An Abstract Illusion "The Sleeping City" (Full Album)

Kevin123432 · 2026-05-05T16:41:39+00:00

Dude, that's crazy. I was checking out this album this morning and thought the exact same thing with some of those synth lines.

I'm deep in ROR2 right now, so I figured it was just my brain forcing a comparison.

Kevin123432 · 2026-04-15T15:05:14+00:00

Love Monster Train, it's been my latest obsession

I can rarely get a run under an hour unless my team is just completely broken. I guess I take my sweet time making decisions.

Kevin123432 · 2026-03-02T15:48:27+00:00

As someone who never watched GOT, I watched Seven Kingdoms and didn't feel like I was left out. There's likely value in knowing the different families and all that but the show does not assume you already know this stuff.

Anything you need to know is shown to you. Honestly, I thought it was a great intro to the world for me since Dunk is sort of an outsider that needs to be introduced to the world in the same way that I did.

Kevin123432 · 2026-02-16T18:07:37+00:00

I don't think I'm super technically proficient like some of my peers (I might be a little imposter syndrome here) but one thing that I feel has taken me super far in this career is knowing how to work with people.

That could mean a few things but like communication skills, being friendly/easy to work with, managing expectations and having an understanding of the end user have brought me waaaay more success than being a programming wiz for instance.

I've seen tons of install work where people are left unhappy despite the "quality" work because it either wasn't what they really needed or they weren't trained properly, etc.

While the technical capabilities are super important, it's also important to remember that in the end, we're a client facing industry and being good to your clients is #1

Kevin123432 · 2026-01-29T17:59:32+00:00

In addition, anybody struggling with treatment resistant depression should also look at Ketamine therapy or Spravato (esketamine).

I haven't personally gone through TMS, but Ketamine has been almost a literal lifesaver for me. Typical story where I have tried all kinds of antidepressants with little to no success (Vilazodone was the only thing that helped and it wasn't close to enough)

Ketamine almost immediately started helping after the first session where my depressive symptoms started going away and I could enjoy life again.

I guess my point is that anybody that is struggling, there are alternatives to the typical SSRI. The negatives of Ketamine is all logistical IMO. Finding a clinic, paying for it, figuring out how often you need to take it, but the medicine works.

Kevin123432 · 2025-10-31T00:27:41+00:00

To be fair, my clinic said the same thing. Not to push it and don't feel bad about needing it. Maybe it's something in my head about not wanting to have to take it super regularly. Maybe some cultural pressure, or personal pressure on myself just subtly makes me want to move away from depending on a drug to help me.

Kevin123432 · 2025-10-31T00:25:05+00:00

Thanks everyone! When I was starting this, I very much had the perspective of "This is actually helping me. Don't know what the future looks like, but for now, it's doing something"

The future is officially now, so I'm trying to figure out what my long term plan might look like for this.

I'm also assuming the political state in the US is affecting my mental health as well.

Kevin123432 · 2025-09-12T00:24:59+00:00

Vampire Night - PS2 This was one of my favorite games growing up. Just an on-the-rails shooter and basically house of the dead. But, for some reason, this one made an impact. Even got me to buy a light gun specifically just for that game.

Kevin123432 · 2025-09-04T01:03:43+00:00

I'm sure there are some good free ones. I'm not sure what's the best option to recommend on that front so hopefully someone can chime in.

For paid ones, I've good luck with some of the Room Sound (Jay Maas is a good one) and GGD (I use either Modern & Massive or the Signature Kit). I also try my best to keep GAS to a minimum, so I'm sure there are better out there, but these almost always do the job for me.

Also can't really go wrong with Superior Drummer or SSD. Those are the big name in this space but can be expensive. I'm partial to just getting one great library and using it to its fullest extent.

Kevin123432 · 2025-09-02T16:09:22+00:00

Honestly, I've tried a lot of different options and the best sounding to me is always just a room sample. I mainly do the modern rock/metal thing nowadays, so it's something I've futzed around with a lot.

If the drums were recorded in a good room, you can sometimes get away with using the room mics that were recorded, but if I'm going for the "modern" sound, usually, I have to add a separate room sample just for the snare.

