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kevin--of-desert-bluffs · 3 years ago

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WTNV Quick Rundown - 19A - The Sandstorm

Welcome back to my quick rundowns of the WTNV episodes, live shows and novel! This is a two-part paralleling episode, but for brevities sake (this is supposed to be quick bulletpoints of lore, facts and interesting quotes) I'm splitting them up entirely. I am so excited for these upcoming episodes, you have no idea.

Blinking red light in the night sky. The future is changing, but it's hard to tell. Welcome to Night Vale. - 19A's opening, said by Cecil.

The titular sandstorm arrives in NV and Cecil warns everyone about it's potential deadliness (as do NV meteorologists who 'don't know when to shut up'). However, the sandstorm is far from ordinary (I mean, this is NV, right?).

Larry Leroy is the first to discover that despite how fast and hard the sand is flying, he can't feel anything when he touches it. Nothing at all, including that he feels like the past is fiction and consequences are a choice. 'He shouted a bright confirmation of life up toward the sand-covered sun before gasping and screaming “No! Not you! Not you!!” and then hanging up the phone.'

Intern Dana Cardinal is introduced in this episode (what happened to Stacey?!). She helps Cecil translate some runestones on Old Woman Josie's FB page and they say “They come in twos. You come in twos. You and you. Kill your double.” An an aside, Steve Carlsberg writes in to worry that the sandstorm is created by the government as a coverup for something. Cecil angrily explains that of course it is, City Council makes no secret that it can control weather, earthquakes, pandemics etc and is always monitoring their thoughts and activities. Duh, Steve.

The sandstorm spawns perfect copies or 'doubles' of every citizen is NV. Many of which, if not most of which, fight each other with one of them (maybe not even the original) ending up dead (Cecil doesn't condone this, he says violence is rarely the answer). This includes Intern Dana and Intern Dana's Double. A portal appears in Cecil's studio, it is black almost indigo and Cecil bravely steps through.

There is a long silence and then an unfamiliar male voice speaks. The man introduces himself as Kevin, of Desert Bluffs. He is very confused by his surroundings. He remarks that it seems to be night time, that the desk is odd and bloodless, that the technology seems very old and that the vortex is a different colour on this side. Looking at the desk, he sees a picture of Cecil (a man who is not short nor tall, not fat nor thin, wearing a tie like him and who has eyes and a nose and hair like his but who is not him, he is sure of it). "Maybe it is the smile. Is that a smile?"

'You may not know me, nor I you, but we have this mic, and this voice, and your warm ears blossoming open to hear comforting secrets and the vibrations of a voice that pulse so deep into your body your heart relaxes for a time.' - Kevin is so lovely :)

Weather: "Eliezer's Waltz" composed by Larry Cardozo and Ron Fink, and performed by Disparition.

Cecil returns after the weather and is very upset. He says he saw a foul demon of a man who 'tried to attack him'* and he tried to strangle this man to death but at the last second recalled what he said about violence not being the answer and let him live.

*personally I think Cecil just had a gut reaction to Kevin wanting to hug him since Kevin just let's him walk away after this but we really don't know

The NV baseball team is called the Night Vale Spider Wolves. The DB team is called the Desert Bluffs Sunbeams.

The Spider Wolves have a new pitcher, 20-year-old Trevin Murphy. He joined the Spider Wolves 'after they discovered he could use his telepathic powers to cripple batters emotionally, often sending them into weeks-long slumps and fits of crying, even while playing in the field.'

'Exit 6' and 'Route 800' are things which exist so ya know, if you're writing fanfics...there ya go.

There is a sponsorship from Home Depot which contains lines such as Need Help? Incomplete?. The Incomplete? repeats several times and is later parodied in the show.

And we are healing. Those of us, whoever we are, who survived. Those others of us, whoever we are, who conquered. Whoever you are now, you are home. We are home, Night Vale. You and I are together again. My mouth, your ears. We have each other. And for now, and always, good night, Night Vale. Good night. - this episodes sign off

Proverb: Step 1) write down the names of everyone you know. Step 2) rearrange the letters. Step 3) This will reveal a great secret of time.

#wtnv #wtnv quick rundown #welcome to night vale #welcome to desert bluffs #kevin of desert bluffs #wtnv ep 19

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aftermathdb · 4 years ago

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DEATH BATTLE Review: Venom vs. Crona

Two on two that are within one! Who will win, who will lose?

Venom′s Preview.

We open on a history lesson, about the Klyntar. And how they were a peaceful race that kicked out a loser named Venom. Who went through a multitude of different hosts. From heroes, to villains, to… Deadpool.

And then the Symbiote met Spider-Man.

And, after a lot of adventures, Peter got rid of the thing because it was a creepy goop monster. After this, the Symbiote bonded with one Eddie Brock.

Whose life was screwed from the start.

Between an abusive dad that blamed him for his mother’s death, and having terminal cancer, the guy had nothing to lose and everything to gain by joining with the Symbiote.

Aside from the powerset he got from Spidey, the hosts go over his other abilities, like camouflage, shapeshifting, and 360° vision, and all that other stuff. We get into our first animated segment.

Now, to be fair, Wiz is kinda right.

After going over their feats, they go over his past a bit more.

After accidentally killing a kid after stealing his dad’s car, he was told to plead innocent, and rig the jury. So, he’s been carrying around that guilt ever since.

And on the road to redemption, Venom and his host have fought and gone through a lot of crazy things. From fighting off most of Spidey’s rogues gallery to tanking a sonic blast that shattered glass miles away.

And… Some really weird convoluted comic book bullshit.

After fighting the Symbiote God that tried to turn them all into living weapons, Venom has proven himself a hero in his own right. Even teaming up with Spider-Man on occasion.

Sure, he’s always hungry for brains, but with Eddie’s influence, he’d rather bite the head off of a criminal than an innocent.

Crona′s Preview.

The hosts open up on the history of the world of Soul Eater, which, for those of you unfamiliar, is very… weird. Death is a goofy-looking dude who opened a school where warriors trained to stop evil.

Of the many characters, Crona Gorgon… Was not one of them.

Crona basically had your typical power-hungry abusive mother, who basically tried turning the poor kid into a living weapon… And by living weapon, I don’t mean the ones that actually turn into weapons, I mean the… uncomfortable kind.

Crona’s weapon is Ragnarok (Which I have now recently realized I misspelled numerous times in the captions, so… Apologies).

With all that power at their finngertips, Crona and Ragnarok became a formidable team. And that leads into the animated segment.

And after going over some bonuses of how the powerset works, what with the whole “eating souls” thing, we go into even more powers. Specifically, of the Black Blood.

From being able to project Madness onto others, to shapeshifting, to all sorts of sonic attacks, Crona has some major firepower under their metaphorical belt.

In addition, they go over how Crona has gone up against plenty of Death Academy students like Death the Kid, Maka, and Black☆Star (And for those of you wondering, yes, the star in his name is the official spelling.

Now, Death the Kid could reach supersonic speeds, and Black☆Star is eveen faster.

Since Crona can keep up, this means that they’re in the same ballpark of speed.

And all that Black Blood is also really damn powerful and plentiful.

It could cover this entire city, given similar comparisons to other similar cities in the area, that’s nearly 10,000,000,000,000 tons of Mad Blood.

Thankfully, through the power of friendship and good feelings, Crona ended up saving the world. And made a new kind of Madness that… made everyone obsessed with boobs.

The Battle Itself.

Luis is lead on this fight. Venom will be reprised by Adam Wennick, Crona will be voiced by Sarah Anne Williams, and Ragnarok will be voiced by John Van Doren. “Madness Envenom” by Brandon, and audio led by Chris Kokkinos.

We open on a church, where there’s a single person praying before Crona comes in.

Now, I gotta say: Mad props to the animator who is working on Ragnarok, that is some quality movement. You can’t tell because this is a screenshot, but the animation on Ragnarok is pretty fluid.

Anyways, it turns out the person who was there first was Eddie. And, in true Season Seven fashion, the fight starts because of food. Because why not?

After a very brief back and forth, Venom manages to trap Crona.

But, they’re a tough cookie, and they manage to blast away and make some distance.

Now, this being a sound attack, it deals some significant damage to Venom.

I am so glad I managed to pause it here. This is an epic shot.

And I guess Luis was watching some Jojo, because we get a punch clash.

Venom manages to get by, and camouflages to get the drop on them.

Five Nights at Venom’s.

Venom manages to get in a hit, but the Black Blood is a bit too tough for Venom to beat.

Fitting for a Halloween episode, there’s blood everywhere.

Anyways, the fight takes to the skies, where neither seems to have a specific advantage… Aside from Crona managing to get in a few more licks in and block more hits than Venom.

Crona manages to take the fight back into the church.

Five Nights at Crona’s.

Venom decides to boast one more time before, uh, well…

Yeah, finishing blow in

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Verdict + Explanation.

Anyways, Boomstick makes our second Lucy vs. Carnage callback.

Now, Wiz notes that the only advantage Venom had was shapeshifting, camouflage, and weapon versatility. That’s literally it. Venom was screwed everywhere else.

Crona could match Black☆Star, who could get to Mach 9000.

Compared to Venom matching Spidey 2099, who only has Mach 2000, that’s a pretty clear speed difference.

Strength was another. Venom hasn’t displayed anything comparable to Crona opening the Moon’s mouth.

And really, with the Black Blood, Venom couldn’t pull any puppeteering tricks.

Now, the big one: Could Venom survive Crona’s sonic attacks?

Now, the sonic attack that nearly killed him that shattered glass miles away is a good high point to gauge. That clocks in at about 244 dB. Crona’s feat of covering the moon clocks in at 275dB.

And if you remember anything from Black Canary vs. Sindel, sound changes on the logarithmic scale. So Crona’s attack was over a thousand times more powerful than the blast Venom barely survived.

Overall impression.

Magento vs. Robot Man anyone?- I mean… That’s the impression this episode gave me. Like… I know that Ben was largely unfamiliar with Soul Eater going in, and I can assume that the same can be applied to a few of the other team members, but… really? Why not pit Robotboy against EMP Man? How about seeing who wins between Sandman and Juvia? The only way this can feel like it wasn’t “My Weakness is Sound man” vs. “Has Sound as an Explicit Weapon Person” is if the big question was “Could Venom survive Crona’s sonic attack?” They don’t put much emphasis on it, so it feels like they knew going in that Crona would utterly destroy Venom. And while I’m not inherently against fights that are basically stomps (Hell, I still enjoy Flash vs. Quicksilver), they really should have put more emphasis on that question if they didn’t want it to feel like it was one-sided.

I’m happy that Soul Eater is getting some rep before the inevitable Ruby vs. Maka fight (Uh, more money on Maka please), but I was honestly expecting Black☆Star to make it in before Crona. And even then, I would have thought that they would do something more creative than “Black Goopy buddies that bonded with a human host”

I tend to rag more on matchups than I do on animation, and I’ll be real: The animation is still good. Ragnarok is well-done, and they definitely landed the creepy factor quite well.

My own first viewing was a bit tainted because my own mother demanded that I not spend time for myself and instead sit at a table listening to her and my dad talk about whatever, so my own feelings are a bit skewed because I had to watch this in a rush. Just a little disclaimer.

8.7/10

Next Time…

Speaking of ragging on matchups…

Can anyone vouch for having wanted this? Or, failing that, can anyone vouch for having seen this as a suggestion in the comments section?

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

Red vs. Red… Blue vs. Blue… It’s I against I, and me against you…

#Death Battle #Deathbattle #review

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audiohut · 4 years ago

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Thoughts for Engineers

Here is something for the engineers. I have been working as an engineer for almost a decade and have come to find a few elements the new found engineer can implement to get them started!

When you first have your mix, it might be hard to grasp but finding balance is key. Start your mix by simply adjusting the volume faders and panning knobs to 1. Create your stereo image and 2. Keep away from any un needed processing that might over saturate or damage your mix in the long run. When you do this, imagine that this is all you have to mix with and keep an eye on your master bus to see what is peaking above -6 dB and note it down as the first things you will approach along with anything else you see fit with dynamics, frequency or busing.

Once you have a balance go ahead and briefly solo out certain elements that you prefer to start with. For me, i solo my kick and snare and sweep for clashing frequencies within each. I always start with subtractive EQ before my compression to only compress the frequencies i see as needed or as “the good ones”. Once i have removed frequencies i do not like, i will throw them back into the mix and make minor adjustments without making arbitrary changes that suck up time and that could lead to a foggy direction for the mix eventually ruining it. I repeat this process with very minor removals until i feel i have a good foundation setup.

Side Note: Always focus on your subtractive EQ. You are more likely to find good results in removing bad frequencies which allow the positive ones to show themselves and breathe especially after compression. Boosting to much low, mid or high can result in a muddy, boxy and airy end point in your mix. While boosting is beneficial in many ways you want to boost with closure and know exactly what you want to bring out with said boost. A good example is with bass. I will dual process the bass which entails one low end track and one high end track containing the grit or clank. To really grasp the clank, i will either use a saturation plugin (Fab Filter Saturn) and boost the 2khz-3khz range or simply boost this region with a multi band EQ like Fab Filter Pro Q or SSL’s Channel. If i did not know what i had been looking for i would not have boosted to begin with but considering this range is the attack and grit and i want it brought out, i chose to boost it.

Once i have gotten a foundation, i will then apply Waves L2 on my master bus with a dB and LUFS level that is fitting for the time being. As i achieve certain milestones i will adjust my limiter to a commercial volume level to sort of guide the mix as i go. This helps me focus on sounds that need relief rather than crushing my mix with a limiter after my mix which could result in thinned out sounds especially when clipping elements like snares, kicks and vocals.

