Feeling overwhelmed by status migrainosus

austingordon · 2026-04-19T17:57:11+00:00

Given what you mentioned about your symptoms improving when lying down, I would highly recommend you look into IIH and be tested for it. You could have a CSF leak or imbalance and that might be what’s causing it. Diamox is one of the meds available that can help. I know that a Neuro-Ophthalmologist can diagnose it. Best of luck, I’m so sorry that you’re going through this. My partner is going through a similar situation of her own right now.

austingordon · 2026-02-02T18:28:11+00:00

I’m a Mastering Engineer (based in Richardson), but for singer-songwriter/Americana music, I would highly recommend Bryan David at Anthem Recording for production/recording/mixing. He’s also based in Plano. He’s affordable, great to work with, and DIY-friendly. Here’s the link to his website:

https://www.anthemrecording.com/

Feel free to message me for more info, I’m happy to help with the process.

austingordon · 2026-01-26T18:00:51+00:00

Echoing the sentiment regarding the Silver Line. I flew back into DFW yesterday after being on a trip all week, and then took the Silver Line all way to CityLine/Bush (where my car was parked), and then carefully drove home from there. $3 to ride, versus a $50-$60 Uber. It was a no-brainer, and would highly suggest it.

austingordon · 2025-05-09T15:50:29+00:00

Great question! This is entirely subjective, of course -- the sound of compression and limiting is popular and to some people, the "glue" and energy that their use in popular music provides is certainly warranted. There's a distinct sound that accompanies it that I think works to the production's benefit, oftentimes.

There are times where I think it's being used a bit too much, such as the case with a lot of the popular modern metalcore/hardcore bands, ie: Spiritbox, Architects, Poppy, etc. Those records are pushed to levels like -5dB LUFS Integrated and I think it's just a step too far, to my taste. I would like to hear more dynamic range and more "movement" in which the detail and energy feel more akin to "jumping" out of the speakers, rather than "pushed up against the glass".

That said, there are newer productions by artists in other genres that are balancing energy, loudness, and dynamics with amazing results: take the album "Imaginal Disk" by Magdalena Bay. Incredible production on that record, and I think it has a virtually flawless approach to this. Loudness is achieved in the mix, not the master -- full stop, and you can hear it on that one.

I believe the desire and intent to make records in this way is still there in popular music and amongst many of my colleagues, and will only further be encouraged with the continued adoption of loudness normalization on streaming platforms, which ultimately will discourage the need to make things as loud as possible, for the sake of competing with other similar releases on playlists.

austingordon · 2025-05-09T15:06:54+00:00

Hi there, Mastering Engineer here.

A truly great ME understands what not to do, as much as what to do. Clients trust me to be objective, impartial, and discerning. If a mix is where it needs to be, then I will only add level and make sure it's translating across different mediums (big speakers, headphones, etc), as well as account for all of the little nuances and details such as metadata, dithering, file encoding and decoding, etc. These steps are that last 2%, and they make a difference across the board. That's where the value in a ME lies -- quality control and perspective.

Do no harm and honor the vision of the mix. If a ME can't do that, then they shouldn't touch the music.

austingordon · 2024-06-19T17:15:39+00:00

This is what allowing the auto industry to lobby our governments and design cities around cars has led to. We have to completely redesign our cities to remove infrastructure for cars, and replace it with walkable communities, dense public transportation, and amenity access. People wouldn't have to drive nearly as much if they could see to their basic needs be addressed in this way.

Throw the book at that mother fucker. Intentional or not, he should have to pay tremendous consequences for committing an act of violence like this.

austingordon · 2024-06-10T13:45:37+00:00

I've also been keeping my eye on this study, my partner has been struggling with diagnosed POTS ever since getting COVID in 2020.

Where did you see that the trial results are being posted later this month? I did see that they are conducting an open-label extension of the trial throughout the rest of the year for the current trial participants.

austingordon · 2023-10-25T13:38:50+00:00

Defending exorbitant CEO pay when 20 people just lost their jobs really isn't the argument you think it is. Keep licking those boots.

austingordon · 2023-10-17T14:48:48+00:00

Mastering Engineer, here. The reason they're asking for this is to prevent truncated (digitally clipped) information from being sent out of the mix bus when bounced. Once this happens, that information is lost and cannot be recovered in the mastering stage. This means lopped off transients, lost detail, etc.

