pouët.net

I forgot something didn't I?
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxtbtTrYkqI2clVYLUNGc1R6R1E

If you don't mind, I'd like to add some of those to slengpung.
However, clicking the "download all" button somehow just generated a zip file with a single video in it, can you maybe host the pictures elsewhere?

Now for the party:
A great 20th edition, albeit with minor flaws. People have already been complaining about the sound in the PC compo block, which makes me wonder even more why there were no earplugs available at the infodisk this year. After 20 years it should be obvious that they are necessary (ear) life savers. ;) Luckily I brought my own for PrEvoke this year so I was not caught by the surprise on Friday evening when I wanted to go to bed...

Being forced to leave the skating hall at 9 also wasn't nice but that's nothing you could do about. We can only hope this doesn't have to be repeated in future Evoke editions.

As Haohmaru mentioned, Evoke slowly seems to approach Revision levels of "oh shit I only have 10 seconds to talk to every person" but it's still not quite there yet (luckily). The party place was already quite packed on early Friday evening (which is cool!) so I wonder if we need to use the skate hall as an additional party hall in future editions. ;)

Other than that, the party was a blast. I'm glad I could be a little invisible part of the organizing team by helping out with the ST-01 tool slammed together in the middle of Friday night. ;)

@saga I'll try to put them somewhere else

dafuk!?

Lol, what did you try to do? :D

What rp said (the first thing)

That´s what the sausages are intended for!

/s/pouët/evoke logo with transparency issues

xrl: cool photos!

I'm not a sound guy so I'm probably missing something here, but all the comments about earplugs, how they solve the problem and that there should be free ones at the infodesk etc., make me wonder why audio has to be set up in a way that you need earplugs in the first place? What's the disadvantage in setting it up a bit quieter from the start? (That's not about this year's Evoke but about demoparties in general.)

I imagine making it less loud would help hearing and appreciating all the details of a song in the music compos easier as well. At most non-rock, non-metal concerts I've been to I didn't need earplugs either - or is this because professional bands have more expensive, better equipment?

@Kylaeran
The problem with the sound at Evoke was mostly that it was louder than the equipment could handle, warping the actual sound and generating very loud clicks which do physically hurt your ears immediately.

Most other concerts are definitely too loud for your ears to say healthy (you'll hear that swooshy noise or a beep when lying in bed afterwards) which is why you'd generally want eaplugs in any loud environment. Good eareplugs also don't distort the sound you hear while wearing them, reducing the volume of all frequencies equally.

The reason concerts are this loud however, is because people talk, and in big festivals, they shout along. If the volume of audio was living-room level we could all hear it if we'd all shut up, but to drown out the noise of chatter and drunk singing you'll generally just crank it up and put in earplugs.

Let's also not forget that earplugs are super useful for the sleeping area. ;) Solving the PA problem doesn't render free earplugs any less useful.

I always bring my earplugs with me. You should too. After a few easter parties I realized I would probably go deaf if I kept going without protection.

..

No, the reason concerts (and clubs and demoparties) are louder than living room level is that

1) the room is generally bigger than your living room, meaning that a larger amount of the listeners will be farther away from the speaker than in your living room. So if you're in the front row and the sound level is equal to what you listen to at home, people in the tenth row will have significantly lower sound levels than you.
The farther away from the sound source you are, the lower the sound level will be. There are fancy maths behind this you can look up if you are so inclined.

2) Music played loud feels different than music played at a "reasonable level". Sound is very much a physical experience. When you are at a cinema and something big explodes, you can hear the explosion but also feel the sound pressure in your body. If you could just hear it, the experience wouldn't be the same.
The same goes for music, where bass is typically felt as much as it is heard. For music with a lot of energy (dance music, rock, hip hop etc.) the bass vibrations picked up by your body as well as hitting your ears is essential to the experience.


Combine the two points over, and you'll see why sound levels are often over the levels your ears can sustain for longer periods of time without the risk of injury (there are charts for that as well, look it up).
So wear earplugs, preferrably something better than the foam shit that just muddies the sound. If you can't find earplugs, move yourself longer away from the sound system.

