MyMusic.ph: The Hottest Source of Music For Your Mobile Phone

How would you like to listen to R&B artist Ne-yo’s Go On Girl, American rock band Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ “Your Guardian Angel”, pop soloist Colbie Caillat’s Bubbly and Realize, Fall Out Boy’s version of “Beat It” together with John Mayer and thousands of other songs—all straight from your mobile phone?

Let MyMusic.ph, the only digital music store in the country that’s available to all cellphone users, whether you are a Smart or Globe (and soon, Sun Cellular) subscriber, make it happen!

MyMusicph The Hottest Source of Music For Your Mobile Phone

Now, you can download your favorite music regardless of how old or new your choice is. MyMusic.ph offers a wide range of selection from all genres: from oldies, classics and all-time favorites such as the songs of Frank Sinatra, Elton John, and Michael Jackson songs, to the newest hits from foreign and local artists like Rihanna, Colbie Caillat, Leona Lewis, Cueshe, Rivermaya, and Hale, to name a few.

“MyMusic.ph is part of the continuously evolving appreciation of music,” says company Director Christine Misa. “In the past, you had to wait until your music was available at record bars. But sometimes the album was out of stock, or it wasn’t even available anymore. Later on with the internet, you could buy songs directly from the web, but you needed a credit card, or would have to pay thru some other online payment scheme, which can be quite inconvenient.”

Downloading from MyMusic.ph is so easy. You don’t need a PC or a laptop to get connected through the Internet; neither do you need a credit card or PayPal account. Just key-in, using your own handset, the songs you’ve been longing to listen to anytime you want, anywhere you are, and create your personal music playlist.

Truly another breakthrough in mobile music technology, this new content provider is a music lovers’ best companion with close to 10,000 songs in its library. Such a huge portfolio of downloadable music is made possible through its close ties with giant recording companies, both local and international, including MCA Records (the world’s largest record company, having signed up superstars like Mariah Carey, U2, Elton John, the Pussycat Dolls, Rihanna, the Police, Bon Jovi, Guns & Roses, Janet Jackson, and The Black Eyed Peas; Sony-BMG Entertainment, whose artists include J.Lo, Alicia Keys, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley, Avril Lavigne, Cueshe, the Eraserheads, and both Sharon Cuneta and KC Concepcion; Warner Music, home of Madonna, Linkin Park, Eric Clapton, Josh Groban, Enya, Paris Hilton, Alanis Morissette, Click 5, Nina, and Rico Blanco; and EMI Music, that has brought to the world The Beatles, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, the Spice Girls, The Beach Boys, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Duran Duran, Hale, Sugar Free and Bamboo, to name a few.

Some of the most popular songs you can now download from MyMusic.ph include current big hits from Ne-Yo, Colbie Caillat, Fallout Boy, Rihanna, and Maroon 5. But if you like older, timeless songs by U2, Elton John, Josh Groban, or even Frank Sinatra and Elton John, you can find those too.

MyMusic.ph sends good vibrations to the local music industry since Filipino artists and their music are equally represented. More importantly, all downloads are 100 percent legal and are properly licensed, with the permission of the intellectual property owners like the record labels, artists, and composers.

You can download songs to your cellular phone in all popular digital music formats, from “MP3 tones” that can be used as your ringtone, to “full song downloads” of entire songs. Getting your dose of your favorite tunes is easy: using your phone’s browser, just visit http://smart.MyMusic.ph (for Smart subscribers) or http://globe.MyMusic.ph (for Globe subscribers). Or for text users, just key in ”MyMusic” and send it to 3456.

Back to the Edge 2

Back To The Edge 2
October 26, 1995
Mayric’s Music House
Espana, Manila

Almost 13 years ago, this concert was held as a follow up to the successful first part held two months before. The concert was broadcast live on NU107 (jsut like the first one) and had other big name sponsors along with Red Horse Beer who was the sole sponsor of the first part.

A petty squabble between my band’s lead singer and the club’s manager was still fresh at this time therefore we werent able to participate in this event. But all of us were there to enjoy the gathering of new wave fanatics.

It was unfortunate that I wasnt able to capture the audio broadcast of this event. Most of my shots were submitted to Front Act Music Magazine which I worked for. What was left with me were the rejected shots for which I am posting here.

The Eraserheads covered mostly the cure and other new wave songs they used to play. Dodong Cruz (the Youth) did some solo numbers with his guitar. Cookie Chua and GP of Color it Red followed the performance of Dodong in the same “acoustic” manner. The star of the night was Sugar Hicup which actually launched their first album. Other bands who performed were Iris, Dry Water, Wet Paint, Days of Sirius, and a jam which featured Alfie of halflifehalfdeath on vocals.

