Open Forem: Mikey Dorje

Music Monday: Taking a 'Break'

Mikey Dorje — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 20:26:26 +0000

This is going to be the final Music Monday for a little while! We’re taking a short hiatus to do some retooling behind the scenes. It’s been an absolute blast seeing the Spotify playlist grow, and I want to make sure the next iteration is even better for the community.

In the spirit of taking a "break," today’s theme is Breakbeats.

Born in the 80s streets of New York, breakbeat was the heartbeat of early Hip Hop, directly giving birth to breakdancing and serving as a foundational pillar of DJ culture as it evolved throughout the 90s and into the 2000s as the DNA for everything from Jungle and DnB to Trap and Dubstep. But don't feel boxed in; if it’s got a rhythm that makes you want to move, share it!

Drop a YouTube, Bandcamp, Spotify, or SoundCloud link using the {% embed %} tag in the comments.

Music Monday - Winter Music ❄️

Mikey Dorje — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 02:23:26 +0000

What is winter like where you are?

Winter means very different things across the FOREM / DEV community, from cozy and rainy, to dry and mild, or, like Montreal where I am, cold with snowbanks higher than your car.

Share a song that feels seasonal to you. It doesn’t have to be cold or snowy, just something that fits what this time of year sounds like where you are.

Drop a YouTube, Bandcamp, Spotify, or SoundCloud {% embed %} in the comments.

Comments will seed the playlist on Spotify. I’m really enjoying seeing all the music from these posts turn into a diverse, community-driven playlist from all around the world.

Cover video is from last week’s post by @gem_hell

Music Monday (Happy New Year!!! 🥳)

Mikey Dorje — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Any songs inspiring you for the new year that you want to share? Drop a YouTube, Bandcamp, Spotify or Soundcloud {% embed %} in the comments.

Comments will seed the playlist on Spotify. I'm really enjoying seeing all the music from these posts turn into a diverse community driven playlist from all around the world!

Haven't had a chance to investigate why the Video Cover didn't work on last week's post, so skipping it for this one, and instead using the Image Generator.

Music Monday (Community Playlist!)

Mikey Dorje — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 05:01:00 +0000

What are you listening to? Drop a YouTube, Bandcamp, Spotify or Soundcloud {% embed %} in the comments.

Comments will seed the playlist on Spotify. It’s really great to see it all the music from these posts turn into a diverse community driven playlist from all around the world!

Video cover is supposed to be from last week's submission from @evan-lausier but doesn't seem to be posting... will investigate

Music Monday (Seed the playlist)

Mikey Dorje — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 05:01:00 +0000

Happy Music Monday!

Video cover is from last week's submission from @shahrouzlogs.

What are you listening to? Anything goes. No context needed! Drop a YouTube, Bandcamp, Spotify or Soundcloud {% embed %} in the comments.

The Music Monday Spotify Playlist

Comments will seed the playlist on Spotify. It's already a pretty cool collection of tunes already, and it would be great to see it grow into a diverse community driven playlist from all around the world!

More about this:

Mikey Dorje

Dec 15 '25

Music Monday Spotify Open-Source Sync Bot

#ruby #opensource #automation #music

Comments 14

1 min read

The playlist:

TIP: To embed a link, use the "lighting bolt" icon and paste the URL. It will look like this (using YouTube as an example): {% embed https://youtu.be/pnCLiNDx1qU %}. Or you can just type the {% embed %} as well.

Music Monday Spotify Open-Source Sync Bot

Mikey Dorje — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 01:42:38 +0000

I created small Ruby utility that syncs tracks from Music Monday's comments to a Spotify playlist.

Mikey Dorje for Music Forem Team

Dec 15 '25

Music Monday (Playlist Sync Launch!)

#discuss #musicmonday #playlist #newmusic

Comments 11

1 min read

Thanks to @tullis12 for the idea!

It’s live, open, and after a few tweaks seems to be boringly reliable. I started with the Spotify API, because it's a super easy setup but I have plans to expand it.

What It Does

Parses the MusicMonday series on music.forem.com for Spotify and YouTube links/embeds.
Maps YouTube → Spotify with simple heuristics; skips duplicates.
Runs on GitHub Actions (no servers, no DB).

