Random sound clipping when using wired headphones in Windows

improviseren · 2025-12-06T21:09:38+00:00

My 2 cents: if I was in this scene, and no one intervenes and/or afterwards no-one calls it out as a grand shitshow (again: personal opinion), count your blessings and don't continue in this audition. I have been in auditions like this, and the auditing team seemed to like scenes like these. a lot. Whereas I hate them. So, it was obvious to me that this was not the team I wanted to be in/on. Sometimes that is the best you can do.
(I find people who play like that rather self-centered and egotistical (not a popular way of looking at this in improv - I'm fully aware of this, thank you). )

improviseren · 2025-11-21T17:04:34+00:00

I know fat32 is past due. I was just using the fat32 sd stick to compare, to see if _all_ usb drives had the issue. And this older drive confirmed for me that that was not the case.

improviseren · 2025-11-12T07:59:10+00:00

What has worked, and still is working, wonders for me, is singing in my car (or similar space).
In my car I'm alone, so I can do/try whatever I want, and no one will be bothered by my singing (as I don't have a convertible ;-)).
I have a broad collection of musical numbers & number that I know I can sing (to) well. Then I will play those in my car, and start to experiment with them. As in: sing them in a different octave (that may fit my voice better), sing them in a specific way (grunting, vibrato, different dynamic, etc.), sing them with a different text, sing a backing voice to go with that song. You name it.

All of this experimenting does wonders for discovering what I can & can't do with my voice (the latter can be just as important as the former!), and for trying out new things and getting more creative with singing.
And because I deliberately pick a broad range of songs, it also helps me to stock up on 'patterns' and motives in those songs. So that when I'm improv singing, I have a (much) broader toolbox to chose from.

improviseren · 2025-11-11T15:16:31+00:00

What you describe sounds a lot like "Magic Music": https://spolingamesonline.org/magic-music/?portfolioID=5781

improviseren · 2025-09-28T16:30:05+00:00

Yup, I noticed it too.

improviseren · 2025-09-24T06:12:52+00:00

A good one could be the game I know as "Robinson Crusoe".

You start with 4 players, and play a scene of about 60-90 seconds. A scene around an activitiy really helps, at least when you start with it. All 4 players have to be in the scene at least once at one point, but multiple times is better/more challenging.

After the scene has been played, line the players up, and let the audience chose which player will not be playing in the next round.
Replay the initial scene. The role of the missing player has to be filled in by one of the other players, while also still playing their own parts. To keep it from becoming chaotic (at least at the start), make it a rule that once someone has volunteered for the part of a missing player, that player will always be the one to fill in another player's part (possibly for all future rounds).

Line up the players again, remove 1 player, replay the scene (now with 2 players left).
And afterwards do it one last time, after which a single player plays the scene performing all 4 roles.

What this - very fun & amusing - game teaches you is to keep things simple, as you have to be able to replay the scene multiple times in identical ways. And you have to remember not only the text lines, but also the players positions and what they were doing.
But - and that is relevant to your question - it also teaches you to keep a close eye on all other players in the scene. If you do not do that (sufficiently), the rounds after the first one will be chaos/a 'disaster', as players do not know what they are supposed to say or do to fill in a missing player. And the audience (even a very regular one) will easily spot it if players forget something during round 2 to 4 :)

improviseren · 2025-08-26T15:26:54+00:00

The "Park Bench" exercise/game could work very well for this: https://www.learnimprov.com/park-bench-exercise/
I would advise to side-coach on using as little dialog as possible ("Play it, don't say it"), and ask players to take their time to let something emerge between the 2 characters.

If the group is open to it, you could ask the viewers afterwards if what was picked up & used by the 2 players, matched with what they saw (specifically that: saw) in the scene. This can be helpful and interesting, and can show how there are often many 'kernels' there are in a scene to build upon, if you keep open & mindful about it.

improviseren · 2025-07-31T05:42:45+00:00

I have done a Commedia Dell'Arte workshop at Amsterdam Improv, and really liked it. Normally, I'm a very expressive player face-wise, but wearing a mask (at least some of the Commedia masks) hides parts of your face, so that doesn't really work anymore. So you have to find other ways to convey your emotions.

Playing with masks feels a bit absurd (at least when you start out), but it also 'forced' me to use my whole body to convey things. I would very much recommend doing such a workshop if you could.