Cookie and GP of Color It Red

The Eraserheads doing the cure and other new wave stuff.

Sugar Hicup who just launched their debut album (featuring five years)

Jamming the rest of the night with Dodong (the Youth), Aldrin (Days of Sirius), Alfie (halflifehalfdeath), and Bong (Days of Sirius).

Please help me identify this band. I can see melody on vocals and ely on bass.

LVNA Reconstructs New Paintings

LVNA Reconstructs New Paintings
From Rolling Paper vol 1 no 1
October 1996

We wanted to take pictures of them in a mala-U2 pose. After all, aside form their originals, U2’s are the only songs they harmonize on stage. However, we had to nix the idea. If their newly-penned blues-rock ditty, “Words Of My People,” is an indication of things to come, it seems that these boys from Lvna are slowly showing that they are trying to take a few steps away from their U2-ish days, adding other dimensions to their colourful life, as a new wave-inspired band, by finding a sound of their own. Or aren’t they?

“Actually malawak ang tunog ng U2, eh.” opines vocalist/guitarist Jet Cunanan in his familiar shrill voice. It’s so woman-ish that you wouldn’t really know that it’s a “he” you’re taling to and not a “she” oce you speek to him on the phone. “Hindi lang sila basta nakatali sa new wave. New wave siya pero hiwalay siya sa ibang new wave. Actually nagkataon lang na isa sila sa mga banda na lumabas nu’ng panahon ng new wave. Pero, malawak sila. Sila lang ang bandang alam ko na may pagbabago sa bawat labas nila ng album, musically at lyrically. Musically, may distinction bawat isa. Lyrically, hanep sila sa lyrics. Poetic ‘yung mga lyrics ni Bono. Kumbaga sa atin, masarap siya na Tagalog. Isa pa, may sinasabi ‘yung mga kanta nila. Hindi lang sila basta love songs. Sa isang kanta, marami silang gustong sabihin. May mga nakatagong galit sa bawat kanta. Kung magiging sundalo sila, ‘yung mga lyrics nila ang kanilang mga sandata.”

And that is what actually differs Lvna from other local bands out there who are donning U2 classics on their sets. A staff was reasoning that we should do an article on this one particular band instead of trying to waste a 60-minute blank tape on these guys. “They really sound much more u2 than Lvna, pare.” he insists, “and their vocalist sounds much more like Bono than Jet.”

I shrugged the idea away.

To sing songs from U2, it doesnt only mean that you should croon as Bono-ish as you can or play the guitar the way The Edge executes it. Singing is one thing. If you want real belters, you should try watching showbands from Art’s Venue, Shakey’s or Cowboy grill instead. But feeling and knowing what you’re singing is another thing. U2 is an Irish band. If you know your world history very well (which, actually, I dont), you might probably know that Ireland is very much noted for being a country beset by, what most labeled, as the “hundred years war.” The war which is a by-product of a religious fracas among Catholics, Protestants and what-have-you-religions that started in the state some centuries ago. It also explains why artists and bands from that part of the world carry with them progressive lyrics instead of bubblegum tunes- The Cranberriesm Sting, and U2 to name a few (“Ode To My Family” is a protest song and not just any tewwtumelodic ditty on the radio). Activists are born in there, not nurtured, and rebellion come out naturally for them. Which differentiates Lvna from any other U2-inspired only by its melodies-bands.

For me, the criteria is simple: you should not play U2 or act U2 (or any other Irish-bred bands in particular) if you haven’t been an activist yourself and haven’t felt waht it is to be like. Activist in the true sense of the word. As for Lvna, the band started out as the musical branch of university-wide progressive cultural group Lupon ng Nagkakaisang Artista (or LUNA) back in 1992 over bouts of sleepless nights in coming up with propaganda materials for protest actions held that time, basically against the tenure of the US Bases. LUNA, the cultural group, was conceptualized by different art students/lovers from different universities with Jet, an architectural student from TUP, as an example. Along with Jet came bassist Nolit Abanilla (Fine Arts, PWU), Waldee Oasan (DLSU), and drummer Pet Barricaua (Fine Arts, TUP). However, Pet left the group two years ago, and was relplaced by Otep Estallo, a classmate of Jet’s, to heed the calling of Tambisan Ng Sining, KMU’s cultural arm. A lot has changed from them with Per’s departure, lyrically and perhaps politically, that hardliners tend to question political line nowadays.

“Nanggaling din kami sa isang political atmosphere kaya hindi nawawala sa amin ‘yong pagiging … (coughs) aktibista.” Jet explains. Waldee butts-in, “..Parang sugat kasi ‘yan, e. Nagiiwan ‘yan ng marka sa balat mo.”