Live Links

Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/5pBJOB2JWQy4UdMEPELBDY
Repo: github.com/mikeydorje/musicmonday

How It Runs

Schedule (UTC): Tue 00:00, Thu 12:00, Sun 23:00
Manual trigger: Actions → Run workflow (supports dry_run=true)
Required secrets: SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID, SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET, SPOTIFY_REFRESH_TOKEN, PLAYLIST_ID

Open to Contributors

YouTube playlist mirroring (keep a matching YT playlist in sync)
Bandcamp & SoundCloud detection/matching
Vibe‑based routing with Gemini (auto‑route to multiple playlists; later, fold in Spotify audio features)
Better matching (confidence/artist checks), fewer false positives
Cover art automation (explore Forem cover‑art tooling → playlist image)
Observability (clear logs/metrics), small DX improvements

If you want to hack on this, jump into the repo and open an issue/PR.

Have a listen!

It'd be cool to see this grow into an international community driven playlist from this platform. Seed the playlist with a comment

Music Monday (Playlist Sync Launch!)

Mikey Dorje — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 01:42:02 +0000

Happy Music Monday!

Video cover is from last week's submission from @shahrouzlogs.

What are you listening to? Anything goes! Drop a YouTube, Bandcamp, Spotify or Soundcloud {% embed %} in the comments.

I personally listen to all types of music, literally. All genres, all decades... doesn't matter. And I love being reminded of songs I haven't listened to in ages and being introduced to new music, so share away! No context needed.

The Music Monday Spotify Playlist

I whipped up a quick open-source ruby bot to scrape the comments of this series and add to a Spotify Playlist! So add a tune in the comments! It's already a pretty cool playlist and I think it will be cool to see a diverse community driven playlist from all around the world continue to grow.

More about this:

Mikey Dorje

Dec 15 '25

Music Monday Spotify Open-Source Sync Bot

#ruby #opensource #automation #music

Comments 14

1 min read

The playlist:

Music Monday (What are you listening to?)

Mikey Dorje — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 05:01:00 +0000

Happy Music Monday!

What are you listening to? Anything goes! Drop a YouTube, Bandcamp, Spotify or Soundcloud {% embed %} in the comments.

What was the last song you listened to? Is there any song that really moves you that you want to share? No good or bad taste when it comes to music, so please share 😊🎵

Trying out the new Video Cover this week, using last week's Music Monday post's submission from @gem_hell. I'm going to try this going forward: selecting a post from the previous week to use as a video cover! I'd like to pick the one that gets the most engagement, so give other people's comments a like or a comment, and let's see how that goes.

[Boost]

Mikey Dorje — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 18:41:27 +0000

Adnan Obuz AI Strategy Consultant | Digital Transformation Expert

Dec 2 '25

Why Toronto's Symphony Scene is the Mental Health Prescription You Didn't Know You Needed

#edwardobuz #mentalhealth

Comments

7 min read

Music Monday (Last song you listened to?)

Mikey Dorje — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 05:01:00 +0000

Happy Monday! What have you been listening to?

Drop a YouTube, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, or Spotify {% embed %} in the comments.

Optional: What was the last song you listened to (or are listening to right now)? Check whatever platform you listen to music on and let us know! Nothing is off limits. There's no good or bad taste in music!

Used Mermaid.js to map out my DAWless live rig. Really great for documenting complex MIDI, Audio, and CV signal flow!

Mikey Dorje — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 21:35:29 +0000

Mikey Dorje

Nov 28 '25

LOT_002: First time using the new Zoom LiveTrak L6max

#dawless #techno #livemusic #gear

Comments 3

3 min read

LOT_002: First time using the new Zoom LiveTrak L6max

Mikey Dorje — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 05:01:00 +0000

Second video in my "Live One Take" Series

The main purpose of this was to set up the Zoom LiveTrak L6max, but I had a pretty good little jam, so I thought I'd post it. The L6max is a powerful little device! I'm barely using it to the extent I hope to, but I am using most of its features at least a bit in this video: Mixer, MIDI Controller, Effects Send, Multi-track Recorder.

This was meant to be test jam. I feel like it's a bit long at 7+ minutes so I did a quick 4+ minute edit and posted it on SoundCloud.

