=== IMPROV [2005 - 2007] ===

Something about having a Juno-D synthesizer made the principles of ASDR a lot more intuitive. Not to mention cut, resonance and lfo possibilities. During some experimenting with the live recording button I tweaked some knobs and taught myself automation by the making of this song. Thus far I experimented a lot with Fruity Loops 4 and continued to do so, but there were a few distinct things I grew increasingly tired of, even in times of using FL Studio 3: The standard samples and VST presets. The phase of individuality commences!

Though I was taught all synths start with basic wave forms, I had very little knowledge of oscilators and how synths were shaped. No matter what I did, I felt like there wasn't a lot I could do to get rid of that "FL Studio" feel it had (especially the TS-404, Slayer and Simsynth). Instead I decided to create my own custom waveforms in Soundforge 6 which I would loop through the Fruity Sampler (because: individuality, lol). They were crappy, out of tune but still useable. It certainly gave my music a distinctive sound: most of my songs were like a badly strung guitar.

One fateful day in December 2004 I received a review from @Kingbastard. When I went to return the favor, I stumbled upon a goldmine of tunes which changed my thoughts on music forever. It was hard to keep a grasp on the sheer definition of his music, as his songs had such experimental splendor that I could hardly conceive it as music to begin with. That is, in the confines of my shallow perception, anyway. Never before had I listened to a mix of Lo-fi, IDM, Ambient, Field Recordings and Indie Rock. It opened my eyes and blew my mind. He's been a great inspiration to me for the years to come. Even on the forums he seemed like a breeze of fresh air. Many of his old songs have since been taken down, sadly. He was the first reason I ever wanted to pick up a guitar. My attempts have been futile, however.

I also went on the lookout for new drum samples. I didn't care much for the quality or where these files might have come from. None of that seemed important to me at the time. As a result my sample library was a disaster. The soundfonts I started using were okay, but I also sampled instruments and they weren't much better. Oftentimes they were too short to be properly looped for sustenance, horribly recorded and sometimes out of tune. Songs made as a results of my field-recording adventures include What's In My Glass?, Experiment 005 and Experiment 006. Some of these samples - believe it or not - proved really versatile throughout all these years, as I still use them from time to time!

I'll discuss some of these samples since they're so much fun. One of them was a recording of me going "ohh" for a while in C-pitch. I layered that with a (slightly out of tune) sinewave and looped it. It became a pretty interesting chorus sample that I've first used on In Outer Space (1:48) and later on A Place Where We Will Go (3:35) where I used it in the outro with a decay applied to it. Attitude (1:20) used it for a subtle reverbing stereo echo and it even appeared in the original CTSG (2:42) where I used it for a bell-like transition. I think it was also layered with the bass in B-Day Beat (0:00) and for background melodies in Active Days (2:01). The melodic hooks on Bangs (1:00) used this sample in combination with bells.

Another sample I really love was created during the same days I think. Probably made using the same crappy microphone, I held it close to a lenticular pokemon collectable. Next I used my nail to scratch across the ribs, sampled the high-pitched noise, and the rest is history. It has a nice raw industrial sound that I like to use every now and then. The sample made its first appearance in Experiment 001 (0:00). It was later used as a transitional effect in Attitude (2:08) and the outro of D-Tastic (1:38). Industrial Detour (0:28) uses it for rhythmic/melodic purposes.

Like I said earlier, file management wasn't my strongest asset back in the day. In 2006 a buddy of mine hooked me up with a cracked version of FL Studio 6. This piece of software helped me create some of my proudest compositions to date. Titles include There's A Place Where We Will Go and Do You Say? I especially liked the Fruity Parametric EQ 2 as it was easy to use and made my songs sound great. I might have started using compressors around this time as well. Although I had little knowledge of how they worked. Eventually the software crack expired, leaving me with a mere demo version of FL Studio. I had no choice but to go back to version 4. Since this version couldn't open my FL6 files, I rendered these save files completely useless and threw them off my computer. Needless to say I really regret doing this, now that I'm working with version 9... Especially since I love these songs.

Writing thorough reviews is one of the best things you can do as a starting musician: It develops listening skills, teaches you new musical terms, allows you to question about tricks the composer used and possibly creates new friendships. Still in 2006, I found Kingbastard's Mixposure page and decided to create a profile of my own. For a while this was one of my favorite places on the web. They had a system that allowed you to upload one new song for every 5 constructive reviews you left on people's songs. On top of that there were many assortments of genres and people creating music for it. Hell, I even found an assortment of cherokee music on there! The site was very aestethically pleasing too, but alas, it disappeared from the internet at some point. I found a couple of great artists on there, most of which I've forgotten by now. The same can be said for a couple of Myspace musicians I enjoyed.

Probably a way more interesting story from 2006 was when a buddy of mine told me of a site called djbroadcast. This was an online deejay magazine with its own internet radio station. What's so interesting about this website is they had their own record lable. By submitting music to their website, home producers got a good chance to get signed with the company. Promotion would be a nobrainer. Winners got to sell their songs on beatport with a 50% profit. I joined the race just to show off to my friend, who tricked their system by letting all of his friends vote for him. I beat the system too but not through voting; Apparently the men upstairs took notice of me and thought I was pretty good. I got a mail with the opportunity to sign with them around the same time as him.

I'm not sure what happened all of a sudden, but I got really self-aware. First and foremost, I was not really a Deejay (neither am I now), so why was I here? Neither was I very knowledgeable or skilled. My methods of making music were all wrong! Even though I was oblivious to all of this up to now, reality must have kicked in or whatever. I didn't know much about contracts at the time, but somehow convinced myself it would be full of downsides and obligations that would make my hobby a hell. And what if I were to be interviewed or something? I wasn't ready for that sort of stuff! The whole ordeal made me nervous, especially since it was my mother's hobby to visit fortune tellers, and one them had the audacity to predict someone would screw me over in the music business. In the end I never even read the contract or visited their office. I politely returned their mail by saying I wasn't ready for it. In a way I felt like Icarus, who flew too close to the sun. It was nothing like that though; I never got off the ground to begin with!

