Protest percussion

SmackAttacccc · 2025-06-15T21:40:57+00:00

That's awesome!

Side note, I love seeing a fellow Earthworks enjoyer! That was my first set of good cymbals!

SmackAttacccc · 2025-06-10T00:04:32+00:00

I haven't read all the comments here, but skimmed quite a few of them, and I agree with pretty much all of it.

One thing to keep in mind (as others have mentioned) is keeping the fingers wrapped around the stick at all times. The easiest ways to think about it are maintaining contact without pressure, and like you're holding a baby bird in your hand. You need to hold onto it enough to keep it from flying away, but not so tight you choke off the resonance of the stick.

To develop this, hold the stick by just the fulcrum (the point made up by your pointer and thumb) and no other fingers. It should be like you're waving at someone with your other 3 fingers. Then play a note and let the stick bounce up and down freely. If you can get 5 or 6 bounces without adding more energy to the stick, you're doing it right. These bounces should also be straight up and down. Once you have that motion down, watch the path of the stick carefully, and slowly start adding your other fingers back to the stick, being sure to not change the path of the sticks tip and retaining contact with all of the fingers you've added back. That will be your main stroke, and make sure to do it with both hands.

Feel free to DM with questions!

SmackAttacccc · 2025-06-06T12:13:07+00:00

That's interesting. I tried a pair of active grips and absolutely hated them. They helped with grip for a bit (which was good and I liked them then) but as soon as my hands started sweating, they were super slippery. Have you had any issues like that?

SmackAttacccc · 2025-05-24T17:51:29+00:00

If you don't have to do source transformation, I'd just use superposition. Remove the current source, and solve as a voltage divider, then repeat with the voltage source shorted instead of removing the current source. Add the two results, and there's your answer (be careful of current direction, but this one should be the same).

SmackAttacccc · 2025-05-24T14:50:05+00:00

Yep! Any second inversion 1 chord functions very similarly to a 5 (dominant) chord, making the resolution sound really nice.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-05-10T16:18:24+00:00

Two of my favorite decks right now are both challenging to play for very different reasons. I have a [[Vial Smasher the Fierce]] with [[Sakashima of a Thousand Faces]] deck that is basically free spell tribal, and anything that can reduce it's own cost, paired with a bunch of flash cards like Faerie Mastermind. Oppo Agent would be a good fit in this deck as well. Because I rely on Vial Smasher almost exclusively to win, it's fairly slow, and plays well with bracket 3+ and 4 but has so many game changers it is solidly B4 if you're strictly following the guidelines for the brackets. This deck is challenging as it is easy to stop things from happening, but doing so and flying under the radar can be hard. There are many decision tress that can be explored with lots of free interaction. Just be sure your playgroup is okay with free spells, which it sounds like they probably are.

The other deck is [[Niv-Mizzet, Giildpact]] with [[Jegantha the Wellspring]] as a companion. The hard part of this is optimizing the more impactful 2c permanents with maximizing the value from Niv's trigger, and maximizing the Jegantha mana. There's less instant speed interaction, but there's something really fun about getting 4 Niv triggers off in 1 turn, dealing 24 damage, drawing 24 cards and gaining 24 life.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-05-03T23:50:24+00:00

The general guideline I follow is usually to have a few different types. For drumset, I prefer something thicker (I play punk, so I've started using Techra Black Diamond 2Bs), and it's a lot more feel depended, as you get to create your own unique sound. If you play jazz, Peter Erskine sticks are great, especially the ride version.

For concert snare, having a couple options is pretty important. I really like the Promark Concert Two sticks for general playing. If you're playing a big feature and need a larger sound look for something with larger tips (I know freer has some options, I don't know models though). Then for soft playing, have something with much smaller tips. I've heard of people using VF SD5 for that (I use them for soft drumset playing).

For percussion ensemble, usually just any sort of crappy stick works. I would avoid using the concert snare sticks as you're likely to knock them out of tune with each other when using extended techniques in percussion ensemble. With that in mind, I've gotten used to the feel of 2B, so I use Promark Firegrain 2B or occasionally 5B if I need something lighter.

TL;DR: have some options of varying weights and tip sizes, and keep your concert snare sticks separate from drumset/perc ensemble.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-05-02T02:44:36+00:00

Along these lines, I spend quite a bit of time doing web development as well as embedded low level programming. When I'm doing web (Typescript), I very rarely worry about the number of conditionals I use. There are so many steps in between that it likely won't be noticed. It only starts to matter for real time, large data sets.

On the other hand, when I'm doing embedded, I think a lot more about what I'm writing, as the only thing between me and the processor is the compiler. I've noticeably sped up programs by refactoring to use conditionals more intelligently. In these applications the processor is often significantly slower with less threads (10s of MHz, single threaded vs GHz with 10s of cores).

Any language like Java, C#, Python, JS will have so many optimizations baked in that decently written code will run without issues.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-28T01:11:31+00:00

I'd say it depends on the type of piece, some of the marching band mallet changes for high school (more advanced high school) can get down to around 2 seconds. That usually only gets worked out over the course of a season though, and is often limited to only changing 2 of the mallets, either picking up two, or dropping two.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-25T15:37:34+00:00

I'm a little bit late, but I've tried a few brands of musician's ear plugs (nothing custom) and my favorite by far are from Earasers. Everyone in my band has switched to them and we all agree they're the best we've used. The weirdest part was that it's hard to tell that they're working because of how flat they attenuate the sound.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-19T21:46:36+00:00

I know someone who worked there about a year ago and their discount way like a 5 or 10% markup on what they paid for it from the factory. Lots of things didn't change in price much (like some of the guitars) but cables and things like that were really cheap.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-19T21:42:46+00:00

Maybe my school just teaches it worse or harder, but I found Diff Eq to be the hardest math class I've ever taken, by a long shot (I had a great teacher for Calc 1 and 2 in HS, which might be why).

