observations...

Mainstage

2010-03-11T12:44:00Z

I've been wanting to do this for quite some time, but as usual I kept putting it off until now. So last December I was fortunate to have the chance to play for Adibah Noor at a private function in KL. Since I did not have a keyboard of my own then, I ended up borrowing Dana's Motif XS and trying out Mainstage. I had used Mainstage before during the Eagles tribute concert in March but this was my first time using it for a proper (paying) gig.

It was also the first time playing at a really high-paying gig and the level of professionalism left a lasting impression. Daniel the bandleader gave us all a CD of the arrangements, and the sequencing work for each song was very good (now that's why you have MIDI class in the first semester kids). He then gave us individual charts (keyboards, guitar etc) with every single detail notated, right down to the patches we were supposed to be using (flute, synth, high string pads etc). I would say the standard of the arrangements and the performance was comparable to the KLF gig in October 2008, or our college tribute concerts, but without all the crazy practice hours and screaming at lecturers. In fact, if I'm not mistaken we only had three rehearsals at Ee Jeng's studio. Adibah Noor herself only showed up during the soundcheck, but everything ran smoothly. It was definitely worth the amount of money we were paid.

"It's not about the money, it's about the experience" - Mr. F

Well pardon me, but I had a very good experience playing with these very professional musicians, some of them ICOM graduates as well. And if people outside can treat me professionally as a musician and pay accordingly, what about the college?

Alright enough ranting, here are some pictures!

My happening rig - M-Audio Oxygen25 USB into Mac, Mainstage Output 1-2 thru Mbox (DI-ed), Yamaha Motif XS7

Ee Jeng's even more happening rig - Korg Triton & Triton LE, Yamaha S90

Here's a look at my Mainstage setup:

I basically organized the patches into individual sets for each song. Although we only played about 40 mins worth of music, each song was quite different from the other so I was running a lot of patches. Thank goodness for 4GB of RAM to load all those samples. Ee Jeng and I also divided the parts equally so that helped as well. I also ended up with most of the string parts so to make my life easier I played the main string pads on the Motif.

The first song, One Night Only, had quite a lot of orchestral instruments in the arrangement. I was playing the Oboe (Miroslav Philharmonik) and French Horns (Kontakt 3 Orchestral library) from Mainstage.

The next song, Bila Rindu, was simpler as it just needed strings and a synth flute thingy for the intro, for which I used a patch from NI's Pro-53 synth.

The third song was pretty tricky as it had a lot of those 16th-note trance synth patterns going on. I experimented with using delays and tapping tempo but that was unsuccessful so in the end I settled with playing each note individually. I then inserted a pitch shifter and assigned its Mix parameter to one of my MIDI controller's knobs so I could gradually add an 'octave' effect. The first synth is a 'Basic Synth Oct' patch running through the EXS24 sampler, the second was the 'Heavenly Glass' ES2 synth preset layered with a Suitcase EP (EVP88).

The fourth song, Dhoom Machale, was also relatively simpler (in terms of the patches used; the arrangement was a killer!), I used the EXS24 orchestral hit layered with a timpani hit, also from the EXS24. There was also a section which required a psychedelic-sounding sitar, so I used the EXS24 Sitar patch and stuck a whole lot of effects on it.

The fifth song, Bunyi Gitar, was a typical Big Band arrangement so I had lots of horns running. I layered an Alto Sax, Trombone and Trumpet section within Kontakt 3 (Chris Hein Horns library) and created 3 different patches - a short stab sound, a 'fall', and a 'shake'/trill. I think I also edited the key mappings so that each instrument did not play beyond it's normal range; even though the library had very good sounds, hearing a trombone section all playing extreme high notes, or alto sax playing extremely low did not sound good at all.

The sixth song, a 'Juara Lagu' medley, was pretty straightforward with just plenty of string parts. In addition to the string pads I was playing on the Motif, I had tremolo strings and a solo violin (both Miroslav Philharmonik) running on Mainstage.

And finally the last song, Save The Last Dance, was virtually a cover of Michael Buble's arrangement, so more big band stuff there. The horns were mostly playing unison lines so I split the parts with Ee Jeng again - I took the lower octave while he took the higher octave. I did almost the same setup like on Bunyi Gitar: layered alto sax/tenor sax/trombone sections in Kontakt.

All in all I was pretty pleased with the things I managed to do with Mainstage, even though I was slightly handicapped with the 25 key controller, having to keep switching octaves all the time. With a proper, BIGGER controller in the future though, I just might start using Mainstage a little more. I do have a lot of quality sound libraries and synths and it would be nice to use them in a live situation again.

Epiphany

2010-03-09T17:59:00Z

So this is what it's like. Being responsible and having to do what you know is right - it sounds very nice and honorable and heart-warming.