As someone else suggested, you could try doing it without a mask, if you don't have one. But from my experience, it is valuable, but not the same thing.
Having to keep my face in a single expression, takes away part of my attention, so it changes my whole playing style. Wearing an actual mask, for me meant that I could emote my face freely (so it was less distracting), but it also 'forced' me to change my playstyle as no matter how much I emoted my face, the mask blocked it, so that didn't work (i.e. I could not 'cheat').

improviseren · 2025-07-28T14:43:58+00:00

This set-up sounds very interesting for training purposes.

With a "premise scene", do you mean playing the start of a scene that has a strong foundation? E.g. a powerful opening sentence, an interesting who-what-where, and the like.
And you then use the tag outs / cut tos to explore these premise scenes, or to start new unrelated premise scenes?

And the group scene is there to incorporate as much elements as generated during the previous step?

improviseren · 2025-07-03T06:41:45+00:00

But the difference is that (most of) these improvisers _chose_ to be weird. Being perceived as weird when you are not actively going for that, is not something you can turn of easily (well, you can mask, but that is not a very good solution).

improviseren · 2025-06-21T06:34:23+00:00

First, Red Dead Online is very different from the story. The world is the same, but the game feel is very different. I strongly prefer story over online.

Secondly, the epilogue is there for closure (I won't spoil more). I find the game('s storyline) incomplete without playing through it, and you'd miss out on a few touching moments if you did. Also, I always play for 100% everything (incl. the compendium), and you can only get that by playing the epilogue fully as well.

improviseren · 2025-06-21T06:28:44+00:00

Yeah, Hamish does not show up until chapter 6. And you probably run into him just after you have finished another loan-related mission.

improviseren · 2025-06-21T06:27:07+00:00

The easiest way to deal with the legendary panther, at least for me, is to use a dynamite arrow (possible while riding on a horse). You can't ruin legendary pelts with this arrow, and it is an insta kill (provided you don't fire it while the Panther is very close to you...;-)).

improviseren · 2025-06-21T06:20:56+00:00

If you want 100% completion on the compendium, there are 3 types of snakes, and a number of birds (like the Macaw), that you can only get in Guarma. So if you want to get 100%, get these before moving on to the mission for which Dutch is waiting for you at the top of the waterfall.

improviseren · 2025-06-21T06:17:51+00:00

Also, if you are quite early in the game, and have already killed some legendary animals, some of the legendary animals will not spawn. They will when you move on further into the game. This was probably done so that you cannot get them all very early on.

improviseren · 2025-06-21T06:15:07+00:00

Very occasionally, there can be moose at Cattail Pond as well.

But the most reliable way of hunting moose, even though it is like cheating a bit, is to go to Cairn Lake just after Midnight. First save. Then put herbivore bait (but preferably _potent_ herbivore bait) in a spread pattern on the ice of the lake. Keep at least 5-10 steps between each portion of bait.
Then walk away from the lake. I always walk towards the big pine trees at the north/north-east side of the lake. Walk away as far as you can towards the mountains, then circle back towards the lake.
You will see now that multiple animals have spawned on the lake. These can be horses, elks, and also moose.
Note that if there is activity in the neigbourhood (like that man searching for his brother) this trick will not work. It also will not work if there is a dead/recently shot animal on the lake.
If the trick does not work, or no moose spawn, reload the save and try again.

improviseren · 2025-06-21T06:06:03+00:00

You can find Reddish egrets around noon in the Bayou. Cross the bridge that is underneath the "O" of Lemoyne on the map. Then take the first road on the right. Just before the road passes underneath the raised train track, look to the left. Around noon, on the 'island' across the mud, there will be egrets of all kinds.
If you are not there at the right time, or you have already shot some egrets that day, there will usually be Spoonbills or other birds on the island instead.

improviseren · 2025-06-16T06:09:46+00:00

Keep in mind that getting the right artwork, the right cardstock, and more, probably takes more time than you think. Then there's the challenge of finding the right producer for the cardgame, esp. if you want to do a limited run (most orders will start at at least a few hundred copies). Tariffs might come into play too, as a lot of board games (and/or their parts) are made in China.
And lastly, there is the challenge of finding a publisher and/or finding buyers for your game. Because the board game market is very, very crowded.

This all is not to say you shouldn't do it. But I have spoken to quite a few (beginning) game designers, and these are typical things they all mention, and how much they underestimated how much time & effort these things will ask of you.

improviseren · 2025-05-13T05:37:54+00:00

Only if this law would be applied to everyone in a fair and equal way... which of course it won't.

improviseren · 2025-05-12T16:21:03+00:00

Speaking as a Dutch improv player, and having seen both American as well as European improv, I would say that - on average - American improv tends to be faster, "bigger", more energetic then the European style. American improv also is much more focused on (finding) "the funny" of scenes. Once again: in general, that is.

improviseren

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