Side Note: With every single move i make and more specifically EQ i implement the LDFC method. Listen, Diagnose, Fix and Compare. This will keep you grounded to your moves and make them happen with the reassurance that they are there for a reason. When i first started mixing, i found myself making moves without knowing what i was doing. This is obviously a n00b move, but without starting and actually applying these tools like EQ, Compression etc i would not have gotten better.

After i have gotten my EQ some what out of the way, i move to compression. This is usually done by instrument for me but it never hurts to change up your work flow. If you have a good dB balance paired with a good frequency balance you will be able to hear which areas need tamed dynamics and or punch and attack. Depending on your instrument and what you want to pull from it, you will want to approach your compressor a little differently.

Side Note: I want you to know that a great place to start is to find a signal chain of your own that you are comfortable with tool wise and that is logical to your work flow and use this over and over again starting from scratch every time. You do not want to simply copy and paste the same chain on every vocal as every performance is different and every recording is as well. Doing this will help you grasp the tools and how they work together and become familiar with where they should be used and how heavily they should be worked next time. Remember this: There is no magic button, signal chain or piece of gear/plugins that just make it great. It requires time and effort and real work to learn how to get a colorful and punchy mix.

These two elements (EQ and Compression) once mastered will absolutely bring out what you want from your recordings. There is no simple way to achieve a good mix other than by starting and repeating a process that hones in the skills you desire to get a colorful and bright vocal, guitar or drum track.

If this helped you in anyway i am glad! I hope you the best in your mixing journey as i know it has been fun learning and advancing every mix for myself. If you are looking to produce, write or compose songs please follow and look back at my thoughts for song writers! These posts are all first hand from my experience and i love sharing the information with you and hope you learn from it!

-Andrew Giordanengo

-Audiohut

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kokichi-and-co-imagine-blog · 5 years ago

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*dramatic point* You there! *dramatic pose* Grookey, Sobble or Scorbunny?

Ooh boy…

My friend, you don’t know what you unleashed.

Before we get started everyone, a quick and obvious Disclaimer: Know that the opinions on the starters are strictly my own and are just that, OPINIONS. They are not fact, they are not the be all and end all. Ultimately, it comes down to taste, and having different tastes is fine. And if your opinions on the starters differ from mine, that’s great. It’s only a game after all and it’s only designs for fictional magical animals. Now, with that out of the way…

Let’s get started.

Scorbunny:

When the starters were first revealed, Scorbunny was the one that jumped out to me first. Might have something to do with me seeming to like fire starters the most in general. The Charmander line (though don’t get me started on how I feel on how much Game Freak seems to pander to this thing. GIVE OTHER POKEMON LOVE GAME FREAK!!!), Cyndiquil line, Chimchar line. That’s three out of seven before gen 8. Admittedly, water types also tie that number (Oshawott line, Froakie line, Popplio line), but in gen 6 I was also a big Fennekin fan and in gen 7 I was all aboard the Litten train till I found out that they had to make my precious kitty stand on two legs. Don’t get me wrong, I like Incineroar, but I was really really hoping for some lean tiger/leopard/cheetah looking pokemon on all fours. Wasn’t a fan of the bipedal choice, but that’s just me. Though I will admit, the Heel idea was a good one.

Anyway, back to Scorbunny. Scorbunny was the first that popped out to me. It looked energetic and sweet. I was slightly worried though with the bandage on its face that this meant we were going back to fire-fighting types but I wasn’t too worried.

After a little while though I ended up changing who I wanted to use as a starter. Blame the fan-artists for that one, the flood of small cute comics for a certain water lizard (we’ll get to Sobble in a moment) kinda shifted the tide.

By the time the 3D models were leaked, I wasn’t really planning on using Scorbunny anymore, and honestly the models didn’t help. Raboot was okay, perfectly fine design for the awkward middle stage. But Scorbunny… I don’t know, Scorbunny was WAY too human like for me. I’m not even entirely sure HOW to describe it, it just gave off that impression and it didn’t sit well with me.

When the official 2D art came out it helped a bit, but by that time I had already started the game and chosen my starter. And still, the human like feeling is still too present for me to be completely comfortable. I don’t know, it reminds me far too much of human sports anime protagonists. And I get it, that’s kinda the point with it being a soccer player but I can’t really help how I feel. I have warmed up on it though.

Admittedly, the line probably has the best, at least in terms of gameplay, signature move of the starters. And it does look freaking awesome.

Sobble:

Ooh boy. Ooh boy.

Warning in advance guys, this is going to get kinda ranty.

As I mentioned above, after a little time sitting with the starter designs, I ended up finding myself liking Sobble more and more. Sobble’s design is adorable, and it helps that I’m also at times feeling tons of anxiety and social intimidation. All the fanart helped too. This little guy stole my heart. I thought it was going to be perfect.

And then the 3D models leaked.

I was not happy.

Drizzile… once again, a decent awkward middle stage, though those oven mitts for hands I was not fond of.

But Inteleon. INTELEON.

Listen, I get what Game Freak was going for. Spies are a major thing in Britain, from 007/Bond, to MI6 in the Mission Impossible movies. And it makes sense from a story stand point. The shy, easily intimidated Sobble grows up, becoming a super suave and confident spy. It fits. It honestly does.

BUT WHY DOES THAT DESIGN LOOK SO UGLY?!

Now, before we go on, going to rehash the disclaimer above. This is my personal opinion on Inteleon. If you love it, good for you. I am legitimately happy for you. It’s good that you like it, can enjoy it. I wish I could. I do not like it when I dislike a Pokemon, any Pokemon. Especially when the reason I dislike it is simply because I’m not a fan of its design.

But Inteleon. I can’t help it. I just hate it:

Those freakishly long and WAY too human-like hands on a lizard that, while I know were purposely designed, look like gloves. Yes, it goes with the spy motif, but to me it just looks awful.

The stick-thinness of its entire body. Like, its body literally looks like a rail, it’s arms and legs look like a stick-figure’s. It doesn’t even have any real shoulders! (admittedly, part of this may have to do with some… bad memories. My father passed away 4 and a half years ago from colon cancer and during the last few months of his life, he was anorexic. Scarily so. So yeah, might be some repressed stuff going on there. Of course, I could be over-analyzing this and it has nothing to do with it. Who knows?)

That stupid looking cape. Yes, I know it’s a membrane that acts as a glider. Actual lizards have this, and it helps with the spy theme. But to me, all I see is a stupid tiny cape.

Seeing it in 3D made me just give up on the line. I just couldn’t get myself to like it. Even now, with official 2D art, I can’t get myself to like it.

And of course, that brings us to the final starter.

Grookey:

There’s a reason I saved Grookey for last. Grookey was the exact opposite of what happened to Sobble for me.

When I first saw Grookey I was not a fan. Oh sure, it was kinda cute, but something about the design just felt off to me. I think honestly it was the mouth. It just reminded me of a beak for some reason. Still does occasionally, though I’m much more okay with it now. But yeah, it was the least impressive to me of the first stages. I din’t hate it, but it didn’t get a reaction out of me. So I thought I wasn’t going to even consider it.

Then came the 3D leaks.

And that changed.

Thwackey is my favorite mid stage starter this gen, and definitely ranks high up in mid stage starters over all. It looks really good, like a perfectly natural progression that doesn’t need to rely on teenage awkwardness. Yes, the teenage awkwardness is a perfectly fine design strategy, but I’m so much happier when it isn’t necessary. Thwackey just looks like an older Grookey that is now seriously considering drumming. And I love it.

And then Rillaboom. I will admit, at first sight I wasn’t blown away or head over heels like I am with some final stage starters (Infernape, Primarina, Greninja and Decidueye just to name a few), but I was fine with it. I was okay enough that I felt like going Grookey was an okay final option. Admittedly, I did consider boxing my starter for the first time ever, but after a while things changed. And I genuinely began to like Rillaboom.

The name is fun. Rillaboom is nice, and when you combine it with the usual “Go _!” you of course get Go, Rillaboom! Or, Gorilla-boom. That is a stealth pun I can appreciate.

Rillaboom’s design also grew on me. It’s a drummer and a good one. Usually I’m not a fan of Pokemon carrying around equipment as part of the natural look to them (way too many questions on how that works biologically to me) and at first this kinda turned me off when I saw the drum, but I’ve come to like it. It probably helps that the official 2D art doesn’t have it, which makes me think it isn’t a natural thing it just gets. And those dreads made of shrubs and vines. It’s nice. Plus, a grass gorilla. Thank you for this perfect opportunity to make some Dragon Ball Sayin nicknames. (My current one is named Broly. Rillaboom really reminds me of the new DB Super Broly who I really like, as opposed to the old DBZ one. But that’s a character analysis for another day.)

Ultimately though, it just has the most Pokemon-esque feel to it. I’m not a fan of people in general saying “Oh, that Pokemon is awful because it doesn’t look like a Pokemon!” but sometimes I get it. I understand that urge. And while I never would say a Pokemon is objectively awful for any reason, ESPECIALLY that reason, I can still understand it. And that’s what the other starters felt like to me. Not really like Pokemon. They are decent designs, well thought out ones. But I personally don’t like them, especially on a Pokemon.

So ultimately, TL;DR I’m on Team Grookey.

Closing Statements:

So, I know this has gone on quite a while, but I think it’s really important I end this discussion with a certain message.

It’s okay to like a Pokemon. Any Pokemon. And it’s also okay to dislike a Pokemon. Any Pokemon.

Human beings have tastes, and we all have different ones. I’m going to like certain characters, art, music, etc. that you may or may not like, and vice versa. And this is fine.

Ultimately, be kind and be respectful.

We’re all still people and fans after all.

#Not a request #Mod Makoto #Pokemon #Rant #Kinda?

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arekardi · 5 years ago

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ANTIGONE DRESSED IN ASHES ; an eagle tied in golden chain. ( mafia au, as inspired by @blaidded‘s verse ! )

there’s photographs somewhere, in some dusty corner of the old hresvelg house, of eleven children on a summers day. one of the is a young girl with brown hair and a gap in her teeth. she appears again, with a blond boy, grinning as she pulls two fingers behind his head for the camera. do not go looking for her. she is dead. she is never coming back.

a pretty girl plays the part of the show business star, with smiles, shining lipstick, a carefully managed instagram, tv appearances. everyone knows edelgard hresvelg; you’d be stupid not to. she’s even appeared in a tv commercial or two. she’s going to inheritting her father’s company soon, after all. ( how do you get your hair to that colour, edelgard? i’ve never seen you with roots! a talk show host asks her. she laughs. purple eyes gleam. a good routine, and lucky genetics. she answers. there are too many teeth in her smile. )

here’s another picture of her: kissing another woman behind the wall, lipstick smeared crimson like blood on her mouth. this is the least of her scandals.

here’s another one: no dress this time, but a blood red suit, fitted to her broad frame, a pair of sleek black heels accenting her height. she still stands shorter than most of the room, but there’s an undeniable sense of presence in her. she fills the room. her hair is tied in two tight buns, with golden horns curled round them. get the money. she says, and men rush to her word at once. her eyes are cold. they have always been cold. she spins a dagger between two fingers. blood stains under her nails.

she fights. she kills. she steals. she does all this for the gain of the hresvelg family. she does it all over again. she’s ruthless, she’s disgusting, she’s beautiful, she’s terrifying. she fights like there’s no tomorrow, like she’s running out of time.

this is because she is.

they say the hresvelg corporation is terrifying. everyone buys their products, one way or another. capitalism has allowed them to sink their rich hands into tiny companies and tear them to pieces, taking their resources for theirselves. it wasn’t always this way. they used to be a well respected business with good, friendly connections. all everyone knows is that one day there was a power struggle, and things changed.

the current CEO’s children - all eleven of them - disappeared from the public eye, and at the same time, the company’s private experiments turned... darker, people say. rumours say it was experimentation on some kinds of drugs. some kind of stimulant. it can be bought in the black market. they call it DB - or demonic beast. it makes it’s victim incredibly strong for a short amount of time, and then kills them about 90% of the time.

at the same time, children began to go missing around fodlan. occasionally, a few would be found again, all with no colour left in their hair, skin, or eyes, usually physically weaker than they had been before. most of them died just a few years later of health complications.

so it is here we find the girl, daughter of the CEO of the hresvelg corproation, in an underground lab. her siblings scream around her. all she knows is the cold of the medical table she’s pressed to. all she knows is the press of syringes into her neck. eventually, after a length of time and agony and pain she cannot even comprehend, the scientists cheer. her hair is white. her eyes are light purple instead of the dark violet they were before. and she’s much, much stronger than anyone else.

her siblings are all killed. they’re failures. her uncle walks in, smiling like a hungry beast. she feels blinding fury. she feels cold fear. she feels more than she has ever felt in her life.

her uncle touches her face, and she tries to bite his hand. he laughs. you are our greatest creation, edelgard. he says. she wants to be sick.

the next few years are easy. she reappears in public as if nothing ever happened, and makes a name for herself as show business darling, while in the criminal underworld, everyone learns not to underestimate her. she fights like she’s running out of time, because she is.

she is twenty three years old, and in seven years she will be dead. she does not have much time. this world, that her uncle and his men thrive in, that allows the slaughter and torture of children, must be dismantled. but the authorities are just as bad. everyone worships money, and drugs, and violence. if she is going to win, she will play them at their game and win.

