==========

==========

Well, I haven't been here in a while. It's time to finally tell subscribers and donators how I'm progressing.

==========

Basically, as I moved about a year ago from a communal room to a rented apartment with a free wall on more than 3 meters, so it remained.

I adapted my self-made rack here, of course, and made my own desk of the desired size.

The shelves for vinyl storage are still the same, for 6 cells, I still have a long time to fill them.

I put the carpet on.

Only a month ago I put the speakers on stools - at least this way they don't stand on the floor. However, in this position, the left speaker makes it difficult to use not only the rack, but also the shelves. The way out is to place them even higher, but for this you need to buy stands for the speakers, for which, of course, I do not have the money.

By the way, about money.

==========

At the end of last year I was able to perform in some places in Moscow for money. It was a very useful experience, but I still can't do it this year, for various reasons.

All the money I earned was immediately used to buy various vinyl records.

So at this moment the earnings from Boosty are the only thing that feeds me a little bit in my business.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN ME! 🙏🏻

Nevertheless, the funding issue is pretty critical. And it's not just that I need to keep releasing big, badass projects “for eternity” like All City Pop Hits, but also that I started having problems with my equipment.

==========

Unfortunately, the equipment is breaking in some places.

The mixer is currently undergoing diagnostics and is expected to be expensive (in relation to its own cost) to be repaired. The reason - I probably burned the power controller in it on one outdoor performance, where the equipment was powered through a car inverter.

I realize that I need to buy a UPS, and not an ordinary one, but an on-line type with a pure sine output. Such units are not cheap.

It was also sad to find my speakers being destroyed. This happened after another outdoor performance in December, where I brought not only DJ equipment but also my sound system to the party.

Well, it's that kind of vintage. Now these speakers are strictly for home use.

How they'll look in the video frame now is a very interesting question.

But I fixed the headphones. In the same fall, I accidentally broke the plastic attachment for one of the “ears”, and six months later, I discovered that I could buy 3D-printed matching attachments cheaply on the Amazon-like russian marketplace called "Ozon".

There are also problems with the cartridge heads.

The needles are falling into disrepair. I've started to hear that. Especially if you compare the sound at the edge of the vinyl records and closer to the labels. Especially if you compare early rips and sets and the sound of those same vinyl records in the current day.

Needle replacement? - They don't sell needles separately, only together with the head.

On the other hand, the longer I use them, the more I damage my own records.

To be honest, my records need a good cleaning already, maybe the sound became bad because of that.

:) Everything requires money.

==========

In November-December I managed to record 4 hour-long sets on different genres and 1 small special mix.

But all of them didn't get as good views as I wanted. I'm sure that the current YouTube policy is also involved: if you don't use Shorts, if you don't keep regularity, you'll get nothing.

I feel like I don't have enough time and energy to produce content on a regular schedule. And I won't have enough in the near future.

That's why I'm focusing on “big” projects for now, and I'm basically revising my business now. From the information posted above, I think it's clear to you that a lot of basic problems have to be solved first.

I even wrote a small vlog about this whole situation, hopefully I will be able to edit it by May 19, the anniversary of the ACPH release.

==========

I have 3 big sets in preparation at the moment.

One I'll spoiler here.

The second I can't divulge anything about yet.

The third is - well, it's, I think, obvious that the second part of All City Pop Hits is being prepared.

I can even show you the records I currently got for this set:

It is necessary to purchase 8 more must-have releases for purchase. And not everything from this photo can go into production (for example, simply because of the danger of being blocked by YouTube). But for now, this set is certainly the clearest I have in my head.

==========

- On the channel of a well-known Moscow music journalist there was an episode filmed at my house, where I talk about my set-up and some significant records from my collection:

👉🏻 WATCH HERE

- On the young Russian DJ channel called L'atelier de Musique there are 2 of my hour-long sets, one about City Pop, the other about electronic music:

👉🏻 WATCH CITY POP HERE

👉🏻 WATCH ELECTRONICS HERE

- Just a week ago I played a 5-hour set with City Pop at a JDM-car enthusiasts' meeting, where I used a lot of freshly bought records. Who's ready for it - welcome:

👉🏻 WATCH PART I HERE

👉🏻 WATCH PART II HERE

==========

See you, folks! ✋🏻

I'm gonna go deal with this.