Categories
Jamming Session

So We Jammed Again: Of Heavy Load and Long hours of Post Production (July 11)

If people can blog about baking cookies a hundred and one times and still read fresh, let me see if I can write something fresh for our jamming journal.

While waiting for our 2nd guest drummer to get back to us, we continue to explore the possibility and to learn from our 1st guest drummer Wieke.  Throughout the week, I have been reviewing the recording of our previous session and finding ways to improve.  My vocals really sucked last week so this time, I committed 20 minutes of vocal exercise in the morning and another set in the evening.  And I stayed away from caffeine the entire day.  That really helped and my vocals sucked less.  In preparation of this session, I have also called up the manager of Stone Jamz and requested for the bass drum pedal to be tuned because it hurt the foot of our guest drummer.  The manager has it replaced with a new one, which is kind of cool.  She gave us a very nice room for us to jam too.  Two thumbs up!

I weighted my gears.  20 kg in total.  That includes my guitar, the effect and amp processor, cables, recording device, my personal mic, the mic stand, and etc.  Mic stand?  That’s right.  I need a sturdy one to be freed from distraction.

Lugging that 20 kg gear through several blocks of building can be quite an exercise on its own.  I said to my guitarist Jason that I need to resume my weightlifting exercise.  I ain’t kidding.  I need a crew; our band needs a crew.  (Hey Selrol, are you there?  We need to hire our nEC crew.)

Since our unofficial band manager Selrol was not feeling well, I took up the responsibility as a designated band photographer.  As you can see, nothing as lively as hers.  Oh well …

OK.  Here is as far as I can go to stay general.  The next bit is more technical and for those who share the same hobby as mine, you may be inspired in some ways.  If you are already a pro, please feel free to share your experience.  I’d love to learn from you.

Technical Stuffs

As you may see, the above setup poses a challenge to our live recording.  And I will tell you why.

Zoom Handy Recorder H2 is a versatile and inexpensive device (below S$300) that in my humble opinion is a must-have for those who wish to record sound.  I was told by the sales assistant that when a container worth of Zoom H2 arrived last December, they were sold out in a matter of days.  Journalists and institutes order these devices by hundreds.  When I bought mine on the day of that silly incident I had at the Malaysia Custom, I was told that 500 units were delivered to an institute in the same morning.

H2 is capable of a front and rear surround sound recording – front stereo track at 90-degree and rear stereo track at 120-degree.  That is a total of 4 mono tracks simultaneous recording inside this tiny device.

The front of the H2 should aim at the vocal speakers and ideally, the drums should be placed at the back.  In this setting, we can’t do that.  Drums are also the only sound that is acoustic in nature.  That is, the volume cannot be controlled.  And since there is a limit as in how loud the vocal speakers can go without inducing the feedback noise, the drums are going to dominate the entire recording.

And that was preciously the outcome.

Previously I relied on the H2 to mix the surround tracks into stereo mode (which took 30 minutes per song by the way) and perform minimal post production work at my computer.  For this studio setup, I can’t do that because our challenge cannot be overcome by 3D panning.  Decreasing the front channel volume in order to make the drums sound softer will have the same effect on the vocals.  Our mission is to bring down the drums’ volume while giving more emphasis on the vocals and strings.

To answer that, I rely on different compression settings for the front and rear channels.  I have covered the technique compression extensively in one of my articles.  It’s time to put it to work and have the post-production work done at the computer.

I use a hard knee compressor for the front channel (click here to see the setting of ‘Drum Destroyer’).  By default, it has a +8dB gain boost, which is great to bring out the details of the vocals.  And it also comes with a 30 times hard compression that is perfect for general drums recording.  For the rear channel, I use my favorite “Vintage Neve 33609” (click here to view setting) and manually apply a +10 dB gain.  Mix the two channels together (with a -6 dB gain reduction) brings forth a much fuller sound.  The overall gain is hotter than any recording I have ever had.

It took me 12 hours to select the right materials and complete the post production work for 12 of our takes (outtakes included).  Different studio rooms may require different settings.  I reckon if we do jam in the same room again, the process will be much faster.

Related Blog Entry: No Eye Candy’s 1st Female Guest Drummer (July 4)

Categories
Fantasy & Sci-fi Movie Reviews

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army – It is 4,900+1 Against 4+1!