( it should be noted that edelgard always tries to minimise innocent or even unneeded death. there’s always an offer to fall under her magnetic pull. she always needs new allies, after all. very few innocents have been killed under her name, however cruel she might be. )

she will take the power of all the families in this rotton city, take all the power and then slowly, carefully, dismantle it and destroy her uncle and his disgusting followers. and she can only set the events in motion.

in a letter adressed to her closest follower, hubert vestra, entitled read when i am dead, she sets all this in motion, in the ways that he must let each part go. until eventually, fodlan will be clean once more, no more mobs, and no more blood.

to achieve this goal i shall become the monster i was always supposed to be. i shall kill and defile and lie and steal. but i shall end this. i leave the rest to you, hubert. reads the letter.

the last line reads, and when it is over, the children shall be free. whether she is talking of the children of the future, free of the threat of such torture as she went through, or the souls of the children of the past is unknown.

#mafia au /#long post /#mature themes /#there is FAR too much to tag so. H #* verse 3: ANTIGONE DRESSED IN ASHES ( an eagle tied in golden chain ) ; mafia.#im... really proud of this...........#hudishfisdhfid

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askalucario-blog · 6 years ago

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Caption: ‘yule’ when finished, Kennedy gives each of the masks a name and completes the project by posting an image online images courtesy of the artist.

Damselfrau interview: a peek behind the many masks of the London-based artist

if you somehow stumbled accidentally upon the work of Norwegian artist damselfrau, you’d be forgiven for thinking you had unearthed a cache of ancient vestments; something mystical, arcane—maybe even occult. defined by intricate beadwork, delicate lace and bold, bright color, damselfrau’s masks are at once visually arresting and bewitchingly unsettling. beautifully reshaping the face of the wearer, her work is laden with character, suggesting not just individual personalities, but whole narratives, histories, and worlds of their own.

the name ‘damselfrau’ is inherently contradictory. while ‘frau’ is a term used for married women, ‘damsel’ denotes one who is unmarried. combined, they form the paradoxical and provocative pseudonym adopted by artist magnhild kennedy—originally as a skype username, now as a professional alias—that she likes to interpret as ‘married to oneself’. it’s a fitting mantle for an artist who has become renowned for her masks; a craft that involves placing another ‘self’ on top of your own, creating both a combination of the two and suggesting something entirely new altogether.

damselfrau masks in vogue portugal, ‘the bold side of christmas’image by vasily agreneko, styling by pierre-alexandre fillaire

originally from trondheim in norway, damselfrau moved to london in 2007. while both of her parents are artists, she herself never formally trained. rather, kennedy’s practice originated somewhere a little less conventional: the dance floors of london’s nightclubs. working at a vintage designer shop in islington at the time, kennedy drew inspiration from the collection of clothes around her and was able to sew her own pieces behind the counter, which she would then wear clubbing. eye-catching, eccentric and strangely seductive, it’s no wonder that mask quickly became her craft of choice.

since then, damselfrau has made pieces for artists like mø and beyoncé, and collaborated with alister mackie and louis vuitton. beads, glass, lace, textiles, paint, hair, paper: everything and anything can be included in one of damselfrau’s creations. rather than chaos however, the result is one of organic artistry. ‘for me the mask is a place where different elements come together as situation,’ she says in her artist’s statement. ‘the work is about this place-situation, more so than the mask as a theme or category of form. the mask is a place’. livened by the found nature of the materials that comprise them, damselfrau’s masks perfectly walk the line between being delicate artworks of visual poetry and ghostly uniforms for the mystical.

damselfrau’s intricate gold face piece can be spotted at the start of this music video for mø’s track ‘kamikaze’

designboom spoke with the artist recently about her journey toward mask making, the best spots in london to find new materials, and her plans for the new year.

designboom: you come from a particularly artistic family. what was your own personal journey like as an artist in light of this? do you remember the first time you sat down and said, ‘right, I’m going to make a mask’? how did it turn out?

magnhild kennedy: I came to myself quite late. I’ve always made various types of stuff, but nothing good. I’ve known since I was a teen that I was going to have to head to london at some point, but it didn’t happen until I was in my late 20’s. I have no idea how masks became the format for me, I’m not particularly interested in masks as a category. I worked in a vintage design shop when I first moved here. looking at the old clothes, their details and decor gave me some insight into making. I went to car-boot sales every weekend to find utilities for our new life here, and started schlepping home all kinds of funny materials, textiles and bits I found there.

I had to do something with all these materials. it started with making masks for a party and the format stuck. from there it just grew slowly and organically. five years ago my husband robert started dalston pier studio. I got myself a proper work shop there and felt it was the time take it seriously. I felt like an imposter for the longest time. I’m self taught, I didn’t go to school past the age of 19. but growing up with two artist parents, it’s been schooling from day one

DB: you work a lot in found textiles and have spoken about picking up materials in car boot sales and the like. what is the strangest place you’ve ever found material for a mask, and when working on a new piece, do you have a go-to place in london to start looking for inspiration?

MK: I find things everywhere, I have picked fruit netting out of bins. one christmas in paris, they decorated the trees of the champs-élysées with plastic crystals. rouge ones had fallen off and been stepped into the dirt pavement and I scratched out pocket fulls. I’ve picked gold confetti off the floor at alternative miss world. friends bring me things from their travels too. a friend gave me a norwegian 1700’s hair wreath, a japanese friend gave me an antique geisha hair piece I crocheted into a mask. old tea towels. I’ll use whatever if it has personality.

just walking out the door is inspiration, really. I live in dalston. people from everywhere in the world, young and old. fashion kids. charity shops. I’ll go to sir john soane’s museum. the wallace collection. spitalfields on thursdays. dennis severs’ house. dover street market. a pub.

DB: how long does it usually take to finish a mask, and what is the longest you have ever worked on a single piece?

MK: anything from a day to forever! I have unfinished masks on my shelves that have been waiting for ‘something’ for months—years even. I’ll just have to wait until that right something comes along.

percifor’‘I felt like an imposter for the longest time…but growing up with two artist parents, it’s been schooling from day one’

DB: I know you originally made masks for clubbing in london. how has creating masks specifically for a club environment and club culture in general influenced the work you make? do you still wear your masks clubbing?

MK: it’s been a loooong time since I went clubbing! I might make myself something fun for halloween if I am going to some party. the ‘craft something from nothing’ element of the club culture was inspiring. what some people could make out of some egg carton, tape and paint, you know? there was no hierarchy amongst the materials. that is the main thing I learned that I have brought with me into the work.

‘uro’‘there was no hierarchy amongst the materials. that is the main thing (…) I have brought with me into the work’

DB: how do you personally feel when wearing one of your creations, and what do you hope the experience is for an onlooker?

MK: I don’t wear the masks much once they are done. I try my best not to make to many decisions for the masks. people see what they see. it’s none of my business!

DB: you have collaborated with a lot of really interesting people in the past. are there any artists you are particularly influenced by, or anyone you would love to work with in future?

MK: when I was a kid I saw moebius’ and enki bilal’s comics, and they definitely still inform what I do. I’m very interested in homes and how people surround themselves. I decorate a lot. I sew my own christmas ornaments. at the moment I am taken with the book ‘dawnridge’, about tony duquette’s wonderfully OTT home. he was an artist, film and set designer in hollywood. I like miniature model makers like charles matton and thierry bosquet.

I like spaces over-informed by the people who use them and live in them. I have always felt I work mostly like a decorator. my all time greatest obsession is versailles. I don’t have a particular person in mind, so my dream collab would definitely be with versailles.

DB: you often talk about your masks having a character and life of their own. how much of yourself do you see in each piece you make, or do you always see it as a separate entity from the start? what stage in the process does a mask’s character start to reveal itself, and what does that moment feel like?

MK: separate entity I think…it’s a kind of meditative state, making these things. i’m always surprised by what comes out and that I have made something. usually the character changes several times along the way. there are very few conscious choices taken along the way, or at least it feels like it.

I try to think as little as possible, really and just go by instinct. no overthinking. I have clear physical reactions in the brain to if something works or not. like two ant antennae meeting, releasing some warm spark. some severe chemical reaction, it’s totally a high.

DB: you have a strong presence on instagram and images of your work are understandably popular on sites like instagram and tumblr. how integral to your process is social media, and how has it impacted the way you make work, if at all?

MK: it’s a big part of the work. a mask isn’t finished until I have taken a portrait of it and sent it out on general internet high-ways like my instagram or blogspot. this way the mask makes a life of its own and communicates its own being. it’s how it has turned into actual work.

DB: are you working on anything at the moment you’d like to share with us, and what does 2019 hold for damselfrau?

MK: yes! I’m very excited. I have been invited to exhibit at the national museum of decorative arts trondheim in norway this september. it’s the first time I’ll show the masks in the flesh in norway, so it’s pretty grand for me. I used to visit this museum as a kid, I have strong feeling for this building. it’s surreal to be showing there. I am also working on an interesting project with queen mary university and designer rachel freire, incorporating technical fabrics and movement sensors with my masks. that’s a new universe for me—very cool.

DB: any personal mottos or words of wisdom you try to live by?

MK: ‘walk, don’t run’, as my dad always says.

#facemask

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ambrosiaswhispers · 6 years ago

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The Fate of the Last Saiyan Prince

The title is awful auspicious for such a short piece. I’ve never written in this fandom before but Vegeta and Bulma were one of my first ships EVER! I loved their dynamic and when I was watching Dragon Ball Super to help with my sanity I fell in love with these hotheads all over again.

This piece is more about Vegeta and his family then a traditional romantic piece. I love it though.

Inspired by Wanderer's Lullaby, Being Human, and all the DBZ and DBS I've been watching lately. I cried while writing it. I don't think this is exactly all cannon - I may have gotten some details wrong, but this is just my take on the situation. I've heard that he actually dies before she does, but these images wouldn't leave my head, so here we are. He refers to his daughter as Echalotte and Trunks calls her Bulla (blame subtitles) - I am aware she is Bra.

I really hope you enjoy the story - sad as it is. The ending I think makes it better.

The Fate of the Last Saiyan Prince

He landed on earth it had been years since he’d been home…home? He shook his head, when did this backwater, mud-ball become home? He could feign ignorance and pretend that he didn’t know when that had happened, but he wasn’t one to disillusion himself.

Hey Homeboy, loosen up!

He could still hear her clear as the moment she teased him to get his attention.

You need a shower.

He could still feel that finger pressing against his armor and remembered following her like some kind of lost puppy.

He landed at her grave, entombed with her parents, where it was proper. Her smiling image marking the vault, a moment frozen in time from shortly after their daughter was born. Trunks had picked out the photograph, he hadn’t been able to speak and Echalotte never left his side.

“Trunks – it’s a family name. I don’t really care what you think! You won’t even claim him you asshole!”

“Bulla – cutest name for the cutest girl. Like it? We can give her a Saiyan middle name if you want, Hun.”

His son had grown up and into his own after many years of being far too obnoxious. Trunks had taken an interest in the inner working of the technological empire he was heir too, learning alongside his grandfather and mother. He’d married Mai, and she was a good choice, they took over the company with ease. Trunks had a family of his own now, two kids and they all lived on the compound that had been Vegeta’s home for so many years. He was proud of Trunks, but his son took after his mother in so many ways.

His daughter was far more like him then he’d like to admit. He first saw it when she was six and was determined to be the best ballet dancer in her class, demanding to stay up past her bedtime to practice with a singular determination to reach her goal. When she was ten, her birthday party was in full swing and he observed her sneaking off by herself. He confronted her and she shrugged explaining that she didn’t really want all of the fuss, but it made Mamma happy so she’d acquiesced. His Echalotte…Bulla’s selflessness was from her mother, even if she displayed it more like him.

He could feel all of them in the house tonight, some kind of celebration was being prepared for, he could see all of the telltale signs. He focused until he found Echalotte’s ki and landed on the balcony outside the room. She was sitting in a zip-up shirt and lounge pants as she applied her make-up. She was the very image of her mother with her shortened blue hair.

“Hello, Father.” She smiled at him softly through the mirror’s reflection, then continued her task. “You missed all the excitement. The twins were born two months ago. I think you need to have a conversation with Trunks, before he and Mai repopulate the Saiyan race all on their own.”

He smirked and stepped into the room that had been Echalotte’s when she was growing up. “She survived having twins? I wouldn’t have given Mai that much credit.”

“Shenron may have been involved.” She flashed an identical smirk back at him. “Don’t tell her.”

He gave an agreeable sound and glanced around the room, before asking, “How is your son?”

“Reign is good. It’s been two years here since you’ve been home. He’s five and stronger than I originally expected. My experiment worked, I knew I could find a DNA combination in a human that would amply the Saiyan and not delude it.”

She had a mind like her mother sometimes, and her way of having a child had been a fight between them. He hadn’t approved of her DNA examination and artificial insemination. It was the first real fight he’d ever had with his daughter. It didn't help that she'd started her research right after they lost...

“I’m glad you’re pleased.”

“No, you aren’t. You wanted me to be wrong and you still want to know who his father is.” She put in her earrings and stood up, but kept some space between them. She was two inches taller than he was and she wasn’t trying to challenge him right now.

He waved his hand dismissively, “I want you to be happy. However it happened, it happened.”

There was a knock on the door followed by “mother” in Saiyan royal tongue.

“Enter.” Echalotte answered and a boy who was no less his own spitting image stepped into the room, his eyes lighting up.

“Grandfather! You’re here!” Reign started excitedly before remembering himself. “I’m excited to see you. I can’t sense your power-level.” He inclined his head to one side.

“I’m camouflaging it. Something you should have started training on.” Vegeta informed his grandson without any real malice in his tone.