Signal Flow

Click to view Mermaid Syntax

graph TD
    %% ==========================================
    %% 1. CONTROL CENTER
    %% ==========================================
    subgraph Controls [MIDI & CV]
        direction TB
        KeyStep[Arturia KeyStep]
        CME[CME u6midi Pro]
        Splitter((CV Splitter))
    end

    %% ==========================================
    %% 2. AUDIO RIG
    %% ==========================================
    Guitar([ACOUSTIC GUITAR])

    subgraph DD500 [Boss DD500]
        direction TB
        In1[Input 1]
        In2[Input 2]
        Looper[8-Bar Looper]
        Out1[Output 1]
        Out2[Output 2]

        In1 ==> Out1
        In2 ==> Out2
        In1 & In2 -.->|Rec| Looper
        Looper ==> Out1 & Out2
    end

    Zoom[Zoom L6Max Mixer]
    Korg[Korg Monologue]
    Kastle[Bastl Kastle]
    SSD[EHX Drum]

    subgraph Output [ ]
        MainOut([MAIN OUTPUT / PA])
    end

    %% ==========================================
    %% CABLE ROUTING
    %% ==========================================

    %% AUDIO: Guitar -> Boss -> Zoom
    Guitar ==>|Instrument Cable| In1
    Out1 ==>|AUDIO: Gtr + Loop| Zoom
    Out2 ==>|AUDIO: Synth + Loop| Zoom


    Kastle -->|Audio| Zoom
    Zoom -->|Aux Send| Korg
    Korg ==>|AUDIO: Synth| In2


    SSD ==>|Drum Audio| Zoom
    Zoom ==>|STEREO OUT| MainOut

    %% MIDI
    KeyStep -.->|MIDI: Clock/Seq| CME
    Zoom -.->|MIDI: CC| CME

    CME -.->|MIDI: Clock & CC| DD500
    CME -.->|MIDI: Clock/Notes| Korg
    CME -.->|MIDI: Rx| Zoom
    CME -.->|MIDI: Looper Trig| Looper

    %% CV
    KeyStep -->|CV: Pulse| Splitter
    Korg -->|Sync Out| Kastle
    Kastle -->|CV: Spikes| Splitter
    Splitter ==>|Trigger| SSD

    %% ==========================================
    %% STYLING
    %% ==========================================
    %% Audio Gear
    classDef audio fill:#222,stroke:#0f0,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff;
    %% MIDI Gear
    classDef midi fill:#fff,stroke:#f00,stroke-width:2px,color:#000,stroke-dasharray: 5 5;
    %% CV
    classDef cv fill:#444,stroke:#ff0,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff;

    %% Start/End Nodes
    classDef startNode fill:#333,stroke:#fff,stroke-width:4px,color:#fff,font-size:16px;
    classDef finalNode fill:#fff,stroke:#000,stroke-width:8px,color:#000,font-size:24px,font-weight:bold;

    %% Apply Classes
    class Guitar startNode;
    class MainOut finalNode;
    class In1,In2,Out1,Out2,Looper,Zoom,Korg,Kastle,SSD audio;
    class KeyStep,CME midi;
    class Splitter cv;

    %% Remove border from final container
    style Output fill:none,stroke:none

The acoustic guitar connects to Input 1 of the Boss DD500 delay pedal, which feeds Output 1 directly into the Zoom L6Max mixer. The mixer sends the guitar audio and the Bastl Kastle Drum, a modular device providing the glitchy percussion, via an Aux output into the Korg Monologue. After passing through the Korg’s filters and sequencer, optionally blending with the synth's oscillators, this signal connects to Input 2 of the Boss pedal, which feeds Output 2 back to the mixer.

The Boss pedal processes these signals using three distinct functions at once. Input 1 applies effects to the guitar, while Input 2 is configured as a clean 1-bar repeater to loop the synth signal. Simultaneously, the pedal’s internal looper engine records both inputs as a combined 8-bar loop, with recording commands triggered automatically by a sequence from the Arturia KeyStep.

Control data is routed through a CME u6midi Pro. The Zoom mixer sends MIDI CC messages to the CME, while the Arturia KeyStep sends MIDI CC, sequence triggers, and the master clock. The CME then distributes this data, sending tempo and CC changes to the Boss pedal, and tempo and notation to the Korg Monologue. Finally, the kick drum is generated by an Electro Harmonix Super Space Drum connected to a signal splitter. The KeyStep sends a quarter note pulse to this splitter for a 4-on-the-floor-beat, while the Bastl Kastle adds complex breakbeats by triggering the drum whenever its voltage signal spikes above 3 volts.