This moment definitely marked a decline in motivation for me as a musician, although I may have been too stubborn to realize it at the time. I had grown content with certain aspects of my life and while I was still very passionate music, it wasn't my salvation any longer. At the time I was pretty interested by spiritual stuff, and I made a friend who told me she found her "Soul Song". It supposedly refers to music that resonates with the very core of your being. I'm pretty sure I haven't found mine to this day, and I wonder if I will ever find it. The concept is still pretty amazing to me. Especially the thought that I might someday create someone's soul song, which would be a great honor. Towards the end of 2006 I moved to a new place with my parents. Somewhere along the way I lost a lot of samples on my computer. Early in 2007 I took something of a break, only to get active again in Spring. As I was recovering from a scarring event (I won't go into details), I had picked up a book which motivated me to take life into my own hands. Around this time I got into a band, fully convinced I was an amazing musician (spoiler: I wasn't).

I'll have you know, band practice was a disaster for me. My Juno-D was too big to lug around with a bicycle and I didn't have a driver's licence. I had no one else to rely on but my father, who did not have all the time in the world. I thought it would be easier and somewhat cool to use a keytar, so I bought a Yamaha SHS-10. Little did I know that thing is laughably bad (it's still pretty cool to own though). Even so, it was a lot easier to carry around. This is what I usually practiced on.

Most of my time as a bandmember was spent jamming without making any actual results. I developed a strong affinity for organs and electric pianos around this time, which became another aspect of my sound. Especially EP's with a long release time were my type of thing. Another thing I started to like were improvs, solos and compact monologue synthesizers. Anyway, I went to a lot of the band's gigs without even playing along. The band already had like 3 or 4 songs they could play. So I tried my best to come up with fitting background melodies but they were all declined. I played only one gig together with the band (with the Juno-D, mind you). Little did I know, the band decided on some last-minute enhancements to the song. I screwed up my part because there was some confusion about how it needed to be played. I played it off as if nothing happened though.

A few sessions later I brought my Juno-D to band practice and we were jamming. I tried hard but nothing I played seemed to match with what the rest of the band was playing. Maybe their gear was improperly tuned. I can't remember, I only remember the song was rather fast-paced. On top of that the rest of the band wanted to do a Killing In The Name Of cover by Rage Against The Machine. I was fairly certain I didn't fit in with them at all at this point, being the third wheel and all. That's when I had something of a break down and went ouside for a breather. When the band eventually stepped outside we had a short conversation. Since this wasn't working out, I left the band. It had already come to their attention that I took music far too serious. Their advice for me was to start a solo carreer of sorts. Gee, thanks.

It's quite tricky to pinpoint which musicians managed to influence me during this time. When it came to being in a band, Keane, Coldplay, Radiohead and Muse were quite important to me. System Of A Down was a great inspiration when it came to lyrics. In the studio however, I was heavily inspired by The Prodigy, Daft Punk and Pendulum. Also DE/VISION now that I think about it. These years were also quite interesting in terms of club music. From my trips to Myspace I learned of Kingbastard's friend Yogi. He goes by the name of @Matchstickman on Newgrounds but sadly didn't upload much. I loved his songs to death, it's unfortunate barely any of his work survived the harsh conditions of the internet.

• Reasons To Create: Underneath my humble exterior was an eager desire to overcome my peers. More than once I told people "I use jealousy as a means to motivate myself to surpass the person I envy". It took quite a while for me to realize I was making a contest out of everything. This continued to burn me up even further.
• Creative Developments: Besides upgrading to better software, the pointers I received were of great help leveling up. One could argue whether I experimented too much or too little. Personally I think I explored too much and learned too little. This is why I didn't understand virtual instruments and barely even touched them. I also improved very little on the keys. The mix of my songs became somewhat better, though oftentimes muddy. The samples I used during these days certainly gave my songs an individual style.
• Outcome: I tried out as many samples, effects and genres I could possibly think of but never quite got into synth design for some reason. Even effect presets were oftentimes left untweaked. I seeked exposure outside of Newgrounds and almost got signed to a record label in the process. I had developed a sound of my own and my compositions were definitely improving.

"Brand yourself, be yourself. Don't imitate or emulate your favorite composers, other else people would rather just hire the original. I found the most work in my career because I made a sound that was unique to myself, and people approached me because of what I can produce."

- KgZ

"Human brain is hardwired to pick up patterns, that's why pop music has "chorus" sections. Finding the right balance between repetition and new material makes the difference between 'boring' and 'that feels familiar'."

- Sorohanro

"'Simple' and 'complex' music is subjective. To that point, they are not better than one another. Something that is deemed, 'good' is based off the unanimous majority. Everything in music is based off the opinion of what is right or wrong. To that point as well, there is no right or wrong."

- KgZ

"The way I understand it, when musicians release teasers, they are either looking for feedback, stuck, or unwilling to share the full version of a track that is going to bring them earnings as the result of its use in a game. Or, shall we say, unwilling to spoil the fun. It keeps listeners anticipating more."

- Troisnyx

"On a more serious note, it doesn't matter how long something takes, or how much effort you put in. If people like it, I deem it a success. Of course I still want to put in as much effort as I can, to increase my chances of people liking something. While people don't like to hear me say this, 'music is a business'."

- KgZ

[INDEX]

1. AN EMPTY STAVE
2. THE BRIDGE
3. IMPROV
4. A RIG RUNDOWN
5. TRANSITION

=== THE BRIDGE [2003 - 2005] ===

Lets ignore the fact that E-Jay was my favorite music software before I found any decent music software. By the time I uploaded my first songs to Newgrounds I had been messing around with my illegally acquired copy of Fruityloops Studio 3 for about a year. Yes, I said FL Studio 3. It was my keyboard teacher who had burned the software on a cd and handed out copies to his students (I still own mine to this day). He once showed up at our house to instal cubase and connected my keyboard to the computer for midi purposes. He was the best music teacher I had by far! Thanks to him me and the other students were learning songs by Nirvana, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and anything remotely popular at the time. None of it was boring!

I never got my midi settings to work after that, as the preferences screen in FL Studio was incomprehensible to me at the time. To make matters worse, I had to connect this thing through a serial port. I didn't mind it that much though. The software allowed me to compose, so - midi controls or not - that's what I did! It took me a while before I learned how to properly make a song. I had no idea how to change pitch on the sequencer and was oblivious to the piano roll. One of my first songs was composed by duplicating one sample at different pitches and alternating between them on the sequencer haha. I uploaded the song a year later. Having signed up to Newgrounds in October 2003, for some reason uploading music didn't work for me until after the first AP overhaul towards the end of 2003. My first NG buddy @42588 used a couple of my songs in his flashes before I got to upload any of my music. These songs in particular never made it to Newgrounds, I'm not sure why. The movies they appear in are Mortal Kombat Quil Flik, Puncher Girl and A Weird Movie.

