Last few weeks ago, I was attended a recording session that belong to my learning module, Music and Music Production. This was my first time even to do a music recording for a band. It is a very excited experience that I never been experience before... Oh ya... forgot to mention about the band that we was recording is Muddybanks.

Before we start the recording, we need to do the set up for the recording. We took all the equipments such as drum set, mic stands, microphones, cables and guitar amplifier from the FMS department. At the beginning, we set up the drum set first. From that I realized the proper set up and position for the drum set... Hi-hat, floor tom, snare, kick drum, and so on... Its really not that easy to set up all of these. After the set up for drum, we need to prepare microphones for every drum instrument. condensor mic, dynamic mics are been used to record the drum. We also need to connect all the microphones to the mixer channels to do the monitoring. One of my teammates, Aishah was taking charge of it.

setting up...

cheeky-monkey-ing.... Andrewwww.....

What was you doing there, ANDREW.... *cough*....

So, later on was the sound check session. We was doing the sound check and tuning for the drum set at the same time. Again, Aishah was taking charge the channel monitoring and she need to make sure the audio level is acceptable and it cant be disorted or clipping. She done a really good job of it. Meanwhile, Izwan, Andrew and me was helping out to adjust the microphone for the drum set. Beside the drum, we also need to prepare a few channels for bass, electric guitar and guide vocal.

Our lecturer, Mr Cim Bo was looking on the Mackie Mixer... a lot of problem occured on this mixer... some of the channels didnt work properly... (its the right time to change it, FMS)

Aishah on drum?? guess what, she was just testing the mics...


Get prepare... ready....

well, this is the band's drummer... we was prepared a cue to him to make sure that he can listen what was his band playing.... and he was doing the tuning at the same time...

Start recording... everyone was concentrating on their jobs...

He is pretty good on drum.... seriously...

Well, after the recording for the track of music instruments, we need to prepare a vocal mic for vocalist to dub the vocal...
Condensor mic... Mic stand... Pop filter... Izwan... Andrew... Vocalist... were needed for it...

Setting up the vocal mic...

Logic Pro was been used for the recording... and I was taking charge of it during the recording...

From this recording session, I can feel that how hard to create a good recording. I know that is hard, but it is harder than what I thought. After we done the recording, we still need to do the pre-mixing session to synchronize the beat and tempo then we can give the music a proper mixing to make the overall music sound better.

For the mixing session, EQ, compressor, noise gate and other audio processor need to be apply if possible to perform certain effects that can help to make our project better and delete or clear some unwanted sound. The theory behind is too complicated so I won't talk much about it here... even I can't understand some of it...

I was really enjoyed this and hopefully I can upload the after-mixing project here as soon as possible...

learned more on music... feel more on music... music is my life...

Last week, I was helped out for the Ling Yu Zhong Campus Concert at Ngee Ann because of my CCA, Poly Stage Production (PSP). I was assigned to in charge of followspot together with one senior and one of my AVT junior.



Well, I want to say is... that is a pretty good experience to me because usually I was learned it on theory but I never try it out to play, no... work on this real followspot, although it is not as big as what I saw in Esplanade but still better than nothing, wasn't it?

FollowSpot light is not that easy to control because it is quit heavy to me and I must always concentrate to keep follow the focus point of the stage. Most of the time I was keep following the singer, Ling Yu Zhong and sometime I need to focus on the host, which is one of the DJ from Y.E.S 933.

But... what I want to say based on this experience is... the followspot can't be controlled by 3 persons at the same time. Why? Because I was doing that on the night with my another 2 members. I found out that it just make the thing become harder. We can't really synchronize the movement each other. It cause the followspot a bit shaky and sometime we follow up the singer a pretty slowly.

Well, the overall is still pretty good as well. But I was not really satisfied their way to organize this event. Some of the parts I think they, no, should include me as well because I am also inside of the club, can be improve.

About the camera issue, as I know is a lot of audiences, especially for the first row of seats, they were just taking pictures and capturing video like no one will care about them. I really don't know what are the ushers doing at that moment and I can't leave my position to just tell the audiences... hey sir, No camera is allowed... After the event, they also realized about this issue but why as a senior of the club, they didn't show a good example to us, to all of the juniors. Seriously, all of us are the first time to take part of such an event. I just wondering what were they doing on the time??

