This is a blog of Linh Microwave, where you could find anything that I wanna share. From daily life thoughts to band tours, from photos to audio production, etc. Enjoy ;)
I was so tired for a while. Didn't think about it recently. But when I look back, I wonder why how I survived after all.
As an electrical engineer, I faced too many troubles since the beginning of 2009. 02 generators suddenly broken down, burned out both stators and rotors, 01 other gen. failed after 03 non-working-years unexpectedly. And many motors of all kinds needed to be overhauled due to their mainternance time. All the technical details, drawings, standards to follow and take care of. The result was that I had to travel back and forth among Saigon, Hanoi, Vung Tau a lot. I went to Hanoi on business nearly once a month from Feb through Sep. At first it seemed interesting, but after sometimes, I was disappointed in my Hanoi musician friends' spirit. Without their leader, they almost lost their faith and seemed to give up music. Besides that, my business in Hanoi was not always smooth, dealing with and supervising the contractor were like playing games. It's hard to guide them to follow our company's Western standards. And a lot of paper works and payment receipts... Yep, works'll never end.
With Microwave, I achieved a big step with the 2nd album - "Time". The production phase was interesting and fun, but sometime it's a pressure to finish it on time. Lots of experiments, re-tracking and re-mixes to fit the sonic to every members' tastes. Yes, it's fun but it took more than 1 year already dudes. And I'm glad that it got some success recently :D In 2009, I was so crazy about musical gears, spent a lot to get 02 Mesa Boogie amps, a Paul Reed Smith Signature guitar, and a lot on my Protools studio gears. Have you ever heard of G.A.S.? Yep, the Gear-Aquisition-Syndrome hahaha :)) Now I need a lot of acoustic treatments to shape the studio room sound. But right now, I could start composing and producing again :D
And this year ends with 02 big events. One is my wedding, and the other is the sudden death of our oil rig's captain due to a block vein in his head. He was active and fun in the morning meeting, but passed out so fast in the early evening out there, in the middle of the sea. Both of these happened so fast. The wedding assigned a new role to me, and the captain death reminds me that life is unpredictable. We just got one chance to live, one chance to do what we want. So dudes, let's live up to the fullest!
I had no idea of what would happen in 2009. But now I could see some things to do in the next 2010 and I'll keep them to myself.
So see you guys in a Happy New Year! Best wishes to you and your family!
Recruiting members to form a new rock band in HCMC. Facebook Page
Specification:
- Main language: English.
- Style: Compose band own songs, and can cover some others.
- Genre: Alternative/ Rock/ Pop-rock/ Punk. (References: Paramore, Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Daughtry, David Cook, Third Eye Blind, 3 Doors Down to name a few)
- Outlook: Contemporary, Clean and Professional.
General Requirements to all members:
- Located in Saigon.
- Love to create something new.
- Love to express yourself, your own feelings.
- Can arrange your own time to jam with the band, mostly on weekend.
- Has ability to play at least 01 instrument, no need to play very well, just can play for another to sing.
- Has experience in playing in a band, if you're new, it's still OK.
In details:
* Vocalist:
- Male or Female.
- Can cover some English songs that you can do your best. (This is required in audition)
- Wiliing to develope singing skill. (You'll receive DVDs and books on vocal training and be tested every weekend)
- MOST IMPORTANT: Can express your own ideas or opinions or feelings as texts.
* Drummer:
- Male only.
- Can cover some English songs that you can do your best no matter what genre they are. (This is required in audition)
- Willing to focus exercising on techniques and consistency.
- Has your own drums or drum pads to practice at home.
* Bassist:
- Male or Female.
- Can cover some English songs that you can do your best no matter what genre they are. (This is required in audition)
- Willing to focus exercising on techniques and consistency.
- Has your own bass guitar with/without FXs.
* Guitarist:
- Male only.
- Can cover WELL some English songs that you can do your best especially alternative and rock. (This is required in audition)
- Has basic knowledge on guitar sounds and FXs according to each genre.
- Has your own playing / sound taste. This will affect strongly to the band's voice and genre.
- Has your own guitar and FX.
- MOST IMPORTANT: Can express your own ideas or opinions or feelings as texts.
* Keyboard or 2nd guitarist:
- Male or Female.
- Can cover some English songs that you can do your best. (This is required in audition)
- Has your own instrument.
Send your demos or link to mp3 demos or spread out these infos to your friends to start a new chance.
I always know that each time I had trouble with my DAW, when I had to re-install everything, I'd get a powerful system again, with the best of the best toys to suit my work flow.
