787 words across 3 entries.

Beatdown (Raid Remix) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify

Raid: (Bandcamp about blurb)

This is a remix of "Beatdown," composed by Curt Blakeslee for Homestuck. I loooove Beatdown. It fills me a fierce, fiery energy every time I hear it. I intended to channel that intensity with this remix here. I rushed it out just in time for 4/13 so it's a little rough around the edges, but like all of my music, it is my child, and so I still love it dearly. Hope you enjoy.

Raid: (YouTube description, excerpt)

I almost forgot that it was April 13th. Still though. I must pay my respects to Homestuck, on this 13th of April in the year two thousand and twenty one, with a piece of hard work as tribute. I don't make the rules. I just observe them.

I really rushed this one out. It's my fault; I lost track of time. I did the intro and buildup (everything up until the 1:11 mark) over the course of several months, then lost my shit when I noticed it was April 11th and did EVERYTHING ELSE AFTER THAT over the span of eighteen hours. I would've liked to spend more time adjusting levels, doing a proper mixdown, and polishing up the many rough patches, but like I said, I lost track of time. Regardless, I'm pretty proud of how the track turned out. It feels like it could be a boss battle theme for a Homestuck video game. This is what plays when you, Dave, ascend to the rooftop and get your ass kicked by your older brother, or something like that.

Credit for the .gif goes to Andrew Hussie, as always. I ripped it straight from one of Homestuck's earlier pages. I'm sure nobody will mind.

By the way, doing these music uploads on Homestuck meme dates has made the relentless passage of time very apparent to me. My older sis introduced me to Homestuck when I was 12. TWELVE. I was a tiny fucking baby. Then I uploaded my first Homestuck piano video to YouTube when I was in high school, at age 16. Now it's 2021. I'm going to turn 21 this summer. How crazy is that? I should get a job or something

For more info about my inspiration for this track and the sound design, check out the extended description.

Raid: (extended description, "beatdown remix notes")

On this date 12 years ago, a stupid webcomic that's far too long and weird and hilarious and all sorts of fucked up went online. Of course, I'm talking about Homestuck. It crashed Newgrounds, broke metafictional barriers, ruined a lot of lives (not mine, miss me with that shit), and caused a big ruckus in its heyday. But I was along for the ride as a young tween/teen, and I quite enjoyed it.

Some of the tunes from the webcomic's discography remain among my favorite tracks of all time because they evoke emotionally-rich memories of the past. Beatdown by Curt Blakeslee is one of those tunes. I still remember being 12 years old, coming home from school and throwing all my homework aside to read Homestuck for hours, skipping every single pesterlog like a dumb little kid, just trying as hard as I could to blast through the thousands of pages that were out already and catch up to the comic's present. I think I caught up around the time when Andrew Hussie put the comic on pause for a long time. I don't remember exactly, though.

The sound design (can I even call it that?) in this track took for fucking ever. I stole a couple of cool sound effects from familiar sources. That snap and filter sweep you keep hearing? That's Roy Mustang's flame alchemy. That blip-blip-blip? That's Falco's shine, of course. That high-pitched ding that I played layered with the snare in the middle? That's a sound effect from Danganronpa. I think it's the sound effect that plays when something surprising happens and some dialogue appears. The sword slashes and cuts are also from DR. The first game. Aside from that, we've got a whole bunch of presets, a whole lot of sounds I designed myself by screwing around in Ableton with plugins and effects, a bunch of free samples I downloaded off sketchy sites, a shit ton of meticulously drawn automation curves, and my very own Yamaha upright piano. I played all the piano in this track with my own two hands. That was hard. My right wrist still hurts from furiously playing that super verby high-register ostinato that comes in after 2:57. I think I nailed it, but you can be the judge of that.

Anything else I got to say? No, not really. Well, I hate school, as always. School is a bitch. Music is keeping me sane, I guess. I'm really glad I got this track out for 4/13. I almost missed it.