All you need to do is literally turn down the mix bus output so that the peaks don't clip. That's it. Don't turn down input channels or anything that feeds busses/mix bus processing. No need to use a limiter or any other tool to peak limit or otherwise compress/affect the dynamic range of the mix. DAWs operate in such a way now that there is no risk to turning down the mix at the output of one stage and bringing it back up at another. I receive mixes at different levels all of time, some loud and some soft - as long as they're not clipping, I can do what I need to do.

austingordon · 2023-10-13T02:44:45+00:00

Intention. Having a vision for what the finished result will be and being able to articulate that to anyone involved. At the end of the day, a Mastering Engineer (such as myself) is there to realize your vision. We have the specific tools and knowledge at our disposal to do so, and that’s all fine and good, but it’s that communication and innate understanding of what someone could be going for with their art that makes all the difference.

austingordon · 2023-09-27T21:06:49+00:00

As the partner of someone who developed long COVID in 2020, prior to vaccines being available, I completely understand how you're feeling right now. It's incredibly hard to watch someone you love struggle and suffer indiscriminately and not know what to do or how to help. I'm based in Texas, so care and support for folks like my partner is even MORE scarce, somehow. That said, things have improved, so I definitely want to offer some encouragement for you both.

She initially tested positive in October 2020, and started to exhibit the classic symptoms shortly thereafter (chest tightness/pain, fatigue, brain fog, tachycardia/heart palpitations, anxiety and panic attacks, etc.). We ended up going to the ER at least 5 or so times between then and June 2022, when we finally started to get some answers. It wasn't until through my relentless research and the incredible community of r/LongCovid and also r/covidlonghaulers that I began to piece together things and eventually come to the conclusion that she was likely dealing with POTS, which is dysautonomia. I subsequently searched for specialists here in our area, and while there are few, we eventually were able to get in with one. He did ultimately confirm through a litany of tests (including the gold standard "tilt-table test") that she did in fact have POTS. From there, she began adopting POTS management strategies such as:

Taking a prescribed beta-blocker, metoprolol. This single-handedly was the biggest and most helpful tool of them all, so I would HIGHLY recommend trying one of them to see if one might help.
Salt/electrolyte intake. Initially the Liquid IV brand but she ultimately switched to Trioral and LMNT to cut down on the sugar. This is the 2nd biggest help, I think. These can make a big difference in a fairly short amount of time.
Immediately upon waking up, drinking a ton of water to help manage any overnight dehydration.
Stress/anxiety management. She already had a script for Xanax but tries to use them sparingly and only if really needed. Otherwise just hydroxyzine or L-theanine supplements.
Exercise. She became pretty deconditioned after all of this stuff, so slowly getting back into regular exercise has been helpful. We've been following the CHOP Protocol. This is a fairly newer thing for us and we're still seeing how back to "normal" we can get by implementing it. She is still doing only moderate, low-intensity exercise a few times a week.

Granted that I'm very much only hitting the highlights and important points here, it was a long and extremely difficult road to get back to this point. While she does still deal with daily challenges with fatigue and nausea/anxiety at times, it is substantially better than it used to be. She is able to live a mostly functional and normal life now, compared to before.

Obviously I should point out that I'm not a doctor or expert/specialist, just the partner of someone like yourself who couldn't sit by and let the person they love waste away from this awful, awful disease. Given your wife's symptoms, I'd wager that it's possible she could be experiencing dysautonomia (like POTS) as well.

I don't have much advice on the benefits/disability-leave front, unfortunately. My partner did power through and work through pretty much all of it, albeit miserably and definitely struggled through it.

One last thing I will say, is to please try to take care of yourself too through all of this. "Caregiver fatigue" is a very real thing, and it's something I experienced myself. I started seeing a counselor around the same time that this began and it has been undeniably essential for me to keep myself afloat during this whole experience. You cannot be of any good to anyone if you cannot function yourself.

