Monday, September 28, 2009
Cool Times
The weather's turning cold again. Not too cold yet, but you can already feel the drag of having to grab a jacket to walk outside in the morning.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Fusion is back! 3 valves, 4 tuning knobs.
Been working/collaborating with Mike Onyango on couple of projects now. Mainly to edit his recordings from Nairobi. How often does one find an Asian - African collab work going on in Europe?! I doubt there's plenty. What's interesting about this goes back to the classroom here in Rotterdam's NT2 exam. I was anxious to get this Dutch Intergration thing over and done with so I've actually opted to go straight to the NT2 instead of crawling on the various monthly classes.
While waiting in the examination room I see this African brother sitting with his beanie on. So ok I can imagine 18˚C might be a little cold for an intergrating african. I had my jacket on myself.. The room was just not warmed up enough. My excuse. Hey its Holland. But it wasn't that warm in Kenya I remembered. The mornings there was just as cold. In fact its colder than it is here this morning in Rotterdam. But it warms up just as fast when the sun is out. Here, it just stays cold and grey. If you lucky, you get rain.
Anyway back in the classroom, I thought its best to say hello to this dude. Its part of Dutch requirement anyway that we greet one another. As soon as we said hello I could sense an accent I have not heard a while. The guy is Kenyan! HAHA! Small world.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Can't remember if this was the time I woke up today or time I fell asleep. Daylights' killing me. #insomnia
Strange that there's no option to flip this picture for landscape mode within mobypicture app.
Oh well. That's what I get for not laying myself down to rest often. Even the pictures stay upright!!
Oh well. That's what I get for not laying myself down to rest often. Even the pictures stay upright!!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
RECEIVED SCOSCHE PASSPORT HOMEDOCK FOR IPHONE 3G TO USE ON BOSE SOUNDOCK.
But why they never include the universal dock adapter baffles me.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Time to hit the water again!
Time for some adrenalin at 50km/hr! But I keep telling myself not to dive in when I fall. Ever tried diving into a trampoline sea? Yikes!!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Even 4 year olds can do wonders with Wacom tablets..
She kinda got tired scribbling on paper. So I said, "Here try this!" And 5 mins later... Voila!! And I think she's got the chops on color choice.
Gonna print my own event tee for #srf09.
The festival is running in my head. Sitting down with wacom pen in hand, I just started doodling on this with reference of a merlion as the iron lion. I think it came out ok. Deservingly to be on a tee shirt before I go."
Friday, September 11, 2009
Just picked up 3 new themes fm Twittelator Pro. Guess the possibility's endless!! #tptheme
Its gotta be the most addictive thing up next on a Twitter app on the iPhone. Themes!! And create your own theme - that is!"
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
My tea break giraffe doodle for www.onemilliongiraffes.com
And Zahara did one too! Thanks to @sneakerpeet who brought me to the fun site!
I love to sketch wildlife when I have the chance. It just was the thing to do right there and then.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Cooking prawn laksa for Iftar.
Ramadan is pretty hardcore in Europe this year. I'm still hanging on thoughts to the regular 12 hours that I'm used to in Singapore. But due to the summer sun of course, the days are stretched longer, thus the rules apply. It was rough on the first few days, I heard our Moroccan neighbors got sick from eating too late. It might not be such a healthy thing to be away from meals that long and then stuffing ourselves in the evenings to be ready for the next 15 hour marathon. But thanks to the cooling weather, its not as tough as what the prophet would have to deal with during the journey through the desert sand and sharing only dates with the pilgrims every sundown.
Gemsbok sketch I made in my travel journal while in safari '98 Kenya.
I wish I'm as free spirited as I was before travelling the globe with pen and camera whenever I want to. One of the last few divine visits I did with a good buddy Arjun was to Kenya for 3 weeks where we ventured around the region on our own with locals whom we met through friends. It was free and easy then. Its bizarre how we come about to plan that trip. I remember clearly flipping through the magazines in the periodical section in Borders Singapore. We caught ourselves picking up the wildlife magazine and was amazed on how much we just wanted to experience it. Helping with the train of thought, we both have either friends or family who is linked one way or another to animals, zoo, and thus the very safari in Africa.