This time I still get some little good news upon the rest, that I've just lost the OS and some games, some "movies" :"> . All the projects' data are still safe in the other external HD, including the new Microwave Time album.
The previous time was not as lucky. Everything related to Microwave debut album "Escape" was totally destroyed. I still keep that harddisk, hope that someday somebody would rescue it, and I definitely do some remix and remaster things.
Microwave 2009 Poster lockscreen theme for iPhone !!! Made by ACK hehe
Instructions: (Your iPhone must have Winterboard app. installed from Cydia first)
1. Download the new theme files to your computer. Here the links: http://rapidshare.com/files/276736191/MW_Slider.theme.zip http://rapidshare.com/files/281220994/MW_Poster_Lockscreen.theme.zip
2. Use DiskAid or PhoneView application to access your iPhone disk. 3. Copy these 2 theme files into this folder:
/private/var/stash/Themes.XXXXX/
(note: XXXXX is your phone folder characters, this maybe different from mine so I made it XXXXX)
4. Open Winterboard, uncheck any lockscreen and slider themes, then check MW Poster Lockscreen and MW Slider themes. 5. Exit to Home and wait for the phone to respring then enjoy !
DO NOT read this post if you have a large collection of mp3s, enjoy listening to them and can’t hear any problems with them, because it’ll ruin them for you !
There’s been plenty written on how mp3 works, and why lossy compression sounds worse than uncompressed audio in general. My aim here is to demonstrate how mp3 sounds bad, for all the people who keep telling me there’s no difference.
I’m going to give you clear guidelines and examples on what to listen for and the negative effects of mp3, but there’s no going back - once you can hear the problems, you’ll never stop hearing them.
This isn’t limited to audiophiles, or “golden ears”, by the way - in my opinion anyone can hear this stuff, with a few pointers.
So seriously, unless you’re prepared to start using FLAC or AAC (which means buying an iPod) - stop reading now !
Still here ? Good.
First, I need to make this clear - I have nothing against lossy audio or data compression in itself - I do most of my casual listening on an iPod, using 128kbps AAC files - they sound fine. Not as good as the original CDs, obviously, but OK. And yes, I’m well aware that AAC is just a more advanced version of mp3. But the fact is that mp3 has fundamental limitations - even at higher bitrates.
Next - I’m also a pragmatist. mp3 is a temporary phenomenon, just like AM radio, cassettes and CDs. In the long run, none of those have killed music, and neither will mp3, or lossy compression in general. So, why the rant ?
Because people keep saying mp3 sounds great, or “indistinguishable from CD” and it’s just not true.
mp3 isn’t good enough
It doesn’t matter what encoder you use, it doesn’t matter what settings you use or what pre-processing you apply - mp3 just doesn’t cut it. AAC and later, more sophisticated encoders use more advanced encoding methods, and sound better to varying degrees, but mp3 just FAILs.
How does it fail ? That depends a little on the encoder being used, but some of my own pet hates include:
mp3 sizzle - the artificial, unnatural swirling metallic noises that sound like someone’s added chime bars to everything, or there’s a mosquito buzzing in your ear. Some people actually say we prefer these noises in mp3s - I say bullshizzle ! Added distortion - Yet another side effect of the so-called Loudness Wars. mp3 encoders rarely include any headroom for the encoding process itself, so the added processing pushes the music even further over the limits, generating inter-sample peaks and adding even more distortion in the process Flat, two-dimensional sound mp3 works by throwing away musical information that we supposedly can’t hear - up to 90% of the original information, at 128kbps. That means all the subtle, delicate stuff, like ambience, space and realism. So a lush, three-dimension original is reduced to a flat, cardboard replica of itself Mushiness All but the very best mp3 encodes just sound fuzzy, muddled and - well, mushy !
Hear for yourself
Don’t take my word for it - here are some examples. First, a truly nasty 128kbps mp3 example, from a Deep Purple live album I mixed a while back:
(Before anyone jumps on me, I’ve heard even a 256 kbps mp3s sounding like this - I’ve just used a low quality version to make the point.)
If that doesn’t sound too bad to you at first, try this - I’ve filtered the file to highlight the high frequencies. You can hear the problems most clearly when the vocals start:
Some people describe this effect as “sizzle”, or “swirlies”. It’s not just that I’ve removed all the bass, what I’m pointing out is the unatural bubbling, twinkling “chime-bar” type sound, or as my friend and fellow mastering engineer Nick Watson once called it, the “flocks of tweeting ultrasonic birdies”. It also reminds me of someone crinkling up tin foil !
