EDIT: A lot of unforseen shit this month. On top of my wisdom teeth making me horribly sick with fever and chills, probably going to pack up and move house. Will know for sure by August. Podcast script and stats are written down though, and will be recording ASAP. I will also gloss over AIM. Lots of love, guys. Talk to you when I'm not pitifully sick.

After taking some time to think and not being able to use my recording equipment at all (house is too full and too damn loud to record decently), I decided to take a brief hiatus from AP Mod Podcasts. Just so happens I conveniently forgot to post about it in the midst of a lot of interpersonal social life drama, traveling out of town, etc., and that whole autism jig that went around not long ago.

Also, PC crashed while I had my notes open so I lost track of 300 or so song removals and 200+ bans from last month's records. That's the main reason I haven't posted a new 'cast. The bulk of thefts are still GD related, of course.

So, last podcast draft I rambled on at the tail end about that money-making thing I've been doing too, then remembered the AP is not the place to put ads, so I scrapped it. There was too much hard-sell feeling to me and not enough about modding, the AP community, etc, and there was a bit too much about people cutting trees in my neighbor's yard and I kinda went off about that, hah.

Anyway, the quality was awful since I pulled a stupid and tried to test out the factory sound recorder as well, and I know most of you wanted me to post it, but there really was nothing to talk about aside from that and it was hard to understand my consonants. I'm still using FusionCash and InstaGC and all that rot, but I can't justify talking about it past that last post I made. If I do talk about it more, I'll just post that crap on YT. I got tired of ad-like sellout content through my modding this past month. I may mention it, but nothing more. Got better shit to do, and you have better shit to listen to!

Also thinking of having a song feature at the beginning and end of each cast, as well as perhaps background music by request. Lemme know what you think, meantime.

I will be taking out some time on the 17th, God-willing, to talk more in depth about this month, the trends I'm seeing, etc., and I'll pull my stats from the date of the last post. I won't be able to say how many bans I've gone through, I don't think, but I do have accurate stats on how many songs I've had to take down.

Also, I'm still working on that album and getting more used to Vocaloid software, and that masterlist of tutorials and music related resources is still in the cards, despite JK disappearing out of nowhere. Feel free to send me stuff you think I might find interesting!

Love,
~A

Subscribers:  @BlueAlpha14 @CyberDevil @littlemisfortune @maorrichan @RealFaction @Xtrullor

Thanks!

So @TheShadling drops disorders in the name of porn, and now the reasons we can't have nice things who think autism jokes are cute come out of the woodwork.

This would be fine if any were actually funny and not jacked on Peter Griffin tier gags already worn out by other attention-seeking trolls more nihilist and less intelligent than half the autism sufferers they talk about. On that note, considering most trolls are so dead inside, King Tut's crusty-ass mummified corpse got nothing on 'em, I wonder if making fun of people they consider lesser is more lifeline than pastime.

@RealFaction recently came out about his own high functioning autism, i.e. aspergers. Well, I'm an aspie too, and this is quicker than commenting on 15 other people's righteous fire sessions to show my support. Everyone knows I love a good scrap. Figured I may as well open my mouth.

This autism meme, it's like YouTube's head-up-own-ass afflicted comment section migrated to Newgrounds and found the "I'm important!" button, or decided it was a good idea to migrate the General forum into the FP posts. FOH and keep these bitter weeds to yourself, or at least make me laugh in the process.

Actual decent human beings, autism sufferers, aspies, socially challenged, LGBT, if you're ever in my hood and some walking prolapse is in your grill with this type shit trying to make you feel small, beat you up, whatever, I will personally shove my foot so far up their inferiority complex, these twinkle toes gon' tickle them tonsils. We'll see who's screeching then. Probably me, from laughter. Literal foot in mouth is harder to talk around than figurative.

The thing is, bullies just don't know what to do when it comes down to real people, right there in their faces. That's why the chicken shits crop up online, where no one can give them the whooping their mamas obviously skipped out on. Remember that every time some asshole makes fun of you, your friends, your family, and your coworkers online, drags their names through the mud, or talks shit about people who can't or won't defend themselves.

