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+# Diag (Fedivision 2024)
+
+2024-05-19
+
+If you're reading this, chances are you're listening to my Fedivision 2024
+entry, "Diag", representing the Sacred Municipality of Deez Nuts. Thank
+you!
+
+If not:
+
+<audio controls src="https://fkfd.me/static/Diag.mp3"></audio>
+
+## Inspiration / motivation
+
+### Music
+
+As you may know, I am musically illiterate. I didn't compose "Diag" with
+a chord progression in mind. Heck, I don't even know what key this song is
+in. I just pressed random keys until it worked.
+
+Most of the instruments were synthesized with Helm and Geonkick. For the
+pitched instruments like the slightly wobbly piano, I played with presets
+and turned knobs until I got a sound I like. Drums and SFX were made from
+scratch.
+
+The working title of "Diag" is "fedivision scratch 2". It used to be
+"fedivision scratch 1" but Ardour crashed around the time I finished my
+instrumental track and corrupted my file so I scavenged the session folder
+and pieced it back together. It was around 50 midi files.
+
+I'd describe the song as pretty simple, 2 minutes and 14 seconds, common
+time at 120 bpm, driven by a kick every beat. There isn't even a snare.
+This is inspired by Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place". Turns out
+you don't need a drum set to sound great.
+
+I had intended to make a super convoluted prog-rock-ish song with a dozen
+tempo and time changes, but I never found the right sounds. Maybe next
+year?
+
+### Lyrics
+
+After a sweaty ride downtown, the first line ("Pharmacy, neon lights…")
+came to me in the shower. It has some Bill Wurtz vibes, which I find
+poetic. For the rest of the lyrics I chose a few things that I saw that
+day, plus some that I didn't because they sound cool.
+
+Among the things I saw was the encampment that the TAHRIR coalition set up
+in protest of UMich's investment in defense companies that produce
+genocide weapons. They've occupied the diag, and they're not leaving until
+the university divests. Weeks prior, the principal condemned the
+protesters for "disrupting" commencement activities. Same guy who refused
+to divest.
+
+Sometimes you feel guilty just to be alive. I have to pay my tuition
+despite all this evil shit; I have to travel by air (this year I flew five
+times); I have to use plastics. Last semester I took a course on
+sustainable engineering, and it made it worse.
+
+Now that I've lost hope in corporations, governments, and whoever signed
+the Paris Agreement, there's not much I can do. I could become a vegan,
+never fly again, and bring my own cup, but it's like bailing a boat with
+a bamboo basket. You can bet your ass I'm not the one responsible for the
+mess. Best I can do is to survive, and not make it worse, and probably
+teach my children to do the same.
+
+## Production
+
+All the work was done in Ardour, except de-noising the vocals, which was
+done with sox.
+
+I sampled "B_MIN01_EU_FN_BEN01_104.wav" from [the CatMeows
+dataset](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67835-7_20) that I wisely
+downloaded three years ago.
+
+## Tools used
+
+### Software
+
+- [Ardour](https://ardour.org): composition, recording, production
+- [Helm](https://tytel.org/helm/) (hands down the prettiest plugin I've
+  ever seen)
+- [Geonkick](https://geonkick.org/index.html)
+- [SoX](https://sourceforge.net/projects/sox/): de-noising
+- [Krita](https://krita.org/): album cover
+
+### Hardware
+
+- Interface: Behringer UMC22
+- Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-M20x
+- Keyboard: AKAI MPK mini play
+- Mic: Shure PGA48
+- Tablet: Wacom CTH-490
+
+## Lyrics
+
+[Verse 1]  
+Pharmacy, neon lights, red cross, big signs  
+Corner store, overpass and lines  
+Motorbike, car horn, bus stop  
+Plastic wrap, tip jar, pesticide  
+
+Chewing gum, bubble tea, take out dine in  
+Stencil spray, red blue green tape  
+I believe you're not to blame  
+I believe you're not to  
+
+[Verse 2]  
+The only place in the world that I don't hate  
+Is my bed when my clock strikes eight  
+Past ten, gimme two more, might check again  
+Another day goes to waste, I don't care  
+
+Bring it back, I want to be entertained  
+Just to laugh at the feline impulse to be constrained  
+Four walls, plus two, take one, that's a well  
+For us to live in as pennies fell  
+
+(You can blame me for everything  
+But you know what you did)  
+
+[Repeat Verse 1]  
+
+## Trivia
+
+- "Sacred Municipality of Deez Nuts" is a play on the "Sacred Municipality
+  of Dema", a fictional city created by twenty øne piløts for their 2018
+  album _Trench_.