The boy bowed his head, then looked to his mother as he tugged on his undone tie, “I need help.”

She motioned to the chair and the boy climbed up on it. “Watch me so you learn.” The boy’s eyes followed Echalotte’s slow even motions as she knotted the tie carefully. “There. Do not get dirty. The party is starting soon. Tell your Uncle that Grandfather is here.”

The boy nodded and dashed out of the room.

“You taught him?”

“Both tongues, of course, and I made an archive. The language will live on and anything else I can find. I’m going to be traveling after tonight’s announcement.”

“Announcement?”

“The party is to honor Mother, but I’m turning over my ownership of the company to Trunks. He’s always been like her then I was and he loves Caps Corp, even if he won’t admit it.” She slipped into the bathroom and he stepped back out onto the balcony.

He stared up at the stars and sighed heavily as he stretched out to feel all of the chaos on the grounds. Trunks was with Mai and all of their children and he was happy. Both of his children were happy and his grandchildren were powerful and had potential. She would have been so proud of them, no, she would have been vibrantly and obnoxiously elated to see how they’d grown up. She would have thrown a thousand ‘I-told-you-so’s about her parenting triumphs at him and he would have endured every one with hidden joy. What he wouldn’t give to hear her voice, smell her, just be in her presence again…

There was an ache that he’d never been able to shake since her death ten years ago. He just needed to see his family again, before he…

“Have you decided which star already?” If she hadn’t been the image of her mother before she certainly was now in the red dress she was wearing.

He felt a pain in his chest, he hadn’t wanted either of his children to know what he was planning, but he didn’t lie to them. He silently pointed.

His daughter let a low laugh pass through her painted lips, “It’s in the constellation for her zodiac. I can hear her now: I musta been too hot for ya, Babe.”

He allowed himself to chuckle, because she would have laughed and she would have said something like that. “Are you going to tell your brother?”

“No. It’s your choice. He’d try to stop you, it would be a fight, and then there would be nothing in these last memories but regrets.” She laid her hand on his arm. “Go change. Come with me to the party tonight. See your children and grandchildren shine. Hear her be honored. Then when you say goodbye no one will even flinch.”

He agreed and stepped into the room that he shared with her or so, so many years. He normally avoided it, but this was more like a goodbye than a visit. He found a suit that she’d forced him to wear and it still fit, slightly looser – he didn’t eat as well as he used to. He glanced at the pictures on the wall, no dust, but it looked as if nothing was touched like she could sweep in at any moment and tease him about his crooked tie. He straightened it as he noticed the pair of dark eyes watching him from the doorway.

“Come here, Reign.” He beckoned the boy. When his grandson got to him, Vegeta laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Make sure you always good take care of your mother. Be true to your clan.”

The boy nodded.

“Good. Now I should meet your new cousins.”

The party was everything he would have hated and he would have grumbled to her all night about being miserable. Tonight he simply and quietly watched everything unfold. He saw his son as a strong and capable business owner, but still sharp physically as Trunks had no trouble wrangling all four of his children and kept a close eye on Mai. They were happy, properly bonded mates: supportive but still challenging each other. His grandchildren: four boys and one girl, who had Trunks wrapped around her tiny finger already…He wished she could have seen them. She would have loved them. Could she see them? Maybe she could where she was on the other side.

He stayed until the party was over and the family was left alone on the lawn under the tent. Mai looked tired as she rocked the youngest boy, while Trunks held the little girl. The other children were starting to get sleepy when Reign asked Echalotte to sing to them. The song was low and sad about wanderer looking for his place in the world. He simply sat in the space with them, relishing the last moments he would ever get with them. There would be no reunions for him in the afterlife. There were too many dark stains in his past.

“Okay, well, we should get the rugrats to bed. Guys, say goodnight to your Aunt Bulla and your Grandfather.” Trunks rustled up the kids and they bid their ‘goodnights.’

“I can take them. Sit.” Mai waved him off and their oldest took the little girl from Trunks. “Always nice to see you, Vegeta.”

He nodded as she passed him with her children in tow. The three sat in silence for a long spell as Reign snored in the chair he’d fallen unconscious in.

“When did you fall in love with her?” Echalotte asked barely above a whisper.

“Bulla.” Trunk snipped, no doubt agitated that she was going to ruin the good mood they were all in with that question.

Normally, he would have reacted badly, even scoffed at the idea of rehashing the past, but not tonight. “It was after Cell.”

“There goes my fairytale backstory.” Trunk dared to joke.

“Quiet boy, you already knew I didn’t love her when you were conceived. It was weakness on my part and stupidity on hers. Why she ever…” His voice held none of his normal bite, but he folded his arms over his chest. “You were not a mistake. But she knew that long before I did. I was foolish and selfish when she told me. We were too stubborn and had no intention of changing for each other. After Cell was defeated; I was lost, but I wanted better for you then what that boy from the future had. She allowed me to be near you. You were the reason that I stayed and ultimately why I saw her as something other than a distraction, but…” He closed his eyes.

“You don’t…” Trunk started to interrupt.

“I’ll continue if I wish. Hold your tongue.”

His daughter chuckled.

“I realized I cared for you both and it was unnerving, unsettling, and I thought it made me weak. That’s why I surrendered myself to evil again. It was a mistake. One that I couldn’t believe that your mother ever forgave me for…she shouldn’t have.”

“She knew what you sacrificed for her and for me.” His son reminded him.

“It was pointless.”

“Not to us.”

Vegeta made an agreeable sound. “I didn’t show it often, but I did love her.”

“We know that.” His daughter assured him. “She never doubted it.”

A pair of cries rang out from the quiet of the house. “That's my cue, if I want to sleep in my own bed.” Trunk scrambled up and started towards the house.

As Trunks passed by him, Vegeta caught his eye, “I am proud of you, my son. Know that.”

The lavender haired man looked surprised but managed to respond evenly. “Thanks, Dad. That means a lot.”

Vegeta snorted and looked away, he couldn’t say anything more without it seeming suspicious.

Echalotte stood up and scooped up her son. “Walk with me, please.” He nodded and followed her up the stairs, watching her tuck in her sleeping child.

They walked back onto the balcony of her room and he caught the scent of tears in the air. “I’m sorry.” She cleared her throat. “I’m trying to grieve like you’d want, but I think my human side is going to get the better of me. It’s all I can do to control my ki so Trunks doesn’t figure it out.” She leaned her shoulder against his for a moment, before moving away quickly.

He stepped back into her space and caught her face in his hands, “You are a good daughter. A blessing.”

She nodded and allowed him to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “No matter where you are sent in the beyond… I love you and that…That love travels with you. You are a warrior of the greatest strength and nobility.”

He kissed her forehead and left her on the balcony, hearing her controlled her sobs. He changed into the armor, the armor she’d made for him. He would die a warrior, not let age take him. He took off from the compound and glanced back and caught sight of Trunks on his balcony with one of the babies and heard Echalotte shakily singing a ballad that he’d taught her. He raised his fist and took off towards his destination.

.:.

The heat and the pain were long forgotten by the time he stood in front of the desk to learn what his fate would be.

The King shook his head. “You just can’t die without destroying yourself can you?”

Vegeta shrugged.

“I had a special place in Hell set-up for you.” The glorified paper pusher held up a small book, “All the crimes you committed…I made a separate book for you. I looked forward to reading it to you. All of the lives you took, the planets you destroyed, the cultures you ended, and the people you hurt…But it appears as though someone changed your fate.”

“What?” He was genuinely confused.

A mirror appeared to the left of the King and he explained. “Someone wished another fate for you.”

The image in the mirror was the dragon Shenron looming over his daughter. “What you ask is no easy feat and I’m inclined not to grant it.”

“It is my wish and you will…”

“Foolish daughter of a fallen, bloodstained prince of a lost people, you dare question me?!? Why should I bestow any grace to that warmonger?” The dragon snarled his voice booming, lightning illuminating the sky.

Echalotte narrowed her eyes, daring to rebuke the Eternal Dragon, instead of cowering. "Because he was not that man when he died. He was hero to the earth, to the universe, and to me! He was a good father and loving husband. He deserves to rest in peace with my mother. I want you to wipe the sins away from his soul so that he can be with my mother again. It’s the only place he ever found peace. It’s what he deserves! And you will grant this wish!"

Vegeta clenched his fists. What was that crazy girl doing? Was this happening now? Had it already happened?

The dragon growled, its tail lashing furiously, “Arrogant child! You are unwise to make such a wish then speak to me this way. If I so choose I could grant your wish by painting those sins on your soul. Condemn you to his true fate.”

She smiled fearlessly, “So do it. I would gladly bear it.”

That stupid girl! NO! You idiotic half-human whelp, too much pride like her…like her Saiyan father. Vegeta dropped to his knees. He could bear his sins, not... His fate should not befall her. NO! How…How could she….

The dragon was quiet for a long moment, “I will grant this wish without staining your soul, but I best not see you again haughty girl.”

“You will not.”

Vegeta pulled himself up onto his feet, drawing in nonexistent air that he no longer needed. She was safe. Too much like him and too much like her mother. It was a wonder that she hadn’t caused his death instead of that star.

“Your wish has been granted.” The orange light permeated the area and the dragon balls zipped away as the sky cleared.

“Did we save grandfather?” A younger Reign asked his mother as he looked up from where he’d been sitting at her feet.

She gathered him up in her arms."We did, but that’s our secret.”

“Grandfather was a prince?"

“He was a king, my son. Your grandfather was the last great king of the Saiyan race. And I will tell you all the stories about how he saved the world.”

“All abridged versions where he’s the hero instead of Goku?” Trunks called out as he approached. “Bulla, I can’t believe how reckless…I mean, I didn’t gather the dragon balls with you just to watch you condemn yours…”

“Quiet Princess Trunks, no whining when celebrating victory!” Echalotte barked, but her smile was her mother's delighted and triumphant grin and Reigned giggled.

“Not funny, Sis, really not funny.”

The imaged melted from the mirror and the mirror vanished.

They had…his children had saved him...He didn’t know how to feel about the situation. How to fathom it. They had known somehow that he was planning his death. They had prepared for it, but surely it couldn’t be that simple. Those sins couldn’t just vanish.

The King held up the small black book and black ink dripping out of it making a pool on the floor. “You see, you have a different fate awaiting you.” A door appeared to his left where the mirror had been, “Go.”

Vegeta had never been one to fear, but this…He gripped the handle his hand shaking. The white light on the other side blinded him for a moment as he dared to take that first step…

“You jerk, you kept me waiting….Oh, I’m just kidding, shesh. Welcome home, my brave Prince.”

"Bulma...

#vebebul #Vegeta #bulma #vegeta x bulma #angsty fic #posted on AO3 #saiyan pride #trunks #bulla

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roeniusfitness-blog · 6 years ago

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Workouts, Supplements, and Addressing Misconceptions about Working Out

Blog IV

My first blog post titled “From the darkest of times to the best of times — All it takes is determination, hard work, and a realization that you can do it” talked about my weight loss journey of going from 221 pounds to 172 pounds. This journey required a lot of hard work, dedication, and discipline. I had to revamp my diet, spend a lot of time researching diets and exercises, and most importantly had to start exercising. I experienced a lot of setbacks throughout this journey, which is to be expected when getting into fitness, but it is how I persevered and responded to those setbacks that allowed me to achieve my goal and encouraged me to continue on my journey because my journey is far from being done. I am constantly trying to improve my health and wellbeing while learning new and innovative exercises and information about fitness that I try to incorporate in my life. In my first blog, I did not get into the specifics of what I was doing on a daily basis to lose weight and achieve my goal; therefore, this blog post talks about what I did and still do to achieve the physique that I wanted so badly, along with addressing misconceptions that are commonly held about working out.

My workouts

My workout regimen, or workout “split”, consists of working out 5-6 days per week. I typically work out every muscle group once per week and then will choose a muscle group to work out twice. I typically try to work out my chest twice during a week as my chest is my weakest muscle area. When I am trying to cut weight (i.e. trying to lose body fat and become leaner), I do cardio around three to four times per week for 30-45 minutes as well as abdominal exercises. The following is my workout split for each day followed by an example workout, even though every workout I do incorporates different exercises and is constantly changing.

*Please note — if you do not know what an exercise is, I encourage you to Google it and find a video on how to do the exercise with proper form. Proper form can save you from injury as well as help you get the most benefit from the exercise.

