"Silence! I Kill You..."

In my last post I mentioned that perhaps I may leave my unfinished vocal booth just the way it is, especially considering that it works perfectly fine in its current setup... and to be honest, I just don't have the budget (nor the motivation) to finish it off at the moment. Leaving it in its current state however does have its challenges... most obvious would be 'noise' due to its lack of soundproofing.

Luckily, the studio is in the quietest room in the house (well, apartment to be exact). It faces nothing but the hallway, so its virtually oblivious to the construction noises from surrounding areas and public noises from the recreational area. There is the occasional 'noisy neighbour syndrome', but due to the current low occupancy rate the building is still relatively peaceful... for now anyways.

The air-con is a slight issue, but I find that if I cool the room adequately I could switch it off during recording and get a good 10-15 minutes before the room starts to get warm again. Ok, so it might be a problem when sessions need to go for longer but so far I've had no major issues... not yet anyway.

So the only major noise culprit at the moment is none other than the heat-generating always-in-need-of-extra-cooling PC. With multiple fans spinning at around 2000 rpm, the constant ambient sound has so far inevitably made its way into every recorded wave file. Granted that I do use a software that help reduce the unwanted noise, but it can only do so much. Because the program is design to play around with frequencies, using too much of it will compromise the quality of the recording itself as it may alter vital and required frequencies.

What started out as just a simple open-and-look into my PC became two days of intense research and exploration. From simple silent fan upgrades to water-cooled systems to confusing variable-fan-speed Power Supply Units (PSU) that adjusts itself according to system load percentages, I was amazed at how intricate the concept of silencing a PC could be. I learnt that in order to quieten down the PC properly I had to first understand the interrelation between heat generation & cooling, and to understand that, I needed to understand the lingo that come with the subject such as CFM, db, rpm, W, V, hz... u know, all the geeky stuff. Anyways, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I actually understood most of it (coz I didn't), but I'm learning..

Having done all that research however only made it more frustrating because due to my financial shortage I was not able to go out and purchase all the 'good stuff'. All is not lost though as I did have some spare parts lying around the house (mainly from my brother's abandoned PC) so I figured doing 'something' is better than 'nothing'.

I first began with the Northbridge. I had noticed a long time ago that unlike most motherboards that I've seen, my mobo uses a fan to supplement the cooling of its MCH. I had always found this to be unusual and question its necessity, especially considering that others don't really require it. The aim is silence and cutting down unnecessary fan usage is a very good place to start, but I was concerned that if I was to simply remove the fan, the heatsink that it came with may not have been designed to work on its own.

To cut down the risk I decided to replace the whole heatsink/fan combo with a heatsink-only unit taken from my brothers faulty motherboard. It looked as if it could dissipate heat better so it was probably a wise decision.

Next, was to change the CPU cooler. The noise generated from the stock heatsink/fan combo that came with the P4 2.8ghz CPU was too damn loud. I swear it must have at least let out around 45db! Once again, thanks to the well equipped abandoned PC, I managed to upgrade my CPU cooler to a more 'expensive' heatsink, and a quieter silent-fan that I had purchased a while ago. I was a little worried about the airflow at first as the fan only generates 27CFM, but my bro used to run his PC (with the same heatsink) with a 37CFM fan, and had no problems in normal environment temperatures. My studio is air conditioned, so I took an educated guess and assume that it should theoretically be okay. Worth a shot. At only 21db we're talking about reducing more than half the noise here.

As graphically nice as it was to upgrade my graphics card to an Nvidia 6800 (a nice donation by a friend) from an Ati 9250, noise level did move up drastically due the unit requiring the use of a cooling fan. Furthermore, its fan was the noisiest of all the fans in the casing because it was not only tiny, but also faulty. Therefore, a small sacrifice had to be made and I replaced the better card with my old 9250 because of its passive cooling system (no fan, no noise).

There were only a few fans left to attend to, and the bulk of it all were case fans. Not having the budget to go out and purchase new silent ones, I did the next best thing I could do: I installed a fan controller. I figured, if I can't get new ones, I'll slow the current ones down to its bare (yet still working) minimum.

As my brothers PC lay in pieces due to my 'strip and inherit' actions (sorry dude! I'll replace em eventually I promise), it was finally time to check out the results.

Upon startup the PC noise level was noticeably quieter. It was much more bearable.

Next was to test how the computer was running. A quick install of SpeedFan and temperatures seem to be steady. CPU is running in the 50 degree park (+/- 3 degrees) which is standard... Everything else seem to be running smooth too, with the exception of the 2nd HDD that seems to have quite a high reading.. but I'm suspecting that its due to a faulty sensor, cause the temp never seem to fluctuate.. which is truly odd indeed.