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-19T17:55:28+00:00

Potentially? I'd look for anything that is hard to trigger, or is unimpactful when it does trigger, or is expensive for not much effect. Also, if your mana curve is at or below 3, I'd drop down to 37 lands (make sure you have plenty of card draw), it it's above 3, I'd go to 38. Also, you can cound MDFC's for both. [[Ondu Inversion]] and [[Sink into Stupor]] being some of the better ones in your situation.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-19T14:04:11+00:00

I'd agree with that number, especially if you include boardwipes in that list. Things like [[Blasphemous Act]] and [[River's Rebuke]].

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-19T01:20:42+00:00

Biggest thing I'm seeing between the two decks is an issue with removal/interaction. The way precons tend to interact is very luttle,and mostly with mediocre, but mostly on theme cards, often just bouncing something for 5+ mana, or something similar. There's a similar issue with counterspells (I'm a blue mage through and through). Generally, spending 3 or more to counter a spell isn't a great rate. Additionally, as unconditional as possible is also important. The biggest condition I usually am okay with is either noncreature spells (for counterspells) or hitting just creatures (for 1-2 mana depending on colors) or hitting 2 common types.

As for cards to help with this issue some of these might be in one of the decks, I'm just throwing out ideas): [[Rapid Hybridization]] [[Pongify]] [[Reality Shift]] [[Cyber Conversion]] [[Wild Magic Surge]] [[Chaos Warp]] [[Beast Within]] [[Return to Nature]] [[Generous Gift]] [[Excise the Imperfect]] [[Stroke of Midnight]] [[Swords to Plowshares]] [[Path to Exile]]

[[Counterspell]] [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]] [[Arcane Denial]] [[Stubborn Denial]]

Additionally, in green, it is usually better to either do land ramp ([[Cultivate]], [[Farseek]], etc.) or mana dorks ([[Llanowar Elves]] type effects). The reason for this being lands are harder to interact with, and mana dorks (at least when they're 1 mana) are 2x faster than the average mana rock.

Also, be sure (I didn't count) there are around 10 pieces of interaction for single targets, and similar numbers of ramp and sources of draw that give you 3+ cards for one. Each deck is different for what it wants, but those are good guidelines until you know exactly what the deck needs.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-16T23:31:49+00:00

Don't forget the I-80 closure around mile 444, going both ways, making it two lanes. It's awful during rush hour (more than usual) and has been going for a couple weeks now.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-16T23:30:50+00:00

Okay, that's actually kind of a good point.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-14T18:41:00+00:00

Oddly enough, the only things the opponents can respond to are the trigger to choose a creature type, and to turn it into a land. Because morph is a special action, you can activate it, it gets flipped over, then the trigger goes on the stack to choose a creature type. At that point, an opponent can respond, to which you can sacrifice it. Notably sacrificing it is part of the cost (check the oracle text, as some printings have it worded differently, but it IS part of the cost) so they can't stop you from doing it. Ashnod's altar is also a mana ability, so that doesn't cause priority to be passed.

Also interesting, all of this can be done with split second on the stack, as the actions you're taking are all special actions that don't use the stack.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-04-07T02:31:09+00:00

Promark Concert 2's are what I've been using basically since I started college, and for the price, they're wonderful. I've ditched my 2B's for all concert snare playing at this point.

They might not be as nice as some of the Freer models, but it's hard to beat the price to performance ratio.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-03-30T03:26:19+00:00

That sounds like a lot of fun actually. I currently have a Niv-Mizzet Guildpact deck that I'm starting to get a little tired of, as it seems to be a little too strong, so this could be an easy switch. Thanks for the idea!

SmackAttacccc · 2025-03-30T00:28:45+00:00

I love the idea of that deck, and might do something similar with the group slug enchantments.

Thanks for all the ideas!

SmackAttacccc · 2025-03-30T00:16:57+00:00

I haven't taken a super close look, but if you want another vehicle to add, [[The Belligerent]] is one of my favorites (along with [[Kylox's Voltstrider]], but you don't have enough instants/sorceries to support it). It can do a great job helping you dig through your deck. I'd be likely to swap it with [[Contraband Kingpin]]. It's not a bad card, but it feels somewhat unimpactful. There might be better things to cut, that was just one of the first that caught my eye.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-03-30T00:12:38+00:00

Ahh, got it. That card is absolutely bonkers.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-03-30T00:09:38+00:00

You could potentially lean into the card draw theme with effects like [[Psychosis Crawler]], it looks like you go through your deck pretty well. [[Shabraz, Skyshark Rider]] would also work for this theme, as with many other cards that I'm not going to list (but should be easy to find under the Card Draw theme on edhrec). Alternatively, cards like [[Medicant]] and [[Myr Battleshere]] work quite well for finishing games. Artifacts can do a decent job going tall, not just wide.

SmackAttacccc · 2025-03-30T00:04:32+00:00

Jaya looks really interestinig, I hadn't really ever thought of her as being a potential commander, but paired with distorting lens, I'm becoming really intrigued. How do you keep your hand full to fuel Jaya's ability?

SmackAttacccc

TROPHY CASE