People who enjoy my wheneverly podcast, I'm probably gonna have to re-record it. I was (foolishly) testing out the native Sound Recorder, which didn't work great, needless to say, and the files are acting as if the mic was not powered for the whole 40 minutes -- so it's a real son of a bitch to edit with a terrible signal to noise ratio, i.e. lots of static -- can't even see the waveforms. What I'm probably going to do is re-record it in Mixcraft. Alternatively, I could compress, distort it a little, and slap on some auto-tune and chorus. It kind of sounds like AM radio, lmao.

I'd like your opinion: Should I go through the trouble and re-record, edit the file I already have and post, or add the statistics and events to my next 'cast?

Pros: there's some interesting stuff I discuss about the past 2 weeks, money making, someone cutting down a tree in my yard, and stats of course. I also talk about how utterly forgetful I've been in the past couple of weeks and my insomnia -- and sweet, sweet memories about NG. It's relatively unstructured, so if you want to actually hear how I talk, well, this is your ticket, lmao.

Cons: it will sound like shit without re-recording it, although still fairly listenable. At times it's a bit difficult to understand because some syllables like M and F are a little drowned out. There's some static. And by some I mean sometimes the compression is variable and the white noise is injected into everything else.

Thanks for your patience, guys 'n' gals. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Subscribers: @CyberDevil @littlemisfortune @maorrichan @RealFaction @Xtrullor

This post had a massive shitfest with formatting due to an embed not being whitelisted, then totally screwing up everything when I removed it. It should be fixed now, but please let me know if something looks weird. It's really hard to read typos when you're not quite sure what order all the words were in to begin with! Lol.

I was encouraged to share this by @Troisnyx earlier today, and boy am I excited!

'"[Why are there so few] music videos here on Newgrounds based on tracks from the audio portal? It would be such a great opportunity for both musicians and animators to be known more, and it would also be a great way to experiment... [So] many interesting tracks go undiscovered until someone has a visual reference to [work with]." -@ForgottenDawn

@ForgottenDawn made a post here that brought up an interesting idea -- a prospective competition for animators: make music videos for music on Newgrounds. I want to see this happen. If you do too, check out the nifty little poll on that newspost and make yourself heard. Depending on the outcome, there will either be a collab or contest! Exciting!

@TomFulp has weighed in down in the comment section about the possibility that if there were such a competition, we may be able to get some third-parties to do promotionals for us, which sounds absolutely fantastic. If this turns out to be a thing, I will certainly make a podcast and share to my Twitter/FB crowd, so that's a good 2-3k people, more if I ask my friends to share, who will know about this competition.

Just remember not to try and embed it if you choose to share as well, because it isn't in the whitelist and it will be frustrating, as it was for me a minute ago when the embed fouled up and wrecked my post formatting, forcing me to rewrite my entire post like I just had to a minute ago, lol. Instead, just link directly. Some good music to be discovered in the process, as well.

Please spread the word to those you think would be interested. Mention people in comments, tweet it, send carrier pidgeons, w/e. Everyone on ForgottenDawn's post will certainly thank you!

Also, and speaking of Tom, there's a question for you down there somewhere below that giant white picture but before I start talking about XBL Rewards. @NightRaid-NG, you were excited about that Xbox embed I tested last post I wrote, so you might like this!

Beyond this point, I'll be talking about upcoming projects and what I've been up to lately -- how I've been making money while I sleep, play Skyrim, and otherwise do nothing... Literally, I made 3 cents while I warmed up my coffee, so stick around if you have some room in your wallet for a few extra dollars or at least want to know a little bit about how I do it. I won't be posting scams or sites that require you to enter your credit card information either, and I will only cover sites I use daily.

First, projects, since this is relatively short. I've got 2 podcasts recorded, one, my NG AP Mod podcast which I'm editing -- I'm waaay late grinding this one out; absolutely insane week involving feeding a homeless kitten some sauer kraut-y sausage at freak o'clock one night -- the other, an interesting little tidbit about Microsoft rewards, a popular sort of GPT/PTC program that offers giftcards in exchange for using Bing search for a few minutes daily. 

Just need to finalize the edits and post. Someone kick me until I do. I've had one of these on my mind for so long. I'm gonna drop a little sneak peek or 3 down below.

Note the Amazon gift card in this image, which you can get on MS Rewards with a little patience and a Windows Live ID -- and I don't mean grinding your ass off all day long at the PC kind of patience and an actual Windows machine. It just takes a few minutes a day to rack up free moolah with Bing. If you're looking for stuff from the Windows store or Xbox, note that any Microsoft products are at a 10% discount once you reach level 2, comparison below.