Now with a quieter CPU fan, the elimination of the northbridge/mch fan and graphics card fan, and the ability to slow down the case fans, I think I had reduced the noise level by about 35%, which is not bad considering I only relied on spare parts that were lying around the house. However, I plan to reduce the overall level by 85% and I really do believe that a quiet PSU and a specially designed PC case will give me that extra 50% reduction I need.

Now... who owes me money...?

D.I.Y. Vocal Booth - Phase #1

If you recall one of my past postings (Wardrobe Records) I once attempted to make a vocal booth by using materials that was available from around the house such as shelves, drawers, curtains, etc etc.. and unfortunately it didn't quite work out. There were several reasons for its failure...

First of all the structure was predominantly my wardrobe - which simply was too embarrassing to have anyone step in there and sing amongst my undies. Then there was the height problem - probably no more than 175cm in height it would have made it impossible for somebody taller than myself to use it. Lastly, it was just plain UGLY!

Ever since then I've been contemplating on making a more practical and decent looking booth... and after much research on the internet I finally got off my ass and did it. It was just as well that my sister happened to be around for a visit because help was something that I was going to need.

I started by asking myself "how big do I want it be?". The tiny studio that I operate from is probably only around 70 square feet in floor space, so I don't exactly have a lot of room.

After much thought, I settled on taking slightly less than a quarter of the room space, and planned to make it a perfect square dimension of 4ft by 4ft. To ensure that my tallest talent (who is 6'2") can fit in it properly, I decided the booth should be at 7ft height.

After a little research on material prices, I found out that it was not a good time for me financially to fully complete the booth, but I knew that I needed 'something' function-able in order to proceed with the upcoming projects. I therefore decided to split the project into 2 phases. Phase #1 is building the frame, and phase #2 would be the rest.

So off we went to the hardware store (armed with a scrap piece of paper that I doodled my 'plans' on) and bought myself materials to kick off the first phase.


Material List:

Wood (4x 7" long & 8x 4" long)
Nails
Wood glue

At first I had planned to simply join the wood together at its ends and simply knock nails into the corners... but after much careful thought, I figured that that approach of 'engineering' would probably make the structure superbly weak. So we headed to the store again for some L-shaped brackets and, since the brackets work better with screws rather than nails, we also got ourselves some long-screws and a Phillips-head drill bit.


And so work began early that day at 9am. A lot of careful measuring, marking, drilling, and drill-screwing soon took place and I quickly learned that the project was a lot harder than expected.

The wood was cheap and needed to be sanded down to avoid serious splinters. However, despite it's low price and quality, it was still strong enough to make drilling an absolute chore. So strong in fact that it broke the drill piece.. and that temporarily halted the project as we had to head out again and purchase another one! At that point the day was already half way through, and so far we had only managed to complete one side of the frame!



Making the 2nd frame was not easy either. Another drill bit broke and the work came to another unexpected halt. By the end of the day we had only completed 2 sides of the booth frame. Time was running short and a recording session was due the next day. There was just no physical way for us to finish it off.



We decided to call it a day and work ended at 2am. Two broken drill bits later and we had only done 2 out of the 4 sides. We had to quickly think of a temporary solution if the studio was to accommodate the upcoming recording. The best thing we could think of was to put the 2 complete frames up in an L-Shape, stuff 'em in a corner, and drop curtains around it (hmmm... reminiscence of my 'wardrobe' booth...). Ok so it wouldn't be soundproof, but at least vocals can be recorded without unwanted ambient and wall-bouncing sounds.

Work started the same time the next day day and we began the execution of our plan. Thank god things were a lot smoother the 2nd day; For some odd reason, problems were somehow easier to solve. For example, after putting the frame up to its planned L-Shape, we couldn't find anything to hold them together. We simply rolled a few rounds of masking-tape onto the two frames and problem solved!


After about half a day of assembling the 2 frames, a quick strip of curtains and its railings from around my apartment, the booth was finally done! Well, not quite... Ok so we've only managed to finish half of phase #1 but hey, it'll do for now.

So far the booth does the job... and it does it quite well. Provided that the studio remains quiet during recording (which I foresee could be a slight problem when talents start bringing their friends to recording sessions) I don't quite see the need to rush it to its 2nd phase.

In fact, some have complemented on how good the quality of the vocals are sounding in my recording nowadays. I'm actually considering keeping it this way! Now if only I could get my PC to quieten down...

"Oops I did it again.."

"Oops I did it again"... DELAY! This is just getting ridiculous! Hahaha.

Hey for those of you who actually bother to read my blog and are actually anticipating the release of my songs, I truly do apologize. I really really really wanted to post 'em 2 weekends ago but I just haven't had the time.

