Introducing the ELAmental Underground to LBRY - Preview of New Music Studio & Gear
The name's ELAmental - I am a conscious Hip-Hop emcee & aspiring producer on the verge of opening a PROPER studio I have been erecting for the past several months. Some of you may already know me from Hive/Steem, but this being my first LBRY post I wanted to reintroduce for those that don't know. In this video I show some of the outboard vocal tracking gear I recently acquired, demonstrate how I can turn my **Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88** keyboard into several different old school (and often rare) synths by means of emulation software known as VSTs, and give a sneak peak at the vocal booth I just finished building from scratch.
Expect many more videos involving the studio build and equipment to be published soon. I have a backlog of media I still have to edit and post and a long way to go with learning to harness the immense power of my new hardware. Blessings fam.
This is going to be the first ever 100% produced @ELAmental truth-hop track! After 3 strait days of hard work, education, and practice, I can finally say I have completely drafted my first instrumental - 100% ownership!! Previously I would purchase beats from other producers (or they would sometimes just gift them to me) and lay lyrics on them, now I make the beats AND the vocals!
I am now ready to import the track into *Ableton* for the final stages of production - mixing and mastering (although I will probably save the mastering until after the lyrics are recorded). For this reason and also because I have yet to create my ELAmental "producer's tag" (which I plan on recording/processing tonight), I will not be able to publish the final audio for this song, but what I have done is recoded a video *of the music* playing through my studio monitor speakers, which I am now presenting to you in this post.
This beat was influenced by a few different cultures which you may be able to identify, has some nice progression, variance, a sick-synthy hook, and is funky as HELL! The track is almost 5 mins long and took quite a bit of work, but I would love to hear some honest feedback folks! Feel free in these comments.
>A producer tag is something beat crafters use to insert in their audio, so no one steals their example tracks that they publish online without paying their fee for a license to own/lease the track. At the very least no one else (that hasn't purchased it) can use it without including the producer tag in their own version of the song, which in my mind is fine since it promotes the producer's brand, not all producers feel that way however.
###### Have you ever seen this many glow flows happen simultaneously? What a collaboration! There were many breathtaking and (in my book) historical moments at Gem & Jam 2022, but there were few that lived up to the moments we shared with these fine folks in the *Thunder Hall*!. This sesh was recorded during the *Dirtwire* set at the *Onyx Stage*. Listen closely to our commentary and reactions. You can feel the love and connection flow right through your speakers. Celestial Connections.
This is one of my favorite videos from the entire event - it's a shorty but a goodie. Enjoy!
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From the *Dirtwire* set on the *Onyx Stage* during *The 14th Annual Gem & Jam Festival* - Saturday, February 5th 2022 in Tucson, Arizona USA at the *Pima Country Fairgrounds* between 9:45-11:00 PM.

**Our Village Vission**
###### This Freestylin'/Beatboxin' Session Features @ELAmental, Sol Disciple, Tony B Conscious, a couple of bay area rappers that walked into our cypher, and @emilyra333. If you missed the sort of ["part-1" of this 2 part video series](https://peakd.com/hive-175836/@elamental/tony-b-conscious-with-kin-of-merlin-on-the-west-coast-love-tour-extendin-the-reach-of-the-teach), don't forget to catch this SERIOUS Hip Hop Street Knowledge from who seems to be a long-time member of *The Temple of Hip Hop* founded by *KRSone*.
**Our Village Vission**
###### As I embark on my quest to *Oregon Country Fair* for a week today, I wanted to let you all know that my album *Power of Truth* that was supposed to release back in December 2021 is FINALLY LIVE on all major streaming platforms!! I also have 2 music videos about to drop - one from this album, and the next to release as a single promoting our next album set to drop at the end of the summer.
###### I will publish a more proper post outlining the details of all this upon my return late next week. Until then, you can [check out my *Power of Truth* album here](https://open.spotify.com/album/362WDRFFvnHKDSM9jc2q99). Aside from myself (@ELAmental), this album also features four other artists including: SoCoLo, Alais Clay, Torin Frost, and Illuminertia.
###### Thank you everyone who has continuously supported me, and been so patient with all the obstacles I had to overcome with this release.

**Our Village Vission**
###### The amount of beautiful/colorful footage I captured at festivals this year is already IMMENSE, and as long as it took me to get through all the *Gem & Jam* footage, I have just as much (if not more) video to share from *Lucidity Festival* and *Lightning in a Bottle* (LIB).
###### I am starting this next part of the series with some serious dance movement. This particular set attracted some really tribal folks, and one couple is displayed here performing the most beautiful duo dance number I have ever seen. Enjoy the Love fam!!

