the lion is once again a DJ

06 october 2025 - monday

[ just as a quick disclaimer, i am writing portions of this entry on different days as this is a review of my whole week / weekend in vrchat. ]

DJing to me has been an intimate hobby since i started. i started DJing in VRChat around the same time some of my closest friends now started DJing in VRChat - during the height of the pandemic, us locked into our homes for most of the day and finding something to do with picking up mixing tracks. learning along with friends and seeing them grow over the years has been an incredible privilege of mine. however when i think about how i DJ and how often, i find that it is very much tied to my emotional well-being. i cannot force myself to be versatile, i know what i like and stick with it, and if people don't like that then it's a bit of a shame. but at the same time, i recognize that my loved ones and peers are very much improving in so many facets of this craft!!! i do not have a similar drive, though i wish i did. the sets i like mixing nowadays are very experimental in nature. i want to hear weird noises! i like abstract texturing in tracks. the longer the track, the better! and i do realize that not everyone fucks with this vibe. it means very much that people have to trust the vibe that i bring is what they're looking for, and it's a very particular one! i know i am not everyone's cup of tea.

getting back to DJing this week every about a month break has been good, with my first set this week being at a popup organized by kitsuzo and friends. called the MABON POP-UP, myself, kitsunemixes, thedarkside, kitsuzo, and fullmetalgoat ripped 30 minute sets in a world originally designed by krey on the first day of the month. i decided to play some electro and a bit of hard techno at the end just to let out some energy! i don't really listen to either of these genres casually so mixing them can be challenging, but it's always a fun thing to try. i've been on such an intense hardgroove stint for a good portion of this year and i am hoping to end this arc of mine soon and start playing some more minimalist, abstract, experimental stuff - something that i would get to playing on friday.

a series of photos taken by thedarkside during the mabon popup

come friday, the LIMINALSTATE0x00 collab event by luminality and rizumu was finally here. a lineup of DJs and VJs gathered to provide a psychedelic experience in the NEURON world - a venue world with trippy, gloopy visual effects. i worked with nikky to create a poster befitting of the event, with the end result below. i will have the full un-dithered version of this, and its alts, on my portfolio website sometime soon.

set from LIMINALSTATE0x00

being able to create something like this is frankly nice. i have admittedly been in a terrible emotional state whilst being very stressed, so feeling creative or in the mood to make things like posters - despite LOVING making posters and seeing posters etc etc etc - has been a little bit scarce lately. i feel awful about it, because i feel a strong sense of duty to provide for the spaces that i involve myself in and to help cultivate cool things but it has become very necessary for me to realize that taking a break is very important too. running myself ragged will not do anyone any favors, especially myself. it has been hard to realize that if i want to make more stuff in the future, i will sometimes need to take a step back. ANYWAYS, this poster includes the mushrooms from super mario brothers and a metalheart inspired 3D render at the forefront and the background of the piece. maybe i was a little bit too obvious with using mushrooms for a psychedelic event hahaha, but i was feeling a little bit nostalgic. speaking of nostalgia, i love love love the fact that metalheart is back, and it feels like a lot of people (at least within the VRChat community) are taking a grungier but also saturated approach to rendering these images. as an aesthetic for designs, there's a lot you can do with metalheart renders!!! my friend rayman recently made an edit using one of the renders i shared for free-to-use, and it turned out amazing. swirly bloby shapes being back makes me happy too, because sometimes i need a break away from the super clean cut shapes of modern day websites and applications.

yapping with the gorls and vibing hard to the music

NEURON is an intense world in the best ways, depending on how you look at it. it's a visually stunning world with amazing effects that were steadily controlled by lovely and attentive folks, such as my friend weaver! the world's light, color, saturation, and various other settings could be changed via shader. at some point, the world had gone pitch black and everyone turned into white outlines of their avatars! there are so many choices it seemed, but none of the effects picked throughout the sets felt wrong or out of place. everyone who had a hand in curating the vibes for the night had done so with care, the atmosphere of the event being both social but also relaxed as the night progressed. the only unfortunate thing was that gao could not play their set due to technical difficulties, and aural state went a little longer while i started my set a little earlier. luckily, my VJ syncus was already ready to go and i had all of my set up good to go as well. this was the first time i would have syncus, or sync as we all call them, as a VJ! they were awesome and checked in with me earlier on friday, going thru the options of what they would use throughout the set and asked if i had any preferences. together we decided on putting my logo in the bottom right corner of the screen. i liked it so the showcase would be the visuals and not my stupid seinfield inspired logo.

