartened to know I'm keeping up with a to-do list. As the sum of my whole career, my magnum opus of music producer tips, I very much intend to get this done.

And I haven't forgotten about my other projects. I still need to upload some covers and remixes to Gumroad, but things are falling into place.

When I resume working on music, I'll circle back to my Free Metal Drums with a freshly minted selection of Paiste cymbal samples. Debating whether to release them as an update or a separate pack. It's getting rather large.

I also have a few plugin announcements I will more than likely append in the comments some time later. Please comment "AAAAAAA" if interested, and I will @ you when the time comes.

Anyway, I'll see you guys again soon.

Thanks again. I couldn't do this without you! <3

~Adrean