Just don't be lured into spending any money at their store for the paltry 1 point per dollar spent in the Windows store (1 cent for every 10 dollars) and you'll be on track to savings and freebies. I've scored gift cards this way for less than 10 minutes a day. No worthless spam emails, either. 9/10 emails are spritzed with free money you can get as simple as opening a link in a new tab. In fact, I racked up most of the 3,755 points you see above from emails alone.

It's a sweet deal, considering it's another several dollars every month toward my earnings with practically no effort from my part except for things I was already going to do anyway. I don't think MS has blacklisted Newgrounds, so there's that.

@TomFulp, now that I mentioned it, do you think Bing Ads might be a good alternative for NG?

I know we've been orphaned countless times by ad companies partnering up with AdSense, and I think the last people to do that might be Google's rival, MS. It look like Bing Ads has some adult advertisers, and doesn't seem to discourage teh pron, which I think you mentioned was a problem with Google that we had a while back. I could be wrong, but it's an exciting prospect to me.

Moving on but still on the subject of Microsoft programs, if you play Xbox, check out Xbox Live Rewards. If you don't get sucked into spending anything on the cashback gimmick side of the site, it becomes a small but guaranteed risk free income for your MS account with some perks like product discounts if you're a gold member.

This combined with Microsoft Rewards has been my saving grace since 2010. Every penny helps in this age of overpriced 99 cent tack-on prices, and if Microsoft is willing to pay us to use its products and support the game devs and publishers we want in the process, let it.

I always set a calendar reminder to check once a month and do the minute long survey for 25 cents every month. This, despite being a paltry $3 dollars per year by itself has really come in handy. Plus, MS actually seems to pay attention to the results of the surveys and the overall quality of the program has improved substantially in the past 7 years.

My Advice: If you like saving every penny possible, this is an absolute must. If you're already a heavy spender on XBL, it might cut you some costs too with all sorts of discounts and cash back. Just make sure you have it credit as soon as you reach 1000 accumulated credits ($1) so you don't end up patiently waiting longer than the usual 4 months to see your 3.4 minutes of clicking go to work.

Now, if we're talking "money for nothing", I'll be honest, my stress level is down from the past few months now that I have some relatively passive extra income -- passive being, the stuff runs all day while I go about my life, practically forgetting about it unless I'm coming back to check earnings maybe every hour and a half and sure nothing died. If I'm feeling adventurous, I might actually put in some effort and help it along a little.

Now, you might be wondering, how does anyone get paid not to work? Celebrities excluded?

Well, it's pretty simple. I'm using several GPT sites on extra devices, ipads, computers, old cellphones with wifi capability, etc., so I don't have to switch tabs or worry about offers not crediting because they're not "visible" onscreen or whatever bs GPT sites are cooking up these days thanks to ad companies being extra scroogey. No surveys, no trial offer crap that could land me in deep monetary doo-doo, or worse, get my identity stolen.

Still, several people have asked how I do it, what it's like, how much I'm making, etc., because they're doing all of these things and more to try and make money, but they're still making diddly squat, and worse, they're burning out, sometimes before they even get paid.

Now, I'll tell you, between several sites, I'm actually making a pretty good amount, certainly not enough to buy a yacht, but enough to do what I want to with it, with less than an hour of actual work per day. If I were working a day job 5 days a week, actually putting in effort, or doing stupid surveys I hate, the wages would be awful, but this runs relatively continuously, all day and all night, and I have all the time in the world to spend on work, play, or whatever crazy home improvement project I deem fit. In fact, once I can afford hosting, I plan to run my own website -- the official kind, not the Weebly or Webs or Wix-ever else kind of freemium stuff is out there.

Meantime, my spare computer/tablet/phones sit untouched while I do whatever I want, and all they do is take up some bandwidth, sitting on mute with the screensavers and timers off, waiting on me to see fit to check them. Even if you only have one or two devices, nothing's stopping you from letting this stuff run while you sleep, work, or go to school, anything.