My first computer came with a set of small speakers, presumably by harman/kardon. The rest of my studio (if you could call it that) consisted of several shitty microphones that broke down over time and a Yamaha PSR-270 lessons keyboard. I composed much of my early stuff on these keys. Sadly I lost most of my earliest songs due to the reformating of my system (this is probably why some of my oldest songs never made it to Newgrounds). I cried over this loss as I had not anticipated this. Many of the songs I had made were inspired by RPG maker, which I played a lot with and wanted to compose my own songs for. I also replicated a couple of songs, with Zelda in particular. Before I got familiar with the NG Audio portal I had found a website called OverClocked Remix. It was of great influence on my music.

My first experiences with the audio portal were rather good. It didn't take long for me to find The Matrix DNB, which inspired me heavily. For a long time I was obsessed with Drum&Bass because of paragonx9, though I had no idea how to make it. When the portal finally allowed me to submit my own songs, I soon figured out how to cheat the top 5 of the weak. I did this by posting music late on a thursday night and voting 5. Oftentimes it would fly under the radar and get one of the best scores. Other than this, scores didn't mean much to me. Zero-bombers became a prominent threat to many creators, but I didn't care at all. Downloads were much more important to me.

My actual life was going through a rough patch at the times. Hard to believe as it may seem, at the end of my first year in high school I was facing a mental breakdown. I had difficulties finishing that year, and it screwed up my second year completely. During my short attendence of the 2nd year I wrote an assignment on what my favorite song was for my philosophy class, which got me an A+. Passion was definitely there. Failing school was a terrible awareness. "But at least I still have music," I thought. Maybe so, but I was shit at making it.

I kept dishing out songs throughout the year. To this day I've never had a more productive year than 2004. I remember wanting to record from my Yamaha directly, but I had no idea how to do this. I ended up recording sustained notes and used those in my songs. Someone I knew at the time invited me to come over to his personal attic studio. I learned that he worked in Reason and from that point I wanted nothing more than to work with the same software (This transfer to propellerhead never really happened for me as I became too comfortable with FL Studio). He taught me about Recycle and how there's software you can use to edit waveforms and turn them into loops. I worked a lot with Soundforge 6.0 before moving on to Cool Edit Pro 2.0.

Eventually @Chronamut took notice of me in November or so, took me under his wing and convinced me to upgrade my software. He took one of my works in progress and worked on the mix, finishing it together, eventually also sharing it on vgmix before it went down under. He gave me a lot of tips which helped improve my music drastically. In no time I was utilizing the FL Studio piano roll, vst's, soundfonts, mixer tracks, and added effect filters. I mostly used presets though. During this time the simple 7-band equalizer became one of my best friends.

I think somewhere in September of that same year I joined one of the many signature making clubs on the forums. I often stayed up late to work on image requests, literally entranced by the dance tracks that would play on the radio during the weekends. I became a big fan of dance music and wanted to become a deejay. I never knew how to get this done though. Somehow I convinced my parents music was my passion and they bought me a bunch of awesome gear: a Roland Juno-D (which I still use), a Behringer Eurorack UB1222 FX-Pro and two Alesis M1 Active MK2 monitors (one of which was damaged). I coined my stage-name D-Yoop, which I discarded a few years later.

My biggest influences from this time are a giant mess to behold. I had a slight obsession with Lord Of The Rings soundtracks early on, but it's Paul van Dyk whose music caused me to aspire being a deejay. I listened to quite a bit of trance at the time, I think. Tiësto was another big inspiration during this period of time. Despite all this, I had trouble labeling my own music and often compared it to that of the Gorillaz for lack of better examples, but I guess they were inspirational too. Keane was another band that captured my heart. On the other hand there's Newgrounds musicians like Paragonx9 whose music introduced me to Drum&Bass. Then Kingbastard fueled my need to explore new sounds and experiment.

• Reasons To Create: I felt horribly guilty about ditching school but I couldn't tell what my reason was. Not only were my intentions misunderstood, but I went down a slippery slope of distrust of my own capabilities. At some points I felt suicidal, but music was something I had faith in.
• Creative Developments: From behind the keys I moved into the studio. I finally had the power to create my own songs but didn't know too much about the theory. Songs were oftentimes repetitive and badly mixed. My inspiration was endless though. I believed my songs were awesome, although I could not attain the quality of my idols.
• Outcome: For some reason my cringeworthy songs got pretty good reviews, eventually even getting gold and platinum stats. Chronamut was one of the bigger names in the audio portal back then, so I was kind of awestruck when I learned he enjoyed my songs. I also befriended RyeGuyHead. Songs involving the keywords "Matrix" and "LOTR" got most of the recognition. Gee, I wonder why that is?

"I'm sure I can speak collectively and say, as music makers reviews are what we are after, especially constructive critisism that can really benefit the development of our trx."

- monkeybullman

"no program is noobish, only the people using it. Good music makers can make good music using any format."

- Kingbastard

"Newgrounds was a great place to "level up" my music production skills."

- Krank

"As soon as people realise that the Audio Portal is just a bit of fun the better. It's for musicians to play around in and hopefully find some like-minded people who have the common courtesy to leave reviews if they listen/downlaod a trk. Yes it's not perfect, of course improvements can be made, but take it for what it is and learn to take the good with the bad and in time I'm sure it can grow into something to rival the Flash Portal, either that or it will die on its ass."

- Kingbastard

"The Audio Portal was intended to be a resource for the Flash Artists and one of the next things I'd like to see is a better way of Flash Artists developing relationships with Audio Portal artists - because that's where the audio guys will ultimately get greater exposure - if their material is included in a popular Portal entry. If people find plenty of interesting pieces in entries in the Flash Portal, they'll be more inclined to venture into the Audio Portal to see what else is in there."