“Ang mako-compare ko lang ngayon,” Nolit, this guy who’s a deadringer for Violent Playground’s Maly Andres when the latter was still a few pounds lighter, shares, “ay yung fact na syempre nag-grow ‘yung Lvna. Pwede kami gumawa ng kanta na di tulad dati na mga topipcs talaga namin ay purely political, ‘yung galit lahat. Ngayon, pwede kami gumawa ng kanta na tungkol sa pag-ibig pero nadoon pa rin yung linya’t di mawawala. Meaning conscious ka’t nasa tamang landas pa rin.”

“Ako, ang tingin ko sa Lvna, ang dapat tingnan ng mga nanonood sa amin ay musikero kami at ero ang armas namin. Kung meron kaming dapat na i-clear na issues, eto yung music namin. Minsan, pag tugtug kami, ineexpect ng mga aktibista na dahil Lvna kami, mga radikal yung tutugtugin namin. Nanggaling na kmi di’n pero gaya nga ng sinabi, meron pa din sugat. Andyan pa rin yung prinsipyo pero eto na yung porma ng pakikibaka namin. Mas nagdagdag lang kmai ng iba pang sasabihin. Hindi lang puro galit, hindi lang puro politikal. Siguro dapat na gumawa rin kmi ng love songs kasi tao din kami.” Jet clarifies.

And perhaps they really have matured. Though they still sing old tunes of theirs with radical lyrics during sets – like the anthemic “Halina Karina” or “Pagwasto” or environmental tunes like the catchy “Butas Na Langit” and “Nasaan Na?” – an old-timer can boldly notice that the freshly-collaborated tracks from them like “A Date With Lvna,” “The Shadow” “Don’t Deny Me” and “Words of My People” is a clear signal that these guys are set on sharing their music to a much-wider commercialized audience.

“Gusto rin siyempre namin magka-album.” Nolit bares, “pero siguro mas gusto namin kung indie siya kasi kontrolado mo yung magiging takbo ng banda at hindi ka ipa-package ng majors. Ang problema lang nga, as usual budget.”

“Ang problema kasi pag sa majors, ang lakas-lakas ng promotions mo tapos pagkatapos ng isang hit, wala na. Basta kumita lang ‘yung banda at lalo na ung recording company. bahala na kayo afterwards.” Jet criticizes.

Lately, the band has been busy with their separate careers. For months now, Lvna has yet to be welcomed again on the doors of Mayric’s – their home away from home once before certain misunderstandings came up between the two parties that involved another band of the said joint. For years the group have been holed and nurtured in the Espana-based hang-out, in a time when the said place was more of a meeting ground for activist leaders than it is more popularly known now.

“Actually, nakakamiss talaga. Parang bahay na kasi namin yan” Jet narrates. “Partly may kasalanan ako sa nangyari. Nagkaroon talaga ng misunderstanding at hindi ko talaga na-explain yung side ko Pero sana tapos na yon. Ang mahirap kasi e nadadamay ung ibang members na banda. Nag-sorry na ako at nagsosorry ulit ako. Sa Mayric;s kasi kami mas at home. Hindi naman kami more sa kinikita namin dun. Masaya kasi kami sa magagandang pagsasamahan na nabuo namin dun kaya nami-miss talaga namin. Sana mabigyan ulit kami ni sai ng set. Sana…”

While awaiting their next Mayric’s gig. the band polishes their old originals and as mentioned, busies themselves in comming up with new materials, which should not have come out if they were given the regular gigs they had then. They also set foot on a once-a-month gig at the Remedios Circle where the Department of Tourism has turned the notable pick-up place into a cultural affair every Fridays and Saturdays. Aside from these, they are all painting new horizons and dimensions in their life, perhaps not as the collegiate activist they once were, but as ordinary men beset by hardships of yuppiedom. Perhaps, they realized that they have to move onto another phase, that even if the rotten society they once-fought against still haven’t changed, they had to themselves. Or did they really changed at all?

“Ibagsak ang IBP!!!” belts out Nolit which gained collective nods from the group.

Yup, some old habits never die.

–SIG/IRVIN

Cheap Electrical Products and Indoor Fireworks

Cheap electrical products in not a bargain.

Yesterday evening, my father in law was awakened with a big surprise – indoor fireworks coming from a wall socket. It happened twice. On the first instance I was able to unplug all applliances from the socket. On the second time the socket displayed fireworks (without anything plugged in) – the main fuse burst. It was late in the evening and all we could do is wait til morning to have it fixed. Everyone in the family didnt get a decent sleep as we took turns making paypay to the son.

In the morning I discovered that the circuit breaker did not trip off. What actually tripped off was fuse which as located before the electric meter. The electrician inspected the circuit breaker that failed to function and realized its substandard brand.