He called his uncle who works for the anti-poaching unit in Ghana. I called my friend Bernard Harrison who was then the Executive Director for Singapore Zoological Gardens. We got advise from them about plans for this adventure and the ticket was set in no time. I took 3 weeks off work and we were destined for Nairobi. We don't know where we staying yet. But they'd be friends of friend who used to study together in Coventry College. Fine we said.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Birthday & Tea with best friends
Susanne just turned 17. And she's also taken over my drum kit! Which I hear she rocks everyday to practise on. Happy to hear that somebody is finally making full use of the drum. Well but in return I think I'll have her do some drum tracking for some of the upcoming compositions. :) All in the name of fun of course.
"De Vrijheid Blijft" Book dedicated to Anja and me. NYC 9/11
Dear friend and author Frank published the book back in '02. I would have loved to read it freshly off the shelf, but I didn't know a single Dutch word then. We were even more surprised that the book was printed and dedicated to us. Well, there's always the inside story that makes it even more personal. I guess providing one with a safe shelter post 9/11 in NY means more today, than it would have been before. The book shares the shock, fear, anger and puzzled feelings we had. Like the others that was interviewed for their excerpts on the event of 9/11, we had our own. My wife was 6 months pregnant and stuck in Manhattan while I was kept out at Holland Tunnel while trying to get into NYC. Port Authority locked down all its linking routes in or out of Manhattan as security procedure. Try put yourself in my shoes, in non-moving traffic with your mobile phone not in service, desperate to know of your pregnant wife's well being. Thank god. We came out unscathed. But few friends lost their loved ones. Our hearts goes out to them and the fallen heroes every calendar year on the very date.
But that's what this book is about. Post thoughts of everyday New Yorkers about what they think happened there. How it affected their lives. What they saw, heard and thought 6 months after. Some of the shorts doesn't even have anything to do with 9/11, but just general voice of various NY living in post. Its a good short read which is not too taxing on my Dutch language I guess. Plus I'm long due to tell Frank what I thought about it. How he's brought back the lost souls. How we've all been deceived. How greed manipulates facts against truth.
A summary of the written book can be read in Dutch on biblion.nl website. OK let me get back to my book. It'll be almost 8 years now. Repercussions still within.
Language: Dutch
Format: Paperback
Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
Weight: 7.7 ounces
ISBN 10: 9051790570
ISBN 13: 9789051790573
Thursday, September 3, 2009
ReGgae? JazZ? GO!
We had Mike Onyango over in the studio for some editing works from sessions recorded in Nairobi. It's always nice having this impromptu sessions. We had each other on the phone just earlier this morning and two hours later here he is sweeping away third octaves with his trumpets while I'm scurrying to open the African sessions. We stalled. I only come to learn that they were recorded in Nuendo, thus it cannot be opened in either ProTools or Logic. It would have been wonderful to hear some East African tunes. Bummer. I'll have to seek my Russian sidekick Space Kundun to open up that session in its native DAW and then OMF-export ** the files for use here. So what do we do? Well not a big problem. We had a studio chokeful of toys. What else CAN we do? (More about OMF file exports after the break...)
So what's better than throw some heat to the upcoming reggae festival in Singapore. I opened up an unfinished session which I cooked up 2 days ago, got Mike to listen to it and about an hour later, I was seeing Kenya's Gold on the bass guitar. Wait. Did you not say you're a trumpetist? I never heard any better reggae bass lines than that of 2 days ago when I tried! :) Well little to say, rhythm and groove started rolling and out came the video camera. Oh well, video and sounds better than words. Check out what we did in that time. Think we brewed something as natural can be? Drop your comments over on YouTube if you're pleased. Please.
And to the Mike Onyango's fans from Kenya. Its not a lip-dub. That's your man right there. The multi talented jazz prodigy from Nairobi. I promise you I'll work on that jazz track. But for the meantime. We're just having fun. Lots of fun!
- NAME ALL YOUR TRACK FILES!! Its a good habit to start naming those track before you even press record. Your recorded file will automatically be named when you do this. If you don't, you're bound to get hordes of files with names like "Audio_01", "Audio_02", "Audio_03" so on... Your question later will be. Oh, where's the Bass guitar? Its ONLY good if you dislike grandma's 1000 pcs puzzle.
- If your session consists of stereo tracks/files, split the files into two monos before export. ProTools most often don't support OMF stereo files..