Once you’ve picked it out, listen the first version again. Doesn’t sound so nice now, does it ? Can you ignore the swirlies, now you know they are there ?
Listen to the clarity, punch, and bite of the WAV, compared to the swirly, soggy mess of an mp3. Which one do you prefer ?
The loss of depth, richness and three-dimensionality is more subtle side-effect, but just as unfortunate. Here’s a snippet of a recording I did for the brilliant Hans Koller, featuring Christine Tobin on vocals:
(This is a much better mp3 encode, with far fewer heinous swirlies. But still…)
Don’t expect the difference here to leap out at you straight away, it’s more a case of feeling it - listen to the swirls of the harp from 30 seconds in, listen to the piano and Christine’s voice - on the wav file, there’s a warmth, and a depth, and a sparkle that in the mp3 has just gone.
Listen to the wav several times over, then switch to the mp3. Do you honestly feel it sounds as good ? The mp3 is OK, but it’s just… meh. I’m not drawn in, my attention wanders, it doesn’t move me.
Something essential has been lost, and you can’t get it back. And once you’ve heard that loss, even cranking the data-rate up doesn’t help. The only solution is a more advanced format, or lossless files.
Try listening to the mp3s in your music collection. Go back and compare them to the CDs you ripped them from.
…Sorry.
My comment: This is what I recognized long time ago. Since the day I started to listen to MP3 files in the 90s, I felt something wrong with them, but couldn't tell what is it. Till now, even there're some foreign producers can't listten to and don't accept the fact that there're differences between WAV and MP3, or 44.1kHz and 96kHz. That's why nowadays there's less and less high sonically quality music, as long as people keep listening to crappy music TV channels, or desktop speakers.
These days, it seems that quantity and pace are more demanded than quality in every aspects of life. People cannot make choice of what they want to listen or watch. The MEDIA industry is doing that for them. Feeding all the garbage day by day surrounding our senses.
Yup, we couldn't change anything, just try to survive and keep our own tastes. Try to keep it high, dudes ;)
Microwave "Time" album 2009 lockscreen theme for iPhone !!! Made by ACK hehe
Instructions: (Your iPhone must have Winterboard app. installed from Cydia first)
1. Download 2 theme files to your computer. Here the links: http://rapidshare.com/files/276736191/MW_Slider.theme.zip http://rapidshare.com/files/276735971/MW_Lockscreen.theme.zip
2. Use DiskAid or PhoneView application to access your iPhone disk. 3. Copy these 2 theme files into this folder:
/private/var/stash/Themes.XXXXX/
(note: XXXXX is your phone folder characters, this maybe different from mine so I made it XXXXX)
4. Open Winterboard, uncheck any lockscreen and slider themes, then check MW Lockscreen and MW Slider themes. 5. Exit to Home and wait for the phone to respring then enjoy !
Album thứ 2 của ban nhạc Microwave mang tên "Thời gian" dự kiến ra mắt vào ngày 09.09.09. Tracklist, poster và hình ảnh promo chính thức của ban nhạc năm 2009 đã được công bố.
Với album này, Microwave muốn truyền đạt ý tưởng về sự phát triển phong cách âm nhạc với một ý nghĩa mới. Những tia sóng sẽ năng động hơn, xóa nhòa ranh giới giữa âm thanh và ánh sáng. Tìm đến những sáng tạo mới vượt qua những quy cách thông thường. Sóng âm thanh hay sóng ánh sáng, tất cả sẽ cùng là một Microwave mới.
Tracklist album "Thời gian"
1. Intro
2. Bay
3.Cô đơn
4. Chỉ là giấc mơ
5. Liar
6. Hạt cát
7. Người mẹ
8. Không tên
9. Chuyến xe đêm
10. Thời gian
Theo Ngọc Tùng - guitarist của Microwave thì đây là một album "được đầu tư rất kỹ lưỡng trong quãng thời gian 4 năm – về mặt nội dung âm nhạc, kỹ thuật âm thanh cũng như hình ảnh, nhằm thỏa mãn tối đa sự cuồng nhiệt của các rockfan."
Theo Ngọc Lĩnh guitarist của Microwave thì : "Sự thành công của album Vol.1 "Lối Thoát" đã và luôn là sự khích lệ ủng hộ lớn đối với Microwave. Chúng tôi vô cùng sung sướng và hạnh phúc khi nhận được sự cổ vũ cuồng nhiệt của khán giả khi lưu diễn ở khắp các tỉnh thành từ Bắc vào Nam qua trọn hai tour Rock Storm quy mô và hoành tráng. Tất cả đã góp phần giúp chúng tôi quyết tâm thực hiện thật tốt album thứ hai này."