Absurd as it sounds, I have high anticipation on Hellboy II because of Pan’s Labyrinth and the rather hot Selma Blair.  Why do I think that Hellboy’s girlfriend is sexy?  I have no idea.  Perhaps because of some of the past movies she made.

When I read that in this sequel, it is Hellboy and his team meet the magical creatures of the ancient time, I know much of the good essence of Pan’s Labyrinth will surface.  And truly so, it does.  The movie watched almost like a fantasy experience and I believe the director and writer Guillermo del Toro’s unique vision and attention to details has a significant role to play in breathing life into these creatures.  I suspect in time to come, people will remember these concepts and visions rather than the storyline.

I often confuse between Hellboy franchise and the Fantastic 4 and X-Men.  Fire, checked; huge red character that punches like a tank, checked; us and them, checked.  And I think in this installment, there are more character development.  They crack jokes, troubled by emotions, get drunk, probably this human side has earned the movie a high rating along side with the beautiful created special effects.  Some of the scenes are in such a scale that mind blowing is the only way to describe.

Hellboy II has certainly raised the bar for comic book adaption.  Now, any film in the horizon is going to top this? 

Categories
Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

The Bank Job – Nothing Like My Job For Sure (LOL!)

OK.  Bad joke.  I can’t remember the exact dialogue.  When I suggested to watch “The Bank Job” last week, my buddy TK was like, “Isn’t that your job?  9 to 5 is not enough and you have to watch it on big screen?”

Duh!

Cynthia couldn’t have put it better: Before “The Italian Job” and “Ocean 11”, there was “The Bank Job”.  If you have watched all of the above, you shall know what she meant.  And you know what?  If luck holds, we may have “The Brazilian Job” played by the same actor, Jason Statham.  It’s a sequel, that much I can tell you.

Now, check this out: British intelligence set up a robbery to gain possession of a safety deposit box containing incriminating sex photos of Princess Margaret.  How much of the story is true?  It’s impossible to tell.  The film producers claim that they have inside source.  Then again, this is UK you are talking about.  I always loved to read their sensational tabloids especially the weekend editions when I was a student there.  We need spice in life, we need to feed on gossips.

I love the rather complex plot of murder, corruption, and a sex scandal, and overlaid on top, a rather low tech bank robbery (it’s a crime committed in 1971 so what else do you expect?) that is not without its nail biting moments.  And I also love how this rather multi-dimensional storyline is being told with such fluidity.  Despite the fact that there are quite a number of characters and dialogues involved, each scene tells a concise piece of story that gels well with the next.  It’s not a movie that you can leave your brain outside the theatre, of course.  But it is not hard to follow either.

So is there enough chemistry between Queen of Troy (Saffron Burrows) and Mr. Transporter (Jason Statham)?  I think they are both fine English actors and if there was more passion between the two, even for the imaginary character of Martine Love that does not exist in the so-called true story, it wouldn’t be believable.

Categories
Memorable Events

And the Excitement Continues (Nephew Nathaniel)

Let’s recap what goes on in July so far.  My band’s first female guest drummer, sister’s boyfriend proposed, 2nd book review at the McGraw-Hill’s website, nomination at Ping.sg, and – hold your breath – my nephew was born last evening and he has the same birthday as me!  Now, how cool is that?  Last night, during my birthday celebration, Cynthia told me that Julie might give birth on the 10th or the 11th.  I was secretly willing for a 10th.  Will and it shall happen!  Now, if you need some paranormal assistance, feel free to contact me.

My family is small so unless my own sister quickly fasten the pace of the production line (after she gets married of course!), so far I only have one niece Felicia whom I’ve met in Indonesia 2 years ago and now, baby Nathaniel.  I don’t really see myself as an uncle because, look, the age gap is not that significant, is it?  They are more like brother and sister to me.  I so see myself playing Monopoly or Scrabble with them.  I can certainly do tea party too and bring along brother Wilfrid’s own concoction of plastic muffins.

