Ah, another multi-part phlog post because neither one of them was long enough
to be a post on their own.

Part 1 - IFMUD
Interactive Fiction Multi-User Dungeon

If you love to explore the more obscure corners of the internet, and I know
that you do because you are here reading this, then you might find interesting
IfMud:

telnet: ifmud.port4000.com port 4000
note: if you use a terminal emulator and want to "atdt" into this system,
be sure to turn on local echo (ate1).

This unqiue system is part MUD, part IF (text adventure), and all community.
When you log into a BBS you might find yourself at a [MAIN MENU] :
When you log into SDF or another *nix system you might find yourself at
a $ prompt.
When you log into my BBS you will either find yourself at the main menu or
in the General chat channel depending on how you have your preferences set up
(technically you can't not be in a channel while on my BBS)

When you log into IfMud you're in a room.  This room has objects and exits,
and possibly people (other users).  One room north of the entry way has a
bulletin board which you can read & write on.  Somewhere nearby is the lounge
which is where most of the users hang out to chat.

Users with more access can create game objects and rooms.  Anyone can interact
with objects, pick them up, move them around, possibly use them if they have
been programmed to have uses.  Today when I logged in I found in my inventory
some random object I had picked up previously.  Thus preventing it from
existing in the game world so no one else could interact with it.

This little community also does a thing on Friday evenings called Club Floyd.
In Club Floyd a few of the users get together and collaboratively play IF
games.  These might be games made by some of the users or maybe not.  There
are transcripts of these playthroughs on the web somewhere, just DuckDuckGo
for Club Floyd.



Part 2 - Boadcasting: Something new, yet familiar

As I posted in an earlier phlog entry I have been starting to dip my toes into
DJ'ing on aNONradio.  Been doing a little during Open Mic but also have my
own timeslot set aside, Wednesdays at 20:00 UTC.  My first show didn't go well
due to technical difficulties.

Apparently there had been another DJ with that timeslot and although their
discontinued show was removed from the main schedule on the web site it was,
somehow, still "in the system".  The end result was that the icecast server
was toggling between my stream and anonradio-ident, which would have been
playing shows uploaded by this other DJ if they had any uploaded (I guess
they didn't).

So I cancelled my stream and will try again next Wednesday.  Hopefully the
admins will have that fixed by then.

Anyway all of this is a new experience for me but also somewhat familiar.
In a past life I worked in broadcasting at a local TV station.  Through my
time there I ended up doing almost everything which is "behind the scenes", at
least in the technical end.

There's a few different ways you can stream on aNONradio.  One is you can
upload mp3 files to their server and it'll play it at the appropriate time.
That's a little boring.  Another is to stream from your computer directly and
in doing so this can be a playlist of MP3s, this is also a little boring.

Yet another is to use an app like Mixxx to play mp3 files (and in my case
other file types such as .MOD, .XM, .IT, etc..., you know tracker music)
This approach gives you much more control on-the-fly.  You can tweak the
levels if one song is too quiet or too loud.  You can choose how to
transition to the next, you can rearrange upcoming tracks, etc...
This is how I chose to do it.

You also can hook up a bunch of audio equipment and use an app like BUTT
(Broadcast Using This Tool) to just stream whatever sounds you want, mics, aux,
etc...

I believe you can get mics and other auxillary sources into Mixxx as well but
haven't had any luck with that myself yet.

Anyway using Mixxx to stream music on the fly reminds me a lot of one of the
jobs I had at the TV station, being the "audio guy".  Mixing between sources,
checking audio in cue before it goes out over the air, making sure you have
good volume levels (loud but not clipping) and consistent throughout the
broadcast.

There's also some intuition involved throughout the whole process that's hard
to do when you're just throwing tracks into a playlist.  Some songs get tiring
if they go on too long so I might dip out of them early.  SID tracks in
general are often heavy with the sawtooth wave which one can only enjoy for
about 3 minutes at a time.  So don't play two of such SIDS back-to-back and
if one goes on too long then dip out early.  Sometimes one song doesn't
follow another very nicely, meaning it sounds weird to mix from one to the
other.  Here you can either rearrange the playlist or you can not crossfade,
let the first song come to a "full and complete stop", take a breath, let
there be a brief moment of silence while the last lingering taste of that
track fades and then start the next one with a "clean palette".

And of course there's always the chance that you can screw up.  Surprise!
You've been airing dead air for the last 5 minutes because you were listneing
to CUE not Live and you had the crossfader switched to the wrong deck.
So, just a touch of anxious energy which keeps you on your toes, makes you
constantly scan your equipment and make sure everything is set up correctly.

Not to mention that you have to be constantly asking yourself what is coming
up next and let's take a very brief look at the big picture: Am I going long?
Am I coming up short?  Did I make a mistake in my time calculations?

Sidenote: Unforunately Mixxx doesn't seem to offer great tools for timing,
it'll add up the lengths of the tracks but doesn't account for any
adjustments you may have made such as starting part-way into a track or
cutting out early, or maybe even manipulating the tempo slighly.  So I'm
keeping a "rundown" in a spreadhsheet.  Very similar to what I did in TV.

The selection of tracks and arrangement is also fun to toy with.  I want to
start out strong, end strong, have something in the middle that's strong
to keep the momentum up, but don't stay "strong" the whole time.  Just like
any given song should have "ups and downs" the set as a whole should as well.
It might be helpful to let a track that's a bit too harsh go until it's just
about to get annoying and then switch to something very different.  Make
them hungry for what's coming up next.  What makes the cake taste better?
Having to eat a little cellery beforehand!  Also important is that the
last track should be longer than needed but also be okay to cut out of early
that way if my timing is off a little I can either sit on it longer than
expected or cut out without getting to the end with a smooth fade-out.
It's the "buffer" track.

Of course I don't need to take any of it that serious I mean there's going
to be maybe 30 listeners tops and it's not like it's actually on the air or
that it's for a company that is earning money and demanding perfection.
I've heard shows on aNONradio where the streamer just had a mic open while
they're watching TV or something.  Like, they had everything set up but
forgot to actually do a show?  I like the freedom provided by such an
environment but I still want to try to do as professional a job as possible
because that's what I'm familiar with and I take pride in a job well done.

.