Saw Wave

When he came out of the police station, Ryan saw Marvin with his arm around the pretty Central American woman as they approached the car. The driver had already gotten out and opened the door for him. Marvin climbed inside, and the car soon drove off.

"He handles the bookings for a lot of well-known DJs. He's dedicated, just a bit flashy, as you saw." Deadmau5 shrugged.

Ryan turned to tell Abigail that she would be performing as Deadmau5's guest. Abigail was, of course, thrilled for him. She said she'd go to the festival, provided she could still get a ticket.

Then Ryan got into the car with Deadmau5 and the others, while Abigail and her classmates continued sightseeing around Panama City.

Not long after they parted ways, Abigail got a phone call.

"You're coming too? I thought you were busy!" Abigail exclaimed.

·

A moment later, Ryan followed Deadmau5 and the others back to the lounge behind Harpoon Harry's Bar. No one had cleaned up in the meantime, and the room remained in the same state as before: a complete mess, with chairs and tables overturned, cables and PCBs broken, and a few drops of blood spattered across the floor.

In its current state, Deadmau5 would have no chance of performing at Beach Bash that day.

"Cancel tomorrow night's club gig on Daytona Beach, too. We need to rehearse our set for Ultra Music Festival." Deadmau5 surveyed the wrecked room and made his decision.

"Can I come find you tonight, baby? I have to work now," Deadmau5's assistant said to the bikini-clad woman beside him.

The other bikini-clad woman was asked to leave as well. The assistant went out to find a few people to help tidy up, while Deadmau5 and another assistant began discussing the visual animations.

"We don't need any extra animation controls now, and we don't need to sync them with the helmet. That actually makes the VJ's job easier," the man said with a nod.

VJ and DJ sound alike. At first, VJ referred specifically to people who played music videos on commercial music channels such as MTV, VH1, MuchMusic, and Channel V—in other words, video jockeys. The term later came to mean staff responsible for stage visuals. The fancy term was "real-time visual designer." The down-to-earth version was "the person who makes the visuals for the big screens." DJs often performed at nightclubs, where sound, lighting, and visuals all mattered. Well-known DJs had dedicated staff to create exclusive visual effects, including a complete visual identity that could be used in music videos and even on single covers, becoming the DJ's "visual calling card." The trend had spread throughout the industry, and VJs and DJs were now closely linked. The Winter Music Conference even had a dedicated VJ networking event.

"What about him?" Deadmau5 pointed at Ryan.

"Don't you understand what Marvin meant?" The VJ grinned. "He just wants Ryan to stand there as a mascot. He doesn't even have to stay there the whole time—he just needs to show his face at the start."

Deadmau5 thought it over, then nodded.

"I actually have experience performing. I could—" Ryan hurried to speak up.

But neither Deadmau5 nor the VJ gave him the chance. They went straight on to the next topic.

Ryan soon realized that although they let him join the discussion, they weren't actually giving him a chance to speak.

Ryan planned to show Deadmau5 the music he recommended that night. Maybe he'd change his mind after listening.

"Can I use this computer?" Ryan pointed to another intact laptop on the table.

Perhaps Deadmau5 thought Ryan was bored sitting there. He nodded, then typed in the password to unlock it for him.

Ryan noticed that, unlike the slim silver Apple laptop, this one was entirely black, with a striking ice-blue backlit keyboard. Below the screen, the logo of an alien head brightened and dimmed with the breathing light.

The desktop was just as cluttered as the one at Trey's place. Ryan spotted plenty of programming tutorials, and it was clear that Deadmau5 was not only a DJ but a programmer as well.

Ryan then found a huge collection of video games on the computer. Crysis, BioShock, Call of Duty 4, and Metro 2033 were all recent single-player hits, and there were online games like World of Warcraft too.

There were also photos of various hardware components, along with the internal design blueprints for the Mouse Helmet.

From Deadmau5's personal computer, Ryan could tell that he was probably a serious tech geek.

Then, in a corner, Ryan found a test version of FL Studio. As a long-established DAW, FL had plenty of fans.

Curious, Ryan opened it—and his eyes lit up. There was a separate test plugin in the software, credited to Deadmau5 himself. The waveform icon made Ryan realize at once that it was a sound effect plugin.

He looked up. Deadmau5 was still discussing things with the VJ and his assistant, so Ryan quietly picked up a pair of headphones and plugged them into the computer.

After a few simple tests, Ryan grew excited. The plugin was cumbersome to use, but it offered incredible freedom—he could customize almost any sound effect!

In other words, he could create the distinctive sound he'd imagined.

However, since project files weren't compatible between different programs, Ryan could only start from scratch on a new version of Termor.

Time ticked by.

"That settles it. Delete all the original opening narration and replace it with an explanation of what happened. The high schooler will appear at the start, too. First, he'll do a LIVE PA performance—playing live through a sampler, kind of like an electronic keyboard—then we'll play a track. If he has a complete original, we'll play his music. If not, we'll play one of my old tracks. So, Ryan, what do you think?" Deadmau5 paused, then remembered Ryan's name.

The quiet room offered no reply. The only sound was the sharp, steady click-click of Ryan's mouse.

"Why are you acting like Zimmerman? You start playing a game and forget about everything else," the assistant muttered as he walked over to Ryan. Then he froze.

"Zimmerman, you have to see this!" the assistant said, suddenly tense.

Deadmau5 came over, too. When he saw the screen, he realized Ryan was making music.

Ryan might have only been borrowing the computer, but to a DJ, letting someone fiddle around in the software he used all the time was like being forced to ride a wooden horse through the streets in the Middle Ages. It was an unbearable feeling of exposure.

So he pulled Ryan's headphones off and reached to close the program.

"No, you have to listen to this." Ryan quickly snatched back the mouse and hit Play.

The laptop's speakers sounded terrible, with practically no bass, a muddled high end, and severe distortion. But the industrial-sounding intro came in, with a repeating buzzing effect, and several layers of sound working together. The result left all three of them suddenly stunned.

In the interlude, the raspy, distorted effect gave the main melody an unexpectedly compelling sound. Ryan couldn't help smiling. This was exactly the kind of sound he'd wanted: "piercing yet full," "rough yet sharp," with "a degree of distortion and saturation."

At the same time, Deadmau5's mouth hung slightly open. Before Ryan pressed Play, he'd never imagined there could be a sound effect like this.

"Did you just make that?" Deadmau5 asked quietly.

Ryan paused, then looked at the plugin interface. Seeing the waveform's unusual sawtooth shape gave him an idea.

"How about calling it Saw Wave?" Ryan suggested.

Meanwhile, the music Ryan had remade cut off just as it reached the build-up.

"The software's different, so I have to start over. The vocal samples are still on the computer in Nashville, too, so I can't make the drop anytime soon," Ryan said.

"Nashville. Could you call your family and ask them to upload them?" Deadmau5 asked slowly.

"There might not be anyone home." Ryan shook his head. Trey was away again, filming the music video for That Song in My Head for a singer named Julian Hof.

"I see... If you're okay with it, I'll have my assistant take the next available business flight to Nashville and bring the samples back for you," Deadmau5 said. He seemed eager for Ryan to finish the official version of Tremor that night.