Các bạn có thể vào website chính thức của ban nhạc để xem thêm những thông tin về tiểu sử các thành viên, quá trình thực hiện album mới tại địa chỉ http://microwave.vn
As many musicians, Microwave always has lot of dreams and passion to share our own music to everybody.
It started from the ealier days that young dudes were eager and fun to take part in high school music competitions. At that time, each of us made a lot of friends and join in many music groups formed from different schools. Within those relationships, in the year of 2001, Lĩnh was invited to play in a Beatles-and-CCR cover band - The Weekend Together. Lĩnh met Trung, the funny drummer there. They were quickly sync. together and enjoyed trying out many music styles since. When this band parted, both of them contacted many other friends to form a new band. The dudes from high school time joined one after another, they was excited to rehearse at the first time, then after a while, they left by personal reasons. Players in-n-out, changing of personal abilities to play, characteristic and personal tastes conflicts..etc. all led to a common situation of forming-then-parting of many young bands in Saigon.
The band was named Microwave in that chaos time, and most of the members were students of different technical universities. The idea was very simple. The rock show is considered a huge oven, and within that space, Microwave will be the strongest waves to resonate with the audiences burning out the passion for music, twisting hard the atmosphere and rocking harder than ever. Yet very simple and passsionate with deep desire.
Naming the band was difficult, but the thing that was even tougher was determining our own Microwave music style. We covered many songs that were considered "rock classic of all time". Slow rock, Heavy metal, Rock ballads tunes of Guns'n'Roses, Metallica, Pantera, SaigonRock, White Lions, ..etc. The joy of perfectly covering those songs didn't last long. We're wandering around and felt that we need to do something that's totally different. "Higher".
Then in 2002, there's a big change in the band. This time, Microwave was more stable and stronger. Tùng guitarist from Cánh Chim Biển, Tuấn bassist from Mad Mosquitoes, Hải vocal found on RockFanClub online forum, Khanh - joined the band as a rapper, Thuấn keyboardist from funny old time of high school. Microwave then had 7 members.
Discovering the new Nu Metal genre with big representatives like LinKinParK, KoRn, Limp Bizkit was a great turn to form our own style. Despite the fact that Limp Bizkit and KoRn were very famous in the early 90s, but within the lack of general music information at that time (turtle-speed internet, no cable TVs and online music forums..etc.) we discovered many Nu Metal bands almost at the same time. The power, contemporary and modern of the mixing of many genres together that created a new genre, a new attraction, opened up a new vision and inspired us to compose our own music within the materials and experiments that we had been experiencing.
At the same time of covering Nu Metal songs, Microwave started to write their own songs. At first, Nu Metal in general and Microwave in particular had to face off many restrictions and bad words because of the dare to go against the "majority-win rule". But bit by bit, with our confidence and steady performance in any rock shows, Microwave persuaded and gained the support of many fans. That encouraged us a lot, and pushed us to make our dreams come true.
And we made it. On 25th December 2005, Microwave was proud to present the debut album "Lối Thoát" (means The Exit) to Vietnamese music scene. It's a achievement of a long long time with many challenges. Within long time experiments and our own musical taste, we composed, edited, recorded and produced this album by ourselves. Eight months of hard-working in the studio, with tired times, conflicted ideas, facing finacial problems, personal things..etc.., this album was nearly impossible to finish. Then came the big change. Thuấn, Hải left the band, Khanh became the lead vocal. Microwave got 5 members left and fixed to this day. Those difficulties seemed to hold us back, but it's so strange that the harder it made, the more inspired we had to compose.
"Lối Thoát" has been gaining people's support bit by bit. From musician dudes with "Ước Mơ" (Dreams), children with the strange-but-fun "Sói" (Wolves), anti-war with "Trái Tim Dũng Cảm" (The Brave Hearts) and "Chiến Tranh" (Wars), and especially the song "Tìm Lại" (Return) gets the deep sympathy and big strong support ground from everybody.
All of that were and will always be the big encouragement and support to Microwave. We were very happy and surprised to receive the wild wild cheers from the audiences when thoroughly touring around many provinces from the North to the South of Vietnam in the large-scale and dramatic rock concerts Rock Storm. All of that encouraged us to produce our second album "Thời Gian" (Time).