I had a Monday Deadline on 3 projects on the first weekend (which obviously would take anybody's weekend away), and another project made its way on the weekend past... which I am currently rushing to finish so as to meet tomorrows deadline. So why am I blogging then you ask? Killing time... Talent's not free till 8pm tonight. Which means I'll be burning the midnight oil finishing up on the mix.

Anyways, I'd LIKE to say that I'll have it up by THIS coming weekend, but damn it I just can't trust myself anymore! So, tell you what.. I'll simply stop predicting the posting date and just write about it AFTER I actually post em! lol.

Keepin' Positive

So it's been 4 months now since my life virtually turned upside down, and I finally had a revelation today... well, to be honest, I've had a few already but somehow kept falling off the wagon again and again. So what makes this time different? Absolutely nothing really... but as a friend of mine said, each time you fail, you come back stronger.. so I guess what makes this time distinct is probably because I now have the wisdom to actually try and keep positive in hope to sustain this energy.

A quick recap? Well, I broke up with my girl of 5 years.. need I say more? One broken heart is all it takes to have your soul diminish into thin air.. making you pretty much a useless human being. But hey, keepin' positive right? It was probably for the best. Due to matters that were beyond our control (Hint: Stupid Prehistoric Laws of the land!) we never really did have a bright future painted for us... I'll just leave it at that though. Somehow a debate over constitutional rights is a sensitive issue in this country.

However, I'm pleased to inform you that I have not been totally useless these last few months.

I have recently started a company with my previous boss (who is also a dear friend) specialising in Music Composition. It was rather odd to have an opportunity emerge out of nowhere that suddenly sparked a whole chain of events that has lead to the establishment of the business... but that's how it is. So what was the opportunity? Producing songs for children Television programs. Okay, so it may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it gives me the chance to gain relative experiences and develop my producing/engineering skills rapidly. Plus, the money ain't something to complain about.

Unfortunately, sacrifices had to be made and hence the 'even-further' delay on the release of my songs. For weeks now, between working on multiple jobs for the company and struggling to handle my personal life dilemma, I simply have not had the time (nor the enthusiasm) to even consider moving forward with my album. But hey! It's time to be positive now... and since things have quieten down a little, I'm ready to start again.

I plan to post 3 songs by this Weekend, though the original plan was to post 4. The 4th song - Eh Oh (I Miss You) - is not ready, and I doubt it will be for a while. Due to its 'personal' nature, and because I'm in the spirit of keepin' positive, I don't think it's wise to dwell into the emotions that the song requires at the moment. Fret not, for one day I will be strong enough to complete it.

So what else is new? Gym! That's right. This slightly overweight beer-bellied boy is on his way to looking like a Popstar again. I've been going religiously for 3 weeks now and let me tell you that years of abuse to my body is not easy to repay. However, having combined my workout with careful dieting, I believe I've lost 1-2kgs already... Can't really confirm it as I don't have a weighing-scale, but I'm assuming so cause I can finally fit my old jeans again!

I really gotta give a shoutout to my homie Jack Yeo for getting me started. He came over to KL for a visit and shocked the hell out of me when he came out the arrival hall all buffed and sh!t. Thanks mate! You're my inspiration. LIVE-STRONG!


So I think that's about all the updates I got at the moment. 2 more days and you can finally listen to what I've been rambling about. You're gonna love it, fer sure! Cocky? Hey, I'm Keepin' Positive here!

What Goes Around, Comes Around..

Not many get to feel what it's like to achieve a lifelong dream. I really do believe that it's something that no one could possibly imagine. Yes, granted you could picture the joys that you would feel by being able to do what you've always wanted... it's a little bit like getting a glass of water when you're extremely thirsty... but you couldn't possibly imagine the consequences that lies ahead, particularly to those that are closest to you.

See, the thing about achieving a dream, is that you naturally get on a (what I like to call it) 'HIGH' - particularly in it's initial stages. When things start happening, you feel invincible, because everything you touch seem to always turn to gold. Your life changes... and your horizon expands. New life, new people, new money... what's not to enjoy??

Unfortunately, the consequence of this is not so much to those who are experiencing it (at least not in the short term), but to those who had supported them before it all began. Usually loved ones, it is the people who held their hand on their way up to success that always seem to get the short end of the stick.

I admit, I am guilty of such an act. When my dreams were realised, I left someone behind in my hometown. Obviously at first you doubt that anything could break the commitment and the loyalty, so you say your goodbyes at the airport like you're just gonna be away for a little while. No big deal.

Then the HIGH begins to set in, and consequently you start to have countless arguments over the phone because for some reason neither one of you understand each other anymore.