Take this sample from letting my junk computer run one site all day below. $12.24 in a couple days, just running in the background, and 11 more cents in the time it took me to type this section. This is just one site out of many that I've found easy to take advantage of the perks -- namely, 17 cents worth of bonus cash daily that you can get in minutes just by checking your email and doing a PTC that, while you have to wait a minute or two, is easy to do first thing when you wake up, and you can even check the weather through it or start it up earning you money until the PTC is ready to credit.

You'll notice almost all of my credits are videos aside from the daily bonuses, a ton of them, actually. There's a reason behind that, and it certainly isn't because I sat through all! It was an absolute eureka, finally-something-really-works, slap your grandma kind of moment, especially after so many other GPT's have given me the runaround or outright treated me like dirt, or just flat out not had anything decent to offer.

Before FusionCash, I was so tired of GPT sites, PTC bullshit that didn't credit, sites like Points2Shop and CrowdFlower that denied me payment or closed my account for bogus reasons even after I proved my identity, good will, etc., I was hopeless, until I took some advice from a blogger with a pseud that read something like "no-bs-getpaidto", and went on to sign up for  with his referral link. Through this referral and my hatred of surveys, slideshows, tasks, and dangerous spam app installs, I discovered a miracle I wouldn't have otherwise.

I'm going to walk you through it.

If you click the picture, it'll take you to the FC signup, where you can make a couple extra dollars without touching your computer more than a few times a day -- obviously more if you have more than one device, feel like messing around with more sites, or if you can figure out some that will auto refresh without checking if the pages are on top or some other nonsense on other sites. This is exactly what I love about the method I use with FusionCash; they don't pester me and we both get paid, except I don't have to be present because of that first part.

If you just signed up, go ahead and set up your account real quick with either your Paypal info or address, and when you finish, you're ready to earn. After you get your $5 signup bonus, go to Earn Cash >> Videos. You'll see a teal play button pop up. Click it.

This will open a new window. Scroll down and click the teal button, which will open another window. Slide the first popup so that you can see the timer under the second one, resize both as necessary, and click the tab without the timer so that it thinks it's on top. This is so you can make sure you're going to be credited and everything is proceeding normally. If the timer isn't going and the page isn't auto-refreshing, it's not working.

Note, sometimes it's a holy terror and insists on being a certain size or being on top of every tab despite being fully visible. This is why I just started using it on a spare device on mute that I absolutely do not touch except to check that it's still making me money whenever I feel like it, which turned out to be a pretty nice arrangement once I got past the minor annoyance, and it's a great addition to my GPT empire.

Tip: If I'm feeling like being more involved, I set a 30 minute timer to enter a CAPTCHA every so often on "radio loyalty" which I leave running on the closest device to me for an extra 6 cents an hour; it does add up in the scheme of things, and it has the bonus of helping me keep track of time. I turn off this timer while I sleep, obviously.

That's pretty much the same principle I apply to all the other sites. Anything that doesn't auto refresh itself, I don't do. If it does refresh itself but checks if I'm paying attention, I measure how long it takes to do that the next time I start it up and set timers accordingly -- If I feel like it. Otherwise, I keep my devices close to me on mute and use multiple sites, and just sorta let them go until they're done. Some of these sites have caps on each opportunity, most of which increase after meeting them a couple days in a row, and after they cap out, I check what else there is to do, if there are any bonuses, etc. There's been plenty of times I woke up from a nap or went shopping and came back to some dollars.

Just imagine, if every hour of the day for the rest of your life you were finding a couple dollars on the ground everywhere you went. Wouldn't that be sweet? Imagine that on top of a decent paying job, and all you have to do is get out of bed and have an email, paypal, etc., to get it. That's what this is like.

Just remember, never do two offers from the same affiliate company across two GPT sites or you could get banned by that affiliate, thus missing out on earnings, and never do two offers at the same exact time on the same exact site, same reasoning, only you could lose everything you earned. If you do everything right and still somehow manage get screwed with this method (has never happened to me as long as I followed those two rules in over 10 years), if the only thing you invest is a couple minutes of setting up something to run all day while you don't pay it any mind, you haven't lost anything, imo.

Now, I think I've rattled on enough about things I think are cool. Do check out @ForgottenDawn's post and spread the word if you like, do know I'm working on those damn belated podcasts, and if you feel like you could use some extra money, do join FusionCash. I simply shared it since I feel it's one of the fairest, easiest sites to work, and I haven't run into a single offer that it was FusionCash's fault that I wasn't credited for, unlike Points2Shop and several other sites that scammed me out of my time and took my money.

