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MAGFest 13 - Post-MAG Depression rears its ugly head


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Seriously DarkeSword, way to quarterback this one!! You were working overtime on those panels this year, in addition to everyone else including the last minute understudies. OCR panels break down the thin wall of anonymity the username provides. The only thing I could comment on would be rather than have one mixer off in their headphones, doing an on the fly mix, maybe have them explain each step of what they are doing? If I watched Eddie Van Halen tearing it up on guitar, that's cool, but it really doesn't have the learning value as a step-by-step workshop. I'd say more time would alleviate the issue, but MAG is becoming a zero sum time game...."take your pick the autograph signing or the panel"

Thanks! I actually joked Saturday night that I was done with all of my Magfest responsibilities and then djpretzel suggested I moderate the Pro Composer panel when I got there, so I said "I guess I'm on this panel now."

Thanks for the comments about the How to Make Remixes panel. I will say what I said at the start of the panel: that panel is not really intended to be a step-by-step workshop or a lecture/class that you can walk away from knowing exactly how to make remixes. It's more of a discussion mixed with a demonstration to give you and idea of what the process is like and to answer questions people have about the process in general.

This was Neblix's first year doing the mixing panel and he only had about 2 hours to prepare; it was a very last minute thing. Being able to produce something on the fly and also talk about it takes a lot more practice. It's something that zircon can do pretty well and he's done a little more demonstration-style stuff before, but even in past years we've generally followed the same format of General Discussion/Q&A alternating with seeing what the mixer is doing. Arranging on the fly in a short amount of time requires a lot of focus, so it's better to let the mixer step back from the panel and do their own thing while the rest of us talk.

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This was Neblix's first year doing the mixing panel and he only had about 2 hours to prepare; it was a very last minute thing. Being able to produce something on the fly and also talk about it takes a lot more practice. It's something that zircon can do pretty well and he's done a little more demonstration-style stuff before, but even in past years we've generally followed the same format of General Discussion/Q&A alternating with seeing what the mixer is doing. Arranging on the fly in a short amount of time requires a lot of focus, so it's better to let the mixer step back from the panel and do their own thing while the rest of us talk.

Neblix did a great job coming in at the last minute like that.

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Thanks! I actually joked Saturday night that I was done with all of my Magfest responsibilities and then djpretzel suggested I moderate the Pro Composer panel when I got there, so I said "I guess I'm on this panel now."

Thanks for the comments about the How to Make Remixes panel. I will say what I said at the start of the panel: that panel is not really intended to be a step-by-step workshop or a lecture/class that you can walk away from knowing exactly how to make remixes. It's more of a discussion mixed with a demonstration to give you and idea of what the process is like and to answer questions people have about the process in general.

This was Neblix's first year doing the mixing panel and he only had about 2 hours to prepare; it was a very last minute thing. Being able to produce something on the fly and also talk about it takes a lot more practice. It's something that zircon can do pretty well and he's done a little more demonstration-style stuff before, but even in past years we've generally followed the same format of General Discussion/Q&A alternating with seeing what the mixer is doing. Arranging on the fly in a short amount of time requires a lot of focus, so it's better to let the mixer step back from the panel and do their own thing while the rest of us talk.

Wait, Neblix was on the fly for this one? Someone get that guy a hot towel and a cold beer...errr pop :)!!

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Ok, finally home.

MAGFEST WAS AMAZING! Best one I've been to.

Highlights, in no particular order:

1) SEEING EVERYBODY AGAIN! Too many people to tag in one post, but it's been between 3 and 8 years since I've seen most of you and it was so great to hang with you all again. Hopefully it won't be so long before the next time I see you all!

2) First night shenanigans with relyance and q-pa.

3) Next door neighbors knocking at 2am to tell us they were enjoying our jam session, and requesting that we keep going.

4) OCU concert

5) IRL PP&R with relyance and djp (among others). Gonna jump back in on that thread when I'm a bit more awake.

6) Shumkats reunion! It was great jamming with darangen, stevo, and luiza again. A bit disappointed Jill couldn't join us for our lobby jam session, though.....