In this album, Microwave will develope a new musical style with a new meaning. All the previous waves will be more active, erasing the border between sound and light, finding the way to new creativenesses over ordinary limits. Sound waves or Light waves, all will be a brand new Microwave. Microwave of "Thời Gian".
Official news on this album "Thời Gian" will be updated on time because it's gonna be released soon.
Cũng như nhiều anh em chơi nhạc khác, Microwave luôn có nhiều đam mê và ước mơ chia sẻ âm nhạc của mình đến với mọi người.
Mọi chuyện bắt đầu từ những lần háo hức và vui vẻ dự thi những cuộc thi văn nghệ ở cấp THPT. Nơi đó từng thành viên chúng tôi đã làm quen và chơi chung với nhiều anh em chơi nhạc từ các trường khác nhau. Từ những mối quan hệ đó, đến năm 2001, Lĩnh được rủ rê vào chơi cho một band nhạc chuyên cover The Beatles và CCR - band Weekend Together. Tại band này, Lĩnh đã gặp Trung, tay trống vui tính. Cả hai khá ăn ý khi chơi chung và cùng thích thử nghiệm tập tành chơi nhiều thể loại khác nhau. Khi band này tan rã, cả hai đã cùng nhau liên lạc những người bạn khác để thành lập 1 band mới. Những người bạn cũ thời THPT lần lượt tham gia, cũng hăng hái tập tành, rồi sau 1 thời gian thì rời nhóm vì lý do cá nhân. Thay đổi nhân sự, điều kiện chơi nhạc thay đổi, xung đột cá tính, sở thích... dẫn đến việc hăng hái thành lập rồi lặng lẽ tan rã cũng là tình hình chung của nhiều band nhạc trẻ ở Sài Gòn.
Tên gọi Microwave đã ra đời trong thời gian đó, và hầu hết các thành viên thời điểm đó là sinh viên khối kỹ thuật. Ý tưởng rất đơn giản. Show rock là một cái lò vi sóng to, và trong đó Microwave sẽ là những tia sóng mạnh mẽ cùng cộng hưởng với khán giả đốt nóng đam mê âm nhạc, khuấy động không khí và cùng cháy hết mình, rock hết mình. Rất đơn giản và cuồng nhiệt, đam mê.
Tên gọi đã có, nhưng điều còn khó hơn là việc định hình một phong cách chơi nhạc của riêng Microwave. Chúng tôi cover khá nhiều tác phẩm được gọi kinh điển cuả nhạc rock. Những bài slow rock, heavy metal, rock ballad của Guns'n'Roses, Metallica, Pantera, SaigonRock, White Lions, ... Niềm vui khi chơi lại trọn vẹn được những tác phẩm này nhanh chóng qua đi. Chúng tôi lờ mờ cảm thấy mình cần phải làm điều gì đó khác hơn. Đã hơn nữa.
Đến năm 2002, nhân sự band có sự thay đổi lớn. Lần này đội hình Microwave đã dần dần ổn định và vững mạnh hơn. Tùng guitar đến từ Cánh Chim Biển, Tuấn bass đến từ Mad Mosquitoes, Hải vocal tìm đến band từ forum của CLB RFC, Khanh - khi đó gia nhập band với vai trò rapper, Thuấn keyboard đến từ những mối quan hệ thời phổ thông. Thành viên band lên đến 7 người.
Phát hiện ra dòng nhạc Nu Metal mới mà đại diện là LinKinParK, KoRn và Limp Bizkit là một bước ngoặt lớn trong việc định hình phong cách band. Mặc dù Limp BizKit và KoRn đã cực kỳ nổi tiếng từ những năm 90s, nhưng với sự nghèo nàn thông tin âm nhạc thời điểm đó (internet rùa, chưa có truyền hình cáp và các diễn đàn âm nhạc...), chúng tôi khám phá ra nhiều band Nu Metal gần như cùng lúc. Sự mạnh mẽ, trẻ trung hiện đại pha trộn nhiều thể loại khác nhau tạo nên một phong cách âm nhạc mới, một sức hấp dẫn mới, mở ra cho chúng tôi một tầm nhìn mới và mạnh dạn sáng tạo ra âm nhạc của riêng mình bằng chính các chất liệu và trải nghiệm nền tảng âm nhạc mà chúng tôi sẵn có.
