melcom - Demoscene Musician

📅 Sunday, May 24, 2026

New mastering character presets, cleaner defaults, and a more musical workflow

I'm happy to share that FFmpeg Audio Normalizer v3.2.0 (Nachtschicht Edition) is out now! 🎉 This release focuses on a more musical and production-focused workflow while keeping the default behavior transparent and easy to use.

The biggest updates are:

• Mastering Character presets: The UI now uses clearer labels such as Transparent, Cohesive, Punchy, and Aggressive, with localized wording in the supported languages.
• Transparent as default: The default preset shown in the UI is now Transparent, so you get a neutral starting point without extra character processing.
• Preset-driven filter chain: The mastering stage is now built from the preset definitions, making the processing path easier to extend and maintain.
• Refined user experience: The UI and wording were harmonized across the app, help files, and website.

💾 Check out the release, downloads, and more details here.

📅 Friday, February 20, 2026

Professional Two-Pass Normalization and Quality Preservation

I'm excited to announce the release of FFmpeg Audio Normalizer v3.1.0 (Feierabend Edition)! 🍻 This version is a major milestone, introducing professional-grade features that make the tool even more versatile for musicians and audiophiles.

Key highlights of this update:

• Linear Two-Pass Normalization: A high-precision mode that analyzes audio first to calculate a perfect gain adjustment while keeping the original dynamic range (LRA) intact.
• Quality Preservation: WAV and FLAC outputs now automatically preserve the source's original sample rate and bit depth (e.g., 24-bit/96kHz).
• Metadata Preservation: All tags (Artist, Title, Album) are now correctly mapped and transferred to the output file.
• Automated Cleanup: The program now ensures that temporary work files are removed even if a process is cancelled.

💾 Click here for downloads and more information.

📅 Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Hey everyone,

As 2025 comes to a close, I wanted to look back on what has been a huge year of learning and growth. I dove into different programming languages and created tools like melcom's FFmpeg Audio Normalizer, which I hope has made life easier for fellow creators managing audio for platforms like YouTube and Spotify. 🛠️

On the music front, I spent a lot of time learning FL Studio, but I remain faithful to OpenMPT for building my own unique samples and instruments with VST plugins. I also contributed to a major collaborative project set to be released in 2026, featuring one (or maybe even two) massive tracks from me-we'll see how the runtimes turn out!

This year also marked a huge technical milestone: moving my website from Blogger to GitHub Pages and rebuilding it from the ground up.

A Personal Wish for 2026

I would love for my new tracks, as well as my old ones (and the even older mod files), to get more attention and downloads. I know that my tracks don't really-or rather, less and less-sound like the typical demoscene style. But then again, hasn't that always been the case for me?

Anyway, I would just be happy to see more downloads. I promote my work enough, and I'm also active on platforms like Bsky, where you're always welcome to visit me. Feedback? I often ask myself, what is that? I simply get no feedback, no matter how good a track might be. Even some of the big musicians from the demoscene are stumped; they're enthusiastic about my work themselves but don't understand the lack of engagement either and are out of ideas on how to help.

So, those are the "little things" I'm simply wishing for more of in 2026.

Have a great start to the new year, and take care.

All the best,
melcom

📅 Wednesday, November 5, 2025

All my open-source projects are now centralized in one place.

To better share my work with the community, I've moved all my creative projects to GitHub. This new profile serves as the official, central hub for everything I've built, from software tools to the source code of this very website.

You can now find the latest versions and source code for:

• FFmpeg Audio Normalizer
• GhostKey Sentinel
• Highlighter with X Userscript

This makes it easier for everyone to download the tools, view the code, and follow along with future developments.

🛠️ Explore all projects on GitHub.

📅 Monday, October 27, 2025

My latest track is now online. It explores a quiet descent-one that begins in childhood and ends in something far more unsettling. The rest is for you to discover. 👻 Happy Halloween 🎃

🎶 Download 'Monsters'

📅 Saturday, October 25, 2025

A Complete Rewrite with Batch Processing and a New UI

I'm thrilled to announce the official release of the FFmpeg Audio Normalizer v3.0.0 (Halloween Edition)! 🎃 This version is not just an update; it's a complete rewrite from the ground up, designed to be more powerful, stable, and user-friendly.

The biggest highlights of this major overhaul include:

• Batch Processing: The most requested feature is here! Add multiple files or entire folders and normalize them all in one go.
• Integrated Audio Player: A new mini-player lets you preview tracks with full playlist controls before you process them.
• Modern, Redesigned UI: The interface has been completely redesigned for a more intuitive and efficient workflow.
• Increased Stability: Thanks to a new threading model, the application is now more robust and responsive than ever.

💾 Click here for downloads and more information.