- liljim

"I tend to not even look at the score of tracks anymore, it's irrelevant, all you gotta do is get yourself a bit of a following by reveiwing other artists tunes and the reviews should be returned in kind."

- Kingbastard

"trying to do something you love will always bring critisism, especially when it's in a creative medium."

- Kingbastard

[INDEX]

1. AN EMPTY STAVE
2. THE BRIDGE
3. IMPROV
4. A RIG RUNDOWN
5. TRANSITION

It's been 2 years now since I wrote my 5-part story on how I found animation and by what means it developed. These were written by me as a means to introspect. I was lost on where to go next and had to steer myself into a clear new direction. The same thing could be said for my music. These past couple of years I have felt lost. I think I was 8 when I started out. That means I've been a musicians for over 15 years! -Although I say this reluctantly... Over the past couple of years I've lost confidence and direction. For a while I thought the passion was gone, but I have reason to believe it's still here. I want to bring it out again, and that's why I'm writing this.

Each of these blog entries discuss the following topics:

1. Reasons To Create (Philosophy, Motivation & Inspiration)
2. Creative Developments (Audial Style, Skills & Habits)
3. Outcome (Experience, Dedication, Achievements & Continuity)

=== AN EMPTY STAVE [1998 - 2003] ===

As mentioned before, I was 8 when I first picked up an instrument, although I was possibly already interested in playing music at a much earlier age. I am unsure as to why this eventually happened. My earliest memories of music involve a little keyboard I got as a toy (the closest resemblence I found on google was a Starmate 8906) and percussive instruments in kindergarten. There's also faint memories of pianos and guitars at people's homes, both of which interested me greatly (or any instrument for that matter). Of course I wasn't allowed to touch them.

When I was 8 years old, my parents let me partake in a musical orientation course. I'm not sure if anyone heard of these things but they are great! Basically I was grouped up with a bunch of kids for a weekly instrument tryout. Every week they showed us different instruments until eventually we all made a choice and signed up for lessons. Apparently I had a talent for many of these instruments but I remember I really wanted to be a drummer. My parents did not allow this so I decided on playing keyboard, by logic that this was the most versatile instrument and allowed me to play any instrument there is.

Next came lessons. They came attached with stuffy teachers and were overal a weird mix of boring yet interesting. Learning to read notes and timing them accordingly wasn't that hard, but getting used to clefs, time signatures, key signatures, terms and notations was very tricky. Then again, I was in keyboard classes. It took me years to realize they were very different from actual piano classes. Most of these things I did not have to worry about that much; half of the work was getting to know the chords and getting the keyboard to do things automatically for me. I tried to compose stuff of my own, but I remember I didn't write it down correctly. Too bad I lost these short "compositions".

When I was a young teen, the school started organizing small performances. This meant I had to get up the stage on my own, playing a song I had learnt earlier that year. I also performed for my classroom in middleschool a couple of times. At some point I was going to perform a song which my father then expressed disdain for. It made me panic and I tried everything in my power to bail the idea. I was overfilled with guilt towards my teacher, who had copied a bunch of lyrics for the whole class to sing along to... Another case of stage fright occurred to me during band lessons when I was about 12 years old. These lessons were a lot of fun, until I heard there was going to be a performance at the end. I did not realize this and felt deceived upon hearing the news. The performance went flawless and yet I wasn't happy. Everything that had been leading up this moment caused me stress. My joy was gone. I decided to quit.

My mother caught up with me to tell that I was some sort of prodigy and the school offered me free lessons for an entire year. This information completely fucked me over as a teen and I started to think of myself as some sort of musical genius in the making. Maybe I just misinterpreted the information, as I found out years later; it was merely my teacher who was interested in doing private sessions at our home for free. I think I would have felt easier with that, but I don't know. He was the coolest teacher I had by far, but I was pretty much through with it all.

There's definitely been some songs that managed to influence my compositions this early in my musical carreer. Though learning to play songs by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers definitely influenced the way I composed my music, Coldplay was the first band that actually touched me on a deep level (with Trouble in particular) and made me want to start a band of my own. I was really into videogame music as well, with Koji Kondo (Ocarina Of Time), Motoi Sakuraba (Golden Sun), Nobuo Uematsu (Chrono Trigger), Jun Ishikawa (Kirby Super Star) and Kozue Ishikawa (Link's Awakening) in particular. It is no wonder I occasionally found myself on OverClocked Remix. Another great influence was Gigi d'Agostino's italohouse.

• Reasons To Create: As a kid I was open to learn new things so maybe I just went with the flow. Playing the keys wasn't something I particularly hated so I went with it. I could tell it made my parents proud, and maybe that was enough? There was the occasional jealousy towards other keyplayers. I don't think I deemed myself particularly good.
• Creative Developments: Very little. Hitting chords with my left hand while playing melodies with the right isn't exactly difficult. These were the usual lessons for 5 years. While I developed a knack for chords, sheet music went way over my head as I played most of everything by memorizing it. I guess it's been pretty useful though, as I've noticed some self-taught musicians don't really understand the logic behind chords.
• Outcome: In relation to piano, keyboard might have been a pretty bad choice. Then again, in relation to a drumkit, keyboard was a very good choice! Maybe I wasn't set up for playing piano concerts, but at least I learned some basic tricks and theory. Plus I found my way into music software! In the end I didn't do much keyboard drumming but I'm glad I made my way into music at some point.

"i would strongly advise taking lessons, its always good to have a mentor to guide you along with your learning, if you teach yourself, you have higher chances of forming bad habits, and bad habits are hard to unlearn"

- SessileNomad

"It means if you practice something a certain way for a long time, it will be stuck with you. If you practice proper technique all the time, then you'll have proper technique. If you practice improper technique, then you'll be stuck using improper technique until you practice proper technique, which involves unlearning and relearning."

- Darkmaster603

"You are also extremely ignorant to think that you don't need music theory to write music, because you use it even when you don't realize it."

- KgZ

"If notation is chain and ball, then chord and harmonies are cage and prison. Locking yourselves in the prison of sound, and fooling yourselves to think that you're free to choose whatever."

- Anarkat

"Personally, I find that theory has helped with my appreciation of music."

- Troisnyx

"To an anarchist, statism is a threat to the people. To a music anarchist, theory is the threat to creativity."