Song song với việc cover Nu Metal, Microwave bắt đầu có những sáng tác của riêng mình. Ban đầu, Nu Metal nói chung và Microwave tại Việt Nam nói riêng gặp phải rất nhiều sự phản đối và chỉ trích gay gắt vì dám đi ngược lại "quy luật bầy đàn". Nhưng dần dần, với sự tự tin và thể hiện mình chắc chắn qua các show rock lớn nhỏ, Microwave đã thuyết phục và lôi cuốn được sự ủng hộ cổ vũ của mọi người. Điều đó đã khích lệ rất nhiều, và góp phần thôi thúc chúng tôi biến những ước mơ của mình thành hành động cụ thể.
Và một trong những ước mơ đó đã trở thành hiện thực. Ngày 25/12/2005, Microwave tự hào ra mắt làng nhạc Việt Nam với việc chính thức phát hành album đầu tay "Lối Thoát". Đó là thành quả của một quá trình dài đầy khó khăn và thử thách. Với sự tìm hiểu cũng khá lâu và gu thẩm mỹ âm thanh riêng của Microwave, chúng tôi đã tự thực hiện việc sáng tác, biên tập, thu âm và sản xuất album này. Tám tháng dài ròng rã trong phòng thu, có những lúc mệt mỏi, mâu thuẫn, gặp khó khăn về tài chính, việc riêng... album này tưởng chừng như sẽ không bao giờ hoàn thành. Band lại có sự thay đổi thành viên. Thuấn, Hải ra đi, Khanh đảm nhận vị trí vocal chính. Đội hình Microwave còn lại 5 thành viên và ổn định cho đến ngày hôm nay. Những khó khăn đó ngăn cản chúng tôi, nhưng rất lạ là càng ngăn cản thì chúng lại càng là nguồn cảm xúc mạnh cho chúng tôi trong việc sáng tác.
"Lối Thoát" đã dần nhận được sự ủng hộ của mọi người. Từ anh em chơi nhạc với "Ước Mơ", các em nhỏ với sự lạ lẫm của "Sói", phản đối chiến tranh phi nghĩa với "Trái Tim Dũng Cảm" và "Chiến Tranh", và đặc biệt là "Tìm Lại" đã nhận được sự đồng cảm và ủng hộ vô cùng mạnh mẽ của tất cả mọi người.
Tất cả đã và luôn là sự khích lệ ủng hộ lớn đối với Microwave. Chúng tôi vô cùng sung sướng và hạnh phúc khi nhận được sự cổ vũ cuồng nhiệt của khán giả khi lưu diễn ở khắp các tỉnh thành từ Bắc vào Nam qua trọn hai tour Rock Storm quy mô và hoành tráng. Tất cả đã góp phần giúp chúng tôi quyết tâm thực hiện thật tốt album thứ hai : "Thời Gian".
Với album này, Microwave sẽ phát triển hơn về mặt phong cách âm nhạc với một ý nghĩa mới. Những tia sóng ngày nào sẽ năng động hơn, xóa nhòa ranh giới giữa âm thanh và ánh sáng. Tìm đến những sáng tạo mới vượt qua những quy cách thông thường. Sóng âm thanh hay sóng ánh sáng, tất cả sẽ cùng là một Microwave mới. Microwave của "Thời Gian".
Mọi thông tin chính thức về album "Thời Gian" sẽ được cập nhật nhanh nhất vì album sẽ sớm ra mắt trong một ngày gần đây.
This week time seems to fly by a little faster. And it seems that my mind is frozen. Maybe I'm bored and tired after a long hard time working on music. PAK album, then MW album. Too many technical decisions to make, too many late nights staring at the screen and trying to make songs better. And that didn't count my business.
But I couldn't stop. My body's tired, but my monster inside still pushed it. Till now, while I'm listening to my fav. songs, I cannot feel them as usual. It's abnormal, yup. Instead, the monster inside is telling me to creat my own things. Damn. New melodies and new riffs are dancing in my head, waiting to be laid onto a track. I can look at the guitar and know what I'm gonna play, what I'm gonna do to catch it. But I don't want to move now. There'll be many rehearsals going on tomorrow and the next day, so I should rest a little bit.
Maybe I'd grab the D80 and wandering with other things. But then, PS make me curious. Damn.
Games? Good, I'd jump into my Gallardo and bump some cops. But gaming'd be a waste of time.
Ooohhh, poor me.
So, I decide to go get some beers and have fun. So simple without thingking huh?
