I use Massive, Spire, and built-in Ableton synths for general synthesis. I use TAL-U-No-LX, FM8, the Arturia V Collection, and the KORG Legacy Collection to emulate classic synthesizers for synthwave music. When it comes to softsynths, I use SubLab for bass. I use a number of invaluable VST plugins, including: Gullfoss for automated EQ, FabFilter Pro-Q and Pro-DS for EQ and de-essing, Melodyne for autotune and Maserati VX1 and Satin for vocal effects, API 2500 for mastering, Glitch 2 for sample manipulation, Valhalla plugins for reverb, most of the Goodhertz suite, and more. Music: I produce music in Ableton Live, though I sometimes return to FL Studio to use the noise reduction of its unparalleled clip editor, Edison. Games: While most software I use to write tabletop games is covered under organization, I format some games in Affinity Designer and write video games using Twine. In my political organizing work as an arbiter for Philly Socialists, we use Trello to coordinate everything that the arbiter team needs to do. In Gmail, I use manually applied tags like "Action Needed" to remind myself to revisit emails. Google Calendar determines what I'm doing in a given moment and Google Keep also tracks my todo lists. These cloud apps essentially operate as an extension of my brain and memory, and I'd be helpless without them! All of my writing and game design happens within them. Reference links and my reading queue are indexed and tagged in Zotero. Final products are converted to relevant formats and stored along with the rest of my life in Dropbox. When notes graduate to a draft, they are migrated to Google Docs - which also acts as a version control system and distribution platform for drafts of my written work. From there, more permanent and organized notes are moved to or written in Google Keep lists. On multiple occasions, I've "written" thousands of words of brainstorming while driving somewhere, using just my voice. The most spontaneous notes get entered into Telegram's Saved Messages feature, usually as either voice messages or text generated through iPhone voice dictation. Organization: In order to keep track of my various projects and ideas, I have a multi-tiered notetaking and drafting system, resembling something like a computer's memory hierarchy. For one album, I ran digitally-synthesized guitar audio out into a TC HALL OF FAME reverb pedal, because I couldn't find any reverb VST that sounded exactly that good when applied to a guitar. I mix on Kali Audio LP-6 studio monitors and a Rokit 10S subwoofer alongside beyerdynamic DT 880 semi-open studio headphones. I record audio using a Shure SM58 microphone plugged into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface. I learned synthesis on the KORG volca series of inexpensive analog synthesizers and eventually on a Novation Bass Station II, though I sold them all to purchase an OP-1 digital synthesizer that I now use to generate samples. On the go, I instead carry an AKAI MPKmini II. Music: I produce music using an AKAI MPK249 MIDI controller. Wireless earbuds have since become a vital part of my life, because I have learned half my skills - if not more - by listening to podcasts and audiobooks during any waking hours I spend alone. I received a set of AirPods because my wife got them for free and decided they didn't want them. I also adore my Das Keyboard 4 - I've never owned a better keyboard. While a younger me prioritized flashy desktop cases like my old NZXT Phantom, an older me just wanted something compact, cheap, and easy to move, like my current NZXT H510. I use a MacBook Pro for most writing and programming, while music production happens on my custom built Windows machine. Finally, as my handle implies, I am extremely on Twitter and you can find me there as What hardware do you use? You can find all of this work and more on my website, jessfrom.online, where you can also find my freelancing rates - I offer editing, writing, and music production services. I've also appeared on podcasts demonstrating my tabletop games and talking about both music and politics. My unreleased game "I Have the High Ground", a "two-player collaborative dueling TTRPG of banter, posturing, and capes," can be found on its crowdfunding page, where - at the time of writing - you can still late-pledge! I prefer people find my music on Bandcamp, but it also appears on Spotify and other major streaming platforms. You can find my video and tabletop games on my itch.io page. You can find my science fiction in Clarkesworld and my political non-fiction in Seize the Press, Blood Knife, and on my Medium and Patreon. I author both fiction and non-fiction, write tabletop roleplaying games and video games, produce music, and am both a programmer and political organizer. I'm Jess Levine, and I'm a multi-disciplinary creator.
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