This is usually the time when people write something about the childbirth.  I am no expert of course and I hardly can hold any of such conversation with the young parents.  My idea of bringing up a baby – as some of my friends would have known – is to chunk him into a sound proof container or to equip him with an aqua mask.  I seriously value the sound of silence a lot.  Back to the childbirth process, erm … Cynthia told me that with one or two pushes, baby Nathaniel – like his elder sister Felicia – popped out of his mother’s womb in just over an hour of labor.  Nathaniel landed safely onto Mother Earth even before his dad Eric completed the paperwork at the hospital.  Is an hour or two of labor a smooth one?  I have no clue.  I stay in the cube farm eight hours a day pushing too.  I push out work every day.

OK.  It’s time to submit my household budget request form for that digital SLR camera that I have been dreaming of.  Now, I have one more reason to own that.  And maybe I shall start a tradition to celebrate my birthday with baby Nathaniel.

Categories
Memorable Events

Me No Shy About Me Birthday

Thanks for all your warm wishes!  It is the thought that counts.  So, text messages are same-same to me.

I have two traditions when it comes to my birthday.  One, it will be a holiday.  Look, if we have holidays to celebrate the birth of the kings and queens and anniversary of what not, why should I work on my birthday?   And two, during my birthday week, it will be my treat to all the friends who join me for lunch or dinner.  I mean, look at it this way, I feel so blessed to have friends turn up for my B day celebration.  It’s on me, gladly so.

I guess it is hard to contain the happiness and I find myself telling the people around me the coming of my birthday.  Maybe I am a natural exhibitionist.  Most people I know are more comfortable keeping it low profile, which is cool with me of course.  One time, the colleague behind me was on the phone and you know how kids are when they get onto the phone.  As usual, the faint high pitch voice reached my desk and I heard a birthday song!  It was my colleague’s birthday and I congratulated her after her call.  Wow, I would have missed that and I would feel quite bad had I known that someone’s birthday has gone underneath my radar.  She is my neighbor in the cube farm some more.  Bizarre to say – and those of you who know me in person would know how animated I can be once I get excited – despite my rather excited words of congratulation, everyone else was so absorbed with their work and none noticed this little event.  Oh well.

The other day, one friend of mine in the office told me that she doesn’t think writing “I wake up, I eat, I sleep” as her journal (or blog) is interesting at all.  Well, I don’t know.  I also write “I wake up, I eat, I sleep” too.  Maybe if one day 3am in the morning and you can’t sleep, you should try reading my blogs.

I woke up this morning after an amazing 8 hours of sleep, looked in the mirror, and didn’t notice any difference.  I mentally timed my pee and it took roughly the same time.  Great!  It’s my birthday and I feel one year younger.  I did some memory test and I passed, remembering all the schedule blog entries all the way till I fly out of town next Wednesday.  Superb!  Good as new.

Switched on my wireless phone and went through the bunch of entertaining text messages.  One friend told me that men age like fine wine.  Wow, my first time hearing it.  So I asked this wise man what do women age like?  Cheese, he replied, as the taste grows on you!  Ha ha ha … OK.  I don’t know why, I kept thinking of the “Sex and the City” movie.  Time for Botox – the miracle of eternal youth!

Spent a fair bit of the morning doing vocal exercise.  Vocal exercise?  Yes.  Vocalists do vocal exercise all the time and it helps a lot in the actual singing activity.  I must have driven Cynthia mad this morning.  Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhhhhhh~

Another friend asked me to send a wild plant to her via Facebook after I told her that I was heading to the Botanic Gardens.  Sure I can do that.  I love the Botanic Gardens.  Always do, be it as in Hong Kong or Paris or Singapore.  It was sunny, it rained a bit, and we took some photos inside the lovely Botanic Gardens.

Time check!  OK, it 5-ish and I shall head to Orchard soon.  Catching up with my Movie Review Squad and I can’t wait to watch Hellboy 2!  I so have a big crush with Hellboy’s girlfriend.  Shhh, please don’t tell Cynthia.

Later!

Categories
I See I Write

Storyboarding at 24 Frames per Second – My First V-blog (Prelude) Episode 5

“There is no point in teaching a young one to choose his battle.  He is going to fight every single one, refuse to relinquish his power, and only experience can teach him such thing: There is no ultimate victory and there is no absolute righteousness.  As his eyes are cast upon the rain of fire, in this bloody ground of the many fallen, down to his last man …”

OK.  I am not that imaginative and I certainly can’t dream of stories with such depth.  My new story is going to be short and sweet.  Animals, lots of animals, from worm to whale, from human to elephant.  And there are brains too, lots of brains.  It is when technology meets biology, from my childhood to my adulthood, and onto my hood that says, “It’s my birthday tomorrow and I can write whatever I want!”.  Numbers, plenty of numbers.  But none is going to tell you how old I am, ha!