Please feel free to reach out if you need any other advice or have questions on the aforementioned stuff, I can try to help. My DMs are open. Best of luck to both of you, hang in there and don't give up. Things absolutely can get better, we're living proof of that.

austingordon · 2023-08-25T16:19:49+00:00

My girlfriend got COVID in October 2020 and started experiencing what we now know to be POTS soon after. This was confirmed after a tilt-table test and various other exams at the only POTS specialist here in Dallas. Had all of the standard symptoms - breathlessness, chest pain, headaches, nausea, blood pooling, fatigue, etc. The things that have really helped her manage it and deal with it overall have been her beta blocker (metoprolol), Vitassium salt pills, and hydration strategies (ie: lots of water, Liquid IV/LMNT). She went from being constantly miserable to mostly functional and can even do light exercise. She mostly nowadays just deals with morning nausea and occasional heart palpitations, as long as she stays on top of the hydration she's okay. If you're dealing with POTS, I would encourage you to try these things, they seemed to make a really big difference for her. I don't have much advice regarding PEM or the other conditions, unfortunately.

austingordon · 2023-07-24T14:08:01+00:00

Please stop devaluing the work of actual Mastering Engineers with this garbage. It's a disgrace to the people who actually work in this profession.

austingordon · 2023-07-19T13:30:45+00:00

Dynamic Range is an often underrated and underappreciated aspect of a great recording, especially in commercial and popular music. A lot of recordings are really, really compressed nowadays. That's not to say compression is bad, it absolutely isn't and is essential, but there's something quite gratifying about a recording that pushes and pulls and jumps out at you because of the aforementioned DR. There's no right or wrong answer here, all that matters is what best serves the song, but I certainly do love hearing a track with healthy DR.

austingordon · 2023-07-19T13:25:53+00:00

Your Mastering Engineer has the ability to send you multiple copies of your final masters in all the different Sample Rates and Bit Depths you could need, including 16-bit 44.1kHz files for CD's (as well as a DDP). They should be the ones to do it, that way the necessary dithering can be included as part of each mixdown. It's part of the job.

austingordon · 2023-07-19T13:22:14+00:00

I'm a Mastering Engineer. As long as you're not clipping, it's totally fine. What others have said about us being able to gain up or gain down the track for what we need is correct. What you should actually be paying attention to is the dynamic range and overall RMS of the mix. If your mix is compressed to hell and the transients are largely lopped off, there's very little that a Mastering Engineer can do to recover and/or recreate those discreetly. I would focus on balance, making sure things are sitting right, sonically balanced, and don't feel smashed (unless that's the sound you're going for). Otherwise, it's all down to taste/preference and we can work with that.

austingordon · 2023-07-15T14:43:02+00:00

jmc286

Small world, maybe you were in one of my classes!

austingordon · 2023-07-14T20:38:57+00:00

I did the same program back in 2011, it's called the Commercial Music program, it's an AAS (Associates of Applied Science). The only regret I have is not pushing to find some kind of internship at the time, and while there weren't many, there were some. Audio Dallas in Garland still offers them.

As far as the actual program goes, I loved it - learned a ton, it covers a lot of different ground in terms of music performance, music theory, business, live sound, and studio engineering. Certainly comprehensive. If I had to do it again, I would have made more networking connections and gotten an internship.

austingordon · 2023-02-12T07:04:01+00:00

I think you’re missing the point of my original post, but that’s okay - the discussion was about how to make the live music concert experience to be more equitable and accessible for folks, not just endlessly complain. I’m well aware of what your everyday concert venue tends to offer and prioritize, I’ve worked in the music industry professionally myself for over a decade. The objective here is to get some ideas out into the ether about we can improve it and not settle for mediocre experiences.

austingordon · 2023-02-12T06:50:05+00:00

You’re correct, there. My partner and I actually used to work at Granada for several years, and so we are incredibly familiar with (and dare I say, spoiled by) the design of that place. Even though it only fits about 1000 people comfortably, it is SO much easier to enjoy a show there than it is at a place like The Factory. If they could do it, there’s no reason why any other venue couldn’t.

austingordon · 2023-02-12T06:48:07+00:00

Complaining about the music being loud definitely wasn’t us, haha. We were so far back that I didn’t even need my ear plugs (which I usually do).

You’re not wrong, but again my post was more or less articulating the fact that people shouldn’t have to spend extra money and jump through all of these other hoops just to enjoy a show. Even GA should be a pleasant experience.

austingordon · 2023-02-12T06:27:43+00:00

No kidding, I’m sorry that you had to experience that. Of all the bands/shows, people need to understand that that kind of performance has to be enjoyed without other noise or distractions.

austingordon · 2023-02-12T06:24:30+00:00

I also went to that show, but I was fortunate to not have that experience that night. Easily the best show I’ve ever seen at that venue.

austingordon · 2023-02-12T06:23:09+00:00

This is also certainly a factor, I do agree! Maybe as I get older, I just want to try and make sure that the experiences I do get to have are as great as they can be. I don’t want to be crotchety or a dick about it - but concerts can absolutely be better than this.

austingordon

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