**Our Village Vission**
###### The art at this event was top notch! Another fantastic show by the *Bazaar Collective*, and of course all the Hip Hop Homies Blessed the Buildin' with Bounce. Along with these photographs of the amazing cosmic art displayed at this sacred space, I also include a short video of a track from Cairoglyphs.
###### All of the art displayed below was painted by local artists from the *Bazaar Collective*. None of these are my own original works, although all the photographs of these pieces were captured by @ELAmental.
###### My next article will include a short story from this event of how another emcee utilized a VERY similar approach to his "art-book" that corresponds with his music album, and how that relates to the my currently active [*Power of Truth* Album Art Contest](https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@elamental/album-art-contest-update-extended-entry-additional-prizes-every-entry-wins).
###### Part 4 of this series involves everything wall related. We bolted all the framing into the floor and existing walls, finished insulating and layering all the walls and ceiling (filled every crack and crevice), installed all the interior OSB board, and began the stages of drywall instillation.
###### 100% of the drywall used in this project was reused - donated from a HUGE indoor warehouse cannabis grow that had to shut down. Making use of that potent Portland local *Offerup*/*Craigslist* community once again, a phenomenal access point for reusing/repurposing. An @ELAmental vocal booth for conscious hip hop would not have been complete without the implementation of some #EarthDeeds.
>Digging through these mountains of discarded drywall was kind of insane - retrieving all of it, awkwardly loading in my truck that has a topper and roll bar, and driving it to the studio with my tailgate down in the midst of a crazy rainstorm.... well let's just say it was 1,000+ times easier to write that than it was to live it - nuts.
I would have preferred to have purchased the gypsum-sheetrock new and repurposed the 2x4's for the framing instead, but as those who repurpose for construction often well know, the timing does not always line up with your preference for donations when your facing a deadline. All the damaged drywall made quite a mess and also made the task of fitting them extremely challenging and time consuming, leaving my hands callused from pushing on the top end of a razor knife too frequently. I did end up scoring some used 2x4's from the same warehouse which I ended up utilizing for the acoustic panels we eventually built (more on that later).
I never use adhesive in any of my creative projects (although I will be forced to when the *Auralex* foam arrives for the ceiling/door), but I decided to try per the influence of the example blueprints I discovered in my research… it did not work AT ALL for attaching the soundproof layers together. Never again - I spent quite a long time scraping the non-stick "adhesive" off the OSB as shown in the video.
###### Whenever I see something that looks like it is out of one of my dreams... I grab it!.. and pull it into my own reality. That is exactly the case with this exceedingly unquiet concentrate. What we have here is THC-A crystals with reintroduced terpenes - what many in the cannabis world refer to as DIAMONDS.
###### This is the first time I am debuting diamonds on *Terp-Test*, but these particular diamonds are above top-shelf quality, appropriately stored under lock and key in the Capitan's cupboard.
###### That is correct. The appearance (more so in person than in the photos) is extremely similar (if not exactly) to pink rock-salt, and smells HEAVILY of *pink*-lemonade in particular. While one might think that is an odd sight/smell combo, experiencing it in person however leaves everyone jaw dropped, drooling, and begging for more.


###### It may surprise you (as it did me) that the strain in which the source material for these diamonds was extracted from is *Blueberry Muffins*. For one thing, the color is the farthest thing from *blue* as you can get. Pink (a shade of red) is pretty much the opposite of blue on the color spectrum).
###### Secondly, a strain such as *Blueberry Muffins* is known for its unique and strong flavor profile with relatively low potency, while these diamonds taste nothing like *Blueberry Muffins* (which is in no way a bad thing in this instance), and poses extremely *high* potency. In my opinion, both Blueberry Muffin flowers and these respective diamonds both posses sativa-dominant flavor profiles, while in actuality are registered as indicia dominant strains.
###### I traced this diamond-terp product back to the wizards that crafted it, and they said the pink color and resemblances of this particular run happened completely by accident, and even they are still trying to reverse engineer their own accidental recipe... so no one really knows how this product is actually achieved with these particular extremely desirable features.
###### Furthermore, these diamonds not only taste EXACTLY how they smell (in terms of strength of scent vs. smell AND in actual flavor profile vs smell profile), but they also get you RIPPED!! I often forget that these are essentially pure THC with re-added flavor... Do not underestimate the POWER of diamonds.... I could get used to this though. I have come a ***long*** way since the [1st Episode of *Terp-Test* Featuring *Blueberry Muffin* flower cuts](https://peakd.com/hive-114105/@elamental/dcwwkkvs).

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*Blueberry Muffins* Lore
###### A cross between *Blueberry* and *Purple Panty Dropper*, this indica-dominant strain is known for it's extremely unique flavor profile and often lower potency, which makes it a great herb for blends and concentrates. Muffins always tasted more on the sativa side in my opinion, but the concentrate featured in this article/video is even more so on the sativa-flavor side, but in a very different yet also unique way in it's own right. Another smooth smoker that pairs well with [*Lemon Skunk*](https://peakd.com/hive-195708/@elamental/cludggkk).
####
###### As I am finally getting towards the end of publishing all this intense Gem and Jam media. I prepare now for a publication string of even more intense *Lucidity Festival* media with all different jamin' artists than what I displayed here from G&J (with the exception of *Soohan* who played another slammin' set at Lucidity).
###### Today's video displays short snippets from various sets at *Gem & Jam 2022* that I did end up recording long takes of like the other sets, along with an except from one of the silent disco nights. I was going to call this my "B-Roll" tape, but there is actually still some really good snaps in this one too.
###### I actually just got back from FESTIVAL NUMBER 3 of the year (hence my 2 week Hive-absence again - my laptop stopped working or I was going to keep posting on the go), and it is *still* not yet summer. I have two more *Gem & Jam* related posts (including one at *Joshua Tree*) and then its on to some REALLY good *Lucidity* content.
**THREE PINKYS IN DA AIIIIR!**


**Our Village Vission**