Clearly the lesson here is never settle for a bargain on cheap electrical products. Sometimes you wouldn’t know its function until its too late. I was fortunate enough to learn about this without having bigger damages. Others have to endure damaged appliances or worse a burning house.

The socket wasa cheap one used normally on extention cords. It is almost flat and mounted on the wall. There seems to have a problem on the wall as moist seeps thru the wall and enters the socket thru the screws. Since the socket was compact and flat, the moist can easily get between the live wires which can short it.

With a moist wall, the electrician recomended that I install a heavy duty royo brand socket with a base. There should be an air gap between the wall and the sockets. Also do not plug in several power hungry appliances on a single socket mount.

And so I did a thorough review on all the electrical wirings around the house and will be rerouting and completely modifying it for a safer use in the next few months. I suggest all of you should review your electrical set up at home. Normally a house is built with basic electrical wirings. But when people live in, with big ideas on how they want their house to look cool, they tend to forget an important part which would often concentrate power hungry appliances on a single part of the house not realizing the capacity of the wirings towards that part of the house. If you can spend thousands on buying appliances, why not spend a few hundreds or a thousand on electrical safety measures. It is wise to have an electrician review your plans and explain what you plan to install on certain parts of the house.

Let the fireworks display virtually on your TV screens watching the olympics and not physically inside your home.

Back At Mayrics

After over 10 years I was able to play at mayrics again.

The last time I play at mayrics was in around 1997. I was with the band LVNA then. I was also playing for lastiko, lolita carbon, Ysagani Ybbara, and some other singers. Mayrics was the home of most budding musicians during those days. Only a few were able to come up with an album then since recording was too expensive and indie was not that popular yet. THese photos were taken in 1995 in front of mayrics. Notice my old punk look.

Last Aug 7, our band was called to play at mayrics. We will be opening the night with 4 songs. Our band was temporarily called Elm Street. We arrived on the venue at around 8:30 as we are supposed to take the stage at 9. But everything was delayed and so we sort of tambay outside the venue. When we arrived the place was full of UST students. I think mayrics serves dinner kaya puno ang venue. But almost all of them left when the band started as entrance will be charged if they stay on.

I noticed that the signboard outside was missing. Probably it was being repaired. But I noticed the whiteboard of scheduled bands looks totally worn out. I suspect this is still the same sign board used way back then.

This favourite spot is now gone. So most of the people now sit on the gutter.

Inside mayrics the place seems to be wider. The stage became bigger and the control of the house sound set up is now behind the bassist on the right side of the stage. Unlike before which was located under the stairs. The guitar amps are now all peavey. Even the drums. Looks like the mayrics got a sponsor for this. Gone are those twin reverb fenders which miyo, nitoy, pio and chikoy enjoys. Still the instruments are not feed thru the house. So its up to the players to adjust their volumes for a good mix. Pretty much the old way. As I hooked up my 5 string ibanez bass on the peavey bass amp, I totally forgot my emg pickups are loud. And so we did our first song with too much bass. Couldnt adjust the tone during the song as we did a fast first number. The succeeding songs became more mixed.
This picture was taken in 1994 at mayrics. That is jet our lead singer of LVNA. At the backdrop is a poster of LA105 and Musicians For Peace. All of these backdrops are gone now.

After our set, a couple of promising bands performed. Both young and energetic. Then after a barrage of “emo” “scremo” bands which I found intriguing especially how they mixed the emo-thing with punk rock complete with attitude and colorful get up plus the jumps and slams.

There are still bands who would goes onstage and plugs in their guitars and starts playing without minding how they sound like. They may not even know what the knobs are on the amps except for the volume. As long as they hear their instruments then they start playing. Really amateurs who need more experience. But the energy is there. Even one guitarist couldnt figure out how to turn off a feedback from his guitar which lasted almost two songs. Only surfaced on the last song when he realized he was sitting in a feedback position in front of the amp. Or maybe he didnt actually figured it out but was just surprised the feedback was gone when he stood up. LOL.

Mayrics really brought back memories. But the crowd was totally different now. Still see familiar faces especially from the crew. But the audience and their tastes of music is now totally different. Someone from the organized mass movement of the 80s-90s decade brought up an idea of having a reunion concert in mayrics bringing the old people (audience and bands) back to the place. I am excited about this.

GAS hehehehe

Gear Acquisition Syndrome tawag nila… but I am just setting up my home studio for better and easier workflow. Here are my latest aqcuisitions:

Bought this 2nd hand but its good as new. Complete with box and all its peripherals. It is a Behringer UMX41 midi controller. At least now I can program midi tracks with ease. Plus I have more controls on other parameters using its knobs and stuffs like that. Also got benders which I dont have on the other Yamaha PSR I was using. This device is very helpful specially in programming drums. It can actually read the velocity of your playing. Makes drum tracking easier coz you wont be editing velocity of each snare. Making the drumming more realistic.