Well, this is just my suggestion and hopefully we will improve on the next coming events. Keep moving on, PSP...

Finally, my favorite, Romance of The Three Kingdoms, the related movie, Red Cliff,赤壁 is finally launched. It is splited into 2 parts. I watched the one is part 1, which is haven't really show the battle of Red Cliff. I watched it yesterday (19/07)with my classmates, which are Gab, Meng and Stephy...

The Ruler of Wu-Yue, Sun Quan孙权.

A brave general that serves Liu Bei, Zhao Zhi Long, Zhao Yun赵云.

A intelligent, good leadership, the great leader of Infantry, Navy and Knight of Wu, Zhou Yu周瑜.

The Legendary of Great Stragist, Zhu Ge Kong Ming诸葛孔明.

Lin Zhi Ling, the Beautiest Lady of Jiang Dong, Xiao Qiao小乔

Don't think that the movie is just boring and boring, at least not for me. Although it haven't show the climax of the movie, the battle of the red cliff, but it has another battle scene that also very large battle between Sun, Liu and Cao Cao. Zhou Yu and Zhu Ge Liang use their intelligent to set a very complex formation to trap Cao cao's generals, Zhang Liao and another general that I not really sure who is he because I can't remember who is he actually.

The formation of Ba Gua, which is Mr Kong Ming said it is already outdated but he add one more line behind, if every formations can use on the right place and the right time, its alos can be very effective even it is outdated which is I feel that is really true.

In the movie, the first meet between Zhu Ge Liang and Zhou Yu is quite "funny". Why I said is funny because of... I think I should let you to figure it out yourself. I don't want to be the Spoiler.
And the scene of playing Gu Zheng between Zhu Ge Liang and Zhou Yu, is also very nice... Really interesting... You must go to figure out yourself about the storyline...

The disappointing part in this movie is some of the scene is unneccessary. That's why the movie can be so long, around 2.5 hours.

According to the history of three kingdoms, the battle of Chi Bi is the most important battle on the history and because of this, Liu Bei can build his power at Jing Zhou and Yi Zhou. Beside the rise of Liu Bei, this battle also force Cao Cao's army to fall back to their territory. This battle can say is the climax of the history of three kingdoms. If you are interested on the three kingdoms, I believe that there also available some english translated edition for you to understand the story easier.

Anyway, if you want to watch a chinese history movie, especially about The Three Kingdoms, this is a should watch movie for you. But... please... don expect it will follow the history... But some of the actor's lines are quite funny... seriously... if you can understand it properly.

And please... don try to understand the movie through Subtitle... If you can... because subtitle can't explain well...

Rating: 4/5 stars

Its worth to spend the money to watch.

Let say my feeling before I watch this movie, the trailer looks cool, the poster looks cool, the action looks cool and some of my friends said it is a really cool movie. Everything for it looks cool so I decided to put my expectation higher for this movie...

Well, after I watched this movie, I want to say is all of them missed another cool thing on this movie. The storyline... is... UNcool.

Why? I don't really understand what are the other viewers feel about this movie but for me is, the storyline is expected and not really much surprise for me beside the action.

A guy... who are judged by someone that he is talented on being a killer. He is been trained well and has been told to kill his enemy to make the revenge for his father but the enemy that he killed actually is his real father and he realize that he was been used by them to kill their enemy, used by his real enemy...........

But I am very like the shooting part... Never imagine that the bullet can be curved like how David Beckham curves the soccer ball...

The storyline is just there and seriously, I feel that my movie ticket is just worth for the action and Angelina Jolie... that's all...

Rating: 3/5 star

Well, once again. I went to this exhibition last Tuesday to explore the technology on audio system and lighting system. Most of them are mainly use for stage performance.

As you can see from the picture, the lighting effect was overwhelming the whole exhibition hall. You can really enjoy the atmosphere there.



Don't think that is a very formal and serious exhibition. There had DJs, massage chairs and even had a snooker table to let the guests to relax themselves...

Sennheiser and AKG were there and the booth is totally same as the CommunicAsia so I'm won't going to talk much about them. Lets concentrate on Audio equipments...

At the Pioneer booth, they showed quite a lot of models for DJ mixer. To promote their product more attractive, they also invited a DJ to do a live show with the latest model of pioneer mixer (sorry that I really don't know which is the latest model that the DJ used...)

