u/Wack0HookedOnT0bac0

Live audio is a very specific nuanced set of skills. Combining artistic decision making with math and science. It's also full of people who have massive egos. Like, dudes who just can't fucking be bothered to respond to a very basic question for some reason.

Idk man. I've worked in several industries. Live audio is an especially bizarre combination of the nicest people and the absolute worst.

If you're one of the best sound engineers you should hold yourself to a standard to elevate the overall community. Don't be a useless douche in every other aspect of your life.

What's Jean Claude Van Damme's worse movie? I want to laugh hard

I feel blessed that the crew I work with survived long, absurdly hot days the last 2 weeks and somehow NOBODY lost their cool (pun intended) to the point that it affected our morale.

Several things happened due to a laundry list of circumstances that set us back on multiple dates. We had file errors, dsp lockouts, passwords not provided, standing in direct fucking heat, bad communication from talent management, and of course everyone's favorite LAST MINUTE ADDITIONAL INPUTS. Notice how it's almost never last minute subtractive inputs???????

We all came together and survived bullshit. I hope you all are too

No, not the song OM on infinity bonus disc.

Ocean Machine. I mean we have said it so many times over the years but it's the pinnacle of 'leaving adolescence and confronting adulthood bullshit that's hard to quantify' album.

There's literally no other album that matches its timbre and hyperspecific emotions. October Rust is close but not quite. The almost oceanic liminal feeling that you might get when you're 17 or 18 years old hanging out alone somewhere. Like, your mind IS THE OCEAN. It comes in waves of thought patterns. Every so often you get a bright idea to pursue something.

Am I explaining this right? Idk.

Life is exactly that. It has huge movement and you can have all the fun and joy you want but your inevitable mortality is always in the ocean of your mind somewhere deep.

Night. Yeah that song feels precisely like the timbre and lyrics. Like being on a hazy adventure with no goal in a city you didn't grow up in.

Hide nowhere. Idk about that song. It seems like random chaos and an excuse to let Devin say shit like I have a big penis and balls or whatever lol. It always makes me feel silly. Nice refreshing not serious song

Sister. I didn't have one but it does feel a little like when you and your bestie you've hung out with too long and nobody has any interesting discussion points. But now you're high and have squat to say

All the interludes feel exactly how I want to feel at all tines. Stuck inside a strange late 80s drama with religious and spiritual overtones. My fav feeling

Voices in the fan. FUUCCCKKKKK I can't think of a more of the time vibe song than that track. Devin wears his influences on his ELECTRONIC PERCUSSION SLEEVE and I love him for it.

Greetings is massive and feels like the sea is lifting and rising and becoming huge

Regulator is just crushing nonsense

The rest of the album has been discussed to death but I can't think of a better example of a change up in styles than the final 4 tracks. It's such a journey of emotions and feels like a true lifetime sound collage. And that's only 1 fucking album bro. Devin is the best

Dude was cracking us all up. He was the standout comic that day in that room

This sub hypes up the same albums A LOT. . Specifically Caligula, Haken, Nospun, btbam, Tesseract. Yes they are all hella high quality and executed correctly. However, imo they are derivative of the same kind of DT/Opeth/Toolish kinda thing. I get it. Still great bands all worth seeing live.

But wtf is new? I don't care if it has 19 view on bandcamp. If you've found something that blew your mind I need to hear this lol

To make this short and sweet I think we all have either mixed or attended a great concert and then listened to someone's phone recording and now everything sounds flat, boring, and noticeably off pitch.

My theory is that the resonances in the venue that the audience and band are hearing is influencing the band's vocalist decision to hit notes in a certain way. The resonances make everyone perceive those notes to be in tune based on how the venue resonates.

But if you take a phone recording of that it doesn't respond the way a human ear does. A human ear protects itself from loudness and distortion. It makes our ear hair follicles protect us creating perceived resonance based tuning.

A phone doesn't do that.

Correct me if I'm wrong

If Mike is some untouchable criminal mastermind that can elude any tail or shake any goon then how did he not know Gus was having him tracked?

I get it. Putting a tiny GPS tracker (something Mike wasn't even confident at knowing what it was based on his interaction with the Vet) is not exactly an easy thing to spot. But if he can be followed and tracked that easily then why would Gus want him around? If he can track him that easily then the Feds wouldn't have a hard time either, if it came to that.

Overall, they will be atop the west battling for a 1-3 seed unless major injuries happen. I predict they slide down and grab the 2nd seed with SA on a revenge season feeling embarrassed and like they missed an opportunity to actually win a title.

1. SGA - Hard to criticize anything about his game considering he's the best midrange scorer since prime Durant/Kobe. (Sga is more efficient). Main problems with his game is that he starts every single game of the regular season and playoffs very slow and passive. I assume this has to be by design from coaching to let the defense tire out and other role players to establish a feel for the ball and the flow of offense since SGA is practically automatic any given moment. Get a fucking floater.