This comes with A Behringer UCA 200 which is a simple usb audio interface with stereo in and out. All you need is a good mixer and you can start tracking any instrument or mic without worrying about latency issues. Just plug in the input from you stereo out of you mixer then plug in the output to a dedicated channel that does not go to the main mix (for monitoring lang of playback from PC). You can simultaneously record 2 tracks from here or one stereo track. Comes very handy sometimes. I could actually simultaneously use this with my 1820m without any issues. Problem lang it can only handle 16bit.I swapped mt BTB 5string with this 4string bass from Japan. Its a TUNE Bassmaniac. What attracted me to this bass is that it has EMG pick ups and very neat electronics. Parang radyo ung cavity unlike most bass that looks crammed up electronics. This one has that original bridge from the older versions of the bassmaniac. Mas matibay and much string stability than the newer version of bassmaniac. Plus it has a metal nut. Which probably contributes to the brightness of the tone.

I got this from joshua (lowbee of philmusic). Ebaj Asurin has always reminded me to get a tune bass. According to him, the neck is narrow and the string spacing is similar to ibanez sdgrs which I am acustomed to. Lahat daw ng Tune basses are made in japan. And they all have exotic wood. Indeed the EMG kicks off its loud sound. But I find the tone a bit high. Maybe because I am acustomed to using the varimids of sdgrs. What I did was to use my old DOD Bass Compressor to kick in the boom in the punch and the sustain. I maybe get a Hartke VXL or a behringer BDI to have more control on tone with this bass. I am still using my 5string SDGR on gigs. This will be off to a good repainting soon as it looks all worn out already. In the mean time I will be using this Bassmaniac. Im using it on pictorials of our new band. My wife puts justice on the rock appeal of the bass on this pic.

I also got a new softcase for my acoustic bass. And got a new phospurous coated strings for it courtesy of alfie. We are doing several recording projects and most of the song needs acoustic bass to get the tone similar to the cure songs.

I have lately been experimenting on how to maximize the power of the PC for multimedia productions. I am currently trying on Ubunto Studio and its multitrack recording software called Ardour2. I have read good reviews about the capability of this set up as it is known to have no drops in recording even when simultaneously running several tracks. I am looking for one that will parallel the stability of a mac on protools while thinking of a budget. If I could perfect this set up, it would be a big help in saving the cost of software when I go commercial. No remarkable breakthrough yet tho.

Downloading Music?

Ok so everyone is now waiting for my post about the topic.

As the trend goes, multiply has joined the ranks of imeem, myspace, pandora, radioblog, esnips and other sites that stream media via flash player. The reason that multiply wanted to ease the members from opening other programs and playing the music on the browser itself is crap. They should have retained the playlist link if that was the idea. It is pretty obvious they wanted to get rid of the downloading multiply users do which puts multiply on the hot seat of copyright issues. I have nothing against multiply. I respect them for that. As a webmaster I understand the pressure these legal things put on to site owners especially when it comes to music and movies. We wouldnt want them to shut down the whole site, would we?

Having said all those rants, lets all go to the juicy part. How to download music.

Its the old fashion way. Use orbitdownloader’s Grab ++ on Firefox, or use Free Music Zilla.

Orbit Downloader
Play the music on the flashplayer then click on the grab button (a little down arrow above the flash image if orbitdownloader is installed). Then download the song.

Free Music Zilla
Open Free Music Zilla then play the music on the flashplayer. The download link will automatically appear on the free music zilla window for which you can download.

Make sure you play the music or else your downloader will not be able to find any media stream.

There are other internet downloader out there that would probably work but these are two softwares I have been using and works fine with me. No adwares or spywares.

Cons: You have to give effort on this one and download the music one by one. Unlike before when you can download the whole playlist with a single click. But that even dont give you 100% since there is an anti-leech installed on multiply. This means time out will occur after a few minutes and your link will be invalid unless you refresh the page.

Pros: You can use this trick on other sites such as myspace, imeem, radioblog, pandora, etc.

Good thing multiply has not installed the flv function thus the music you download is its actual file. No need to convert flv to mp3 or get an flv player.

This trick also works on videos on youtube, and other video sites.

My suggestion to multiply, since they are currently exerting efforts to sell premium accounts, why not put the download links on members who have premium accounts. I wouold understand if the free users dont have a download link since this would be a good marketing move. The only difference between premium and free users are the ads and the file storage limitation and duration of unshared videos and pictures. I am sure they are silent when it comes to music because that issue is still debatable among themselves (multiply staff). Put a claw in marketing by giving download links (the old original download links on each song and not just the playlist) to premium users.

