MDA Rap

MDA is Media Development Authority and they are in charge of censorship in Singapore.
I juz wana say this is pretty awkward but still pretty hip. I actually went through the whole clip.

World Community Grid

I've been involved with World Community Grid for over one year.

And quoted directly from their website:

"World Community Grid's mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better. Our success depends on individuals - like you - collectively contributing their unused computer time to this not-for-profit endeavor."

WCG is involved with several projects like Help Conquer Cancer, Fight AIDS @ Home Project.

I urged everybody to take part in this very meaningful projects :)

Radio mix/Stereo mix...handphone mix?

If ya not in the music industry, you probably won't know that, we have different audio engineers doing different mixes. Some audio engineers specialize in doing mix for radio, some for movies, some for CD...etc etc

When I was going home last night on the subway, some kid was blasting some song on his cellphone like real loud and it occurred to me, I should really be taking advantage of the technology, its no longer cool to juz use a iPod, dude its like back in the 80's, ur only kool if you carry a huge boom box around!(except you use ur cell phone now!)

Maybe I should start pitching myself as "Specialize in Cellphone mixing"

Catch ya all later!

Part time or Freelance?

I've been working in Singapore for a number of years and been to a lot of interview.
According to some reports, it takes an average of six months for someone to find a new job in Singapore.

Other than asking the typical questions like "Tell me more about yourself?", "Tell me why you are suitable for this job?" and my favorite question or sometimes they will tell you straight in the face, "You will most likely be required to work OT(overtime) and we don't pay OT, you MIGHT be given off in lieu, whats your opinion on this?" or more subtly "What do you think of working OT?"

I get the usual oh you mainly did part time work, in our company we don't count part time work as experience.....

Even though my part time work is directly related to job I've applied for....

I realize that when you say "Part time" in Singapore it roughly translate into something like working at Mcdonald's or waiter/ess. Basically it means, you work when you are free and you dun need any specific skill set.

A better way to term yourself is to use the word "freelance" Apparently by using "freelance" it gives you that "WoW" factor, I've people telling me, "I heard freelancing is really hard in Singapore you muz be really good to freelance!"

And NO, I'm not trying to LIE....I'm juz trying to get credit for my experience and I dun really like it when people tell me oh you dun have experience cuz you did work part time so we can only give you entry/basic pay......

Hence by using the word "freelance", it seems like its giving me a slight edge :)

Cheers

Largest Flying V?

Saw this on Youtube, check out this dude playing Pink Panther at Times Square.

Chinese Ghostbusters?

Man I dun know what to say, I'm not a believer of such stuff but ya we still have people believing in exorcism...career enhancement rituals...

Ghostbusters in Singapore

You believe in this kinda stuff?

Visual Sound Theories

I juz got this in the post yesterday. I really dig Steve Vai's arrangement of the songs.

For Your Info, this is not your typical, Live with an Orchestra album. Steve Vai rearranged his old songs for this project. For example, in the song For the Love of God, the harp was playing the chord progression. I think the new arrangements gave a very grand feeling to the overall sound.

Anybody who is a Vai fan should check out this DVD/CD!

Interview with Malaysia's Information Minister

Eh...this is pretty funny...check out the transcript from Kenny Sia if you have no idea when he is preaching.....

Singles?

I've been thinking about the industry and I think that it is inevitable that we will have more and more digital download. Judging from todays viewers/listeners, I think that instead of having a full length album, we should look back in the history. Release only singles and make that available for free or for a nominal amount of fees on the Internet.

Most viewers/listeners only buy a couple of songs per album, why not let us(musicians, producers) make that easier for the audience, eliminate the choices you(audience) get. (Kinda like how HD is evolving in Singapore, I didn't ask for it but it is being pushed into my life anyway....)

Isn't it better to have say, a few hundred thousands download of a few ( 1 - 3 songs) than to have a full length album which nobody listens to anyway....

We don't really need to make money from the songs anyway, we would potentially make more money from the advertisement sales from the the site than selling the single :/
or from selling the various merchandise (Tees, Caps, etc, etc)

US or Singaporean style education?

School Experiment that Failed

Read this article in one of the local papers today.

I for one is always very concerned about the education system in Singapore. I've been enrolled in a local Singaporean school from Primary 1 to Primary 6 (Grade 1 to Grade 6 for the peeps from US) and when my family moved to work in Malaysia I got enrolled in International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL)

I kinda never really enjoyed my time in the local school...you dun get to choose what classes you wana take, huge class typical ratio would be 1 (teacher):40 (students)

I personally feels that Singaporean education system seems to be cater to a specific style or direction. You will have a VERY strong foundation in Maths and Science and your Arts (music, drama, etc etc) would be left behind.

However in a international school setting, I get to choose the path I want to take, Music...Drama, Science...Foreign Language.

I also believes that parents play a very important role too. If you are brought up in the traditional local education system, you would probably believe that arts is like an extra thing, you dun need to pursue it to survive in this world, go be a doctor or lawyer or at least be a engineer. Thats what you should be in Singapore.

Look at the music/arts scene in Singapore now....fuck it is a failure. Why? because we have been taught in school that music is a dream...look at the TV right now...you have a drama series shown on prime time and the plot is about a composer who can't survive in the music industry and ends up beating his wife...gambling...drinking...and all that jazz...