Monday: Back (lats) and Biceps

· D Grip Lat Pull Down:

o 4 sets of 12 repetitions

· Kneeling V Grip Lat Pull Down:

o 4 sets of 12 repetitions

· Straight arm Lat Pull Down

o 4 sets of 8 repetitions

· Bent Over Barbell Row

o 5 sets of 10 repetitions

· Machine low row

o 5 sets of 8 repetitions with a 2 second hold

· Barbell deadlifts

o 4 sets of 6 repetitions

· Superset Cable Row with Back Hyperextensions

o 4 sets of 8 repetitions

· Superset Standing Alternating Dumbbell Curls with Machine Preacher Curls

o 4 sets

o First set = 10 repetitions on first exercise, 4 repetitions on second exercise

o Sets = 10/4, 8/4, 6/4, 6/4

· Bent Over Concentration Curls

o 4 sets of 8 repetitions

Tuesday: Chest and triceps

· Flat Machine Press/Incline Bench Cable Fly

o 4 sets of 15/8 (15 reps on machine press, 8 reps on cable fly)

· Flat Barbell Bench Press

o 8 sets of 6 with a 4 second negative

· Body Weight Chest Dips

o 4 sets of failure with a two second hold on the stretch

· High incline Reverse Grip DB Press

o 4 sets of 12

· V Bar Tricep Press Down

o 10 sets of 6

· Diamond Push Ups

o 3 sets of failure

· Rope Press Down

o 4 sets of 20

Wednesday: Legs

· Lying Leg Curl

o 15,15,12,12

· Leg Curl

o 12,12,10,10

· Stiff Leg Deadlift

o 12,10,8,6

· Leg Press

o 15,15,12,12,10,10

· Barbell Hip Thrust

o 10,10,8,8,6,6

· Adductor Machine & Abductor Machine

o 15,15,15,8,8,8

Thursday: Shoulders and traps

· Standing DB Side Lateral

o 4 sets of 8

· Seated DB Arnold Press

o 6 sets of 10 with 4 second negative

· Reverse Pec Deck Rear Deltoid Fly

o 4 sets of 12

· Bent Over Rear Deltoid DB Fly

o 3 sets of 20

· DB Shrug

o 6 sets of 8

· D Grip Barbell Shrug

o 6 sets of 15

Friday: Arms

· Barbell Preacher Curl/Incline Bench Barbell Skull Crusher

o 6 sets of 15/15

· Cable Tricep Press Down/W-bar Cable Curl

o 6 sets of 15/15

· Machine Tricep press down/Machine Preacher Curls

o 3 sets of 15/15, 3 sets of 12/12

· DB Hammer Curl/V-bar Tricep Press Down

o 4 sets of 15

Saturday: Off day

Sunday: Off day or Cardio and abdominals

Cardio Exercises:

Goal: Burn 300 calories each cardio session

· Incline walk on treadmill: 30-45 minutes

o Settings: 10 incline, 3.5-3.9 speed

· Stairmaster: 30 minutes

Main Abdominal Exercises:

· Hanging leg raises: 4 sets of 15

· Kneeling cable abdominal crunch: 4 sets of 15-20

· Plank into side planks: 4 sets of 30-45 seconds

Supplements I take:

The following is a list of supplements I take and the benefits associated with taking them:

· Whey Protein Isolate

· Creatine

· L-Arginine

· L-Carnitine

· BCAA’s

· Vitamin C

· Multivitamin

· Fish Oil

· Glucosamine Chondroitin

· L-glutamine

· Beta-alanine

Seven common misconceptions about working out

1. Do you have to “break” a sweat for a workout to be beneficial?

You do not have to necessarily “break” a sweat for your workout to count. The most important aspects of working out are to get your body in motion while simultaneously raising your heart rate. The main purpose of sweating is to cool your body down. You will most likely find yourself sweating when you are working out, especially when you are just starting a training program or getting into fitness. Also note that if you’re older, particularly older women, you will probably not sweat as much. According to UC San Diego Health, “as you age you sweat less. Well, to be precise, you sweat differently, particularly if you’re a woman. Part of the change is related to menopause, i.e. hot flashes, but researchers have found that sweat glands (especially under the arms) shrink and become less sensitive as we age, which translates into reduced perspiration production.” If you can manage to raise your heart rate and move your body in some type of exercise, you will be working toward becoming more fit, which will most likely cause you to sweat.

2. Exercise turns fat into muscle. While many people think this is true, it is actually false. The truth is that working out does not turn fat into muscle because you can’t turn one tissue into another. On the contrary, working out, especially strength training, helps build muscle and helps you burn more calories and lose fat.

3. Lifting weights will make women bulk up.

According to WebMD, because women have lower levels of testosterone (which helps build muscle mass) than men, it's harder for ladies to build muscle tissue in the first place, thus not allowing them to “bulk up”. Lifting weights allows for more calories to be burned while gaining muscle. A study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that women who weight-trained burned an average of 100 more calories 24 hours after their training sessions ended, even if they were seated on the sofa. Another reason why women should start weight training is because just doing cardio is going to help you from gaining weight, but won’t necessarily help you with losing weight due to losing lean tissue when solely doing cardio.

4. Restricting calories is the best way to lose weight.

False. According to SecondsCount.org, research has shown that changing your eating behaviors to lose weight works better if you also exercise. Therefore, the best way to lose weight is to be at a caloric deficit while also exercising. When I lost 50 pounds, I was on a strict diet where I tracked all my food down to the gram or ounce while also weightlifting and doing cardio. Losing weight is a combination of both exercise and diet that will get you the best results.

5. Abdominal exercises will make you lose stomach fat.

Don’t believe this myth at all. Abdominals are made in the kitchen. You can’t control which part of your body will lose fat when you become physically active. Typically, when you start getting leaner, you will start to notice results in your face, then shoulders, then arms, and lastly your abdominals which are under a layer of fat tissue. Getting lean is the product of eating healthy and being in a caloric deficit. Exercising your abs will simply strengthen your abdominal muscles like any other lift would strengthen any other muscle.

6. Stretching before exercise is critical.

This is true but it depends on what type of stretching you are doing. Dynamic stretching is the type of stretching desired before working out. The difference between dynamic and static stretching is that dynamic stretching is “a movement designed to take a joint or a muscle through a challenging and repetitive motion, moving a body part further with each repetition.” Dynamic stretching warms up your joints and muscles and prepares them for activation. I usually walk for 5 minutes on an inclined treadmill and also do other dynamic stretches before I work out. Static stretching is best for post-workout because static stretching uses “sustained stretches designed to hold a position for a joint or a muscle that is minimally challenging. The focus is on relaxing the body part being stretched and letting it go further on its own.”

7. Reducing sedentary behaviors is not enough to improve physical fitness.

This is not true. Research shows that cutting back on sedentary activities, such as watching television, playing video games, or lying in bed watching Netflix [something I am very good at] will make you more mobile and lose more weight. According to express.co.uk, “standing instead of sitting for six hours a day could help people lose weight. Researchers found that by substituting standing for sitting for six hours a day, a 143.3-pound adult (65 kilos) would expend an extra 54 calories (kcals) in six hours - equating to 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilos) in one year and 22 pounds (10 kilos) over four years. So the next time you find yourself sitting watching television, try standing up and walking around or doing some type of exercise during the commercials.

#mkt400uwl

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thebigloading56 · 3 years ago

Text

Vu Meter For Windows

Vu Meter For Windows Media Player

Free Vu Meter For Windows

Plugins > General

Description Finally a VU/Peak meter that you can use to display volume levels of any compatible sound card input. It also allows you to monitor the Main Mix/Loopback ('what you hear'). Jul 25, 2021 Lastly, mvMeter2 VU meter plugin is free of charge. For most beginner beatmakers and music producers, this is crucial, as they don’t feel like paying $50+ for a VU meter plugin that they may not like or utilize to its full potential. MvMeter2 free VU meter plugin works with both Windows and Mac OS and is available in VST, AU, AAX, and RTAS to. Jul 18, 2001 Version 1.51 - Now with option to make your own BMP panel and style! Professional analog volume unit meter. DSP & Math algorythm to emulate a real VU meter. Logaritnic scale. Applicatiom use: to control and tune PREAMP volume in Winamp EQUALIZER. Now with option to make your own VU skin or panel! Download plugin. July 18, 2001 by Boris Ribov.

RMS

Version 1.51 - Now with option to make your own BMP panel and style!

Professional analog volume unit meter. DSP & Math algorythm to emulate a real VU meter. Logaritnic scale. Applicatiom use: to control and tune PREAMP volume in Winamp EQUALIZER. Now with option to make your own VU skin or panel!

July 18, 2001 by Boris Ribov211519 downloads

Staff review

Vu Meter for Winamp

Classic analog style... cool VU meter readout. Pretty straightforward. New version that is skinnable. -dg

Comments

Since 2001 not updated - Since 2001 not updatedBut it's nice vu-meter parameterizable - August 6, 2009 by accbster

Just what I needed - I was looking for a VU meter to complement Nucleo_Nlog_v102_ skin and found this. Then I made a skin for it using art from Nucleo. Have a look:http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv161/el_dino/NUCLEO%20VU%20meter/VUNucleo.jpg - March 17, 2009 by eldino 1

very nice, now better then Aimp2 - the only bad thing is the development is freezed and so you can't change Needlecolour, NeedleWidth, and so on. Would be nice for better self made VU-Meter skins ;-) - December 8, 2008 by ALEX Vercetti

doesn't work - Can't get it to display...when loading the plugin the window just flashes on and then disappears. How are you guys getting this to work? Tried multiple times uninstalling and reinstalling. - December 1, 2008 by Michael Ludwig

similar to what I am looking for - What will make it cool is to make it look like a McIntosh power amp Blue meterhttp://www.mcintoshlabs.com/http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/mcintosh-mc12kw-1200-watt-power-amplifier.aspThanksRick - April 24, 2008 by Rick Cheng

WOW! nice - pefert - April 20, 2008 by soon peng

nice - this is verry cool. looks nice near my equalizer. still... one question: can i configurate this so it can start when i start winamp? not when i press play, not when i press start plug-in! i want it to start when i start winamp! thanksps: i made 2 compatible skins for the vu.. compatible with 2 classic winamp skins... how can i post them? - April 20, 2008 by a b

???????? - This plug-in just seems to be a bunch of HTML, JPG and GIF files. I can't find a DLL file for it anywhere and so of course a bunch of pix of VU meters isn't gonna magically turn into a viz in Winamp. What am I doing wrong. - April 7, 2008 by Daniel Rueben

vu - nice plug.... - November 25, 2007 by tony argy

Nice Try but only basic - i cannot place the window anywhere else, it has to be displayed on top, left, right or bottom of the main WinAmp-Window. No support for docking on other Windows (Playlist or Equalizer). The Main function does it work good and it is the first Visual that allows me to see the parts of a mp3 that are too loud. - November 8, 2007 by Richard Wroblewski

Not bad but take care - This is not a bad little plugin with a good pleasant meter. however remember when you right click on the face of the meter, don;t mess around with 'panel', cos it crashed my winamp. - May 4, 2007 by Edmund Tan

Super - Alt und gut! - January 4, 2006 by Juergen wickert

GOOD but still have to work on it... - good job, keep up the good work and make this work along with winamp5 (current vers works only with big panels). I highly appreciate the precision and I sugest to make a modern skin (I have in mind reel to reel ZDL analog studio) to fit with the plugin or viceversa whatever you like it:) - September 27, 2005 by Firekeeper 1

VU accuracy - As an old radio guy I really appreciate these meters. Well done.GOOOD, Good good. I sit and stare at the screen watching the meters.Thank you.www.deantiernan.com - March 6, 2005 by Dean Tiernan

Wow - I have always been a fan of VU meters, one of the reasons why I like Modern Skins. However, some of the Modern skins with Vu's are just ugly, and the VU meters are not too accurate. I have always like the way that Classic skins look and I have wished that there was a VU meter on them. This plug-in fulfills that request - September 14, 2004 by the bonehead

Best help for recording - It was not until this analog VU meter that I noticed the 10 dB difference in output level between CD's. The VU are a bit nervous compared to the real (yes, still have them) ones. But, over all, this plugin is for me the reason to go back to Winamp 2. Skins are thrilling. Hope you can make more and bigger ones.. - August 10, 2003 by Joop van Steijn

GREAT AND ACCURATE .!!!. - IT IS A GREAT PLUG IN. IT INTEGRATES PERFECTLY WITH NUCLEO_NLOG_V102 SKIN AND IT IS VERY ACCURATE TOO. A TRULLY FINE JOB. - April 22, 2003 by Lorien King

New WEB site with many skins and panels... - http://www.qsl.net/lz1bjr/vu/index.htmHere you can find more skins and panels for VU meter!Regards,Boris - February 28, 2003 by Boris Ribov

Best VU Meter I've ever used - Man, this is the best VU meter out there. It would be nice if it could capture the elements from the Winamp skin the user is currently using, but I kinda like it the way it is. Excellent!!!! - February 25, 2003 by Professor Tom

Skins and Winamp 3! - May be you can do this great thing for Winamp 3! That would be great!And maybe you could make a skin, that is styled more independant, so that it doesn't *grmpf* with any other WA Skinz - December 8, 2002 by Marcel Schroeter

Skins - Internal skin is best but want more - June 6, 2002 by Antony Smith

Not under XP - Doesn't work under Xp - but it's my favorite! Hope it can be made to work...Thanks! - May 16, 2002 by Dennis Hill

WOW! - What can I say?!! - March 7, 2002 by Ani Savage

TNX - It gave to me not only good memories, but more good feelings. TNX - November 25, 2001 by Toni Angelov

Best - Best that I ever seen, but I want more VU designs, like reversed ones, verticale ones and more. - November 25, 2001 by Marian Johnes

Hey, Great! - Gread old style. It gaves to me good memories.... - November 23, 2001 by Dimo Filev

Good... - Good work my friend. I'll be waiting for a new version. - November 23, 2001 by Danny Morati

Hey... - ...it's cool! - April 7, 2001 by Anders Strďż˝m

Great Plug-in for WinAmp! - That looks veri nice and it moves exactly with the rhythm. Very good work BoardMan!!! - April 5, 2001 by J T

Great, Simply The Best!!! - That's fantastic plugin for my favourite mp3 player WinAmp!!! It looks like the old analog stereo meters and that's why it's so cool!!! I like it very much and i hope so that the author will continue to invent other plugins like that!!! Good Luck, BoardMan!!! - April 1, 2001 by Krasi Makaveev

Super realistik - I`m very surprised that there is a fans for analog (clasic) gadget - April 1, 2001 by Dimitar Kolev

VU meters are crucial during mixing and mastering sessions, coming as both hardware and software units.

Every professional studio has a VU meter among their studio equipment.