Disclaimer: I do not support copyright infringement and do not have any intention of encouraging people to violating the law. I do not support intend to destroy multiply or any other sites with suggestions of downloading music which they are obviously trying hard to remove without actually admitting. The downloader softwares are not my own and I am not responsible if anything goes wrong to your PC or yourself in relation to using it.

Only For Geeks (Studio Technicalities)

This blog entry is exclusively for geeks. It contains mostly technical stuffs that I am sure non-geeks will find boring. So, if you are not a geek… shooo shoo shoo!
So now I got my recording studio in full swing. I recently bought a pretty good Samson condenser large diapragm mic along with a pop filter and a shockmount.I dont have an isolation room yet, but my living room was built as a studio before, which means basic features are still in place. Shut the doors and its dead silent. Although the acoustic is bad since I already ripped off the cushions from the walls and cieling. That is the reason why I bought a cardoid type mic instead of the more expensive multipattern ones. A cardoid will only pick up sound which is in front of it. It will disregard the sound from the side or at the back. Omni directional and figure 8 mics do these respectively. The only negative thing with a cardoid mic is that I cannot pick up the natural reverb of the room. Thanks to technology, I can use any good software for this – a mic modeller and reverb. Recording purists dont frown! Im on a budget here and just making the most of what’s available (and affordable). I cannot sacrifice my living room (as I did before), since I have a family that uses it for TV, entertaining guests, taking afternoon naps, bonding with the kid, doing kinder homeworks, eating street food bought from .. were else, the street, inuman sessions and all the other things a living room should be. Unlike before as I was living alone, I can always convert what is of my house into whatever I want. (I even made an LRT in my own backyard). I am considering building an isolation room and a monitoring room .. aka a full fledge studio ambiance, probably early next year as budget permits.

So how do things work on the current nolit’s studio? Following the idea of making the most out of what’s available and affordable, I had no choice but to go digital. The main equiptment would be a PC. I have two PCs in my studio. The primary one is an AMD Quadcore with 1gb memory (I am planning to upgrade to 2gb soon). This one has an EMU Digital interface installed in it – 1010 PCI card, synch daughter board and an 1820m audiodock with 8 ins and 8 outs plus 4 monitor outs. The other PC is an AMD sempron with 512mb memory which I am using as a multimedia home setup as it is linked to the TV with lotsa games (for the kid who is currently hooked on Dogz). This one has a toneport digital interface installed in it. Looks cool recording guitar in front of the TV. Both PCs (along with my other PC in my bedroom) are networked and online. They are equipted with Sonar, Cubase, Reason, Acid and tons of other audio softwares.

Recording drums is tricky. When I dont want to worry about getting a good element from a live acoustic drum take, I would often use a drum machine. But my Dr Rhythm Drum machine is long gone, so I am using Redrum from Reason to create drum sequences. I can also sequence directly on sonar with my daughter’s yamaha psr keyboard as midi controller and the choice of sounds are enourmous with EmulatorX and Proteus which I got along with my EMU 1820m. But I am pleased with what Redrum can deliver. A good set of soundbanks and I am off to creating cool drum patterns. Usually its the standard drum kit.

When I feel strong and energetic, I would set up the drum set which I borrowed for my kid from our drummer since he has 3 sets sitting at home taking up dust. I still have the mics I used from my old studio – a small condenser mid for the snare & hihat, a stereo condenser mic I use for overhead and a cheap mic for the bass drum. All four mics are driven to my old fostex multitracker which I only use the mixer part. Preamped to line level, the signal from the mics are routed to stereo mains and two aux sends – equals four unique signals. Then they are feed to the Audiodock and tracked to sonar on 4 tracks. Ideally a drumset takes 8 tracks (snare, bass, tom1, tom2, floortom, hihat, crash and ride). But I dont have that number of mikes yet – plus an 8-bus mixer or a mic preamp that can feed 8 line levels to the audiodock. In the near future, this will be the next upgrade. Again, I dont have the priviledge of a well acoustic room, so I have to use reverbs and room modeller softwares.

I am not too satisfied with the drum sound from an acoustic kit with this set up. Although I have learned to master the best sound I could get through experience after numerous recordings from the old studio using analog 4track cassettes. I am looking into building triggers – attaching piezo on the kit and purchasing a good midi converter for the triggers. Driving them to audiodock midi in and assigning them to a good drum soundbank. This would definitely be cleaner. I can either tac the piezo to the acoustic drum or custom built an electronic drum kit out of practice pads so that the neighboors wont complain from the heavy drumming on an acoustic set. All these are projects to make me busy in the next few months.

Keyboard tracking is simply straightforward. I am using my daughter’s yamaha psr as a midi controller driven to the midi in of the audiodock and using tons of sound banks from EmulatorX or any other software synth. Reason has tons of sounds you can choose from plus you can edit the sound in any way you want making it more unique. You can even create your own sound into something very unique making your audience puzzled as to what instrument is playing…. the synth thing of the 80s!