I didnt have enough time to write any thing lately. But today, when I stumble upon some videos that were shooted by some D300S and 5D II, I know that cinematography wouldnt simply be a hobby to me. I talked to myself long long time ago, that someday I'd get a good cam and film the daily life activities around me - family, friends, beauties, ... and thought that would be a step away from audio things that I'm digging in at the moment, help me to relax.
But damn. Those new cameras open up a new vision to me. A new obssesion that push me to do something. Creat something. It's like the time I found out how to use a not-yet-Pentium PC to produce my own music more than 10 years ago. That was a long long story that few people know and understand my efforts.
A well-known producer talked about his own way to become him, that when someone was really into something, then he/she would realize how imperfect things that the others are doing are. That a big step to begin doing & adjusting your own thing in your own way to make it better. And then, suddenly, people would like your works and you get the reputation and if you're really good, you'll make a fortune with it. All normally as it gets.
But that is a really really BIG challenges. People dedicates their whole life just to be heard, to be respected, and to be somebody. I'm just found out joys in doing things like that. Joys that take me lifetime to follow the journey. Damn. The fun is not what it is, but how I did it.
Oh poor me...
I need to take a nap now. Too many stay-up-late nights to have fun. Yup, catch me in the next post. Thanks dudes.
To share some moment of our greatest "KING". I got this from the man who help MJ became "KING". Great experience :-)
Recording and Mixing "Billie Jean"....
The year is 1982. The song is "Billie Jean". The sonic image of Michael Jacksons' "Billie Jean" is a perfect example of what happened, when I sat around dreaming awhile, about combining different recording techniques to produce a unique musical canvas with a tremendous 'sonic personality'.
Of course I was comfortably ensconsed in Westlake Audio’s beautiful new Studio ‘A’ on Beverly Boulevard, with my good friends Quincy Jones, Micheal Jackson and Rod Temperton. We were doing our favorite thing... We were making music!!! We had just started recording Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller”...
We were recording Michael’s song “Billie Jean”.....
I recorded the drums,(played by the fantastic drummer, N'Dugu) with as tight, and powerful a drum sound as I could come up with. Of course I put N'Dugus' drum set on my plywood drum platform. Also at this time, I had a special kick drum cover made that covers the whole front of the kick drum. There's a slot with a zipper in it that the mike fits through. When the kick drum mike is in place, in the slot in my drum cover, I zip the opening tightly shut around the mike.
I brought in my old pal George Massenburgs' spectacular sounding, portable, 12 channel recording console and used it to record the rhythm section. With it I recorded the bass, drums and guitars on my analogue 16 track, with no noise reduction equipment in the way of that fantastic sound!
In my estimation, the the result of the song “Billie Jean”, is a perfect example of what I call “Sonic Personality”. I don’t think there are many recordings, where all you need to hear is the first few drums beats, and you instantly know what song it is.
Great albums always start with great songs....
"Billie Jean" is just such a superb song! Of course, Michael wrote "Billie Jean"..
Quincy says that the lyric that Michael wrote is highly personal. I’m sure that’s true. Michael told us... it was about a girl, that climbed over the wall at Michael’s house, and was lounging out there, by the swimming pool.... she was laying out there, near the pool , lounging... hangin’ out... with shades on, her bathing suit on. One morning she just showed up! Kind of like a stalker, almost. She had accused Michael of being the father of ONE of her twins... Is that possible? I don’t think so....
When it came time for me to mix "Billie Jean", it was business as usual... When I am working with Michael, Quincy, Rod, Jennifer, Sergio and so on..... I am allowed total ceative freedom with the sonics of the music... In other words, I am always left to myself when it is time to mix. My mixes can take hours, days or even weeks.... I firmly believe that a mix is not finished, until it is on a Record for sale at Tower....
So I had been mixing "Billie Jean" for a day or two. I’d do a mix. ..... Say I was up to mix number 2.... (At that time I was mixing onto 1/2” analogue.) I thought it was killer!!!
I called MJ, Quincy and Rod into the control room and played mix 2 for them. They loved it!!! They were all dancing and carrying on like crazy!!! Smiles all around! Then Michael slipped out of the control room, turned around and motioned to me to follow him... Then he whispered to me, “Please Bruce, it’s perfect, but turn the Bass up just a tiny bit, and do one more mix, please....” I said to him...”OK Smelly, no problem”...
(When we were recording “Off The Wall”, Quincy gave Michael the nickname of “Smelly” because when Michael liked a groove, he’d call it “Smelly Jelly.” Also Michael doesn’t curse, and when MJ wants to say a bad word he’ll simply call it “Smelly”... The name has stuck...)