- Anarkat

"The audio portal was initially launched with sounds effects. Few who submitted sound effects could understand the, "don't upload sound effects if you didn't create the effects yourself" or would just upload sounds of them farting, etc. So it was removed. Waste of time."

- liljim

[INDEX]

1. AN EMPTY STAVE
2. THE BRIDGE
3. IMPROV
4. A RIG RUNDOWN
5. TRANSITION

My last post was like 6 months ago, right after the Anniversary Collab was launched. Time surely flies... I was going to post some gems I found but the submit button kept bugging out on me. Honestly, I didn't want to write about anything elaborate but I was getting a bit sick of looking at the old thing. This post just kind of happened lol.

Yeah, so admittedly it is weird how as a creator you can feel incredibly detached from your work. Many of my big inspirers seem to have doubts about their projects before releasing their creations into the world for everyone to see - I usually feel that way myself. While I was passionate about this thing, it's been rather stressful too. Most importantly though, I'm glad to see the Anniversary Collab touched the hearts of so many fellow Newgrounders. I never imagined making it into the top of all time someday.

As for my personal life, I moved into a new place since January, where I now live with a good friend of mine. It's a bigger place and the rent is overall cheaper, which is good. Moving went paired with a bunch of drama which I won't get into. It took some getting used to the fact that things are further away from me now. Also, a lot of rooms still need to be painted, a lot of the electric sockets are apparently way outdated and possibly unsafe. So far the association we rent from hasn't been too helpful so I fear it's going to cost me. And there's a bunch of other things that need to be removed/made that should or shouldn't be there. Some rooms don't even have lighting as it is. Things are moving rather slow but the bare necesities are all there.

While I've learned a bit about electricity, I feel like my knowledge is still rather limited. Many of the sockets on the top floor of the house don't even have a ground. Seeing as I'm using a lot of electrical extensions to get my studio up and running, this thought is kind of scary. There's a desktop and a lot of expensive musical equipment as well. If something were to go wrong is it all going to be toast? I wonder if the output channels on my mixer broke because of this. As a work-around I have to run audio from the auxiliary tracks now... For fear that anything else may give out I haven't been on my desktop in a while, and creating stuff from my laptop is a bit of a drag.

But there's been good things too. Apart from Newgrounds, I've discoved more of Twitch during February and noticed how great and inspiring the "Creative" community is. I feel like Newgrounds is missing part of the action. While I'm not sure where I'm going with this, I feel that NG could utilize this medium. Grey areas such as speedpaintings, tutorials and camera/animation crossovers are already here on newgrounds. But what if we made it an option to watch these streams on Newgrounds? A lot of streamers already advertise themselves going live from the news post section, but it's easy to miss that. Maybe there should be a list of approved Newgrounds "Creative" streamers or something? A Newgrounds hashtag on Twitch might be a good idea too. It would also be cool to see picoday being livestreamed on the frontpage in a pod at the top of frontpage this year. Speaking of Picoday, I'd really like to attend again but I'm not going to be there this year... The past months have been rather expensive on me ):

I am suddenly reminded that I've been doing a lot of writing these past couple of months. There's a couple of big news posts I've been meaning to post, but each of them consists of several entries. One of them discusses the process of creating a "super-collab", but I'm not so sure if anyone's interested so I might not even finish that. The other one is a self-reflecting entry on how I got into making music. I finished 4 out of 5 of those so far, but they're on my desktop. Go figure... The main reason I wanted to write about my music is because I've been stuck in a rut for years. I did the same thing for animation 2 years ago, which ultimately led me to create the Anniversary Project. For the past few years, I didn't even dare calling myself a musician. I finally got sick of this in October last year, when I attended a small gig fest. I realized I still wanted to be a musician and suddenly wanted to play electric guitar right there and then. Seeing as I still felt that way in March, I decided to get on with it. I've been self-teaching and practicing my Les Paul every day for about a month now.

Once I get this whole home-situation figured out, I'm hoping to get back into action. I'm excited to try out 2.5d animation, but I barely have any experience sculpting 3d elements. I downloaded Blender before moving, though I'm not too sure if I like it. I also feel like Toonboom is the best answer in terms of 2.5d animation, but I have yet to learn the ins and outs. I also have this great experimental idea in mind and would really like to bring it to the audio forums, but this'll have to wait. Earlier this year I predicted this was going to be a year of consistancy and exploration. I guess I was right about that. I should remember to have fun sometime.

P.S. I shall try to see if I can post gems again sometime.

Hey everyone!
NG's 20th Anniversary Collab is finally out!
Go check it!

Huge thanks go out to:

• @TharosTheDragon, for being an amazing programmer, editor and co-organizer.
• @Liljim, for providing an alternative way to link user profiles.
• @TomFulp, for being an inspiration and putting us on Frontpage TWICE. He also put us on the calendar and did a lot of news posts for us!
• @Troisnyx, for coming up with this awesome idea in the first place. And of course for composing the wonderful credits song.
• The CTSG Collab, for being a wonderful concept that proved to be a great foundation for the anniversary collab.
• @EKublai, @Radaketor, @ShiftyHyena, @TharosTheDragon, @TricycleLord and @VicariousE for their meaningful efforts in the sub-collabs.
• @Bit, @Butzbo, @Cyberdevil, @FoAngel, @Kenjum, @LDAF and @Radaketor for their thorough testing.
• Those of you who were crazy enough to join us in this adventure ;)
• Everyone awesome enough to vote 5.
• @P-Bot, for having us.

I hope I didn't forget anyone. You guys are absolutely awesome!

Part 01 - 1995/1996
Some of the earliest songs on NG were oldschool drum&bass type of songs. Seeing as drums are the skeleton of a song, we started off with the bare bones. "This is the remix," refers of course to Newground Remix. Tom was 13 when he coined the name "New Ground" in 1991. At the time New Ground was a fanzine for the Neo Geo (Synomym for New Ground). It wasn't until 1995 that New Ground got its own website on fast.net. Tom created webgames such as Club A Seal and Assassin later on.

[Source] - [Source] - [Source]

Part 02 - 1996/1997
As a university student, Tom had no access to Newground Remix. Having updated his content, he decided to work on a new website and called it Newground Atomix. In musical form we needed to imply some sort of genesis; the birth of the new ground plural. Wanting to preserve the urban feel, Triphop seemed like the best option. Among Tom's newer works were Cat Dynamics and Beep Me Jesus.