I want to challenge your senses in this multi-tasking, short attention span pop culture.  The theme is the same but what you are going to hear will be different from the words you read and will be different from the animations you see.

The first decision I made for my video blog was the number of frames per second.  The rest, is history.  I still need time to touch up on the video.  Time, we all need more time!

PS. Majority of the images you see above were taken in Taman Safari Indonesia back in January this year.  Then there was me, and my family’s dog in Hong Kong.

My 1st v-Blog Mini-Series:

Categories
Announcement

It’s the Time of the Month … Do Check Out Other Reviews at McGraw-Hill’s Site Too

This is my second contribution to McGraw-Hill Education Asia’s website on the topic of Business and General Reference.  Do check out the reviews written by other established local organizations such as The Straits Times and TODAY.  Each month, they select a set of books to be featured.  If you are looking for inspiration on your next reading, it is a good place to start.

PS. This is not a sponsored post.

Related Entry: These Are the Days That Put a Smile to My Face

Categories
Announcement

Woot?! Nominated for Best Review Post @ Ping.sg? (And a Touch onto My Review Philosophy)

Best Review Post

I got shocked out of my socks when Sylv dropped me a comment that one of my reviews has been nominated for the Best Review Post.  Wow, how did that happen?  OK, please vote for me only if you think that I am worthy of the title and it’s not too much of a hassle for you.  I don’t wish this to be a popularity contest and I know some of you value privacy, not wanting to leave digital footprints in the Internet.  In this gigantic blogosphere of Singapore, I am certainly very humbled even by getting nominated especially by this lovely community called Ping.sg.  And here is the post that you may have come across back in June.

I have been procrastinating for years when it comes down to writing a few paragraphs on “About Me”.  “About Me” is very commonly found in almost all the blogging sites.  I can write posts that consist thousands of words but yet when it comes down to “About Me”, I don’t know what to write.  Ever since I have created the “About Me” page temporarily with my email address and my mugshot, statistics tell me that more and more readers click onto that page.  It has become so significant that I have decided to write something about me over the weekend in under 250 words, which is kind of impossible if you know my style.  The final version has a 330 word count.  Quite an achievement for a start.

I reckon in recent years, one third of my posts are reviews of some sort, be it as books, or music, or movies.  And hence, I have been pondering if I shall include my review philosophy into “About Me”.  Right now, probably not as I wish to keep that low word count.

If you notice, I don’t give rating for all my recent reviews.  My philosophy is very simple: just because I give a perfect ten to a book or a movie or a music album doesn’t mean that you would love it.  Because I am me and you are you and you are not me.  What I can do though is to highlight the good and the not-too-good and you then decide if it is a zero or a ten, if the good works for you, and if the not-too-good is the deal breaker.  You rate it, not I rate it for you.  The most I can do is to categorize the reviews because I am aware that there are genres that some people may not be interested in.

And as careful as I can be, I try not to publish any spoilers for the movies.  Non-fictional book reviews are OK, I think, to read like book summaries because for those who may not have the time to read, it is good for them to learn something.  And if the readers have decided to read the non-fictional books I reviewed, I hope that my reviews act as a reinforcement to what they are going to read, a challenge for them to think ahead.  I personally am torn when it comes to fictional books.  On one hand, I shall not give out any spoilers.  On the other hand, some do visit my site to, as an illustration, research on how best to position a certain book to the students (such as “The Fifth Child By Doris Lessing – Horror Or Tragedy? You Decide”).  Hence, the for fictional books, my style is in as much as possible, highlight the themes and not too much on the storyline.

Writing music reviews is both easy and tough.  Easy in a sense that I have no holding back on what I can write.  Spoiler restriction does not apply to music albums.  Tough because it is hard to describe sound.  And more often than not, I have to hunt for music videos to complete my reviews and they are not easy to maintain either.