Bass guitar is plugged directly to the audiodock front input.Since my bass has quality EMG pickups, I dont need anything else to boost the signal. But with other bass guitars, I have an active direct box waiting to do its thing. Same thing goes with recording guitars which is pretty easy. I normally record 3 tracks from a guitar – a dry direct to pc signal, and a stereo signal from the guitarist effects. This splitting happens through a Behringer DI120 direct box/splitter.

Recording acoustic guitar and any other acoustic instruments would be similar to the way I record vocals – using a large diaphragm condenser mic. I learned a great deal of knowledge in recording acoustic guitar from my experience with leo of leowai. He was my guinea pig as I was experimenting on positioning mics and equalizations from his folk song demos. Still I prefer acoustic guitars with built in pickups. They are much easier to manage in recording. I still have my fostex dynamic mic which I can use to record blowings.

Monitoring is still an area I need to develop in terms of equiptment. I havent got a headphone amplifier yet and I think this is a necessity especially since I dont have an isolation room. Tracking vocals would require a silent room as the vocalist and myself monitors thru headphone.

Although I am used to making the most out of a headphone monitoring, I still would want to get a good reference speaker. My ears are punished from long hours on the headphones. Unlike before on my old analog multitracker where I master a mix to match a normal cassette player, with projects of production quality, I would definitely broaden my mastering to match all types of audio players – car stereos, ipods, hifis, radio, etc. With this I would need a variety of monitoring. I am thinking of actually setting up these equiptments inside the studio to get the real reference.

The main point is to create and deliver quality music. Mine is a project studio so I would only upgrade to the equiptment I would need. Unless I want to run a commercial recording studio again which requires me to acquire all the high end technology could offer, I would maintain on getting the most out of what is available (and affordable). And I feel this is how nolit’s studio should be.

You know the drill: We talk about your music. Discuss how we can make things happen. Create what we can do. Then with a finished product, pass it on to better hands and see where it would take us further.

I hope I didnt bore you with this blog. In my experience, whenever someone approach me for a project, we would be discussing all those I have mentioned above. So this article helps me save all the trouble.

That’s all for now! Enjoy!

Studio Stories

Yesterday I was talking to my mom reminiscing about the past. I recall every experience from setting up nolit’s studio to my current project studio (still called nolit’s studio). In the 90s, everyone were venturing into setting up a rehersal studio and making money while having fun. I was setting my sights on a recording studio. I successfully did run my own studio sacrificing my own living room. Later I got into partnership to make the business grow and built the Purple Music Studio. But all these have ceased toward the late 90s. I have concentrated in my band gigging nightly thus giving me no more time for the recording business.

Now looking back from my long absense in the scene, I realized that somehow I did influenced a few one way or the other in setting up their own studios. I know hazel, a drummer of Sky Chubibo after recording a demo in my studio got inspired with my premier drums that she called me up the following day asking where I bought the drums. I learned later on she actually did acquired a Premier Fusion kit (mine was an ATK kit). She now runs a successful digital recording studio in fairview called the soundkitchen where she has a long list of clienteles.

Raymund Kutch, a folk singer at mayrics and recording artist for alpha with his band blusero, used to brin in clients to my studio for a demo. He now runs Jamtraxx in recto with 3 rehersal studios and one digital recording.

My old buddy Rey Cantong who was our drummer in the first batch of Gladys and the Boxers with K, now fronts the popular group Six Part Invention or SPI. He also has his own project studio at home running high end equiptment supplying audio for shows on ABS CBN, mostly on ASAP.

Recently I also learned recently that a client of nolit’s studio had also set up his own recording studio called bedside recording. His name is choy gargantiel who used to play for a high school band noxious.

It is amazing that all these studios became successful. Still I wont forget the note my friend alfie left in my blog, all these technology boils to nothing if no creativity come out from the people who are recording. All these are just tools used in order to bring out the talents which God has given to us. Probably part of my purpose in life was to inspire others to build these tools. Now on to the next part, by creating more successful projects, I may encourage more to bring out their talents to better use. Make Good music and never stop!

The DI and my first gig

I am currently recording guitar tracks on a project. Mapping out the track assignment, I realized I needed a signal splitter or a direct injection box to be specific.I wanted to lay-in a dry guitar track and another which is processed thru a multieffects floor unit. Luckily I was able to buy a Behringer Ultra-DI DI20 from ebay at a cheaper price. I got more than what I bargained for since this thing can function in two modes – as a two channel DI box and as a splitter (link mode). And it is active, which means the signal become more managable by my digital interface pre amp.