Then I went back into the control room to add Michael’s tiny bit of bass to my mix... Quincy pulled me over into the corner and said “Please Svensk... “(Svensk is Quincy’s nickname for me. It means “Swedish Man” in Swedish... When you have a genuine Quincy Jones nickname like ‘Svensk” - You are truly honored....) Q said to me.... “Add a little garlic salt to the snare and the kick. Just a squirt!!!”) so I went back into the control room and added a little garlic salt to the snare and the kick. Just a squirt!!! Now I was up to mix 20 on "Billie Jean".
Well, this went on for about a week. Soon I was up to mix 91!!! I had a stack of 1/2 inch tapes almost to the ceiling!!! I would do a few mixes, we’d listen... Then do a few more. We had it PERFECT!!! We thought we had a really ‘HOT’ mix on “Billie Jean”. I played Mix 91 for the boys... Everybody smiled... but Quincy had one of his funny looks on his face...
I thought.... Hmmmm.... Oh, Oh....
Quincy said “You know Svensk, just for the fun of it, can we listen to one of your earlier mixes???” My heart jumped because I knew that my earlier mixes were dynamite!!! Then Quincy said, “Let’s hear mix number 2!!!” Oh WOW!!!! Hallelujah!!! I love mix 2!!!!
We listened to mix 2... IT WAS SLAMMIN’!!! EVERYONE IN THE STUDIO WAS GROOVIN’ AND DANCIN’ and HAPPY, and actin’ IGNORANT!!!!
Well, here’s the deal. When “Thriller” was released to the Whole World by Epic Records, on Tuesday, November 30, 1982, it went to Tower Records with MIX 2 OF "Billie Jean" on it!!! AND, when the single of "Billie Jean" came out it was MIX 2!!!
People burn CD everyday, from CD music to data. Just simply put a blank CD in the drive, drag & drop files into the burning program and then hit BURN. Done.
But if you want to know what kind of that CD, these infos may help: (quoted from SADiE site)
Red Book CD is the specification for the most common type of audio CD on shelves, i.e. audio and CD-Text. SADiE supports writing of CD Text so that alphanumeric text may be displayed on compatible CD players. Typically the type of player that supports CD text are in-car CD players, although the advent of media players in computers opens up the potential for text display on screen. Still relatively rare, SADiE is one of the very few professional mastering systems that can create CD text within a master.
Orange Book CD is not usually used for commercial releases, as it is less flexible about its PQ flag positioning than Red Book. For example, it does not support countdowns between tracks, and an Orange Book disk is usually burned track by track, rather than disk-at-once. Orange Book is the format used by standalone CD recorders such as Marantz, HHB, Pioneer etc, where the disk is created by pressing Record and Stop as on a tape recorder. SADiE supports Orange Book for track-by-track creation of disks, maybe for burning sound effects onto disk at the completion of each sound design project.
Blue Book CD is sometimes known as Mixed Mode CD. This is where an audio disk plays as normal in an audio CD player, but when the disk is inserted into a Mac or PC, additional CD-ROM data is then available. This could include compressed versions of the audio, video files, graphics, band data, links to web sites, or any other data which could accompany the music. To create a Blue Book disk, a switch within the SADiE mastering page enables the engineer to write the audio portion of the disk first, and then subsequently add the CD-ROM data.
Yesterday, when I was wandering around some blogs of famous recording / production engineers / producers, I found some great videos. They're all related to music production, which is my fav. topic to read and learn all the times.
In this video below, we can see the multitrack of the famous song "Smell Like Teens Spirit" of the famous band Nirvana. What could I say? Perfect. These songs like this were produced in the beginning of the 90's. And nearly 2 decades after, we folks here in Vietnam still couldn't achieve anything in quality and energy like that.
First, let's see it:
Here my thoughts about this: Let's listen to the drums part. Notice how evenly Dave played, and his dynamic was perfect. The guitars sound heavy but have the openess, not overly compressed like cheap multi-fx box in VNese music. The most surprised to me is how the vocals were compressed. Yep, that is a "expensive" sound. And when we listen to the final CD version, we can notice how amazing the mastering process did to the mix.
Phew... sometime I feel like I'm chasing a ghost. Or simpler, I'm trying to match the speed of my bicycle to a Ferrari. Sadly, most Vietnamese people cannot hear the differences between that. They're almost sastified to distorted/clipped mp3 of cheap music - cheap "noise".
In my opinion, Real Art does take time. And it'll be worthy at the end.
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