YearnfulNode1 AudioLog

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) And I would get somebody who would just listen to me.

(JR laughs)

(YN) These people that don't know anything about Homestuck--they're just standing in there praying for my moral safety.

(JR) Hmmm.

(YN) And I'd ramble a bit while I just sorta--like, every single type of way to go through it.

(JR laughs 2: electric boogaloo)

(YN) And I believe, like, I did it for, like--I invested in it for, like--for, like a week of sleep--like, no sleep.

(JR) Oh my god.

### 2

(YN) I would wake up maybe at around nine and I'd--I remember, like, the last ones I got to do before I just gave up. Uh, I was waking up at three in the morning.

(JR) Oh gosh. So what--what were those last ones towards the end that gave you the most trouble?

### 3

(JR) Ahh, mood.

(YN) So it had led to this crazy fucking rabbit hole of, like, trawling the whole fucking website for any kind of hint.

(JR chortles)

(YN) And, of course, we--we all know what happened after.

(JR) Yes, yes--that will live in infamy.

(JR laughs again) Alright, alright. Before--before either of us become tempted to spoil that particular, uh, easter egg, let's talk about your runes. You've brought alo--a strong Norse flair to the entirety of Farragnarok, which is hilarious because we started making it Norse before you were even--y'know, before you even showed up. So, can you talk a little bit about your rune-related puzzles--especially the ones in the April ARG--and the process you went through choosing the signs of the Farragnarok cast?

### 4

(YN) Right, so while I was going through the rune-related puzzles--which, to be honest, were as much of a puzzle as you'd expect it to be. It was not, uh--

(JR laughs)

(YN) --what I would go (???) is, um, for most of the parts I would--for (???, Seth?) I would go with very rough translations because I found very early on that people would get lost if I did it, like, directly. Because a lot of things in Norse don't have direct translations, right?

(JR) Right, right.

(YN) So I would have to find ways to make these as phonetically sound as possible--

(JR) Hmm.

(YN) --and that confused a lot of people for a while.

(JR is tickled by their floundering for meaning)

(YN) I don't know what people were thinking about, like, the first one but I remember very specifically thought it was a name--

(JR) Oh no.

(YN) --and that was, like, a whole thing for five minutes.

(JR love when you struggle at puzzles and she shows this by laughing at this point in the conversation)

(YN) Uh, for the Farragnarok cast, um, usually what I did is that--of course, the older proto-Norse runes which, uh, historically, ironically enough, are not Viking runes--

### 5

(JR laughs)

(YN) So it would just, at the point in time--y'know, considering the aliens haven't wiped all already and we've somehow become the master computer race--uh, compu--uh, what I mean is that runes tend to be very metaphysical and--

(JR) Hmm.

(YN) --I made sure what I would do is (???, bias?) in while I was assigning each of the runes.

(JR) Mmmhmm.

(YN) I would look at whatever sounded the closest to what we had in the beginning--

(JR) Mmmhmm.

(YN) --and, based on that, I would assign them runes.

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) So, I believe we were working with aspects for a while so we'd just take an aspect and I'd be like "alright, this sounds like this rune, this sounds like that rune--"

### 6

(YN) --and then, as the characters starting developing themselves, we starting changing them a little bit.

(JR) Mmmhmm. Hagala--

(YN) So what was--

(JR) --in particular, changed aspect entirely.

(YN) Yeah (???) some people were just changing aspects entirely. It was, y'know, it was crazy. Things just keep happening. Things keep happening.

(JR) I'm pretty sure that our blueblood was just literally the horse rune though.

(YN) It was literally the horse rune. I believe that was Eihwaz, yeah.

(JR) Mmhmm. Horses all the way down.

(YN) It was ju--it was just a horse. Uh, the horse rune.

(JR laughs)

(YN) Eh, as you do.

(JR) I mean--

(YN) A really interesting one--and I'm just gonna just leave it there without explaining too much about it--

(JR) Mmhm.

(YN) --is the rustblood's transition. We went from Isaz, which is ice,--

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) --to Raidho, which is travel.

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) Or, more directly, wagon.

(JR does that kinda evil laugh that machiavellian types do quietly to themselves)

### 7

(JR) Gosh, I wonder--I wonder.

(YN) I wonder.

(JR laughs) I wonder which (???) is associated with wagons.

(YN joins her) I wonder. Ah.

(JR) Alright, alright, alright. So the last question I have for you--okay, obviously I'm a huge fan of your Farrago Fiction-themed shitposts--can you--can you walk me through a little bit what goes into making, say, Shogun has a gun?

(YN) Um, the thing about these videos--

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) --is that they require a lot of persistence.

(JR) Yeah.

(YN) Because here--here's the sec--the well-kept YN secret: I have maybe five different animatics that I've started and never completed.