Most upcoming producers don’t have such a tool in their recording studio and use VU meter plugins instead.

And this is the list of 3 best free VU meter plugins on the market.

But first, let’s quickly look into what VU meter is and why you need to use one when mastering a track.

VU Meters In Recording Studios

Before we go over the 3 best free VU meter plugins every producer should use during the mixing and mastering stages, let’s find out what VU meters are, where they are coming from, and why you need one in your music studio.

What Are VU Meters?

VU meter is a measuring tool that indicates the average level of audio signals.

Mainly, you need VU meters or VU meter software for two reasons.

Firstly, they have the ability to hear the loudness just like our ears do.

Secondly, they’ll make you leave some space in your track.

It’s called headroom, and it’s crucial to leave for the mastering stage (if you are mixing at the moment).

Vu Meter For Windows Media Player

If you don’t have any headroom, you’ll likely mess up the mastering track and eventually the entire track.

Therefore, make sure to use VU meters or VU meter plugins in your DAW.

If you’d like to go all-in, here is the best VU meter on the market!

If you can’t afford one, you can always use the free VU meter plugins below!

What Does “VU” Mean In Audio?

“VU” stands for volume units. It’s been with radio broadcast equipment since the early 1940s.

You’ve probably seen it a million times in the movies and TV shows but didn’t know that was the hardware VU meter.

Why Use VU Meter and VU Meter Plugins?

A lot of the time music producers will only monitor the audio peaks to prevent listeners from flinching.

What they forget about is that humans are not computers and we hear loudness differently.

For instance, our ears only feel the average sound level, not the peaks.

And unlike a peak meter that monitors for top volume spikes, VU meter and VU meter plugins show you the so-called average volume.

What Does RMS Stand For in Music?

RMS in music stands for Root-Mean-Square.

In math, It’s the effective value of the complete waveform, also known as average from the square root of the signal voltage over time.

Free Vu Meter For Windows

RMS is the music power that the amplifier can deliver in a continuous manner, more generally known as “average level.”

VU Meter or PPM for Mastering?

Of course, it would’ve been a lot nicer to focus on one of the two – either VU or PPM.

However, both are significant when it comes to mastering, and you can’t do one without another.

Peak meters (PPM) and peak meter plugins (PPM plugins) will prevent any sorts of digital distortion which can ruin your track if you aren’t careful.

What will happen if I don’t use VU meter and PPM?

You can get clicks here and there, but once the volume is above the hard limit, the distortion will become horrible.

The meters are easy to use because the concept is straightforward – once your meter is in the “red” zone, lower the volume until it gets back into the green area.

This can’t be simpler.

VU meters (RMS) and VU meter plugins (RMS plugins) indicate how loud a sound feels in real life.

As a result, you’ll be able to tell how much space a sound takes in the mix.

If mixing two tracks, the VU meter plugin can be really helpful to determine how loud they are relative to each other.

If you were only to use a peak meter, you could have noticed some differences between the two but wouldn’t be able to see the bigger picture.

Example of VU meter vs Peak meter

If you look at the lower end of the frequencies range, you may notice your drums and bassline peaking at a similar volume of X dB.

Therefore, peak meter will only show the moments of the track when the drums and bassline get over the peak volume into the “red” zone.

What escapes your sight is the fact that the waveforms of the two are different.

Drums peak for short periods of time and the average loudness of the drum kit is a lot lower than its peaks.

The bassline is entirely consistent, with low transients that peak close to the average volume levels.

As a result, you’ll only be able to hear loud bass and maybe some quiet drums in the back, instead of having them equal.

VU meter will show you the actual picture of what’s going on with the track.

You’ll be able to see the loudness of the sound continuously.

Therefore, you’ll notice how the loudness of the bassline is consistently higher and fix it.

In order to do that, you set them at X db with VU meter or RMS, so they sound well-balanced to a listener’s ear.

Why use a VU Meter Plugin?

Clearly, you’ll need to monitor average volume level to prevent your track from sounding muddy and avoid distortion.

And using VU meter VST plugin can save you a lot of time and fixing things during mastering stages.

Waves Free VU Meter Plugin

Every DAW usually has a peak meter on each mixer slot, which helps a ton to see whether some elements of the track are too loud and peak to avoid distortion.

Well, Waves has released a free VU meter plugin that replicates the hardware VU meter unit.

VU meters have been around for decades and used to set proper recording levels, achieve well-balanced mix, and leave sufficient headroom.

The goal of Waves VU meter plugin is to assist you in achieving optimal sound levels, enough headroom, and a cleaner mix.

As mentioned earlier in the article, Waves VU meter helps you to not only monitor the loudest moments of your track a.k.a. peaks, but also average out the overall audio levels by imitating the way our ears work.

You can expect smooth performance and fantastic response from this free Waves VU meter that was designed to clean your mixes up from the muddiness and congestion.

As you already know, the VU meter VST can be used on individual tracks and master busses.

Everything depends on which stage of the mixing session you are at right now.

Does Waves VU meter plugin works on both Mac and PC?

Yes, Waves VU meter works on PC and Mac and comes in VST, AU, and AAX formats.

mvMeter2 Free VU Meter Plugin

This free VU meter plugin offers outstanding performance. The mvMeter2 VU meter is nothing more than a small window in the corner of your workstation monitor to look at it once in a while or with your peripheral vision.

It includes RMS, EBUR128, VU, and PPM, so you don’t even need to look at the peak meter in your mixer tab.

It imitates the analog VU meter and PPM meter.

You can switch between various measuring tools with a simple arrow in the corner of mvMeter2 free VST.

You can also adjust the display to show either one or two meters, up to your liking.

TBProAudio mvMeter2 free VU meter plugin lets you change meter delay and reference levels, which can come in handy at times depending on the goals of your mixing session.

What’s mvMeter2 VU meter capable of?

The signal is being processed in 64-bit, and GUI can expand up to 400%, so even music producers with 4k displays won’t have issues with the image clarity.

If you care about the aesthetics of your DAW interface, you are free to choose from 5 different themes.

Lastly, mvMeter2 VU meter plugin is free of charge.

For most beginner beatmakers and music producers, this is crucial, as they don’t feel like paying $50+ for a VU meter plugin that they may not like or utilize to its full potential.

mvMeter2 free VU meter plugin works with both Windows and Mac OS and is available in VST, AU, AAX, and RTAS to suit everyone’s needs.

LVLMeter Free VU Meter Plugin

This Free VU meter plugin imitates vintage VU meters that were used back in the late 1970s.

That’s where the design is coming from.

If you’ve ever seen an old movie where the action took place at a radio station or a studio, you must’ve seen the VU meters.

The signal of the samples can be processed in both 32 and 64 bits.

LVLMeter free VU meter plugin works on both PC and Mac computers, and with VST, AU, and RTAS hosts.

Klanghelm VU Meter Plugin (Honorable Mention)

Klanghelm VUMT which is also known as VU meter plugin is fantastic to use on separate tracks, mix busses, or during the mastering stage.

Similar to the free VU meter plugins above, Klanghelm VUMT emulates analog VU and PPM meters.

You can calibrate ballistics and meters up to your liking or use the developers presets.

The best way to use the Klanghelm VU meter plugin is to set peak meters for drums and acoustic guitars and VU meter to synths, electric guitars, and bass.

The first category is transient rich instruments, and the second one is the ones with a sufficient amount of sustain.

Its metering modes include essentials such as RMS, VU, and PPM.

There is a lot of tweaking you can do with this VU meter plugin.

The ballistics, for example, are fully customizable.

You also get trim control, so gain staging gets easier.

GUI setting is also customizable, and you can make it look the way you want it, up to your aesthetic preferences, with 8 skins included.

Klanghelm VU Meter Plugin works on both Windows and Mac OS and comes in VST, AAX, AU, and even Standalone formats.

I put Klanghelm VU meter plugin under the “honourable mentions” tag because it’s not actually free – it costs 12 Euro.

It’s nothing for most producers, but if you don’t feel like buying a plugin today, keep Klanghelm VUMT in mind.

Commonly Asked Questions About VU Meter Plugins

To make sure you’ll leave with as few question as possible, here are a few common questions upcoming beatmakers, artists, and producers ask about VU meters

Don’t most DAWs like Ableton, Logic and FL Studio have VU meter VST Plugin Built-in?

I am not quite sure about Ableton, but FL Studio does have a plugin called Wave Candy that can somewhat compare to a VU meter plugin.

However, the free VU meter plugins on this list were explicitly made to monitor the average loudness levels (RMS).

But you can definitely use the built-in Wave Candy free digital VU meter plugin wannabe if you don’t want to install more plugins.

Will the free VU Meter plugins work with Windows?

Yes, the free VU meter plugins on the list are all supported by all primary digital audio workstations and will work with Windows.

Will the free VU Meter plugins work with my Mac?

All free VU meter VSTs support AU format that will work on Mac-based DAWs such as Logic and Pro Tools.

Conclusion: Free Vu Meter Plugins

Hopefully, this list of best free VU meter plugins helped you to learn more about what VU meters are and why they are crucial for every beatmaker and music producer.

Recommended Articles:

Last update on 2021-07-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

0 notes

hydrus · 3 years ago

Text

Version 454

windows

zip

exe

macOS

app

linux

tar.gz

I had an ok week mostly working on making images look better.

warped tiles

tl;dr: Images look better now.

I put a lot of time into the tiled renderer this week, mostly fixing 'stretch-warped' tiles. These are most obvious in the duplicate viewer when you are flipping between two very similar images that have slightly different resolution--you would see one part of one of the images stretched one pixel horizontally or vertically compared to the other.

This turned out to be complicated to fix, and moreso for unusual zooms (like a 124.65% style canvas fit zoom), but I think I have fixed almost all warping, and tile join artifacts, for all zooms below about ~6000%, with the exception of some bottommost and rightmost tiles.

I also added an option to options->speed and memory to govern how large the tiles should be. This is 768-pixel squares by default, but if you still have trouble with warping in the duplicate viewer or other high zoom situations, please try boosting it a bit. Larger numbers will be less memory and CPU efficient, so I don't recommend 4096 to start off, but let's see what we find in real situations.

I like the tiled renderer, so I don't want to abandon or completely replace it. I thought seriously of ditching it this week, when I could not figure out a solution to warping, but I slept on it and figured it out. If I can keep patching remaining problems, I'll be happy, but I do have a backup plan as well. Let me know how you get on!

the rest

I think I fixed the issue where, after some serious network errors, the downloaders could get in a 'traffic jam' and all stay on 'pending', with nothing going to 'working'.

Finishing a big archive/delete filter should result in less UI lag. If you are a user who hits F5 right after committing archive/delete, let me know how this works for you!

The green/blue/red texts in the duplicate filter's right-hand hover window are now moved to the style system, so QSS stylesheet files (as under options->style) can finally change their colour. I set up some basic dark/light blues for all the default QSS files, so it should be a bit easier to read the blue text in dark mode styles now. These were the last hardcoded text colours in the program, so we are now one step closer to moving everything to QSS.

full list

misc:

when a downloader page fetch gives a 500 Server Error, it is now handled better, status numbers are updated to 'failed' quickly, and I believe the post-500 downloader deadlock issue (downloaders staying as 'pending', not 'working', after several of these 500s) should also be fixed (issue #898 maybe, but many other reports also)

when finishing a very large archive/delete filter, the UI should not hang so much to commit the changes. the changes may be delayed a second or more, if your client is currently chugging, so if you are a user who hits F5 real quick after committing archive/delete, let me know how you get on. I've tried to mitigate for your situation, but it may not be perfect.(issue #845)

the Edit URL Class dialog will now refuse to OK if the API Converter fails.

the Edit URL Class dialog will now put up an 'are you sure?' messagebox if the URL Class matches its own example API URL

fixed some gallery error handling when a gallery cannot be parsed

improved 'cannot parse' error reporting text to include more information

the client api /manage_pages/add_files command should now always preserve the sort of both the file_ids or hashes parameter

fixed an instance where image bitmaps were being handled incorrectly (issue #876)

the client will no longer report shutdown work due for a repository when the work is on a currently paused content type

fixed some logic related to the advanced tag option of 'fetch page even if url recognised and already in db'

improved the error message when an unlucky duplicate boot causes a locked database error

I rearranged and clarified a couple of links in the 'advanced' area of the help index page

added some help texts and tooltips to the edit checker options dialog and fixed some borked layout

did a quick hack to fix some db repair code that wasn't dealing with some missing module information. I will brush the repair code up in the near future so that modules can repair themselves

some text colour stuff:

the green/red/blue duplicate comparison statements on the duplicate filter's right-hand hover window are now coloured by QSS. a new 'HydrusIndeterminate' object name handles the blue.

the green/red background in the advanced OR input is now governed by HydrusValid and HydrusInvalid

the various 'help for this panel' blue texts are also now HydrusIndeterminate

I have added dark or light HydrusIndeterminate and more Valid/Invalid class definitions to all the default qss styles. they may need some updates, so if you wrote any of these QSS files, please fiddle with them and send me any updates to roll in!

added a new user created QSS style called 'Dark Blue', thank you for the submission!

all text colours are now dynamically set, either QSS or through (tag colour) options! there are no more hardcoded text colours!

media viewer's image tile renderer:

a new option in 'speed and memory' allows you to change the typical square dimensions of tiles in the tile renderer. default is 768 pixels. you can go bigger to improve accuracy, but it'll cost a little memory and CPU inefficiency

the new 'nice' tile size calculator now tests more potential tile sizes, improving precision and reducing stretch-warping along tile borders for unusual zooms

the new nice size calculator is now also used when figuring out tile padding, making padding widths that do not cause stretch-warps

there remain slight stretch-warps in some bottom-most and right-most tiles

a new canvas tile debug report mode now draws blue lines on tile edges in the media viewer and spams some tile number info to popups

improved tile coordinate safety checks for extremely small images (e.g. 1x1) when blown up to ridiculous zooms so there are more than one tile per pixel

this took a bunch of work, and I am happy that I figured out some solutions, but I believe it may be impossible to get perfect answers here. please try out this new version and let me know how it goes, particularly in the duplicate viewer where warping is obvious. I think ultimately I may replace this with a single tile system that goes over the borders of your screen, eliminating the stitching problems entirely, although this will eat more memory and CPU

next week

I still have plenty of old bug reports to clear from the issue tracker, so I will keep plugging away at them. I want to focus on the UI freezes an increasing number of users are seeing. I also want to do some database cleanup and database repair code improvements.