this set felt very good to mix. the way i had prepared was by listening thru all the albums i had collected from bandcamp and sorted into my ambient folder, and then wrote down all the ones that i liked as a whole. the vibe i wanted was airy, yet tense, hopeful yet also foreboding. i wanted the set to be lowkey and slow, something that you could listen to easily and relax, but i also wanted it to be unsettling in that it reflected a pattern of thoughts, specifically my own. after listing out all the tracks i wanted to use, i then made two lists: one where the tracks were in order by key, and the other where the tracks were in order by BPM. i needed these two lists physically in front of me because i wanted to deliver the appropriate vibe while also progressively changing key. the BPM changes throughout the set, but it should still read as a progressive, ever-changing journey thru sound. after aliquem and aural state's lovely high energy sets, it felt good to take the backseat even during my own set and letting the tracks breathe within the room.

some of the tracks used are ambient concepts by me. eventually i would like to release them, but i am very much insecure about the music i've made. a lot of the people i am surrounded with, my friends and the greater VR community, are insanely talented. i even used a concept by my friend nonsenze at the very end of my set! i am friends with people who make amazing things and i rub shoulders with people who are pushing the innovation of VR technology every day with their work! it's very inspiring. learning new things, such as producing music in this case, take me a very long time. i think of myself as highly adaptable, but still a slow learner. adjusting is one thing, completely learning a whole new thing is another... but all i got to do is give myself time. i started DJing only a couple years ago, and i still have a lot to learn! i suspect the same will be with music production. i do not expect this to be an easy endeavour, but oh is it complicated!! there's heaps of plugins and knowledge - which obviously dependsd on which DAW you're using, i have opted for trying out REAPER - and in this day and age, at least a few good youtube tutorials! the REAPER community also has a forum and lots of people discussing using this DAW, so i'll be using those resources liberally. those that i find useful i will link in my library.

walking amongst pastel colored trees...

saturdays are always hectic in vrchat. apart from DEV_HELL, venues like KALEIDOSKY, SHELTER, BOAT x PURR, and REFUGE were popping off with incredible ineups and music across the board. what i love about this current state of the rave scene in vrchat is that there are so many events for people to go, so many choices for folks to spend their night. i opted to check out my some worlds with friends first to warm up instead of diving head first in. the world 'severance' has been extremely popular throughout the community, so i took some friends over for a bit! there's a toggle between the day and the night that can be pressed by clicking on the fox, and you can head up on the cliffs by taking the stairs deeper into the world. the colors are so strong in here, it makes me feel like this world is otherworldly and i am in a dream! after taking a couple photos here and some other worlds, we headed over to KALEIDOSKY for my friend ember's set.

KALEIDOSKY is a world and music venue largely organized by the VR collective BUILT ON LOVE and Mama Ru. The world is essentially a large kaleidoscope, with attendess being at the heart of it floating on a platform, bright colors and shapes colliding and changing all over. the center of the platform is where the decks are, with different areas being cozy areas for people to set themselves and their friend groups up if they don't want to be in the main dance floor by the DJ. there is a soft bed that is a favorite of me and my friends, the lazy river, the spaceships, and various couches and soft areas to lounge in. this world very much has put socializing, music, and visuals as its core ideals, meshing them well together in its design. having separate areas while also keeping the music and the DJ providing said music as a focus feels very intentional, and it felt nice going back and forth from cozy areas to jumping and dancing crazy on the dance floor. ember delivered a hypnotic yet dancey vibe, the crowd slowly shifting from socializing from the prior hour to moving closer to the dance floor to engage with the music.

after being subjected to a wide variety of colorful visuals, i headed over to DEV_HELL by the one and only ACChosen, the creator of the widley used VR Stage Lighting and the venue Club Orion. this event is its third iteration, with myself, ellaris, yuna, and sir rose on the lineup. by the time i arrived, yuna was ripping thru music with bodies moving to the bass, lights going off with the fog thickening as i went further into the world. this world uses RED_SIM's light volumes 2.0, allowing for the lighting and shading of the venue to be near realistic and incredibly immersive. as i sat down by the front speaking with some homies, i felt like i was in an actual underground rave setting. some folks were right by the decks, moving languidly to the beat. others were hanging by the corners of the world, speaking softly to one another or partaking in drinks. the avatars people used felt like they belonged in the world, everyone lit in accordance to the way the environment was set up. AC had asked folks who wanted to attend to make sure to update their avatars' shaders to be compatible with light volumes 2.0, and clearly it made a difference while in the world.

pictures i took at DEV_HELL

mixing techno, specifically of the hypnotic and hardgroove variety, feels so right. i started off with a track from MUTABLE. editions. (full setlist below in graphic) i love starting off with ambient tracks since it resets the vibe, especially after rose played a very intense set that had me locked in. it helps me settle into mixing too, since no matter how long i've been doing this, i still get massively nervous because DJing is both a performance art and a hobby to me. like i stated earlier, it's very much an intimate activity for me. luckily i was surrounded by people i largely love, respect, and admire, so as time went on during my set i relaxed and let myself express the way i wanted to. these tracks have been in my rotation for a bit in my hardgroove playlist, and i wanted to create some kind of continuous vibe.

a quick little graphic i made to show what tracks i used for this set.

what a review of this weekend! thanks for reading, i know this was a long post but you made it!

set from DEV_HELL_003