- Try exporting AAF (Advanced Authoring Format). Check that all your files are Time-Stamped Broadcast Wave or SDII and not AIFF. Apple have since changed the AIFF standards and they are sometimes misinterpreted by various apps, resulting in digital white noise with the original signal barely audible.
- ProTools most often doesn't support mixed bit depths, so make sure all files are 16 or better 24 bit throughout. Do this in the audio pool.
- Nuendo / Cubase have the ability to easily export continguous audio files for each track in a project for easy importing into other applications. This consolidates your session tracks into one length timeline through out. Export them as stems. Trust me. This one's your safest bet instead of picking up bits of takes from the audio pool.
- Good Luck.
Technical word of advise about OMF exports
** OMF export your audio files when its recorded in other DAWs like Cubase or Nuendo if you want them to be able to be imported into SPOT-enabled session in ProTools. But even then it might get a little finicky. Here's some tips that might help. BTW OMF is Open Media Framework created by AVID's Media/Film Composer suites.
F-Stop Academy warned me. But who's too silly to avoid fundamentals? Tx @philipbloom!
From: "F-Stop Academy"
Date: 3 september 2009 00:49:19 GMT+02:00
Subject: Warning rastAsia! This video is not for everyone...
Hi rastAsia,
You may already be an experienced shooter and will be using the
F-stop Academy to refine your skills and raise your game.
But some of you are new to the camera end of things.
It may be that you are an editor learning new skills or that you
are migrating from another field altogether. Perhaps you are a
stills photographer embracing the convergence into video. Whatever
you're reasons, if you are new to shooting then you NEED! to watch
this video.
We have had a number of questions relating to some of the more
fundamental aspects of camera operation and functions so we've
created a short video explaining just that - The Basics!
Now here's a warning, This is very basic stuff, but it's
important...
This video assumes you know nothing and so for many of you this
will be very elementary.
(However you might also find it a useful refresher!)
You can view the video here:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=OfEDx&m=1i.t4SjkMLN5dC&b=sroGD3OG4cZhN1HnJVC3BQ
Warm regards
Den & Philip
P.S. REMEMBER: This is a real back to basic tutorial and you may
find it too elementary so if you are an experienced shooter this
video probably doesn't apply, but you'll understand how important
it is.
The F-Stop Academy Ltd, Company Registered in the UK no 6888781, Registered address 13 Kynaston Close, Harrow Weald, Middlesex HA3 6TQ
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Finally able to edit MIDI in score format
What joy to be able to edit MIDI in score format. So much easier!! Makes composing so much much more streamlined now. And recording in MIDI is also more smoother somewhat. I remember when it was a pain to get MIDI going in previous version. Almost feel like I'm in Logic sometimes with the dark color.
You know who I Zee will go a long long way??
Did I tell you how many times I've been watching her videos on youtube? I found Kantoi rather interesting. The video shows of Zee with a bassist and a drummer. But for some reason you don't hear the bass at all. Instead the final edit was kept to just her voice and the ukelele which was mic'd with what looks like a Schoeps condenser. I guess they finally decided to keep it as raw as can be. Even the drummer is playing with his naked hands as how Malay classic music is sometimes played in early 50s & 60s. And the dampened kick drum, and single mono mic was sheer genius. I wonder if Zee was involved in the creative directing to the final bits. Coz if she did, she's definitely made a great decision on how the final sound turned out to be. And that in turn helped the DOP to decide make the video in B+W. Love it. Love culture. Love simple folk music. Syabas!
Singapura Food Hunt
After almost 3 years not coming home. This is the list to satisfy my palate when we there in coming season. This would be the ultimate food-to-eat reminder. I got three weeks. Thus realistically I will eat 3 times a day excluding supper. Yes it's Singapore. Eat your heart out!
The plate stops here! I need at least 21 different food to meet. :) Kinda like the sound of that eh?!
1. Dry beef noodle - Scotts Picnic
2. Satay & Ketupat - Esplanade
3. Nasi lemak - Marine Drive hawker centre
4. Seafood Hor Fun
5. Mee Rebus
6. Cockled Laksa
7. Chili crab
8. Sambal Stingray
9. Hokkien Prawn Noodle
10. Newton Circus popiah
Last updated: 2nd Sept 2009>
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