[Source] - [Source]

Part 03 - 1998
With no way to redirect users from Remix to Atomix, Tom ignored the problem altogether and just kept on building silly websites. Telebubby Fun Land was his next project and it became a hit! The music of course had to be a bit silly here.

[Source]

Part 04 - 1998/1999
When Tom was contacted by Inside Edition about Telebubby Funland, he bought himself a domain name and decided on Newgrounds.com. This choice led to more exposure, and the website grew exponentially. All of the website content was made by Tom Fulp at the time, but he created a separate page which he decided to call "The Portal". Users who wanted to submit their content, mailed it to Tom and he would upload it manually. Tom's personal works included a couple of games, among which the infamous Pico's School. The website slogan was "The problems of the future, today!" Tom's games were still the most popular attraction of the website, so the audio was inspired by his games.

[Source] - [Source]

Part 05 - 1999
Trouble was on the way. Newgrounds' debauchery didn't go unnoticed by the media and a handful of lawsuit threats were aimed at Newgrounds. As a result, Newgrounds had to remove a lot of their content. If that weren't frightening enough, Newgrounds was struggling with the ever-expanding server costs. Luckily Tom was able to partner up with Troma. He even got to star in Toxic Avenger 4. These were scary times. Needless to say, spooky music was the best choice here.

[Source] - [Source]

Part 06 - 2000
The overwhelming amount of entries for the Newgrounds Portal started to become a little overwhelming. Admin Ross developed the automated Portal, a leveling system for the users, and a forum which Wade moderated. To top it all off, Newgrounds came up with their iconic tank logo. You could say war was upon NG: P-Bot was blamming flashes, while Wadolf was out there banning users. Turbulent classic music was definitely the way to go. The animation symbolically features P-Bot, Ross, Wade, a tankman and Scrotum the dog; the first submission to ever grace Newgrounds.

[Source] - [Source]

Part 07 - 2001
This year was full of action-packed animations. Think epic Xiao Xiao battles, Joe Zombie, and Osama Bin Laden spoofs. Among all this chaos there's Bluebaby's flash games, the Mikey animations and the origin of the Clock Crew. Speaking of which, StrawberryClock joined and animated this sequence, adding a ton of other characters that I missed. Many submissions at the time featured music by Linkin Park. As a homage to that moment, we decided on Alternative Metal. An unexpected silence was requested for a "B" moment.

[Source] - [Source]

Part 08 - 2002
Perfect lovemaking music, that's what was requested for this segment. NG used to run a lot of adult ads as a last-resort strategy. Also, the flash portal was flooding with hentai dating sims, which further tainted the image of Newgrounds. Go figure ;)

[Source] - [Source]

Part 09 - 2002
There's a reason this segment starts with the sound of a whistle. It signifies the option to "blow your whistle" on material with malicious content. Among some of the most popular submissions this year was Alien Hominid, Chainsaw The Children, Krinkel's Madness, Skullkid, Legendary Frog and Arfenhouse. Progressive house seemed like the way to go.

[Source] - [Source]

Part 10 - 2003
Industrial music sets the tone for an era of robots. A-Bot was first introduced to Newgrounds with the launch of the audio portal. The NG servers were hosted in New York, but the admins decided to move it to Philadelphia. Due to the success of their web game Alien Hominid, Tom and Dan Paladin started their company The Behemoth.

[Source] - [Source]

Congratulations NG! Today we celebrate a historic moment in time, as some 20 years ago, a handsome man known as Tom Fulp got on the internet, and made it his life mission to create the biggest source of hentai the world has ever seen! He created a website known as Newgrounds dot com; the very website you are visiting today.

A huge collab was scheduled for release today, but it will have to wait, unfortunately. We're still looking for people willing to animate to a 15-second animation to a piece of music. Each music segment is part of a soundtrack made by 24 different musicians from the audioportal. It is a soundtrack specifically made for this project; to tell the history of Newgrounds through animation. That means each part revolves around a specific "era" of the website. Right now there's only 2 parts left to choose:

[ Download ] - Open - [ 23. BattleBlock Theater Inspired Music (2013) ]
Lots of projects this year would befit a sense of adventure: The launch of Battleblock Theatre (X), Cathode Raybots (X), The Reward (X), Jaltoid (X), Dr. Bees (X), Raw Latex (X), and With Animation You can! (X)

[ Download ] - Open - [ 24. Dark Ambient (2013) ]
Somewhat serious or even ominous themes this year include the No Evil (X) series by Warlord-Of-Noodles, BLISS (X), Spacefader's Gamer (X), Tombstone Jumping Devil (X), The Honey Plot (X), Little Merry Ego (X), Breadheads (X) and the Pixel Nightmare (X) series.

If you'd like to parttake in this, feel free to send me a PM and I'll be happy to fill you in on the details.

Have a happy 20th! :D

Hey everyone, there's less than 2 weeks left! Here is my update on the NG 20th Anniversary project. Please join us if you can!

Animation
Is doing great! Occasionally new people arrive and other people drop out, but it's progressing very steadily! There's still 2 parts open, however. So if have the time for a 15 second animation, please come and join us!


Voice Acting
Just 3 more voices to go. The lines are ready. All we need is for someone to record them! Edd Gould, Crippleboy and Icky are still available. Want to give them a try? Come join us!

Minigames
There's always room for more game developers. Open an AS3 project, drag in the movieclip with functions we prepared, and get started. It's really easy! Your game doesn't have to be very big or complicated, so please give it a try and join us!


Art
The art section is doing great, but we'd love for more people to join. The objective is simple; draw us a figurine of a well-known Newgrounds character. Come join us!

Ohai guys, how are you doing?

The collab for NG's 20th anniversary is coming along great! The deadline for all 6 collabs is set for June 21st, which is exactly a month from now! Our musicians are finished with their audio, the writers are right on schedule with their story, and we have over 10 artists working to fill the art gallery (but we could always use more)!

As for the animation, we have a couple of awesome animators on board! Big names include WooleyWorld, Catoblepas, MortalPoet, MindChamber and Lochie. Even portal legend StrawberryClock decided to join us! Want to be part of all this awesomeness? You've got to be fast. There's only 3 spots left open!

