A couple more months have passed, and the end of the year is getting
close. I’m much more settled into my home, but honestly still getting
used to it… even though it’s been over six months now. 😅
I started listening to an audiobook by Rick Rubin and decided to include it in my Reading section. Typically I wouldn’t consider this “reading” since it’s almost equivalent to listening to a podcast or something, but it’s the most appropriate section for it on my Now page. I would like to read it rather than listen, but I’ve been so distracted and busy that I don’t think I’ll be able to sit down and add another book to my reading list. I haven’t made a ton of progress through the other two in the past six months… 😐. I just started a week-long vacation and I’m not planning to go anywhere, so I am hoping to finish one of them during my time off.
One of my favorite games as a kid was re-released a few weeks back, and it’s consumed a bunch of my time in the past week. Dragon Quest III (originally Dragon Warrior III when I played it on my GameBoy Color) was released as an HD-2D remaster in a style similar to Octopath Traveler or Triangle Strategy. Besides the graphical improvements, there are a bunch of quality-of-life updates that make the game slightly easier, some combat changes, and a few new cutscenes, voiceovers, classes, weapons, and enemies. Overall it’s been tons of fun to revisit the game, and it’s a great remake that’s gotten tons of great reviews1.
Since it’s December, there are only FOUR MORE WEEKS of WeeklyBeats 2024. It is crazy that it’s almost over, and also crazy to me that I’ve been able to keep up with it. I’ve made it so far, so I’m hoping that I can finish strong and make a few more good tracks! After my last Now page update, I had a string of tracks that I think were really good, including my favorite track that I made for WeeklyBeats, FLUO. I’ll link a few of my favorites since the beginning of October:
I’m hoping to remix some of my 2024 WeeklyBeats tracks in 2025, and hopefully make them into fuller-sounding, and better tracks. I may release them as a (free/pay-what-you-want) album in 2025 if I think they’re good enough. I’ve continued using my DirtyWave M8 for all of my tracks. I wrote a long post about the M8 in October, and attempted to provide some info and tips that could be useful for people just learning about the device - you can check it out here.
I originally planned to use some more synths and instruments for WeeklyBeats; but based on timing and how much fun I’ve had with my M8, I haven’t used anything else for my tracks. I may experiment more after the year is over. Since I now have a year’s worth of weekly music creation, I want to experiment more with my other synths - 2600, BeatStep Pro, Mavis, MegaFM, nanoloop, LSDJ, and Deflemask.
2024 has been an interesting year, to say the least. Hope it ends on a high note!
For more information on “now” pages, check out: https://nownownow.com/about