And yeah, it needs to be that loud also for demo shows. If you've ever experienced Debris on a big screen with an equally big sound system, you know what I'm talking about :)

The Soundtrack of our intro was right at the limit, we imagined it to sound just awesome in the hall...sadly with the clipping due to too high volume it sounded very compressed instead.
But let´s get over it, humans are prone to errors, so this time someone meant it too good and cranked it up a bit over the top (...but this one goes to 11 !!!) ...all fine, next time it´ll all be fine again.

What really is a persistent problem is the Bar closing, though...
...most people don´t get the warnings in time and so they run out of liquids...
...the hall-owners could earn more and the party could be even a tiny amount better if they wouldn´t close at all!
I really hope they find ways to keep open 24/3 ;)

Other than those two minor problems this years Evoke was flawless, atleast it appeared like that to me...
...one of the best Editions we had!
Much ♥ to all the Orgas (including the people from the Hall/Bar) !

Evoke 21 & 22 will have me back for sure, best Party there is in my Eyes, Revision is only second, but just because it´s already a bit too big for my taste! ;)

But here´s two things that could (but mustn´t) be better:
1.) Real Party is Outside -> Bigger/More Tent(s), Banks are always crowded and jumped on if someone leaves to get a new drink, once he/she is back 5 mins later, they can´t sit next to their friends where they left off again, but have to wait until a spot is freed again, most likely somewhere completely different. :/
2.) Make it so there´s a gangway on the left side of the hall, so if someone wants to get from outside to the bar or the other way around can find his/her way easily without disturbing anyone...especially @compo-time this is a problem, as one has to crawl under the bigscreen to get to the only gangway we always had! (most people still annoy everyone sitting in the rows on the left side of the hall by walking through them!)

Yeah, that would be great! Just move the tables in a little bit and have a small hallway straight to the bar :D

The issue with the sound - as far as I'm concerned - is rooted in musicians participating in the loudness war, turning their tracks into bricks of sound.

-9db RMS should be enough for everyone.

@rp: my track was @-9db and i think, my mixdown isn't that bad. but the track sounds like crap in the hall. outside, the system was just awesome and super clear. maybe some room issues...

yep, outside was fine! after jco and ronnie tweaked the high frequencies that is! ;) they were ear-slaughtering at first! :D

Nope, that mixdown isn't that bad at all, it sounds absolutely fantastic :)

I didn't think the PA system was *that* bad, my mp3 entry sounded pretty much as I'd expect it would. But the hall is far from acoustically perfect, guess I'm just used to that.

I didn't really notice any huge issues with the sound system, except for a couple of times when the volume was obviously set too loud before the jingle was played. And I was fairly sober throughout the compo night.
But the 4k compo was the last compo, which probably means that the volume was at its loudest then as well. And 4k synths are generally "less predictable" dynamically and more prone to artifacts like clicks and pops than streaming music created with tools that prioritize quality over file size.

Thank you for the awesome party! It was my first Evoke and I'm so glad I figured out a way to be there. :)

Evoke 20 (2017) was certainly a great party for sure.

Hope you all didn't mind the music I was playing. The amp system I was using certainly wasn't on full blast (it was about 65%) that was being used to play some JMJ and other stuff which I thought would add to the ambience at the party.

This was my 3rd Evoke but the 1st for my wife, Rainbow. It was good to see h0ffman, rc55, Fell, reality404, Mr Coke (Avena), Dipswitch, susancrusen, Gasman, Steffi and a number of other sceners there, whose names I probably forgot.

I personally enjoyed the wild compo, particularly the tribute to the classic Amiga Budbrain demo, with the three birds. Great tribute to an original classic :)

Am hoping to be back again in 2018 :)

Organizing was fantastic as always; it was lovely to have a lot more shops and eating facilities available within walking distance. Koln is certainly a city to see more of.

Oh not at all.
I really enjoyed hearing "Forever Autumn" from the original War of the Worlds soundtrack being played at one point.