It's not as easy as it sounds. And it just might hurt a little, especially if your heart is trying very hard to tell you something else.

"Just follow your heart," they say. Yeah sure, the short-term gratification looks very nice. But in the long run, it's just going to lead to further complications and inevitably, heartbreak.

I guess my heart and my head have been going on at each other over the whole thing for so long. I know what I should do, but doing it is the hard part. And it's really tempting to just throw caution to the wind and go for it.

But what would I gain from that? Not much. I'm probably better off keeping things as they are now. Why fix what is not broken?

C'mon David you can do this. It's not 2007 anymore.

***

Indeed, there are many fish in the sea, but this time round, I think I'll be leaving the fishing equipment at home.

(Disclaimer: This is not an emo post.)

(Disclaimer 2, 11/03: To that someone who responded so quickly, I'm sorry if this sounded like it had something to do with you, because it has nothing to do with you at all. I do have a life going on outside college you know.)

Anticipation

2010-03-09T16:59:00Z

3 more days.

I can say I actually missed Permata. Even though Darby Park and it's widescreen TVs, 3-room suites, swimming pool etc was very nice, you don't really get the full experience of really being in a camp.

And at Permata, we all eat at the same place, every day. No need to spend half an hour arguing about where to eat at KLCC.

Plug

2010-03-05T08:21:00Z

Come.

At long last

2010-03-01T13:25:00Z

Almost 5 months after reapplying for the loan, and after an even longer, drawn-out saga involving rejected applications, course accreditation nonsense, pleasant and not-so-pleasant email exchanges with college administration etc etc, someone at PTPTN has finally done something.

About time too. My parents aren't the richest people in the world, and this was supposed to be sorted out like, 3 semesters ago? And the college isn't exactly the cheapest in the world. Or, the most helpful when it comes to loan applications like this. The 5th floor people did not do themselves any favours at all.

Hmm maybe they expect all music students to be from rich families, since the music industry is supposedly so tough, unforgiving and unprofitable (perhaps except for those providing tertiary education in contemporary music).

Which brings us back to that old music joke - Q: How do you make a million dollars playing jazz?
A: Start with 2 million.

Moving on

2010-02-21T19:09:00Z

Ah, what's the point of being so pessimistic, when you're not in any kind of trouble to start with. I'm not going to hold any grudges from now on (or at least I'll try not to). So what if other people want to make things go wrong. At the end of the day, I am David Ling, and everyone is my friend.

Hopefully this marks the end of the late-night, emo, aimless-ranting posts.

***

Once again, I'm up late doing homework for tomorrow's class, which conveniently is at 9am. And unsurprisingly, I'm wide awake.

And it's not just the fancy chords.

2010-02-17T19:21:00Z

LDR

2010-02-15T16:27:00Z

I've been seeing a lot of people I know getting into long-distance relationships recently.

They don't work.

Perhaps I'll explain my point of view after all this CNY food digests.

Edit - 3:25am

Does it even matter whether I explain it? It's just my opinion anyway. And maybe it's me being slightly unable to come to terms with my own 'failures'.

***

He was so young and immature then. If only he knew what he had in store for him a few years down the road.

But then again, was it worth risking losing a good friend? It worked with someone else, clearly the whole 'Ladder Theory' thing didn't apply there. And thank goodness some people were level-headed enough to avoid adding fuel to the fire, the fire he didn't start.

He wondered how long he was going to dwell on this. It had been quite a while since the 'incident', and time supposedly heals even the deepest wounds. But even after setting out to avoid getting into trouble, it seemed that trouble had come to him. Trouble that in part, was something coming back to haunt him.

You never really get away from the past, do you. Even though he thought that a few years was more than enough for time to work its healing power, some deep-lying scars remained. It partly was his fault anyway, but going through the blame game all over again wasn't going to help anyone.

"If nobody wants to believe my side of the story, at least understand that I just want to be friends, nothing else," he thought to himself.

Apparently even that was too difficult for some people.

Screw it then. If people thought he had ulterior motives, let them learn to deal with it. He was not going to let all this nonsense ruin his day.

***

3.50am - This is going nowhere. Both in the current and overall scheme of things.

So apparently, when I am really sleepy, I get all emotional and have flashbacks of various memories good and bad (judging by the number of emo posts on this blog, probably more bad than good). And when I am really, really, really sleepy, I think I tend to write my best music.

A bit more of the latter please.

Or maybe I should just try sleeping earlier.

Weary

2010-02-14T16:43:00Z

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Red packets

2010-02-14T04:57:00Z

For the first time ever, I don't really feel the big thrill of receiving all those ang pows anymore. Not to say I'm ungrateful or anything; I do appreciate all the 'free' money. Perhaps I know what it's like to work and get paid and to spend your own hard-earned money. And it's hard to believe that I've only been gigging around regularly from about April or May last year; last Chinese New Year I was looking forward to the monetary windfall just like every New Year.