7) That mini-concert on the back dock. Beautiful playing, glad I got to hear it.

8) Playing tetris attack with bahamut, the SECOND-BEST player at MAGfest.

9) Delicious juicy butts for dinner

10) Relyance being REALLY REALLY REALLY HAPPY on the final night.

Edited by Geoffrey Taucer
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What the heck! Don't go to Magfest and not say hi to anyone! :whatevaa:

Also Magfest has historically been Thursday through Sunday.

Haha well I wasn't sure I was going until a couple nights before, and I forgot to contact anyone on OCR beforehand. It was tough getting a hold of anyone on IRC during the event (duh, everyone's out having fun). I wasn't too sure how to get in touch. My bad! But who knows, maybe if there's a Bay Area meet-up in the near future, I'll swing by.

Edited by Ab56 v2 aka Ash
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Seriously DarkeSword, way to quarterback this one!! You were working overtime on those panels this year, in addition to everyone else including the last minute understudies. OCR panels break down the thin wall of anonymity the username provides. The only thing I could comment on would be rather than have one mixer off in their headphones, doing an on the fly mix, maybe have them explain each step of what they are doing? If I watched Eddie Van Halen tearing it up on guitar, that's cool, but it really doesn't have the learning value as a step-by-step workshop. I'd say more time would alleviate the issue, but MAG is becoming a zero sum time game...."take your pick the autograph signing or the panel"

First of all, flattered that I was the object of exaggerated comparison with Eddie Van Halen. 8-)

Music is not a step-by-step process, is the thing. There's no learning value in explaining every little thing I do, especially because a lot of the little things I do in the DAW are mistakes that I need to then erase or correct. If I explain an arrangement as "I do this, then I do this," then I'm like, "wait, I don't like any of this, forget all of that", it ends up being more confusing than informative.

Letting me silo in and focus on the music let me have more free-roam and random trial and error moments to see what I liked (impossible if I'm presenting every mouse action I do as correct), and then I could say "yeah, I'm ready to show something" when I pull something together. Other than that, the panel did do a good job of asking me what was going on in every instrument, so it's not like the arrangement went unexplained.

I think just in general, people asking what they want to know is a better format than people being told what OCR thinks they want to know. If you had questions about certain steps, I would've been happy to answer them. Unlike Eddie Van Halen, I can stop in the middle of a solo to talk, since mixing isn't really a timing crucial process. This is how composer streams like Zircon's usually works. He's off and away creating music in FL and then periodically checks the livestream chat to answer questions.

Edited by Neblix
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It was so awesome seeing everyone this year at MAG. Hope you all have a great year until we meet up again! Here are a few highlights of the whole weekend for me.

-Getting checked in...not seeing any familiar faces for a good hour... then seeing everyone ALL AT ONCE. Followed by...

-Bear hugging just about everyone

-Nightly OCR parties with plenty of games and music

-Getting our little fighting group together (Esperado, Myself, Ladywildfire) every night for rounds of Tekken, Soul Calibur 2 and some Smash Bros

- rave mosh(?) with Flexstyle during his hallway jam

- Completely milking that some people thought I was actually Gario.

- Meeting with fellow Streets of Rage enthusiasts Halc and Detective Tuesday and discussing the album. (STILL SOME TRACKS LEFT!!!)

-Velocifero and Pauline (Penguin)who were awesome and EXTREMELY considerate roommates

-Super Guitar Bros on a main stage

-4 player rounds of Bomberman

-Cans of Surge getting passed around

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First of all, flattered that I was the object of exaggerated comparison with Eddie Van Halen. 8-)

Music is not a step-by-step process, is the thing. There's no learning value in explaining every little thing I do, especially because a lot of the little things I do in the DAW are mistakes that I need to then erase or correct. If I explain an arrangement as "I do this, then I do this," then I'm like, "wait, I don't like any of this, forget all of that", it ends up being more confusing than informative.