#release

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marialaura-diazpena · 3 years ago

Text

My Programming Journey: Understanding Music Genres with Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence is used everyday, by regular people and businesses, creating such a positive impact in all kinds of industries and fields that it makes me think that AI is only here to stay and grow, and help society grow with it. AI has evolved considerably in the last decade, currently being able to do things that seem taken out of a Sci-Fi movie, like driving cars, recognizing faces and words (written and spoken), and music genres.

While Music is definitely not the most profitable application of Machine Learning, it has benefited tremendously from Deep Learning and other ML applications. The potential AI possess in the music industry includes automating services and discovering insights and patterns to classify and/or recommend music.

We can be witnesses to this potential when we go to our preferred music streaming service (such as Spotify or Apple Music) and, based on the songs we listen to or the ones we’ve previously saved, we are given playlists of similar songs that we might also like.

Machine Learning’s ability of recognition isn’t just limited to faces or words, but it can also recognize instruments used in music. Music source separation is also a thing, where a song is taken and its original signals are separated from a mixture audio signal. We can also call this Feature Extraction and it is popularly used nowadays to aid throughout the cycle of music from composition and recording to production. All of this is doable thanks to a subfield of Music Machine Learning: Music Information Retrieval (MIR). MIR is needed for almost all applications related to Music Machine Learning. We’ll dive a bit deeper on this subfield.

Music Information Retrieval

Music Information Retrieval (MIR) is an interdisciplinary field of Computer Science, Musicology, Statistics, Signal Processing, among others; the information within music is not as simple as it looks like. MIR is used to categorize, manipulate and even create music. This is done by audio analysis, which includes pitch detection, instrument identification and extraction of harmonic, rhythmic and/or melodic information. Plain information can be easily comprehended (such as tempo (beats per minute), melody, timbre, etc.) and easily calculated through different genres. However, many music concepts considered by humans can’t be perfectly modeled to this day, given there are many factors outside music that play a role in its perception.

Getting Started

I wanted to try something more of a challenge for this post, so I am attempting to Visualize and Classify audio data using the famous GTZAN Dataset to perform an in depth analysis of sound and understand what features we can visualize/extract from this kind of data. This dataset consists of: · A collection of 10 genres with 100 audio (WAV) files each, each having a length of 30 seconds. This collection is stored in a folder called “genres_original”. · A visual representation for each audio file stored in a folder called “images_original”. The audio files were converted to Mel Spectrograms (later explained) to make them able to be classified through neural networks, which take in image representation. · 2 CVS files that contain features of the audio files. One file has a mean and variance computed over multiple features for each song (full length of 30 seconds). The second CVS file contains the same songs but split before into 3 seconds, multiplying the data times 10. For this project, I am yet again coding in Visual Studio Code. On my last project I used the Command Line from Anaconda (which is basically the same one from Windows with the python environment set up), however, for this project I need to visualize audio data and these representations can’t be done in CLI, so I will be running my code from Jupyter Lab, from Anaconda Navigator. Jupyter Lab is a web-based interactive development environment for Jupyter notebooks (documents that combine live runnable code with narrative text, equations, images and other interactive visualizations). If you haven’t installed Anaconda Navigator already, you can find the installation steps on my previous blog post. I would quickly like to mention that Tumblr has a limit of 10 images per post, and this is a lengthy project so I’ll paste the code here instead of uploading code screenshots, and only post the images of the outputs. The libraries we will be using are:

> pandas: a data analysis and manipulation library.

> numpy: to work with arrays.

> seaborn: to visualize statistical data based on matplolib.

> matplotlib.pyplot: a collection of functions to create static, animated and interactive visualizations.

> Sklearn: provides various tools for model fitting, data preprocessing, model selection and evaluation, among others.

· naive_bayes

· linear_model

· neighbors

· tree

· ensemble

· svm

· neural_network

· metrics

· preprocessing

· decomposition

· model_selection

· feature_selection

> librosa: for music and audio analysis to create MIR systems.

· display

> IPython: interactive Python

· display import Audio

> os: module to provide functions for interacting with the operating system.

> xgboost: gradient boosting library

· XGBClassifier, XGBRFClassifier

· plot_tree, plot_importance

> tensorflow:

· Keras

· Sequential and layers

Exploring Audio Data

Sounds are pressure waves, which can be represented by numbers over a time period. We first need to understand our audio data to see how it looks. Let’s begin with importing the libraries and loading the data:

import pandas as pd

import numpy as np

import seaborn as sns

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import sklearn

import librosa

import librosa.display

import IPython.display as ipd

from IPython.display import Audio

import os

from sklearn.naive_bayes import GaussianNB

from sklearn.linear_model import SGDClassifier, LogisticRegression

from sklearn.neighbors import KNeighborsClassifier

from sklearn.tree import DecisionTreeClassifier

from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier

from sklearn.svm import SVC

from sklearn.neural_network import MLPClassifier

from xgboost import XGBClassifier, XGBRFClassifier

from xgboost import plot_tree, plot_importance

from sklearn.metrics import confusion_matrix, accuracy_score, roc_auc_score, roc_curve

from sklearn import preprocessing

from sklearn.decomposition import PCA

from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split

from sklearn.feature_selection import RFE

from tensorflow.keras import Sequential

from tensorflow.keras.layers import *

import warnings

warnings.filterwarnings('ignore')

# Loading the data

general_path = 'C:/Users/807930/Documents/Spring 2021/Emerging Trends in Technology/MusicGenre/input/gtzan-database-music-genre-classification/Data'

Now let’s load one of the files (I chose Hit Me Baby One More Time by Britney Spears):

print(list(os.listdir(f'{general_path}/genres_original/')))

#Importing 1 file to explore how our Audio Data looks.

y, sr = librosa.load(f'{general_path}/genres_original/pop/pop.00019.wav')

#Playing the audio

ipd.display(ipd.Audio(y, rate=sr, autoplay=True))

print('Sound (Sequence of vibrations):', y, '\n')

print('Sound shape:', np.shape(y), '\n')

print('Sample Rate (KHz):', sr, '\n')

# Verify length of the audio

print('Check Length of Audio:', 661794/22050)

We took the song and using the load function from the librosa library, we got an array of the audio time series (sound) and the sample rate of sound. The length of the audio is 30 seconds. Now we can trim our audio to remove the silence between songs and use the librosa.display.waveplot function to plot the audio file into a waveform. > Waveform: The waveform of an audio signal is the shape of its graph as a function of time.

# Trim silence before and after the actual audio

audio_file, _ = librosa.effects.trim(y)

print('Audio File:', audio_file, '\n')

print('Audio File Shape:', np.shape(audio_file))

#Sound Waves 2D Representation

plt.figure(figsize = (16, 6))

librosa.display.waveplot(y = audio_file, sr = sr, color = "b");

plt.title("Sound Waves in Pop 19", fontsize = 25);

After having represented the audio visually, we will plot a Fourier Transform (D) from the frequencies and amplitudes of the audio data. > Fourier Transform: A mathematical function that maps the frequency and phase content of local sections of a signal as it changes over time. This means that it takes a time-based pattern (in this case, a waveform) and retrieves the complex valued function of frequency, as a sine wave. The signal is converted into individual spectral components and provides frequency information about the signal.

#Default Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT)

n_fft = 2048 # window size

hop_length = 512 # number audio of frames between STFT columns

# Short-time Fourier transform (STFT)

D = np.abs(librosa.stft(audio_file, n_fft = n_fft, hop_length = hop_length))

print('Shape of time-frequency of the Audio File:', np.shape(D))

plt.figure(figsize = (16, 6))

plt.plot(D);

plt.title("Fourier Transform in Pop 19", fontsize = 25);

The Fourier Transform only gives us information about the frequency values and now we need a visual representation of the frequencies of the audio signal so we can calculate more audio features for our system. To do this we will plot the previous Fourier Transform (D) into a Spectrogram (DB). > Spectrogram: A visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time.

DB = librosa.amplitude_to_db(D, ref = np.max)

# Creating the Spectrogram

plt.figure(figsize = (16, 6))

librosa.display.specshow(DB, sr = sr, hop_length = hop_length, x_axis = 'time', y_axis = 'log'

cmap = 'cool')

plt.colorbar();

plt.title("Pop 19 Spectrogram", fontsize = 25);

The output:

Audio Features

Now that we know what the audio data looks like to python, we can proceed to extract the Audio Features. The features we will need to extract, based on the provided CSV, are: · Harmonics · Percussion · Zero Crossing Rate · Tempo · Spectral Centroid · Spectral Rollof · Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients · Chroma Frequencies Let’s start with the Harmonics and Percussive components:

# Decompose the Harmonics and Percussive components and show Representation

y_harm, y_perc = librosa.effects.hpss(audio_file)

plt.figure(figsize = (16, 6))

plt.plot(y_harm, color = 'g');

plt.plot(y_perc, color = 'm');

plt.title("Harmonics and Percussive components", fontsize = 25);

Using the librosa.effects.hpss function, we are able to separate the harmonics and percussive elements from the audio source and plot it into a visual representation.

Now we can retrieve the Zero Crossing Rate, using the librosa.zero_crossings function.

> Zero Crossing Rate: The rate of sign-changes (the number of times the signal changes value) of the audio signal during the frame.

#Total number of zero crossings

zero_crossings = librosa.zero_crossings(audio_file, pad=False)

print(sum(zero_crossings))

The Tempo (Beats per Minute) can be retrieved using the librosa.beat.beat_track function.

# Retrieving the Tempo in Pop 19

tempo, _ = librosa.beat.beat_track(y, sr = sr)

print('Tempo:', tempo , '\n')

The next feature extracted is the Spectral Centroids. > Spectral Centroid: a measure used in digital signal processing to characterize a spectrum. It determines the frequency area around which most of the signal energy concentrates.

# Calculate the Spectral Centroids

spectral_centroids = librosa.feature.spectral_centroid(audio_file, sr=sr)[0]

print('Centroids:', spectral_centroids, '\n')

print('Shape of Spectral Centroids:', spectral_centroids.shape, '\n')

# Computing the time variable for visualization

frames = range(len(spectral_centroids))

# Converts frame counts to time (seconds)

t = librosa.frames_to_time(frames)

print('Frames:', frames, '\n')

print('Time:', t)

Now that we have the shape of the spectral centroids as an array and the time variable (from frame counts), we need to create a function that normalizes the data. Normalization is a technique used to adjust the volume of audio files to a standard level which allows the file to be processed clearly. Once it’s normalized we proceed to retrieve the Spectral Rolloff.

> Spectral Rolloff: the frequency under which the cutoff of the total energy of the spectrum is contained, used to distinguish between sounds. The measure of the shape of the signal.

# Function that normalizes the Sound Data

def normalize(x, axis=0):

return sklearn.preprocessing.minmax_scale(x, axis=axis)

# Spectral RollOff Vector

spectral_rolloff = librosa.feature.spectral_rolloff(audio_file, sr=sr)[0]

plt.figure(figsize = (16, 6))

librosa.display.waveplot(audio_file, sr=sr, alpha=0.4, color = '#A300F9');

plt.plot(t, normalize(spectral_rolloff), color='#FFB100');

Using the audio file, we can continue to get the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients, which are a set of 20 features. In Music Information Retrieval, it’s often used to describe timbre. We will employ the librosa.feature.mfcc function.

mfccs = librosa.feature.mfcc(audio_file, sr=sr)

print('Mel-Frequency Ceptral Coefficient shape:', mfccs.shape)

#Displaying the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients:

plt.figure(figsize = (16, 6))

librosa.display.specshow(mfccs, sr=sr, x_axis='time', cmap = 'cool');

The MFCC shape is (20, 1,293), which means that the librosa.feature.mfcc function computed 20 coefficients over 1,293 frames.

mfccs = sklearn.preprocessing.scale(mfccs, axis=1)

print('Mean:', mfccs.mean(), '\n')

print('Var:', mfccs.var())

plt.figure(figsize = (16, 6))

librosa.display.specshow(mfccs, sr=sr, x_axis='time', cmap = 'cool');

Now we retrieve the Chroma Frequencies, using librosa.feature.chroma_stft. > Chroma Frequencies (or Features): are a powerful tool for analyzing music by categorizing pitches. These features capture harmonic and melodic characteristics of music.

