What is this?

The idea of a /Uses page is to tell you about the stuff I use to either distract myself or bring more efficiency to my life. I swiped this idea from Wes Bos.

Editor

  • Visual Studio Code is the text editor I'm currently using and I don't see anything unseating it anytime soon. It's incredibly extensible while still loading very quickly.
  • Night Owl by Sarah Drasner is my favorite theme for VS Code and also whatever other apps I can find it for.

Work Utilities

  • Obsidian is my second brain and I use the spaced repitition community plugin to augment my memory with flash cards. I honestly don't know how I would live without it at this point.
  • Beyond Compare 4 is the best diff tool for Windows, hands down. It does everything you could possibly need.
  • Beeftext is such a good text substitution tool that I honestly feel bad for those who don't have access to it because it's Windows only.

Desktop + Productivity

  • MyRadar is the greatest weather app I've ever used. Essential for weather nerds, or anyone who's curious about Mother Nature's daily destruction. Wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, blizzards, etc.
  • Shutter Encoder is a great media converter. I like it more than Handbrake, which is actually saying a lot because Handbrake is awesome. This is just a better experience in my opinion.

Multimedia + Home Theater

Writing

  • Final Draft is the tool I use for writing screenplays and graphic novels. I dislike the company's practices, and it is too expensive, but it's the best at what it does in my estimation.

Audio Production + Recording

  • FL Studio Pro has been my go-to digital audio workstation (DAW) for just under two decades now. I use it to sequence and edit all of my music.
  • Serato Sample is a must-have plugin for any producer who's into flipping samples. It's incredibly good when combined with the MPC Studio above.
  • Hindenburg Pro is the recording suite that I use for podcasts and other simple audio editing. I couldn't imagine ever going back to Audacity. While Audacity is free, Hindenburg just has too many features that save time and make life easier.
  • FabFilter makes several VST plugins that I can't really live without. Their stuff breathes life into my tracks.
  • GoXLR is the USB audio interface/mixer/preamp that I'm using right now for my vocals, both for podcasting and music. The built in soundboard and fx are very useful and fun.
  • Shure SM7B is my microphone of choice for recording vocals. It's kind of most people's microphone of choice, for good reason. It's just a great sounding microphone for spoken word or singing.
  • Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro closed-back studio mixing headphones are what I use when producing all of my music and podcasts. They're a very popular choice amongst music producers for good reason. They're comfortable, they sound great, and they're basically indestructible.

Hardware + Accessories

  • SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless headphones are very good. The DAC allows you to connect two PC's and switch between them at will, and also an independent bluetooth connection allows you to make phone calls from them as well. Just do yourself a favor and upgrade the stock ear pads with Wicked Cushions. The stock ear pads suck.
  • 8Bitdo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is the best TKL keyboard that I've ever owned, hands down. It's really weird that it looks so gimmicky — like an NES controller. The feature set is amazing, though. Toggle switch goes between 2.4ghz wireless, USB-C wired, and bluetooth. This is the sole reason I don't need a KVM switch to quickly move between my PC and work laptop. Battery life is good, keys are very customizable. It's just amazing.
  • Razer's Basilisk V3 Pro is the mouse I'm using right now. After several issues with Logitech wireless mice phantom clicking, I refused to buy another one. This was the only other mouse I could find with left and right clicks from the scroll wheel, so here we are. The wireless dock is nice, and I turn off all of the RGB stuff so the battery life is great. It's also very customizable. For instance, when I'm coding, I just hit the side button + left click and suddenly, whatever I have highlighted gets commented out. Pretty cool.