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) Some are almost done but, because of circumstances, I scrapped.

(JR) Yeah.

(YN) Some I started and I just gave up halfway through and... What usually goes behind them--first I'll find an audio piece want to use, right?

(JR) Mmm.

(YN) Uh, it'll either--I'll find it on the web or it'll come in a prophetic vision to me.

(JR laughs)

(YN) Uhh.

### 8

(YN) When I get that I just tend to go directly to photoshop--

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) --and I'll start making a basic movement outline.

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) So I'll always start, really quick, scrambling all of the panels in so that I'll at least, like--if I stop doing it, I'll be able to go back and just keep working from where I started.

(JR) Hmm, makes sense.

(YN) So after I have the outline I just start, y'know, I start detailing and I start putting (???) as they should and then I g--I usually work with, uh, Premier or After Effects and I go there--

(JR) Hmm.

(YN) --and that's where you see a lot more of the quote-unquote animation part of it; it's all still images, it's mostly that I work with--

### 9

(JR) Makes sense.

(YN) So that's just sticking it together and then it just goes out into the wild.

(JR) Hmm. Well, that was--that was a very interesting look behind the veil. So we've got about a minute left--is there anything you'd like to make sure we get to?

### 10

(YN) Uhh, this is really funny. Uhh, one of them was, uhh, what's the name? It was--I'm gonna go look up the page, hold on.

(JR does an exhale-through-the-nose laugh) Oh, we're getting the deep YN lore.

(YN) Dare I say people may get egg spoilers from this.

(JR) Eh, they'll survive.

(YN) Egg spoilers are very--(Laughs) they'll survive. Uhh, okay.

(JR) Okay.

(YN) What would you do with all the egg spoilers? Alright, I think I got it. Come on. Alright, gigglesnort, alright, got it. So, the ones that caused me the most trouble--

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) --were, uhh, the one about the bullet hell sim.

(JR) Oh yeah, which I forgot I even made.

(YN) Yes--and the maid. And what's really funny about both of these--

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) --is that I was always right there and you're finding them in retrospective.

(JR) Hmm.

(YN) But I either kept typoing or I kept missing the most obvious response.

(They laugh)

### 11

(YN) 'Cause that's what you do sometimes, right?

(JR) Mmmhmm.

(YN) You do things and then you forget about them. It is a very grea--it's a good way to make things--just do things and don't ever do them again ever.

(JR laughs)

(YN) So. (Laughs) Uh, for audio files, what I'll do is--first of all there's cleanup.

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) So, I'll of course--I'm gonna just say it, like, if it's--if it's a (???). I use, uh, Audition but--

(JR) Hmm.

(YN) --you can pretty much use Audacity either way.

(JR) Mmhmm.

(YN) It's all very connected. Um, obviously noise reduction is the first thing that goes first. You grab, uh, noise print and you just take it over into noise reduction and it just wipes the whole fuckin' background sound out.

(JR) Mmm.

(YN) Like, there are some things I can't fix and--such as I have to, like, find ways to fix it. Like grabbing different vocals from different areas and pasting them there--

(JR) Hmm.

(YN) --can kinda help and--

### 12

(JR) We're just gonna have to find a way to get JR onto a bird-themed planet at some point.

(YN) Yeah, we need--we need that bird planet--it is very important.

### 13

(YN) So, I do that right?

(JR) Mmmhmm.

(YN) And then I proceed to go to work on his audio and then the usual preset I use is AM Radio.

(JR) Ah.

(YN) And that's going to be an FFT filter which is a fourier filter is a transformation filter.

(JR) Hmm!

(YN) I believe in Audacity it's called the same thing.

(JR) Hm.

(YN) I'm gonna check it really quick and uhhhh, yep, it's still the FFT filter in Audacity. It's a fourier transition.

(JR) Hmmhmm.

(YN) Uh, that's gonna help with getting the part of the audio that make it sound more like a cassette tape.

(JR) Hmm.

(YN) And then I'll work with EQ, which is equalisation,--

(JR) Hmm!

(YN) --and with that I'm gonna very slowly, y'know, tone down some parts of the audio.

(JR) Hmm, make it sound better.

(YN) Make it sound better--and then I'll just mix it together and that's what you hear at the end.

(JR) Hm! That makes a lot of sense! Well, I think we've hit about our time so thank you for joining me today.

(YN) Yeah, it was a pleasure.

### 14

(YN) Is there anything I'd like to make sure we get to? Uhhhh, shhhhh... Well--clearly, at this point--I--I feel like I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't talk a little bit about all the fucking audio files that's gonna--that's--that's--the production that goes on behind the scenes--\n(JR) Yes!\n(YN) --a little bit.\n(JR) Do it.\n(YN) Because I feel like I was going to talk about it I kinda just forgot to be--