My work is done here (Patreon)

Due to various factors outside of my control I've I find myself no longer able to create videos and monthly livestreams.

I've been looking for a solution, but it's clear now that I simply have to move on from making videos. The past year was a struggle and against my hopes of things turning around - they haven't.

I want to thank everyone who have been supporting my efforts here on Patreon or elsewhere for all these years.

You've made it possible for me to keep going for as long as I did, and I am forever grateful for that.

When I started making videos once again having a clearer vision (with the UV series) and later created this Patreon profile I wanted to show the world that it's very much possible and reasonable to make fantastic music using nothing but open-source software. When I shared this news with my community, they've told me that I have achieved this goal. This gives me peace that my work is not interrupted, but simply - complete. Sure, there's dozens of things that will forever remain on my TODO, but the same will happen when I die, so why fear that? It's just the way it is.

I want to ask you to remove your pledge from me and redirect it towards one of these amazing people:

• falkTX (JACK, KXStudio, DISTRHO, Cardinal, Carla, Vitalium, and more) - is criminally underappreciated in our community for the cornerstone of Linux & FOSS audio that he is. Whatever you're doing on Linux with audio - you are running at least some of his code and I am certain that without him the Linux audio ecosystem would not be what it is today.
• Sadko (LSP Plug-ins) - is making some of the best effects in FOSS audio providing us with the only FOSS linear phase EQ, an 8-band transparent modern multiband compressor, IR reverb creation, as well as a unique phase correlation detector that helps fixing multitrack mixes like nothing else... I could go on. LSP plug-ins fill in many gaps in Linux open-source plug-in ecosystem and are something any producer should have in their toolbelt. Another reason I am recommending Sadko is unrelated to his software development work: he and his family are in a very difficult situation, being a "hostage" of the Russian Federation. Sadko lives in Russia and is constantly in danger of being raided and forcefully drafted to fight the criminal war on Ukraine. He's loudly and clearly expressed his stance and support of Ukraine. Unfortunately the only way he can receive financial support is through cryptocurrencies - I am personally not a fan of these, seeing them do more harm than good in the world, but this seems like one of a few legitimate uses for the technology. It might be silly of me to single out one person who suffers because of this war, when millions of families are forever scarred, but this is the one person I know personally and who also happens to be an incredibly important part of the open-source audio software development community, so I thought he'd also be someone you as my supporters might want to help out.

I personally don't hurt for money, so don't worry about me :)

I will remain active in the community chat (which is the most valuable fruit of my endeavors), and I will keep on being creative with open-source tools at my work and otherwise.

If you're curious about what am I going to focus my creative drive in the foreseeable future - it's Liblast. This game project has honestly been something that was helping me relax and recover through, bringing me excitement and joy, when making and editing videos became too stressful and difficult for me to handle. I'll most likely be posting videos on Liblast channel every now and then, but they're focused on the Godot game engine and the game itself.

At some point I might revive my main YouTube channel, but if I'll do that it'll most likely be something else than strictly audio production with FOSS. Maybe purely-FOSS game development? I think that's where my heart has moved on.

Thank you for being the best audience and community I could ever dream of :)

Now go, and make some music!
- unfa