# Increase or decrease hop_length to change how granular you want your data to be

hop_length = 5000

# Chromogram

chromagram = librosa.feature.chroma_stft(audio_file, sr=sr, hop_length=hop_length)

print('Chromogram shape:', chromagram.shape)

plt.figure(figsize=(16, 6))

librosa.display.specshow(chromagram, x_axis='time', y_axis='chroma', hop_length=hop_length, cmap='coolwarm');

The output:

Exploratory Data Analysis

Now that we have a visual understanding of what an audio file looks like, and we’ve explored a good set of features, we can perform EDA, or Exploratory Data Analysis. This is all about getting to know the data and data profiling, summarizing the dataset through descriptive statistics. We can do this by getting a description of the data, using the describe() function or head() function. The describe() function will give us a description of all the dataset rows, and the head() function will give us the written data. We will perform EDA on the csv file, which contains all of the features previously analyzed above, and use the head() function:

# Loading the CSV file

data = pd.read_csv(f'{general_path}/features_30_sec.csv')

data.head()

Now we can create the correlation matrix of the data found in the csv file, using the feature means (average). We do this to summarize our data and pass it into a Correlation Heatmap.

# Computing the Correlation Matrix

spike_cols = [col for col in data.columns if 'mean' in col]

corr = data[spike_cols].corr()

The corr() function finds a pairwise correlation of all columns, excluding non-numeric and null values.

Now we can plot the heatmap:

# Generate a mask for the upper triangle

mask = np.triu(np.ones_like(corr, dtype=np.bool))

# Set up the matplotlib figure

f, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(16, 11));

# Generate a custom diverging colormap

cmap = sns.diverging_palette(0, 25, as_cmap=True, s = 90, l = 45, n = 5)

# Draw the heatmap with the mask and correct aspect ratio

sns.heatmap(corr, mask=mask, cmap=cmap, vmax=.3, center=0,

square=True, linewidths=.5, cbar_kws={"shrink": .5}

plt.title('Correlation Heatmap (for the MEAN variables)', fontsize = 25)

plt.xticks(fontsize = 10)

plt.yticks(fontsize = 10);

Now we will take the data and, extracting the label(genre) and the tempo, we will draw a Box Plot. Box Plots visually show the distribution of numerical data through displaying percentiles and averages.

# Setting the axis for the box plot

x = data[["label", "tempo"]]

f, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(16, 9));

sns.boxplot(x = "label", y = "tempo", data = x, palette = 'husl');

plt.title('Tempo(BPM) Boxplot for Genres', fontsize = 25)

plt.xticks(fontsize = 14)

plt.yticks(fontsize = 10);

plt.xlabel("Genre", fontsize = 15)

plt.ylabel("BPM", fontsize = 15)

Now we will draw a Scatter Diagram. To do this, we need to visualize possible groups of genres:

# To visualize possible groups of genres

data = data.iloc[0:, 1:]

y = data['label']

X = data.loc[:, data.columns != 'label']

We use data.iloc to get rows and columns at integer locations, and data.loc to get rows and columns with particular labels, excluding the label column. The next step is to normalize our data:

# Normalization

cols = X.columns

min_max_scaler = preprocessing.MinMaxScaler()

np_scaled = min_max_scaler.fit_transform(X)

X = pd.DataFrame(np_scaled, columns = cols)

Using the preprocessing library, we rescale each feature to a given range. Then we add a fit to data and transform (fit_transform).

We can proceed with a Principal Component Analysis:

# Principal Component Analysis

pca = PCA(n_components=2)

principalComponents = pca.fit_transform(X)

principalDf = pd.DataFrame(data = principalComponents, columns = ['principal component 1', 'principal component 2'])

# concatenate with target label

finalDf = pd.concat([principalDf, y], axis = 1)

PCA is used to reduce dimensionality in data. The fit learns some quantities from the data. Before the fit transform, the data shape was [1000, 58], meaning there’s 1000 rows with 58 columns (in the CSV file there’s 60 columns but two of these are string values, so it leaves with 58 numeric columns).

Once we use the PCA function, and set the components number to 2 we reduce the dimension of our project from 58 to 2. We have found the optimal stretch and rotation in our 58-dimension space to see the layout in two dimensions.

After reducing the dimensional space, we lose some variance(information).

pca.explained_variance_ratio_

By using this attribute we get the explained variance ratio, which we sum to get the percentage. In this case the variance explained is 46.53% .

plt.figure(figsize = (16, 9))

sns.scatterplot(x = "principal component 1", y = "principal component 2", data = finalDf, hue = "label", alpha = 0.7,

s = 100);

plt.title('PCA on Genres', fontsize = 25)

plt.xticks(fontsize = 14)

plt.yticks(fontsize = 10);

plt.xlabel("Principal Component 1", fontsize = 15)

plt.ylabel("Principal Component 2", fontsize = 15)

plt.savefig("PCA Scattert.jpg")

The output:

Genre Classification

Now we know what our data looks like, the features it has and have analyzed the principal component on all genres. All we have left to do is to build a classifier model that will predict any new audio data input its genre. We will use the CSV with 10 times the data for this.

# Load the data

data = pd.read_csv(f'{general_path}/features_3_sec.csv')

data = data.iloc[0:, 1:]

data.head()

Once again visualizing and normalizing the data.

y = data['label'] # genre variable.

X = data.loc[:, data.columns != 'label'] #select all columns but not the labels

# Normalization

cols = X.columns

min_max_scaler = preprocessing.MinMaxScaler()

np_scaled = min_max_scaler.fit_transform(X)

# new data frame with the new scaled data.

X = pd.DataFrame(np_scaled, columns = cols)

Now we have to split the data for training. Like I did in my previous post, the proportions are (70:30). 70% of the data will be used for training and 30% of the data will be used for testing.

# Split the data for training

X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=0.3, random_state=42)

I tested 7 algorithms but I decided to go with K Nearest-Neighbors because I had previously used it.

knn = KNeighborsClassifier(n_neighbors=19)

knn.fit(X_train, y_train)

preds = knn.predict(X_test)

print('Accuracy', ':', round(accuracy_score(y_test, preds), 5), '\n')

# Confusion Matrix

confusion_matr = confusion_matrix(y_test, preds) #normalize = 'true'

plt.figure(figsize = (16, 9))

sns.heatmap(confusion_matr, cmap="Blues", annot=True,

xticklabels = ["blues", "classical", "country", "disco", "hiphop", "jazz", "metal", "pop", "reggae", "rock"],

yticklabels=["blues", "classical", "country", "disco", "hiphop", "jazz", "metal", "pop", "reggae", "rock"]);

The output:

youtube

References

· https://medium.com/@james_52456/machine-learning-and-the-future-of-music-an-era-of-ml-artists-9be5ef27b83e

· https://www.kaggle.com/andradaolteanu/work-w-audio-data-visualise-classify-recommend/

· https://www.kaggle.com/dapy15/music-genre-classification/notebook

· https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-start-implementing-machine-learning-to-music-4bd2edccce1f

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_information_retrieval

· https://pandas.pydata.org

· https://scikit-learn.org/

· https://seaborn.pydata.org

· https://matplotlib.org

· https://librosa.org/doc/main/index.html

· https://github.com/dmlc/xgboost

· https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html

· https://www.tensorflow.org/

· https://www.hindawi.com/journals/sp/2021/1651560/

#Youtube

0 notes

burstbombbitch · 6 years ago

Note

📜 (something something i cant think about a topic)

Send me a sunken scroll for some lore! || ★ Accepting !!

☪️ —— This ask will center on her Killer Wail — how it manifested, the aspects of her design that draws upon it… basically, everything that went into conception when I decided to give it to her. Thanks for sending, first and foremost!

It’s easier to discuss how this first came to light from a character design standpoint, rather than character development ( and more interesting, because I truly did think everything WAY in advance ).

Back in Splatoon (2015), towards the end of the game’s lifespan, I began to learn Kelp Splatterscope, which had the Sprinkler and Killer Wail. Though she was an E-Liter main, I most definitely began to associate her with the weapon. This is probably where the early idea of her having one came into play. This video was one of the ones that stood out to the friend training me, and it made me remember how fond I was of the Killer Wail.

Since learning how to charge, my phone’s notification ringtone became the Megaphone Laser ( hasn’t changed in three years ). As a synaesthetic, the sound just seems to resonate with me more than anything else in the game. When I was designing Xiuying, even though I was using the Kelp Splatterscope in game, she’s still an E-Liter at heart. I tried to keep her within the realm of the Custom brand ( aka, the brand responsible for making E-Liter ).

Not only were her parents funding Custom, but the killer wail was created by the Custom brand, as noted by the sticker. When it comes to her color scheme, it was also influenced by the Killer Wail. Her first original design was actually meant to have white to pink tentacles, to signify the silver to pink gradient on the barrels of the Megaphone. Her final design, instead, was given pink to lilac — just a few inches above the barrel, but still on the barrel nevertheless.

Her design was intentionally meant to appear “doll-like”. When I was making her, I wanted her design to be soft and round ( hence the buns, and the choice of the letter B in her name — circular ). Dolls are, more often than not, for looking at — so her family similarly did just that, keeping her locked away for many years because they feared for her fragility. They are also silent, as she was upon birth.

The juxtaposition of having a Killer Wail — the loudest, most visible special in the first game — within was too good to pass up.

This segues into her character development. Xiuying was born silent, an inspiration drawn from Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Yue. Likewise, her moon symbolism comes from this character ( and is why she was meant to have white, not pink, tentacles ).

Her Autism and Chromesthesia also add onto why she was silent, but more responsive to color — she is prone to stimming, and her favored sensory inputs were sound, touch, and visuals ( particularly, colorful ones ). However, due to her parents’ decision to cut her off from one of these stimulants ( having been informed that their daughter was susceptible to noise ), she never got to explore them as a child. This was both, in hindsight, good and bad — she is now ridiculously sensitive to auditory input ( enough to have meltdowns and tantrums, if not pass out all together ).

Why was this “good” in any way shape or form? Had she been allowed to scream, as many infants do, she most likely would’ve blown circuits, destroyed windows, and caused cacophony wherever she went — the Killer Wail was in her from birth. It is a malfunction of both her light organ harboring bioluminescent bacteria ( found in her brain ) and her undeveloped, unusual vocal cords. By the time she reaches eighteen, they have properly settled in — but the undiscovered aspects of it were never acknowledged, and thus allowed to mutate.

This is why, whereas her family and many other squids have bioluminescence present all over, hers are focused on specific parts of her body ( such as the “constellations” along her head, collarbone, and cheeks ). Her mutations, too, come into play when she sings — her vocal cords have the ability to project color onto her viewers as a result of her mixed bioluminescence and Chromesthesia! It is akin to how, when we stare at a lightbulb for an extended period of time, we have color spots in our eyes — this is why her light shows are generally expensive to view, and stupendous. You only experience her doing this live — it has no effect over recordings.

In practicing how to sing, unbeknownst to her that her voice had a predisposition, she honed the Killer Wail without knowing. In every other verse where she does not become a singer, she does not have the ability to use the Killer Wail.

Her first talent agent’s death is a result of prolonged exposure to high-frequency cries. Xiuying herself is a catalyst of sound — a normal Inkling besides that, but indeed can go over 200 dB. Her soft-spoken nature after his death is directly related — in that, she tries not to cry or be extremely expressive, for fear that ( in her presently untrained state ) she might let off another Wail.

When I first made this blog, I was hesitant to give her the ability — it just seemed so far out there! But I had the idea very early on, as noted by songs such as Bastille’s Weapon being reblogged a month after I made the blog! Considering that it pertained to a voice being a weapon, I thought it was fitting!

And, last but not least, the Octo Expansion further brings out my intrigue in idols and music.

When it was said that Calamari Inkantation “changed” Agent 8, my brain quite immediately went — “okay, but I want to do something with that.” It’s extremely obvious that music has a lot to do with Inkling culture, so I feel like bands, Idols — they’re all very important in those regards. When talking to @takoruler, we discussed a Magical Idol Girl kinda verse — AND I TOOK IT VERY SERIOUSLY. Don’t challenge our love of Sailor Moon tbh. I’m eagerly awaiting the DLC to get some ideas on what exactly I want Xiuying to be doing, but I most definitely want her to take a part, if music is another major centerfocus.

It’s funny — I absolutely did not contemplate her becoming an Agent ( three nor four ) because I did not want to inject more convolution into her, but now with the explanation that a song particularly “helped” Agent 8, I am wholeheartedly more intrigued by the idea. It seems like it’s more of a “past tense” thing, with how they mention Off The Hook, but you can bet I’m going to think of something to give her relevance to the DLC.

A lot of my ideas felt like I was trampling on canon — but I live for breaking free of what we are given, and making things of my own. Similarly with my other blog, @brushwithdanger, I have put in many hours just to figuring out how the Shark Citadel interacts with the world. I love worldbuilding like crazy, even if I don’t say anything unless asked. After discussing this, many in part with @sangfear constantly LYING TO ME and saying I’m amazing at character design, I’m starting to actually believe her bullshit.

Of everything on her blog, the relation of the Killer Wail to both her character design and her character development makes me happy. I’ve worked very hard on her — and I do hope to continue to do so!

#apeculiarredsquid #thank u childe...#✧.° ⦙ ᴛᴇᴍᴘᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ɪᴍᴘʟᴏʀᴇs ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ ᴋɴᴏᴡ. — ❪ & asks. ❫#✧.° ⦙ ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ᴏɴ ᴛʀʏɪɴɢ 'ᴛɪʟ ʏᴏᴜ ʀᴜɴ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏғ ᴄᴀᴋᴇ. — ❪ & meme reply. ❫#✧.° ⦙ ғʟᴏᴡɪɴɢ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ; ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀᴛʜ ɪs ʏᴏᴜʀs ᴛᴏ ᴄʟɪᴍʙ. — ❪ & hcs. ❫#long post #thisll prob be the longest i hope

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