Why not have a show like Coyote Ugly? Small town songwriter pursuing her dream of becoming a singer. Guess what? When I was in ISKL I have friends 15 or 16 years old gigging constantly at the local nightclubs in KL, they even released an album.

But at least the scene is getting better due to shows like American Idol and the different spin offs of it in Singapore. But are we really promoting music in Singapore or is it juz another way to rip people off their hard earn money?

You decide....

A world is like a pyramid?

I have always and probably will for a very long time to believe that the structure of the world is like a pyramid....

Its like how a company is structured, 1 CEO, a number of managers and a shit load of workers. Even a country is similar, 1 Prime Minister/President/King or Queen and a whole lot of citizens and many people in between.

So why the hell I'm I talking bout all this anyway? Cuz last week I was out with my friends and I was saying how some of my students(ex students rather :p) dun have a goal in life, they are like doing nothing...wasting their youth and one of my friend responded, if everybody is fucking hardworking, trying to get a head in life, than who the fuck is gonna be cleaning the streets?

We can only have so many CEOs, managers...somebody has to do the shit job.....

The harsh reality of life.....

Megadeth/Black Sabbath

Been really busy for the past 2 weeks with teaching and starting my degree course in Audio Engineering.

And I juz wana say, its been a fucking amazing weekend with Megadeth and Black Sabbath gracing our shores.

Man I'm telling ya, I've been to Fort Canning many times and I've never seen it packed so fucking full and for the Black Sabbath concert, the age group is like from maybe 15 to like 60, thats how fucking awesome they are.

Megadeth was awesome too. Real class act. Some really insane shredding :)

Its gonna be a pretty busy week for me (yet again) Juz taken up a assignment for a audio book recording, should be pretty kool, something brand new for me :)

Cya all soon!

How to say no?

I think one of my weakest skillz is not knowing how to say no.

Hence I kinda googled "how to say no" and I came up with some pretty interesting sites, thought I share it with ya'll.

www.getmoredone.com

www.onlineorganizing.com

www.realsimple.com

9/11

Gone (9/11/01) by Andy Timmons



Lost Without You by John Petrucci

Real Life Sux?

There are juz so many things goin on IRL...things I juz can't do...things dat I can't make them right...Sometimes I wish I'm still juz a kid, all innocent and shit, dat way I dun have to deal with reality and it is always time like this I would read up on a couple of people, Jason Becker Tori Amos People who have went against all odds

What is it that I do exactly?

I met up with some old friends and new ones too recently and usually the first question we ask is so what are you doing currently. Usually I would tell my friends I'm a sound/audio engineer.

Usually the reply I get would be along the line of, "Oh so ya like a DJ at a club?" or "Oh you specialize in DSP(Digital Signal Processor)?"

Well nope, I'm none of the above. So today I'll show you what I do exactly. A picture (or sound rather) is worth a thousand words rite?

Original and Unedited portion of a band I recorded

Mp3 of the original file

Same part edited

Mp3 of the edited file

I basically did a couple of things. First there are 2 vocal parts and they are not in sync nor are they in pitch. So I edited it until they are pretty much in time although I did not sync them perfectly cuz in real life it would be almost impossible to do it, gotta have some realism too :p

Next up I used a great software call Melodyne to tune the pitch. Notice how I used Melodyne to elongate the vocal at the very end of the clip!

Every time I do something like this, I will end up talking to some of my friends. I've a number of friends who are professional sessionist or gigging around the world, and a lot of them put in countless of hours and years of hard work to perfect their craft.

I'm a musician myself and I've never believed in using a software to make up for something you can't do, like in the above example, I feel that musicians now a days are not spending enough time to perfect their trade. I get people who would ask me questions like, "but you can fix it during mixdown stage rite? Lets move on to the next part..."

If you are a professional, shouldn't you be spending time perfecting your skillz and not relying on the engineer to perfect it for you?

Rick Rubin

"That's the magic of the business. It's all doom and gloom, but then you go to a Gossip show or hear Neil in the studio and you remember that too many people make and love music for it to ever die. It will never be over. The music will outlast us all."

-Rick Rubin

I've always been a big fan of Rick Rubin and the artist he has worked with. A real music Guru.

Do check out this article on him.

Tips and Tricks for Pro Tools

I'll be trying to give out a tip every week for mixing and editing in Pro Tools.
Check out the site here!

Music Scene in Singapore

I'm sad to say that bands dun understand that if you organize a concert someone gotta pay for the equipment...rental of the venue...ya da ya da ya da...the list goes on.

Yet bands in Singapore are asking why should they have to sell a certain amount of tix in order to perform?

Fuck man are you guys so fucking dumb dat you think everything is for free? Who the fuck is gonna organize this kinda shit if they can't even break even?

If you know someone who is kind enough to pay for everything and not giving a damn if they break even and dun care if they are losing money...if me a holler cuz I need to know this dude....

...

Another Song?

Almost done remixing another song I recorded a year ago. Should be up in a couple of days once I'm done with the mastering and stuff.

Song is not gonna be up...sorry folks, after talking to the band we decided that we will go back into the studio and record some parts...