If you're a programmer with time to spare, why not join the project by developing a simple Newgrounds-related minigame? We only accept games made in Actionscript 3.0. They can be as simple as you could possibly want, but they need to have a clear goal, so that viewers can get an achievement for beating it. TharosTheDragon made an intuitive API for people to use, go check it out!

And if you're a voice actor, this might interest you: The menu for this collab is made up of several different locations, which will eventually be filled with Newgrounds characters. When these characters are clicked, some of them will talk. This requires people with a microphone, so I set up voice acting thread not too long ago. There's still plenty of room, so if you're interested, pay us a visit!

I hope all of you had a great Picoday this year! A few days ago, I made this huge post about my Pico Day experience. It just about covers my entire stay in America with as many details I could possibly provide without boring the wits out of each and every one of you. There's also pictures. If you decide on clicking this link, well, then happy reading! :)

=== 04/23/2015 - Day 1 ===

On my way to Pico Day, I arrived at Schiphol airport where I took my plane at 8:45AM on the 23rd of April. At least, that was supposed to happen. There were some technical difficulties. The flight itself took me 8 hours. Flying with the curve of the earth, it was 3:00PM in Philadelphia when I arrived. Everyone in Holland probably finished eating dinner about that time. This was the first time I ever flew alone, and I expected customs to give me trouble, but it was quite okay. Upon arrival, I took the shadiest looking cab I ever rode in, and arrived at my airbnb location, conveniently located in the same street as the NG office.

=== 04/24/2015 - Day 2 ===

The next day would be Preco Day. After exploring the area a bit during the day, I bought a 12-pack of beer and rung the office bell at about 5:00PM. Someone came down the stairs, opened the door for me, and offered me his hand. It was @TomFulp. This moment was pretty surreal. I stuck out my hand and told him my username, but - like with many of my other introductions - I probably did not articulate it well enough. "The guy with the green dinosaur image?" Nope, that didn't seem to ring any bells.

I followed him up the stairs where the office was. We went through a corridor into an open space where I noticed some people playing pool. I was introduced to @Sherbalex as he was working at a desk when we passed him. A group of people had formed around a desk with a brown carton box sitting on top of it. The lid had a slot hole in it, with an agnry faic slapped onto it, and someone had written on it with a marker. "Ideas to improve Newgrounds." I would often find myself returning to this box. Tom joined in on their discussion about how forum regulars are far more outspoken about the functionality of Newgrounds than content creators are. And me, still wallowing in a wavering pool of disbelief, held onto my 12-pack as I followed their discussion and took some glances around the office. I noticed a NATA poster hanging from the wall, and realized that a split second of my animation was on that poster. Turning right from the wall was the pool table, in close reach to the famous NG vending machine. Following the wall even further, it led to an open kitchen, in close connection to the gaming corner. "Where shall I put these?" I asked eventually.

After stocking up on beer, I met @VicariousE and watched @DuDul work on a dragonballZ animation he was making in ToonBoom. He gave me, @Flikkernicht and a few others a quick tour of the software. So much want! During this presentation, @Luis came in. With him came @Lochie, who took a 26 hour flight just to be there! He's the coolest guy ever. I'm glad I finally got to meet him in real life. He was pretty hyped about meeting @Ansel, whom he very much looks up to. I met him myself later on. Me, Luis, @AlmightyHans and @luka had a brief little reunion, as we met eachother before at the Amsterdam Meet in 2009. Eventually the sun went under, and the room poured full of people. I tried talking to as many people as I possibly could. I met @Mike early on, and then a little circle of people started to form with @Josh-B, @andthology and @Skragathor. @mohawkade would then drop in to inquire about our most renowned works. At that point, the person sitting on the couch's armrest would make himself known as @yurgenburgen. Our group was joined by @notcrispy, who introduced us to another circle of other people. I remember meeting @Emily-Youcis, which was pretty cool. I'm not sure if I got acquainted with the rest of them. I should have! Maybe it's because I saw @Johnnyethco and decided to make some smalltalk. Somewhere in the slur of that night, I think I met @Saminat, @JaShinYa, @Knights, @Emrox, @ThePivotsXXD, @EthanAlways, and I learned that Sexual-Lobster is @Fthreat's sworn enemy. Tom showed us the new game he's working on, and I was surprised to learn that @ZJ, @Jay and @EJR all knew me from the website. I'm not sure at what point I decided to leave, but I guess a lot of people had already left. I remember ending the night talking to Ansel about American drug commercials.

=== 04/25/2015 - Day 3 ===

I woke up with a headache, took a cold shower and had a protein lunch at the station. The night before was BYOB and while I wasn't that drunk, apparently I mixed too many drinks. Bad day to be hungover, but I bought a new 12-pack and headed over to the office for another adventure. The place was packed. After dumping my beer in the fridge, I was headed downstairs when I met @Muteyoh. Cool, he's in the CTSG project! He asked me to draw something. Though I'm not particularly used to have people watch me while I draw, I decided to give it a go. I usually start with sketches, but I didn't have such luxury at the moment. As I was trying to come up with something to draw, I noticed I was still feeling a bit weak. I didn't rest the sketchbook on a table and just held it. When my pen touched the paper, I noticed just how much my hands were shaking. The result of my drawing was god awful. I'm sorry! D:

I didn't really know where to start meeting people, so I hung out with Lochie for a bit. He told me Shadman stayed at the same place as his. He was in our vicinity, but I never got to meet him. After @Thundaboom trolled me into thinking he was Bluebaby, I eventually I joined the stream, where I met @theonewithoutaname sitting right next to me. There was a rumor going about that the king of the portal would be there, I noticed this one guy wearing a StrawberryClock shirt, so I decided to check if that was him. It wasn't. I think I was talking to @RadioTubeClock. I'd seen his work before so that was pretty cool. At some moment I went outside for a bit where I stumbled upon @Raziberry. I didn't expect him to be present, which was a neat surprise. Lochie and me thought it'd be fun if people were to play some of our old games, so I made my way inside. I got caught up in conversation with @Grub-Xer0 and I think that's when I met @MysticSkillz too. Back inside I met @Nogfish and I think I also introduced myself to @Afroninja. @WadeFulp too, he was there. It might have been at this point I also shared a few words with @Mindchamber, but I'm not too sure when that was anymore. At the stream I met @14hourlunchbreak. He was the one to play our game Communist In Space. At some point I crashed down on one of the fatboys to chill and watch the stream a bit. I introduced myself to the guys already sitting there, and met yet another CTSG animator. This time it was @IvanAlmighty. I wandered around some more and found myself in a circle with Tom and a few others when I introduced myself to @Stamper. I had to repeat my username like 3 times. Didn't ring any bells with Stamper, but Tom seemed to realize who I was now. Not sure, but I think that was when I met @JohnnyUtah too. My hangover gradually wore off. I hadn't drawn a whole lot of stuff before I met @Kashi. While I felt kind of tense about drawing in public, she convinced me to keep going and I kind of eased up. Drawing became sort of addicting afterwards. My headache had worn off too.