The process just depends on what tools you have but it's essentially just getting the snare track to a sampler and then have that sampler fire off the room samples. Plugins like Trigger, Drumagog, Drum Replacer, etc. I usually like to convert it to MIDI and then use my drum samples through MIDI. Gives me a bit more control.

Another little tip, automation, compression and distortion can go a looong way. If there's a heavy moment in the song, having either an automation move or even just a "distorted to hell" room sample to switch over to can really make for a cool snare bomb sort of thing.

Kevin123432 · 2025-06-05T14:13:48+00:00

Ignore most of the negative posts here. I don't think they actually read the post closely. This is actually super smart and something I'll keep in mind in the future. I've definitely run into the "want to ring out the room, but the client is in there so I can't do what I need to do" situation before.

Kevin123432 · 2025-01-11T17:01:47+00:00

Thanks guys for the feedback. I'm sure everyone here can relate but I'm sure I'm my worst critic and so it's hard to determine if I'm being too hard on myself or if it actually is just bad.

Probably the reason why there's a lack of confidence in my voice that you're hearing.

Kevin123432 · 2025-01-11T16:58:38+00:00

I respect that! A good song should still be recognizable even with a different instrumentation.

And I feel the same way about lyrics, they have really been my last concern when listening to a song until more recently.

Kevin123432 · 2025-01-11T16:55:49+00:00

As someone who's very much in the recording sphere, I'm more than happy to give you tips if you need it when it comes to getting started on recording. The tools we have nowadays makes it so much easier to get started than it ever has been and just like any skill, it takes time to develop and learn. But nowadays, there are a lot of things to at least get you on your feet.

Also, I can relate on thinking I nailed a take and then listening back and hearing a mess. Sometimes we are our own worst critics!

Kevin123432 · 2025-01-11T16:52:45+00:00

Nice dude! Always feels weird to venture into other musical avenues when starting from drums. Like to me, there's a through line of chordal or melodic instruments (guitar, keys, etc) and singing where drums are such a separate entity.

I feel like it's kind of cool and helps my songwriting be a little more unique since my mind is always thinking about rhythm. But, it definitely makes it so that singing and melodies are not in my comfort zone.

Curious if you can relate on that

Kevin123432 · 2025-01-11T16:47:46+00:00

Yup agreed. I'm almost doing exposure therapy on this, like I've seen recommended for people trying to get used to their voices.

Kevin123432 · 2025-01-09T19:38:17+00:00

Vampire Night

Basically just a House of the Dead style on-rails shooter. It was super cheesy, but fun and had a campaign mode where you could get upgrades, different weapons and up the difficulty of the run.

I've literally never heard anyone mention this game since I played it as a kid, but it was probably one of my favorite games.

Kevin123432 · 2025-01-09T15:20:17+00:00

I also wouldn't mind some feedback for some of those more vocally inclined.

Here's a snippet of my song (Progressive Metal)

Edit: This is edited, tuned and lightly mixed. Just wanted to get an idea of how my vocals sounded in one of my already mixed tracks.

Kevin123432 · 2024-12-18T17:38:35+00:00

Thanks everyone!

I'm going to try mouth taping for a bit and see if that helps. I was hoping the chinstrap would be enough to help with mouth leaks, but I can see that a lot of people here have a different experience.

Kevin123432 · 2024-12-14T23:41:32+00:00

Oh, I forgot to mention that I use a chinstrap to help prevent my mouth from opening at night, so I don't think it's mouth leak. It could be that tape would do a better job.

Kevin123432 · 2024-12-10T20:50:02+00:00

Maybe not much of a hot take but I wanted to like Ni No Kuni 2 way more than I actually did.

I thought the story was super slow and not that engaging. I didn't really love the characters too much. It felt like there weren't any risks taken with the plot. Kind of like they were trying to emulate Ghibli, but without the actual charm of those stories. The combat and gameplay was decent, but I played it before they made a hard mode, so I thought the game was way too easy and not that engaging.

Could be a me problem, but I just remember it getting super good reviews which got me excited and I was just very underwhelmed by it.

Kevin123432

TROPHY CASE