But then again I better not make too much out of the whole earn-my-own-money thing, or I may have to start giving out ang pows too.

Inadequacy

2010-02-05T20:53:00Z

3 years down the road, and I think I've come a long way. But there is always this sense of unfulfilled potential, that I could be so much more than what I am now. So many 'what if...' and 'if only...' situations. This year I'll be 21, and time is slowly running out. Having all the potential in the world is pointless if it just remains as 'potential'. I don't want to be the guy who 'looked so promising when he was young' but ended up nowhere later in life.

But there will always be someone who is a better improviser, someone who's a better clarinetist, someone who's a better keyboardist/pianist, someone with better saxophone tone, someone who writes better string quartets, someone who has done killin' arrangements.

It's depressing.

What's the point of being the best of something average? Maybe I need something to spur me on, to challenge my musical ego. Sometimes I wish there were more horn players around in college, more people with the same passion for the things I do. And maybe a bit less of the ones who complain only.

Ah. How I wish every day was Jazz Camp. Better getting my ass kicked daily then have it sit around rotting away.

So much to say

2010-01-31T14:50:00Z

But what's the point. Everybody has their own opinions, thoughts, grievances. We can choose to tell the whole world about it, or just keep it to ourselves. And sometimes, it's easy to say things about a situation before knowing exactly what is going on.

I may have a pretty loose tongue, but maybe not this time.

We will wait and see.

***

These guys have a lot to say too.

Again.

2010-01-19T16:52:00Z

It sucks when you go to sleep early because you have class at 9am the next day, then wake up at 1am and realise you're fully awake and can't go back to sleep.

So much for 'good sleeping habits'. Looks like I lasted 19 days.

Here we go again

2010-01-19T12:25:00Z

So I just have 3 classes this semester. But for those 3 classes, I have to:

1. Compose original music for 3 visual media clips - commercial, film, multimedia (video game, flash etc)
2. Arrange and score music for a vocal group of 4-12 vocalists.
3. Do a multi-track recording (minimum 16 tracks) and mix a separate pre-approved multi-track session.

This is gonna be fun (as long as I don't start two weeks before project submission day).

And at least all my lecturers this semester are really good and know their stuff.

Hole

2010-01-04T17:44:00Z

You lie down at night with the lights off, trying to sleep. You can't. So you open your eyes and stare blankly into space. And then, you start thinking. It's then you realize, that there is an emptiness. An emptiness coming straight from that hole, which can't simply be filled with money, relationships, friends, material possession, achievements.

But you wonder why all this while you've been trying to fill the hole with those things.

Resolutions, they come and go

2010-01-01T05:13:00Z

I spent my New Year's Eve doing a crappy gig at a Lebanese restaurant on Pavilion's 6th floor, complete with a noob sound engineer who was playing with the faders like a kid seeing a mixer for the first time. The pay wasn't that great either. And to round things off, I left my keyboard stand in Pavilion.

Nice way to end the year.

***

I had been thinking of writing a review of the past year, but somehow I never got down to it. We'll see how that works out.

***

So 2010 is here. I've never been a make-a-resolution person, mainly because I never keep them. But I'm going to try anyway, and see how long I can keep up. I think last year, I lasted till about one week before Chinese New Year. Alright here we go.

1. I will have good sleeping habits. (Will probably last until the first late-night gaming session at WCG)

2. I will plan, complete and submit all my projects and assignments early. (I've been saying this since the second semester)

~~3. I will practice, practice and practice the clarinet, saxophone and keys so I will become more happening musician.~~

You know what, I shouldn't have to make that a resolution. I will do it. And I will become a more happening musician.

Anyway..

2009-12-26T09:47:00Z

I just noticed that I posted the last entry on Christmas. So for the first time in my life I spent my Christmas away from Kuching, away from family and old friends. I'm not sure if it's something I want to do again, but I have a feeling that this is gonna a regular occurrence in the future. Sigh.

The I-Miss-Camp bug bit me again this afternoon. I keep logging on to Facebook just to look for pictures and updates from friends, to smile at the crazy photos we took etc etc. And today when I went for my jazz camp, my friend parked his car at the carpark near Darby Park, the one which we always walked through every morning on our way to DFP. And then of course I walked down that familiar path through the KLCC park again. And when we had our lunch break it just felt funny, going for lunch again at KLCC, trying to find a place to sit at the food court. I just don't know how to explain it; everything was so familiar yet so different.

For all that I wrote/complained about in my last post, I realised that I actually miss a lot about camp, especially the company of friends and all the time we spent together. If only things could be like the past, where we could put aside our differences/reservations/opinions, and just get along together as one big group. As the Tribe. But then again, as I mentioned before, times have changed. I guess we all know each other a little too well now.