I learn that some reviews have hit rates far beyond my own domain’s hit rate.  Some topics are time sensitive, some are not.  Some are popular, some ain’t.  Till today, I am still learning on how to write a good review.

And I am so glad to have you readers to be with me on this journey of mine.  This nomination of mine is for you!

Categories
Jamming Session

No Eye Candy’s 1st Female Guest Drummer (July 4)

Ever since our 2nd drummer has decided to spend more time with his new baby – which our band No Eye Candy fully understand and support – for the last two months, we scrambled to look for guest drummers to jam with us, to explore the possibility.  Guitarist Jason called in his friend for help and so did Bassist Cynthia.  Last evening, Cynthia’s friend Wieke who was born in the same country as her (i.e. Indonesia) joined us.  Time to pay our favorite studio Stone Jamz a visit.

It is hard to look for new members.  We don’t do cover songs or religious music (that is popular amongst the local community) and we work on the songs that I write.  Somehow there is a mutual respect and admiration on our domain specialty formed between the three of us – Cynthia, Jason, and I – since November 2004.  And we do have a certain practice tempo we commit, however infrequent it may be.

Before I go on, below are the captions for the pictures on the left.  Photos taken by Jason’s wife Selrol.  A big thanks to her as these pictures captured the essence of our session well (next time I must take some pictures of her).  Too bad, the battery of the camera went flat fast.  Lesson learnt: always buy original battery!

[1] Our cool bassist, Cynthia.  [2] Our 1st female guest drummer, Wieke, and she referred to her iPod during our break to look for some inspirations I guess.  [3] Our guitar god, Jason.  [4] That’s me.  Nice shirt eh?  My new shopping loot.  [5] OK.  Jason almost remembered the chords of our entire 5-song set.  Almost.  [6] We certainly are still amazed that such a petite lady can create such a deafening drumming sound!  Wieke is creatively amazing.  She has transformed some of our songs beyond our band’s recognition!  [7] Notice a huge white ring that Cynthia wore?  Well, while the boys were at Sim Lim side shopping for amplifiers and cables, she went shopping for accessories.  [8] I did look intense.  How did Selrol manage to capture this?!  I look scary.  I am a beast.

At times I would imagine how a new or guest member sees our band.  A band that is still finding its way, still full of rough edges?  A package of songs that are dark, at times gloomy but nevertheless radiates a sense of genuine emotion from the soul?  Songs and music arrangement with no defined structure and the same song never sounds the same every time we play it?  Perhaps all of the above and more.

I am personally unsure if someone will commit to our band in the near future (though I would certainly welcome that idea with open arms).  But in this transient beauty of being able to collaborate with different artists, different talents and be taken to a different height, it is one helluva journey that I’d love to take, any time.

Categories
Movie Reviews

Wanted – OMG, It’s Angelina Jolie (with a Gun)!

Though I must say, the focal point is at James McAvoy instead.  But still, I simply love Angelina Jolie with guns (think “Lara Croft” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”) and I love her attitude too.  One of a kind, truly.

You’ve got to have quite a strong stomach to take in those over the top intensive scenes that have the pace and the music to match.  My recently self-diagnosed sensitive stomach did give me some warning signals on and off throughout the show.  I guess that is a good indicator on how intense “Wanted” is.

Yet another comic book adaptation and it is created by the Scottish graphic novelist Mark Millar.  Something different from the typical American comic book style I suppose.  A kind of strange storyline that involves a thousand years old organization called The Fraternity and these assassins – who have some sort of superhuman abilities I suppose – take in order from a textile loom coded with the target’s names under the microscope.  What a strange concept, to kill as dedicated by destiny to keep the Universe in balance. 

There is nothing much to say on the acting or character development of “Wanted”.  Is it entertaining?  Yes.  How so?  There are enough surprises within the plot to keep the film moving.  Some of the computer generated images and sequences are just jaw dropping.  Time slows down, at times reverses, to depict some physically impossible moments.  Some scenes are just comical.  Lots of blood for sure.  But if you have got the stomach and in for some fast pace intensified entertainment, why not?

I won’t even mention about Angelina Jolie’s sexy back from shoulder to … oh well, I missed it while reading the subtitles.

Kidding!  Ha ha ha!