If people would like me to do an actual review or a how-to of this or other sites, lemme know, and yes, feel free to refer me to sites if you think they're good!

Also, happy shamrock celebration month. For your pleasure, something a little more or less cool (pun) than the weather, depending on where you live -- and certainly no less commercialized if the ads on the weather channel are any indicator...

McDonalds has some sweet frappes special right now that on the surface seem shitty and wildly overpriced (c'mon, it's McD's) but I actually enjoyed -- mint chocolate chip or something with little green sprinkles for Saint Patty's Day. Apparently I was the first one to order this where I live because the high school students working for minimum wage in there spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out how the fuck to make it and even had to get on the phone at one point. Check it!

For now, this is a placeholder as part of my and @JK-FlipFlop's Masterpost of Audio Engineering Resources. Hell, I may as well call it a community project by now, haha. Several posts to be coming up in the week. Will be recording another podcasts in a day or so as I have time. Been a busy week.

Tutorials will be spaced out according to level of mastery. So far, one, but definitely open to recommendations, shameless self-plugs included! Will include guitar building as well! After all, part of playing an instrument is understanding its parts!

I present to you...

A(N EVENTUAL) CRAPLOAD OF QUALITY GUITAR TUTORIALS

Beginner:

Foreword: Chasing gear at this point is a lot less important than mastering fundamentals. You'll want to find an instrument that's both functional and suited to your budget. In other words, don't buy a flying V or a Taylor until you know you won't be tossing it into storage in a couple months, and remember that good technique outshines fancy equipment almost every time.

No combination of guitars, amps, line-ins, DI boxes, etc., is going to instantly poof you into Marti Friedman, Paul Gilbert, etc. Guitars don't come stamped with the genres they're capable of lending to either, with few exceptions. You can djent it up on a wire guitar with passive pickups, or play country on a Schechter. Everything comes out in the wash with appropriate technique and setup, which takes time.

Aaand going to find some good tutorials to put here, but beginner tutorials can be really generic and hard to disseminate good from bad. If you're a beginner and find something helped you, drop a comment.

Intermediate:

Tune Your Guitar Perfectly By Ear! - Chances are, if you're using the 55545 tuning method, you'll notice it's a little off. Check out this video and you'll find out how to do it using your guitar's natural harmonics.

Advanced:

Expert:

DIY GUITAR BUILDING

Builds:

WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY GUITAR AND HOW CAN I FIX IT?

String Buzz: Check your guitar's action, nut, and bridge, in order of most to least likelihood, depending where the buzz is occurring, and make sure the strings are not sitting too low as a result of whatever configuration you have.

You may have to adjust the action or truss rod or re-file the nut in the case of overly deep notches causing the strings to sit too low and vibrate against the fretboard. Low tunings are prone to this on shorter scale lengths and often perform either poorly or unpredictably with the lower string tension inherent in more extreme drop tunings. If you suspect this is the problem, the solution may be as simple as heading to the nearest shop and having your guitar set up for heavier gauge strings.

RETURN TO MASTERLIST >>

EDM364's Audio Portal Mod Diary, Entry 14

New podcast is out, and I don't have a migraine! Close to half asleep though. Links on the submission page. Contents, stats, news, discussion, and some wacky storytelling. Check it.

Stats: 34 stolen songs. 1 screamer. 17 users banned. 2.059 infraction rate.

Subscriptions: @littlemisfortune @maorrichan @RealFaction @Xtrullor

Thank you!

<< PREVIOUS ENTRY - NEXT POST >>

EDM364's AP Mod Diary #13

Now in podcast format!

Update, Crown of Thorns has been released! Fans and critics welcome!  

Week's statistics: ≈ 110 illegitimate submissions, ≈ 60 submitters, for an infraction rate of 1.8333 per capita.

Record keeping was not as strict this week. Check out that podcast. If you go direct to the page, the mentioned links are in the description, and I mention some of the worst offenders, as well as the usual life junk. I do talk about @RealFaction and @JK-FlipFlop lots too, you know... for reals. I have a migraine. Can you tell?

Subscribers: @littlemisfortune @maorrichan @realfaction @xtrullor

Thank you!