She then falls into a bad state of depression. She doesn't sleep, doesn't eat, doesn't care about anything else but to have you home.. her whole life turned upside down due to your absence.

So eventually, she asks from you for the ultimate sacrifice. She asks you to leave behind all that you have going for you and come home... because she just can't hack it anymore. Like the air that she breaths, she NEEDS you by her side. She realised that nothing in this world matters except for your love. Not her job, not all the money in the world, not even her dreams. She just wants YOU.

You, however, can't seem to grasp what she means... or do you? It's funny how we tend to pretend NOT to know something when its convenient.

Guilt starts to eat you up inside, because you know it's selfish, but you feel that for once you deserve to be selfish... this is your lifelong dream! and it's everything you imagined it to be. Why should anyone stop you from having this?

This is where the HIGH begins to cloud your judgment. Before this, you wouldn't have even flinched on the idea of going home if the love of your life needed you. But now, you think differently. Now you start thinking stuff like "I'm coping well on my own, why can't she do the same?" So you still try to negotiate, but she's beyond compromise.

You're torn between two extremes... and the words 'small sacrifice for the greater good' start to whisper in your head. What else can you do?

You finally give her a call to break it off... only months from the time you first waved goodbye to her at the airport, you end the 3 year relationship. You settle on the most politically correct excuse: "I don't want you to suffer anymore. I want you to move on..."

So now you finally get to live your dream guilt-free... but you could never have predicted that eventually, regardless whether or not your dream sustains, the HIGH will end. The guilt will return, and you'd be lucky if it doesn't eat you up inside for the rest of your life or worst, karma returning you the favor.

For me, unfortunately, the worst occurred. Now that my girl is living her dream... what followed was virtually an identical series of events... except now, it's my turn to be on the short end of the stick.

I guess it's true what JT says; "what goes around comes all the way back around"... and I finally feel the pain that I myself caused to someone else before... and to have it end by the same politically correct excuse? Priceless.

I packed her things... and place them all in one corner... only to see this pile everyday... 5 years of beautiful memories... just waiting to eventually be picked up. Safe to say, it is the saddest moment of my life...

Doin nothin but Eh-Oh Eh-Oh Oh Oh...

"I'm 2 weeks overdue!" Those are the words that keep repeating in my head. I'm only 1 song away but I just can't seem to finish it off. I sit, I stare, I explore, I experiment.. but I get annoyed at every additional arrangement that I try to put in. I've grown to like the song in its demo state... its arrangement so basic that the melody just pops out... and I can't help but feel that all it needs is something subtle to complete it.. but what??

Further to the frustration is the fact that I know (and everyone else seem to agree) that this song IS THE SINGLE. It has the hook, the meaning, the vibe.. everything. Now if only I can find the missing link...

The song is called I Miss You (Eh Oh): a song most meaningful to me due to the spiritual connection of how the song came about. It started out as a simple hum-like tune by my girl just before she left the country for work. After her departure, it was no secret that I went through a hard time adjusting to living life without her. Naturally my thoughts on the matter turned to lyrics and what better way to express them than to use the melody that was made by the same person that I'm writing it for. The song fittingly developed into something really special.. at least for me.

However, unlike every other song that I've composed with inner most deep emotions, the song did not turn out to be a ballad. Instead, it's a catchy up-tempo song that you could actually groove to and lyrics that you could easily sing along with. Odd..

At this point, you're probably wondering what 'Eh Oh' means. Obviously, it has no real definition (at least not according to the dictionary nor in any slang I know) but with reference to the title of this post (which is an extract from the lyrics) I had made it out to imply 'meaningless stuff', which pretty much sums up how I've been living my life since my girl left. Life feels so empty and everything I do seem pointless cause I can't share the experiences with her.. it's all just 'eh oh eh oh'.

Although now it's more of a 'creativity block', initially the delay was due to several reasons. You may notice that I had only 1 post for the whole month of December. Yes I was distracted and was virtually off-track from the project. A few opportunities came up for me to earn some cash and I grabbed it with both hands. I guess economics finally threw in a monkey wrench in my realm of passion: I just can't survive by only making my own music... at least not yet.

However, the job was not far-off from what I do.. just that I'm doing it for someone else. I still worked with music, still engineered, still sang and still recorded. Looking at it positively, I gained experiences of relevance. So, no loss at all.. except time.

My social life played an important role too in the delay. It was a festive season after all!

Ok so 2k8 is finally here and my original plan of posting my songs over the web 'first thing' is obviously not on track. However, I don't really think anyone is anticipating them or really give a sh!t right? I mean seriously, Who really reads this blog??