Beside Pioneer, Yamaha also show its face on the exhibition. This is a digital mixer that using by Unusual Production...

Meyer Sound also showed their very powerful audio monitoring software and a very tiny, cute speaker with built-in amplifier...
Miniature Loudspeaker...

How can we miss the Shure micophones. They showed a lot of mics and some of them are frequently use by many celebrities... SM58 for vocal and SM57 for instrument... if I am not remember it wrongly...

Beside Audio equipments, you also cant miss out the lighting equipments there. Here is the pictures...
These all lighting effects are mainly using on stage performance.

Addition:
Our future guitarist, Mr Andrew was tried out the multi-effects processor.
You can see that he is very concentrate on trying out the processor....

I got quite alot of knowledge about audio and lighting instruments from this exhibition and I took a lot of brochures... and carry bags..

My favorite carry bag... from Shure...

A lot of Brochures... these are properly around 3kg... even heavier than my laptop... =.=lll


My visitor pass...

Doing Free-Lance again... haha...

Compare with the CommunicAsia, this is much more concentrate on AV instruments and this is what am I expecting to have and come with a very good atmosphere as you can see on the pictures. This is a very good experience to me to enrich my knowledge on AV instruments... AKG, Sennheiser, Shure, Meyer Sound, Yamaha.... hope that I can own one of their sound system... to put it at my house... sound like wasting the product... haha... If I have the money to do so...

I'm looking forward for the Car show on this coming September at Expo... Definitely will be there for those cool cars and concept cars...

Yeah, as I mention, I have a quite relaxing, undisturbed Saturday with myself. Another reason to been alone because all my friends was busy for their stuff so I just try to don't disturb them.

Seriously, this is my first time to watch movie alone but I'm alright with it. Let get back to the subject. I watched Hancock at Cathay cinema in City Square, it's one of the good cinema around Johor Bahru. I'm sure that all JB people will agree with me. Due to the weekend, the crowd was just overwhelmed the cinema and the queue on the ticket counters is long enough until it can reach Singapore (well, not really so serious...) but i still manage to get a movie ticket for 2.40pm. Thanks to my friend, he introduced me the new counters at level 7 that also can buy the movie ticket...



About Hancock, it is quite a interesting movie about super hero that you never seen it before. At first, he's a mess. Same as other super hero, he is trying to stop the crimes or accident but meanwhile he also created a lot of 'side effect' that cause a huge damage on New York, which is 9 millions of US dollar... He just doesn't look like a hero although he can super strength and he can fly on the sky. One day, he saved one guy, Ray away from the accident by train. He is a public relations professional that is trying to help him to create a better public image.

After something happened, he found out that Ray's wife, Mary also have the same ability with him and she is his girlfriend actually... well, i think i better don't spoil the movie and what I recommend is, if you have the time to watch a movie at the moment, you really should go for it. Why I will say this movie is different with the any previous super hero movie is all other movie will tell you he is the one to save the world at the beginning of the show but in Hancock, public just loathe him and trying to drive him away from NY although what he did every time is just trying to save the people. After he's not around, crimes is keep increasing... people start to miss him... and they realized that he is important to them, to the city because he can stop the crimes happened and save the people...

"If you deserve better for me, I will be better", John Hancock

Rating : 4 / 5 (Rated by me, Michael)

Beside movie, I also bought some stuffs around there and it cost me around rm60. Well, it is quite a lot for only 2 magazines (Top gear July, Ering July), few Portuguese egg tarts and 2 slices of Tiramisu and Mocca blender from StarBucks...

Here is the prove...

ERING... it is about mobile phone... and I am searching for a better mobile phone to replace my existing hdphone, Nokia 5300 XM... still haven't get a idea yet...

Yeah, that is it... Top Gear... for this month... It is introduce a lot of gear box and it helps to improve my knowledge and know more about car....

Portuguese Egg Tart.... It is so delicious and I hope I can finish these all but I am not going to do that... save some for my dear sister and mother... hehe...

One of my favorite... Mocca Blender with cream... cold...


Tiramisu... it is my sister's favorite... so as a good brother, i bought it for her... haha... I am not so kind actually... because I want to eat as well... can someone pass me a tissue please? i just cant stop my saliva out of my mouth...

Movie... Book... Food... such a great day for myself... enjoying my egg tart now so I just stop at here... I'm coming for you, my dear egg tart and tiramisu....