It was already getting dark when I met @TomaMoto. It must have been around this time when @Funy-Mony called me over to the stream for an introduction. I showed them Girl In A Room II. Only the next day did I realize I should have been whoring out the CTSG projects. So much regret! I think I was still on stream when I met @PikaPetey and @thisbemoo. When I got away from the stream, I think Muteyoh, got interviewed next. I also remember seeing an animation by TerminalMontage before Emily-Youcis got interviewed by Funy-Mony. I must have headed up the stairs about that time. "Not the popcicle!!" It was getting pretty late when I overheard a conversation, and found @StrawberryClock close to the idea box. I was reminded of my camera when I saw someone take a picture with him and decided on doing the same thing. I might have met @Cleod-9, @danceondeadmen, @LeftHandedSock, @RyanStorm and @RWappin around the same time, but my mind is pretty foggy on that. I remember my pen left a mark on LeftHandedSock's awesome jacket at some point. Luckily it was barely noticable, he was very cool about it. Upstairs people were playing Cards Against Humanity, so I joined in. I didn't know every one of them, and should have introduced myself. When I met @Sabtastic it was already getting pretty late. @Oney and @redminus too. It was pretty damn late when the dapper man in orange known as @Matt-Porter showed us his games on stream. By then, the place was pretty much deserted. The night ended with ZJ playing 14hourlunchbreak's game. Tom watched that one from the projector. I remember how much he liked it. I eventually told myself to leave because I would have stuck around forever. Most people were getting ready for bed, and sleep was much needed for me as well.

=== 04/26/2015 - Day 4 ===

Upon arrival at the office, people were still taking turns to use the shower. There was some speculation over whether we should go to a Barcade or not.  Eventually everyone dripped in. "Have you guys seen The Color Brown?" Tom Fulp asked the bunch of us. The projector was right there, so we looked it up. Turns out there's no better way to start the day. Most of the people who were still around didn't go to the barcade and just messed about the office. I know Luis went there with his party though.

Downstairs some people were watching youtube videos on the projector. Meanwhile, upstairs, Hans made slowmotion videos of NG users making fullbody jumps into some of the fatboys laying around the office. I parttook in this myself, it was really fun. At some point a bunch of us found ourselves in the meeting room, where Tom brought up Newgrounds' virtually non-existant relationship with Google. I got to meet @liljim during the day and was surprised to learn he heard of me. As it was getting darker, Luis arrived with a bunch of others. @deathink was flipping through a book with last year's drawings when I met him. The people in the game corner switched over to use netflix and started watching robocop about that time. I think it was after the movie had ended, that I got in a car with Tom, liljim, Josh-B and deathink to get some cheesesteaks at a local pizza place. When we got back, they were watching Danger 5. What a delightful show that is! Towards the end of the night, I found myself in the hall downstairs, where a lot of artsy movies were being shown on the projector. That's where @CatFat was running the show from behind the computer. I spent some time here watching videos, and talking to people before I went back home to catch up on some sleep. I'm pretty sure I had a short conversation with a guy who does photography. Don't remember his username though.

=== 04/27/2015 - Day 5 ===

It was pretty quiet when I arrived at the office. People were working on their projects, and I remember one of the tablets wasn't working, so we went looking for a different pen. I walked around the office, snapping pictures of cool merchandise for a while, and came across a dvd for cats. Curiosity got the better of us, and we watched it for shits and giggles on the big tv upstairs. I also remembered I hadn't taken any pictures with Tom, so that happened. I thought some more about any possibly souvenirs. Seeing as I didn't leave the office much, I figured I should buy some leftovers items from the store.

Thus far I had not spent any quality time in the game corner, so me and Saminat decided to play some fighters. Eventually, Wade showed up at the end of the afternoon. I had the pleasure of getting my ass handed to me in streetfighter IV by his kids. They are pretty good. I held my own pretty well in Soul Calibur II though. Oh, and according to one of those kids I apparently sound like PewDiePie? I went out to have dinner with Tom, liljim, and Saminat. When we got back, the place was pretty lively. It was good to see PikaPetey still endulged with his poopie obsession. His tireless fascination inspired me to draw too. After playing some Doom with Saminat, the gamecorner got pretty crowded and we switched over to Smash Bros. I took quite a few beatings. Lot's of bacon! I briefly made acquaintance with @Oryozema, and @ColonelCheru as well. I was planning to head for the airport pretty early the following day, but Tom convinced me to skip by the office first. Not much later I left and got some sleep.

=== 04/28/2015 - Day 6 ===

I had let Lochie know that this would be my last day, so we decided to meet at the office. I was still uncertain about whether I should grab a cab or go by train. I really should have planned this better. Over at the office, I met someone with an Irish accent, I think? I don't remember who he was though. Eventually Lochie came in and a bunch of us went to Wawa's to go and get something to eat. I bought some American candy so the people back in Holland could try it, and although my sandwich was delicious, I wasn't completely satisfied with my purchases when I got back. "Wanna check out the thriftshop and gamestore closeby?" I asked Lochie. I was out to get more souvenirs, and he decided to join me.

When I got back, I was running out of time. At this point I had never used Uber before, and my phone was screwing up. Eventually Lochie helped me out. Thank god for that! I got at the airport in time and almost thought I had left my phone at the office. I later found it connected to my powerbank in the pocket of my jacket. It was covered by my laptop bag, which hung from a strap down my shoulder. What a relief! No trouble apart from this. I flew to Holland and came home the next day. What an adventure this had been. 10/10, would come again.

People met: 62.