2. Jdub - Assuming he's back to 99% of what he was in 2025 then there's not much to critique. 3 point shooting will always be up and down with him. Not what got him drafted. But a 5% increase overall could go a long way. Get a fucking floater

3. Chet - Is there really not a way for him to get a quicker release? I mean Holy fuck he's so good at everything else and yet the most basic middle school area of focus never happened with him? Damn his high school coaches.

4. Ajay - Don't slam into guys full force every time you have the ball. Get a fucking floater

5. Cason - Is there a floater game that could help you penetrate and score over big guys?

6. Caruso - No critiques. Just stay healthy and do your thing in the playoffs. Get a fucking floater

7. iHart - Nice fucking floater bro

8. JWill - No critiques. Perfect backup big in 2026

9. Kenny- Somehow convince Mark to play you more? You should have played in games 1-3 in the Spurs series a lot more to establish a rhythm.

10. JMac - Get a floater

11. Topic - eh I'm out on him. Has no control and handle is wacky

12. Sorber - this team desperately needs your muscle and rebounding. Please work out

13. Aday Mara- Idk man. You seem slow but can rebound, be large based on genetics, and can block shots or alter them. I hope its going to work but I have doubts

14. Barnhizer.

15. ????????.....

SGA, Cason, jdub, McCain, and Caruso all looked acceptable against SAS. Acceptable enough to compete for a championship, that is.

Ajay didn't. He was rendered mostly useless by San Antonios defense. I know he's young and taking leaps each year but... idk. Didn't sit well with me and unfortunately I don't see okc being AS GOOD defensively next year and the injury bug is around the corner for chet, sga, and McCain. Just the law of averages in modern nba playstyle.

Ajay could not get to his spots and that's very concerning

Prog metal.

It's probably the most specific niche taste any version of a music lover can have. It has to have that specific nuance, certain types of rhythmic patterns, those moments of walls of sound combined with unexpected vocal melodies soaring in top of unusual instrumentation.

We are always chasing that next kick of dopamine from an undiscovered band. Those once or twice a year feelings we get when we find THAT NEW album we never discovered or heard of before.

Here's why that's problematic. It's very similar to drug use. You'll never feel as high as that first year of discovering Images and Words, Ocean Machine, Blackwater Park, operation mindcrime, odyssey to the west, and Empath. You will simply be searching for those elevated life enhancers. Sure, every 8 months you'll find a new album that tickles the fancy but its not like the first time you heard in Absentia.

Normie folks who listen to spoonfed mainstream shit are living in the hear and now. They want the new thing, accept the new thing immediately and live in the new things 15min of fame and move on to the next thing. Leaving most of their baggage and bullshit behind. Experience living in the mainstream for 1 month. Listen to new pop, country, hip hop, and electronic. You'll feel a rejuvenation of clarity. It will feel like you're living in 2026 all of a sudden instead of whatever era of prog metal you deem to be the specific golden age.

I want to start by saying I do truly believe people like what they like and others dislike the exact same thing. I'm fully aware but I'm trying to be enlightened here as to what struck a chord with you about Obsession that is making it seem so iconic?

Without sounding like a wannabe cinephile douchelord, I personally viewed this as a completely average movie. Nikki was the obvious standout because she seems like the girl we all know and had a crush on at some point in our early 20s.

I totally get that Bear is supposed to be a coward, incel-esq character. I think there isn't a twist to this movie at all in the traditional sense but if we were to pick one thing that qualifies, it's that the trailer lead us astray in thinking Bear was the protagonist. Okay, cool. So less than 15 minutes in we kinda realize it. He's too scared to tell his real feelings but is willing to control a woman's body and hold her hostage in a bizarre-o way. I get it. That's the twist. Okay, what else does this movie have going for it?

I should state that I'm mid 30s and have probably seen it all at this point. I'm still finding movies that blow me away and make me love theatrical experiences (Weapons in 2025, Malignant 2021, Smile 2, Backrooms was great fun and intrigue as well). Is this movie clearly aimed at Gen Z and Gen Alpha and there's just a clear and obvious nuance that I'm not grasping?

Once again, without coming across like a douchelord, the movie itself was standard run of the mill. Basically completely predictable after the 15 or 20min mark.

I've been doing audio for almost 10 years. Started doing one off festival stuff with doofuses that didn't know their own rig but they had the money, used to play in bands, and had small town committee insider info bullshit to get them gigs that paid way too much.

Looking back on those 16hr days where I made less than $250 I remember how much exhilaration I felt.

For years after that it was so much fun. I was mixing shows and felt super in tune with every band and every mix. Like I could hyperfocus on every element but also be able to hear the bigger picture (which is most important) and get bands to push and pull correctly. (Thank God for attack and release settings). On top of all this my day rate was climbing and I was going on bi-annual vacations that were nice enough to keep me happy along with my family plus a mortgage.

Idk.. all of a sudden in my mid 30s. Everything sounds flat, sterile, lifeless. Is it the bands I'm working with? The 100k PA I'm mixing on? 35k console? Doubt it. It's me....

It fucking sucks having this realization. Have I lost hearing? I don't think so but the overall feeling of energy seems gone.

Sorry for the rant