sounds of a musician - part 1

Today the topic will be on volume, as a guitarist, the volume level we play upon shall inflict on the band itself in which it reflects the current position you are playing. How good your solo will be if your sound are drowned by the drummer's cymbals? How good will your vocalist be if it is drowned by the sound of the guitarist? And the worst mistake is a drowned bassist. Which ever situation i face during a peformance, i will not care on those petty factors such as the search for true tone anymore as our sound are all miked up to the mixer and released by the soundman. This ultimately means that if your sound man is good he will be able to balance it out quickly, if they are not good this in which most of the time we face, you're fucked. Simple as that.

But wait, then what does a musician need to do then you ask? Well, simple thing we need to do is to level the volume of every equipment, which is the case called sound check. playing a tune one by one is not going to cut it. You'll need to play at least an entire chorus to hear the full potential of it. it's the simple case of a jamming room, you'll need to be able to hear yourself and everyone else on the stage without being too loud or too soft, simple as that. Most bands i know who goes on stage to sound check are afraid to show their full song as they didn't want to expose their masterpiece too early, they would either play only a chorus or another song during sound check. I would say be careful because different songs requires different settings most of the time. Why do i say so? Not all songs use the same settings, some bands do and it's a bleessing but some versatile band doesn't and it's kind of a hassle to even it out at the end of the day.


Simple guide on guitar tone

A basic comparison between a solo tone and a rythm tone are that they are two different thing in this world, one is meant to jump out on specific time in the song and one is meant to be a supporting structure to the vocals and other instruments in the band. Different amplifiers have different tones, don't tell me your marshall sounds like an ibanez amplifier. It will definitely colour your guitar sound at the end of the day, you will need some time to level out the volume and eq the settings to match your favourite tone. Even if you are using a high end digital modeler such as the line6 pod series, boss gt series, or Digitech modelers. It's a different sound for each modelers and it will definitely affect the other instruments in the way it is presented. Sharper sounds will definitely be better for solo, boosted midrange are good but will be drowned if drummer goes high on cymbals, usually i will use boosted midrange and boosted low end for that low chuncky thick end sound of the chuga chuga chuga rythm. For a solo tone i will lower the bass and midrange and boost the treble massively, this way it doesn't mess the rythm part of the song while soloing, a bit of bass wont hurt though. Else I'll be drowning everyone when i play on solo. The best part about digital modelers are that they have a volume pedal built in, it is best used to lower or boost your sound at the stage, especially if you feel that your solo is drowning everyone on stage or it's too low. It's the same concept if you have a set of distortions and you fix a volume pedal to the front or the end of it. Part 2 coming up

final payCHECK fuckup

ladies and gentleman, introducing my ex-company

http://www.rmagroup.com.sg/

This is by far the worst experience i've had with Singapore. Work for em hard with all you've got, finally had to go back due to some restraining issues back home and guess what? They tell you they need to hold your final pay for less than a month which is about three weeks, now that's fine by me. Then they said they'll need to cut $200 off for not completing the one year contract, that's fine by me too. Since my final physical day on the 8th May 2008, they've hold up my pay from the previous month till today without a single news at all and it's 16th Jun 2008 already. I waited for a month and after that when i called or emailed the company, all they said was that they haven't receive the IR21 letter from IRAS which is the tax dept in Singapore. My question is that since Singapore is such an efficient country, why does processing my tax liabilities would take such a long time to digest? What the hell, i began to wonder if they really are scamming me for that lousy of a pay cheaque that i'm getting?

One big word : SCREW YOUR EFFICIENT POLICY

Without any information or attempts to contact me at all for one month after my resignation, how do you even describe your company's efficiency?

complications

Life, as we all know is never easy. A simple thing such as forming a band maybe tough sometimes, a lot goes into the process of achieving a fully satisfying band which meets every member's satisfaction. In my lifeline of playing the guitar and bass, I've been trying to make the best out of what I'm playing and prioterize my happiness of playing in a band as the benchmark for being in that particular band. So in short, i have joined and quited quite a number of bands in these short few years. Not a proud declaration of mine though. As a result of this, some people preferred to call me snobbish and to the others it's simply called arrogant, well up to a certain point i would have to agree with them but what the hell man, if you don't feel comfortable playing in that band anymore why stay??

My point is that if you can go to the studio and play your heart out with your band for that one hour or more without the feeling of restrained, that means you are playing in a band which suits you best. The magic would be for you play a thing and they would being something different to the table of music to complement, sort of like you bring the flour and they bring the sugar mix with some water you'll have a nice bread. However if you don't feel happy at all playing and at the end of the day you got this feeling like you're just being there for the sake of being there as a band member then i would say that there is really no point for you to waste your time right?? Well then there's too many factors going into the making of a band as well and this is just point number one.

Another point which is important in the making of a band are the attitudes of the members itself, even big time rock stars have problem coping with each other's strenuous behaviors, what more to say coming from bands who have yet to make at least something in their music? I have met a whole variety of snobbish posers along the way and most of the time you wont know they are posers until you get really close enough to know them personally, i'm not speaking about people those who really wears black mascara with a simple plan t-shirt on the street. That's a different issue, i'm talking about the core of a musician's believes. The true foundation of the music a person is writing upon.

Most of the time, they are really way out of their league when they start ranting on how lousy the other bands were in a gig. They would talk and laugh loudly against those who are making mistakes on stage, detest those who are better than them musically with a lousy reason and worst of all they think they are the best and nobody would listen to the incriminating things that they say. Too bad, everybody listens. :) The worst type are those who preaches of one thing and does another without realizing his own mistakes. They speak of high knowledge and skills musically but when it comes down to showing the real deal they would be looking for excuses to why they cant do it. I do agree that sometimes mistakes can be amended, behaviors can be changed and skills can be upgraded in time but only certain things can be foretold, for at the end of the day it all boils deep down to one's heart as a poser will always be a poser no matter what they try to do.

Most of the time when i face these kinda events, it's easy to know that i am depressed mentally. It's kinda like a self degrading moment for me as i will have no new fresh ideas for songs and i feel like a jailed bird in a cage with my kuku bird nailed on a wall so high. So there you go, a few points in a life of a rock and roll band. I admit i am slowly getting tired from all these irony bullshits in life lately, it's like going back to square one every time and you feel like you're having a huge stone on your shoulder. So i wonder in time.......