Letting me silo in and focus on the music let me have more free-roam and random trial and error moments to see what I liked (impossible if I'm presenting every mouse action I do as correct), and then I could say "yeah, I'm ready to show something" when I pull something together. Other than that, the panel did do a good job of asking me what was going on in every instrument, so it's not like the arrangement went unexplained.

I think just in general, people asking what they want to know is a better format than people being told what OCR thinks they want to know. If you had questions about certain steps, I would've been happy to answer them. Unlike Eddie Van Halen, I can stop in the middle of a solo to talk, since mixing isn't really a timing crucial process. This is how composer streams like Zircon's usually works. He's off and away creating music in FL and then periodically checks the livestream chat to answer questions.

The panel was by no means a dud. We all have different learning styles and I've always been a tactile learner who thrives on the (insufferable) why that? Why this? Why not that? Not very conducive to a public forum though, that is why my offer will always stand Beer/Pop/Food for personal feedback

..maybe I was just a little sour on the Jazz trio genre selection beating out the trance....:lol:

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I can finally happily say I've been to MAGFest now. Overall I had a great time and it was awesome meeting many of you in person. I had not been to a convention of any kind since Connecticon in 2007 so I ended up experiencing some sensory overload during the first day and a half or so. There was easily about five times the population of my hometown attending MAGFest, that felt so insane to me. Anyway, Pros and Cons of the weekend:

Pros:

- Obviously meeting many of you guys in person, as well as seeing Deia and OA again. I was especially happy to meet the rest of OCU and it was cool talking with Tuesday in the OCR Suite and with relyanCe on the ride to the airport.

- Most of the panels I attended were fun. The main OCR one and the Runaway Guys Thrown Controllers were my favorites.

- Finally attending a live performance of OCU.

- Seeing The Megas and Descendants of Erdrick perform live.

- Picking up some cool swag (wearing the OCR shirt and listening to Eevee EP as I type this).

Cons:

- Got hit with some serious insomnia over the weekend and was barely functioning on roughly 2 hours worth of sleep from 2 AM Friday morning until Sunday night.

- I underestimated just how introverted I actually am. I was making an honest effort to be more sociable but between anxiety and the lack of sleep, I wound up withdrawing more than I ever wanted to. My apologies to anyone who thought I was being standoffish or antisocial at any point during MAG, it was not intentional.

- Didn't get to meet everyone I hoped to.

- Some of the MAG attendees were out of control, particularly those Team Rocket grunts that hung around the elevator on our floor Saturday evening.

- And lastly, one of the panels I attended was a waste of my time.

Despite the size of the cons list, the good easily outweighs the bad. I will definitely be up for MAGFest 14 next year.

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Again, such questions were welcome, and I was more than ready to answer them, since the purpose of the panel was Q&A. Don't be afraid to raise your hand in a Q&A panel.

If there were fewer people at the first panel, absolutely I would have been a near constant voice, but there were a lot of people and I didn't want to monopolize the panel's time and focus. PS for those who don't know Neblix is also pretty good photographer, the selfie we took looks damn good, thanks for the help with my phone's camera!.....still learning the quirks of it

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Weird that this was my busiest/most involved MAG yet and I saw hardly any of you for more than a quick chat or bro-grab in passing </3

Best part for me (shows aside) was the Mega Man-athon (hosted by Half Empty Energy Tank), where the twitch team I'm a part of (Insert Coin Theatre) raised $1200-1500 of the $4000 total with just 8 or 9 of the 72 hours of screen time. Here's a pic of 4 of us from ICT gearing up for my runthrough of Mega Man Zero 2 (left to right: Jehm_Faulking, xoTreeHugger, Shando Calrisian, meee)

10917402_10152517996366556_495056347528096002_n.jpg?oh=6feca4365656b3eca6402a6b120f7a86&oe=556524C0&__gda__=1428295287_6d451c4359d7cf6de54f2d6875a37e74

Hope everyone's Fest was super-fucking-rad as balls! Hopefully I'll get to see everyone a little more fully next time

Edited by Phonetic Hero
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