<< PREVIOUS ENTRY - NEXT PAGE >>

For now, this is a placeholder. What will go here are links to other lists, newsposts, and tutorials for better music making, podcasts, etc. Anyone can submit a link or a list BUT I request you also link back to this masterpost at the end of the post if you're drafting it yourself. Some of us are mobile users and it's really inconvenient to cycle through news posts with the back button. Not to mention it can use up a lot of data.

Categories are in order of importance and/or specificity.

TO COME:

• Integration of superlists and aggregation of their content
• Table of contents, better formatting
• Integrated playlists for some categories, and also on some of my own posts

INSTRUMENT SPECIFIC TUTORIALS

BASS:

BRASS: @sorohanro's Trumpet Lessons

DRUMS:

GUITAR: My Guitar Masterlist, <your post here>

PIANO:

WORLD:

Request an instrument in the comments!

DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATIONS (DAW)

"The DAW by itself isn't your money maker when it comes to music, podcasts, backing tracks... You are."

A good DAW is everything. Whether it's Pro Tools, Mixcraft, or Reaper, free or paid, what matters most is what you actually intend to do with it, not the name or the price... Well, unless you're broke, in which case don't worry, we've got you covered.

FREE:

• @Agitat0r's Crash Course!

PAID:

Tell us about a DAW we missed!

VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS AND FX (VST & VFX)

FREE VSTs

• @SnowTeddy's Linked List!

PAID VSTs

Send us a VST!

WRITING AND COMPOSITION

How do you get your songwriting ideas?

SOUND DESIGN AND MIXING

PREMASTERING

• The -6 dB headroom myth - Justin Perkins, theproaudiofiles.com.

Request a topic!

GENRE SPECIFIC TUTORIALS (A-Z)

Main genres bolded. Subgenres will be linked.

BLUES:

CLASSICAL:

CINEMATIC:

DRUM AND BASS:

DUBSTEP: Brostep (American), Drumstep, Eurostyle

ELECTRONICA:

HIP-HOP: Olskool, RnB, Trap

METAL: Black Metal, Symphonic Metal, Synth Metal

ROCK:

SKA:

VIDEOGAME: Chiptune, Sega Genesis, etc.

Request a genre!

POST PRODUCTION/PROCESSING

With Audacity:

• @JK-FlipFlop: Cutting Perfect Loops in Audacity

Happy hunting/writing/mixing/composing!

Special Thanks To: @BlueAlpha14 @JK-FlipFlop @SnowTeddy @sorohanro

For those of you hoping for my semi-daily diary, this is not it, however I am keeping record of that and will post tomorrow or the next day with the appropriate dating. This isn't because theft has slowed down or anything. There's still plenty of stuff. I'm just spending a lot of time on mixing.

I've got Creator's Club tomorrow too, and that symphonic slash videogame slash cinematic metal I've been working on has been taking up tons of time -- a lot of it spending time trying to think "how the hell am I going to write this track when my guitar rig is a ball of ass, my amp is exploded, and my sample library doesn't like the key of Am.

Most of my time the past few days has been digging through what free low-tuned metal guitar sample libraries I can find and stuffing those in my DAW. I've got some good dry samples I made myself but getting those into a workable format is gonna take some serious work.

Those in my boat, you might wanna check this out, from Chernobyl Studios -- a sick tutorial on getting a sicker metal guitar sound.

This is what I've been studying. It's pretty lit. Anyone, any DAW, these plugins are great, and the video brings up a ton of good points. Tag anybody you think might dig it.

EDM364's Mod Diary, Page 12

No news here, people are still stealing shit and trying to hack Geometry Dash. Not five minutes after @Xtrullor reenabled his songs for DL, someone who didn't understand how NG works or care about the artists behind the music tried to steal from his catalog. Got 'em though thanks to our very own AP Cleanup elves.

Here's hoping the embeds lower down don't mess up formatting.

SLICE OF LIFE:
Quite literally don't remember much about yesterday. My A key is sticking. I spent most of yesterday on Newgrounds, drinking coffee and modding -- and oh, my mom came to visit and listened to my latest two tracks. She was busy though, so she spent most of the time flitting around the house. Meant a lot in one way and a total bummer in another.