But it's alright, next camp, I'm gonna try make things work for everyone. I'll see how long I'll last.

***

Ah, back to reality. I've got to go to One Utama pretty soon for yet another Christmas gig. And then it's more practice in preparation for tomorrow's camp sessions.

When all of this is over, I'm gonna take a really long nap.

No rest for the weary

2009-12-25T08:09:00Z

So I spent nearly 2 weeks rehearsing/on tour with the MPYO, performing in Singapore and KL. I get two days off for Christmas, then it's back to DFP from the 26th to the 30th, this time for the first ever MPO Jazz Camp.

"As many of you already know, the participation to this camp is on an invitation-only basis. You were recommended by trusted musicians that considered you to be a great asset to this project."

Hahaha. I have a feeling I'm seriously gonna get my ass kicked.

***

I want to talk about camp. I have so much to say. But then again, what's the point. You've made up your mind already, so I'd just be wasting my breath. I'd probably come to a more amicable understanding arguing with a brick wall.

Apparently I'm very good at words and convincing others. Hmm, that's very rich, coming from certain quarters. It ain't December 2007 you know.

Apparently I also have ulterior motives whenever I say/do/plan something seemingly innocuous.
- When I want to stay the night on our day off, I actually have 'other' intentions in mind.
- When I want to go out and have a drink, I actually want to get other people drunk so I can blackmail them.
- When I say 'Hello, how are you?', I actually mean 'Hey I'm being really nice to you, do you want to be my gf?'

It's ironic that I actually planned to have a drama-free camp and to try my best to avoid any awkward situations from arising, both for myself and for other people. Don't think that I did not notice things going on here and there. I could have said a lot of things in the first few days and made things much more interesting, and maybe 1 or 2 years ago I would have, but this camp I respected your privacy and I trusted that we were all old enough to keep our opinions to ourselves.

I was wrong.

Well I guess even if David Ling tries to avoid drama/confrontations/Cold War, other people willingly create drama/confrontations/Cold War for David Ling. Ah well, I'm resigned to my fate then.

(Of course you don't have to believe a single word of the above)

***

I want to talk about camp. I have so much to say. It was great playing with so many other talented musicians, and I guess we all have reached a point where we have mutual respect for each others' talents and abilities.

It's funny that not so long ago, I'd have this feeling that maybe some of the other MPYO members sort of 'looked down' on me because I wasn't a pure, 100% classical musician. Maybe it was just me. But not any more. Even within my clarinet section, we have a good thing going on between all 4 of us and we are getting along well.

And of course, there's the Tribe. I guess with so many people gone and a number of new faces, things were never going to be the same. It doesn't help that we only see each other every 3 months, and when we do meet up for camps, those one/two weeks are so intense. The secret is probably keeping ourselves grounded in reality and not getting to carried away with the emotions and experiences during the camps. Our real lives are what we go through between the camps, and there isn't much point in creating a huge emotional bubble only for it to burst after each camp ends. And I can relate that to why I do not want to make the same mistake of getting attached to someone during our camps, but it is probably beyond my capacity to explain it sufficiently, and some people would just take it with a pinch of salt anyway.

Please tell me someone actually understood the above paragraph.

And can I be so optimistic as to think that in the future, when we look back at all this, we only remember the good things?

***

Dylan, I'm falling sick. I think it's from you. Not your fault though. Better sick than not having you around on the last night of camp haha.

Red package

2009-12-20T11:28:00Z

18th October 2009

20th December 2009

Ho ho ho my keyboard-borrowing days are over.

How to prepare reeds

2009-12-12T22:12:00Z

Now reeds. Optimally, you’ll want to move to Cuba, grow and cure your own cane, and carve your own reeds by hand. If you’re just a “weekend warrior” however, you can get by with store-bought.

First, buy ten boxes of reeds -100 in all. Next, open all the boxes and throw away 60 reeds.
Those were unplayable. Take the remaining reeds and soak them in a mixture of 27.8% rubbing alcohol and 72.2% pituitary gland extract for a period of 17 weeks.

Throw away 20 more reeds. Those were stuffy.

Take the remaining 20 reeds and sand each one for exactly 13 seconds with #1200 grade 3M sandpaper.

Throw away 14 reeds. Those squeaked.

Take the remaining 6 reeds and soak them for another 17 weeks, this time however in a mixture of 27.8% pituitary gland extract and 72.2% rubbing alcohol.

Sun dry the 6 remaining reeds for 3 weeks, optimally at an equatorial latitude, and throw away 3 more just on general principles.

You now have 3 reeds that will last you several months if you play each one only 20 minutes a day in strict rotation.

***

From the 'How To Play The Saxophone' at Pete Thomas's site. The link is in the sidebar if you wanna check it out.