Now I remember my first encounter with a DI box. When I was very young and in school, I belong to an inter-collegiate organization of visual artists called LUNA, mostly students of fine arts in different universities around Metro Manila. As a cultural group and affiliate of a larger student movement, our group would often work on visual effects for several student activities such as concerts and conferences. We were the people behind the stage of Joey Ayala’s Awit ng Tanod Lupa Concert tour sponsored by the CCP. Joey Ayala would even jokingly call us Joey Ayala at ang bagong Luna. With several lull moments in painting visual arts, the group would often embark into jamming using whatever instrument is available.

Early Jammings

Jet had an electric guitar and a bass guitar at home in pritil, tondo, so we plug both into an old cabinet type phonograph player. We made a makeshift drums out of kiddie toys and water jugs. Later on we were able to reherse on a rehersal studio as we realized we can actually perform as a band. Being with a group of creative people, it is very clear that original musical compositions are plenty. Playing them while working visual effects made the songs heared by officers of cause oriented organizations -and so the lyrics and music are criticized and refined. Luna was then active with another student cultural group called sining. And the collective started planning out performances to display its collection of “well-deliberated” original musical compositions. The first gig was supposed to be in UP Manila as an intermission to a conference of the college editor’s guild of which I am also an officer. But technical problems and lack of time didnt make the gig happen.

The First Gig

The real first gig was a lagare. There was a campus fair at UST and we were the first group to perform that afternoon in the open air grounds outside the CAFA building. We had an hour and a half to perform and we only rehearsed a few songs. So we ended up jamming songs that we knew from songhits. . mostly new wave stuff. The audience responded with a lot of dancing mainly because we knew almost all of them. (hehehehe) The gig ended up at around 5pm as more bands had to perform and we have to run to San Sebastian for another gig.

The second gig that night was a big concert billed by then big bands – HAYP, Introvoyz and UMD. We were to do the front act. Since we came from a gig on UST on foot and it was getting late, we had to run inside San Sebastian. The audience were now lined up outside the auditorium and as they saw us running up into the building they started screaming. It looks like they mistook us for another well known band as we were running with our instruments going into the backstage. My first taste of fame however feign it seems (lol).

We got on backstage and the bands have already finished their soundcheck. I remember noel mendez was there to tell us that we can now change our clothes in the backstage as there was no time for soundcheck anymore. I saw his guitar lying at the back of the drums and it was my first close up look at a real ibanez guitar. We had not brought any clothes so how we look like is what you get – from running all the way from UST. But, hey we are an aktibista band so the haggared look seems appropriate. You can call it the proletarian look.

The DI Experience
And so the show has to start and auditorium suddenly was full of 3,000+ students. We positioned ourselves on stage and started setting up our gear. Back then I was unfamiliar with any big concert set up. All I knew was to plug my bass to the amp and start cranking. Since there was something plugged on the amp, I took it off and wooooong sounded all over the house which I ignored as I proceeded in plugging in my bass to the amp and started tuning. I recall a lot of technicians were all over the stage as our guitarists was having his own technical problems too. But I could hear myself on my own amp and so I was comfortable now and wanted to play on. Our singer, Buboy, had to do several spiels since the technical problem took almost 5 minutes or more. He told me later that it was difficult for him to make those spiels as he came from that school and just recently drop out – and then he has to face his teachers, administrators and classmates who were in the audience. Finally the guitar worked and the gig started rolling. In the middle of the first song, a technician realized my mistake as my guitar doesnt go through the house mix, and started fixing the connections. This is how I learned about a DI box. The gig was a success and the 3,000 + audience was very cool to respond to our compositions. Even the members of hayp and introvoyz gave us positive comments.

So What is A DI?

A direct box is used to convert an unbalanced signal to a balanced signal which can be handled easily by any mixing console and could match up with all the other signals thus making the mix easier. A balanced signal consist of three lines on three wire cables (positive, negative and ground), against the unbalanced that consists only of signal and ground. Usually balanced lines run on xlr plugs (used on conventional microphones) or standard stereo phono plugs (1/4) called TRS or tip-ring-sleeve (tip=hot or positive, ring- cold or negative and sleeve=ground). Guitars are high impedance signals with unbalanced outs. So they need to be converted to balanced signals for the mixer to handle. Thus a DI works as a converter between the guitar and the mixer. The DI also commonly works as a splitter as another output (unbalanced or link) feeds the signal to an amplifier so the guitarist can monitor his playing. But in some cases, the DI is not used on guitarists as a mic in front of the guitar amp speaker can deliver a warmer tone for the mix. A bassist needs a di as the low signal can only be enhanced on an active balanced line.

I dont want to go technical any further. You can always research on the use of DI by searching thru google. This ends my story on my first encounter with the DI …. which was actually my first gig.