I was up for a grand total of 37 hours yesterday while I worked on my latest track and was unable to sleep. Otherwise, uneventful. I did however work on some lyrics for an upcoming song and arguing with hateful imbeciles on Twitter.

Time is running out
The star streaked sky plummets to the ground
Born midst a hail of lies
Freedom screams in a world deaf to cries
of pain, of shame

For a long lost brother she bore
The kingdom suffers evermore

Lost in a cold system
but found again in adherent religion
They call it liberty
under mantle of hypocrisy
enmity

For a long lost brother she bore
The kingdom suffers evermore

The caress of this half life
traipsed 'pon liberty
the paths of fear we tread

Democracy dies with every tongue lying silent
Theocracy thrives with every lie and act of violence
In the NAME OF GOD
In the NAME OF GOD
IN the NAME OF GOD
STOP THIS MADNESS

Truth in Christ compells compassion
Politics reduce to ashes

Tears of blood shed in vain
Who can say they know his name?

For a long lost brother she bore
The kingdom suffers evermore
For a long lost brother she bore
The kingdom suffers evermore
The kingdom suffers evermore
and bears at last his crown of thorns

@Cank may make an appearance on these vocals, also, and I'm looking forward to collaborating with @Teqneek on other works as well. Thinking of reaching out to @RealFaction -- if you have time, of course -- because I need someone who can program guitar work really. There's just this edge that I can't get with the library I've got.

MOD PERFORMANCE:
Stolen: 64
Non-remix: 3
Total: 67
Ban: 38
Per capita: 1.76

BREAKDOWN:
Busy, busy, busy! 64 stolen songs and 3 non-remixes for a total of 67 illegitimate submissions per 38 users banned. That amounts to a more moderate 1.76 infractions per capita, compared to yesterdays absolutely insane ratio, despite one user with a catalog of 17 stolen songs all labelled "test" or some iteration in Spanish.

Almost all infractions were in the past 4 days, with some in 2016. Some appeared reactionary blowover from @Troisnyx's petition, which called out not only the game's non-existent artist compensation but also the uglier side of the GD userbase stealing music. If you read my previous post, you'll see what they had to say in return, lots of death threats and more threats to vandalize the site. I'm going to take a moment to share the choice picks from todays crop.

Early on, some idiot tried to pass off the internet sensation colloquially known as "Owen Was Her" as his own work. For those not familiar with the song, here. This has happened about 5 times since I became a mod.

Some are only aware of this tune because of the McRoll version, but it's probably one of the most popular, most remixed videogame themes I know of.

So, facepalm out of the way, I actually ran into a pleasant surprise -- and a blast from the past. Another user tried to say "Every Little Earthquake" - Little Boots was their own work. Albeit a horribly distorted ear-rapey remix, I immediately recognized it and promptly thanked @Tebiri for mailing that one to me. It had been a long time.

This was legit the sound-track to a couple relationships I'm not going to even talk about -- and, exes reading this, if you think I'm talking about you, trust me, I'm probably not. It's been a LONG time. I was very naive once upon a time.

The Rolling Sky Soundtrack was very popular today, and I've heard it around from thieves. It's... meh. Also had some appearances of Trivago commercials, which apparently is a meme for the South American GD fanbase. Oh well, got to go; those break 3 rules -- advertisement, spam, AND stolen.

Of course, it didn't take too long before some disrespectful asshole was uploading @Xtrullor's hard work despite his explicit wishes not to have some of his tracks ingame at least until RobTop updated to give artists the choice whether they wanted their tracks or not. Some moron just couldn't wait and uploaded a rip of @Xtrullor's "Supernova", which has been vastly used in GD if you look at how many more downloads than it has plays. If you haven't already heard, check it out. The drops are SICK. My GOD.

The harmonics got me like damn on those falls.

CONCLUSION:
I don't think Rob's update is going to completely fix the theft issue here, HOWEVER, it will help keep stolen songs out of Geometry Dash, seeing as only artists currently approved for GD will be able to get their songs in-game, and RobTop will have to manually approve others. The only way to get stolen songs in game now will be for users to use the "play iTunes over the game" hack, which will be incredibly inconvenient. This is a good change. Add in that users such as myself will be able to allow/deny usage of our songs, and this is what should have happened to begin with.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: @littlemisfortune @maorrichan @RealFaction @Xtrullor

Thank you!

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