docs(ear): the floor problem, measured — kick audible 59% of OPAL-26

PLN relayed the gig's main criticism: 'destructure. les gens etaient un peu
perdu' — individually good tracks, overall confusing. And his own read of it:
'I DIDNT KEEP THE KICK LONG ENOUGH.'

Measured against the stems, the floor and the data say the same thing. Kick (d1)
audible 59% of the set; 13 of 15 tracks under 70%; a 164-second kickless stretch
inside 'Am i Doing it Right' and 116s inside 'Piment Bresilien'. The set runs
89-166 BPM, so anything built on this must count BARS, not seconds.

Also logged, from the REVOLUTION listen: his first guess was wrong and his
second was right. Re-ranking the orbits in the band a laptop actually
reproduces (400Hz-8k) puts the_revolution (d5) on top by 13.7 dB, while
like_sugar:21 (d10) — the one he wanted cut — sits 14.5 dB BELOW it and is
quieter on a laptop than it is full-range. On a small speaker the loudest thing
is the one that SURVIVES the band, not the one with the highest fader.

And a defect nobody was looking for: d9 SUGAR CHOIR is digital silence for the
whole of REVOLUTION though the score declares it, confirmed by two independent
measurements. That one is why he now wants the HUD to shout about declared-but-
never-played orbits until they sound.

armada/tide-table/performance_notes.md

@@ -473,3 +473,71 @@ a per-track list otherwise makes transitions the one thing you cannot hear.
 objective errors so his ears are spent on taste, and here the objective error
 was one no machine we own can currently see. Ear-truth first; instruments earn
 trust by reproducing it.
+
+### 2026-08-16 (cont.) — REVOLUTION mix, Desire, and the structural verdict
+
+**REVOLUTION.** PLN: *"like_sugar:10 too loud needs way lighter mix. maybe the
+revolution too loud too? on laptop speaker i hear mostly it ahah maybe bass also
+is a lil too saturated?"*
+
+Measured over the track's span, full-range vs the band a laptop actually
+reproduces (400 Hz–8 kHz):
+
+| orbit | sound | full-range | laptop band |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| d5 | the_revolution | −33.2 | **−34.3** |
+| d4 | like_sugar:0 (bass) | −31.6 | −48.0 |
+| d10 | like_sugar:21 trigger | −44.4 | −48.8 |
+| d1 | kick | −36.7 | −52.8 |
+| d9 | like_sugar/2 SUGAR CHOIR | **−240** | **−240** |
+
+His SECOND guess was right and his first was wrong: **d5 `the_revolution`
+dominates the laptop band by 13.7 dB**; d10 sits 14.5 dB below it and is
+*quieter* on a laptop than full-range. Cutting d10 would change nothing he can
+hear. The kick and bass each lose ~16 dB on a laptop — expected, not a defect.
+Lesson: on a small speaker the loudest thing is the one that SURVIVES the band,
+not the one with the highest fader.
+
+**Silent orbit found by accident: d9 SUGAR CHOIR is digital silence** for the
+whole track, though the score declares it. Confirmed twice (band measurement and
+the judge's own rail dropping it as never-audible).
+
+**Desire.** *"im not fan of it in the end wonder if i dont even wanna cut it and
+do crimewave as last official one :P"* — a taste call, not logged as decided.
+Reading: drop #14 Desire, making #13 Vague de CRIME the last *official* track,
+with #15 REVOLUTION remaining the Encore (its section in tracks.json).
+NEEDS CONFIRMATION before any re-cut.
+
+---
+
+## 2026-08-16 — THE STRUCTURAL VERDICT (floor feedback from the gig)
+
+PLN, relaying the main criticism he got at OPAL:
+
+> *"I DIDNT KEEP THE KICK LONG ENOUGH. MAIN criticism / negfb I GOT:
+> 'destructure. les gens etaient un peu perdu', genre individually good tracks,
+> overall confusing, you get some that you lose later and vice versa. fair
+> point."*
+
+**This is measurable, and the measurement agrees with the floor.** Kick (d1)
+audibility per track over the OPAL-26 stems, 2 s bins, −52 dB floor:
+
+    WHOLE SET: the kick is audible 59% of the time.
+    13 of 15 tracks are below 70%.
+
+    longest kickless stretches
+      164 s  #4  Am i Doing it Right
+      116 s  #7  Piment Bresilien
+       78 s  #14 Desire
+       72 s  #6  Take five Drops
+       64 s  #13 Vague de CRIME
+
+Two minutes forty-four with no floor, inside a single track, on a main stage at
+sunset. The audience feedback and the stem data are the same fact.
+
+**Design consequence he asked for:** pre-gig tooling to catch this before the
+set, and a during-gig HUD that warns when the floor has been gone too long —
+*"2am-elevated-UX ... like macdonalds' screens help avoid cold burgers"*.
+
+Unit note for whoever builds it: the set runs **89–166 BPM**, so a
+seconds-based budget is wrong by up to 2x. Count BARS.