It seems I am a singer

Another great gig, just brilliant, we made a few mistakes, but he we're not pro's and we managed to pick it up every time, it was awesome, and I had multiple people..even my boss tell me I did a geat job on my number...I am genuinely gobsmacked, I just don't have the words but I am feeling incredibly pleased with myself....so its a good time to have a treat of chips...and sushi...Back on the Diet Sunday after the BBQ which hopefully wont' be rained off.

We should be able to get some pics from the 2 gigs as there was an official photographer there taking snaps..I will poste them here and on FB when I get them.

Ahthankyew

86.7 yes I said 86..Records all round

Yesterdays nerves and squeaky bum, as well as abstaining from lunch while we set up, caused a massive big drop...yeahhhhhhhh a record drop in 1 day.

I have another gig later today, doubt I'll lose another big chunk, but  losing 5 Kg in under a month is pretty good going. I guess I am pleased with myself.


Record marking speeds....I managed to do all my PR4 Marking in 5 working days, and entered in 7....result..

 I need to be evern faster on the CT2 ones though....will be hitting the grades tonight.

Got a BBQ event lined up for tomorrow, with friends from work and poker and music all coming together ...but it looks like summer might be over already if those storm clouds gathering are any indication.


Ahthankyew

Great gig, even with the feedback

We had a slightly twitchy start as our PA was set a tad too loud for our 1st number and I had a bit of feedback on my solo which threw me off time a tad....or 2.. but once we settled we had a brilliant gig.
Our sound guy(s) kept track of the levels from then and a great time was had by all.

I'm still genuinely quite flabbergasted that people complimented me....yes I said complimented, me ..ME...on my singing...wow...I just don't know how to react to that..
Aside from mum, who is obliged to say nice things about what I do, in our "Mother:Son, what you have to do before I choose your home", agreement. I've never been complimented on my singing....ever..Even I don't much like it.

I do my 1 song pretty well, "Stuck in the Middle",  but it actually was the song that got everyone up on their feet, and then the rest of our gig kept them there. What a great experience.

We have another one tomorrow..hopefully the feedback problem won't reappear and I can nail that 1st solo, looking forward to seeing if I can get a repeat set of compliments. ;)

I'm now a ssstaaaaaahhhhrrr daaarlinks.







Ahthankyew

87.6k...almost and butterflies, sure to lose some more fom crapping myself

The display wobbled a bit on .6 and .7 before settling on .7.. I had a pee just after but didn't weigh myself again but am sure its gone down to 87.6. Really impressive.


Am sure to lose a bit more today though, since StarrCase have a performance today at the Hotel and Management Graduation ceremony. I've also been roped in to help award diplomas...quite a bit different to the way we do things at IGAD, but we're all one big happy university so am happy to help out. I'm suited and booted for the occasion.

I think this performance will go well though, we've just had a sound check and we sound pretty damn good. Even me.!!! Am sure to lose a few pounds in sweat and fear.
What a difference a proper sound/monitor set up, with an engineer, makes! Though my VoiceLive confused the hell out of them trying to work out where the harmony's were coming from. We play at 5 so am doing a bit of CT2 Marking now.

Marking for PR4 was finally finished last night at 4-30am after 4 marathon sessions since Friday...written tests sound like a good idea but trying to read handwriting worse than mine (I never thought that possible) with often poorly formed English...and get it done as quick as possible so they can get ready for a retake meant I had to finish last night no matter what...by 4-30 I'd pretty much lost the will to live but I got through it...so I'm not only nervous but vey tired, I may drop off in the middle of a slow song.

anyway.....zzzzzzzz

I'm not recording the concert but I hope someone is, if so I'll post links.



Ahthankyew

Boo yaka shaaaaa 87.9Kg

Course I had to have a pee to get it there, but I finally cracked 88kg :D

To celebrate or perhaps to punish you..here's a set of my "best" recordings....basically the ones I don't feel too ashamed of

I am really pleased that 3 people have Favorited my last effort, the live loop of Set the fire....even though some of the singing was a bit ropey and the harmonic female amplifies any pitch wobbles, it was a cracking session. I made Brenda laugh out loud with my swearing outbursts as I made mistake after mistake before getting it right.
Its been getting a lot of plays too, so it seems to be going down well in the home recording/tone deaf community.





Ahthankyew

88.1Kg...could I actually get to see 87?

Finally got a chance to play with my GR-55 hooked up to my RC300 looper...powerful tools...added to that my Voice Live 2 and a harmony setting to give me a female singer to duet with and ..boom
my version of Snow Patrols Set the Fire to the 3rd Bar.

Its not 100% and it was done after 30 takes getting my tap dancing wrong a few times and kicking in the strings at the wrong times. But overall i was pleased.. I need to try and do this as a multi track version to get more dynamics and depth to it, but as an "as Live" performance this is one of the best things I've done.

Love the GR-55 as I now get used to how to use it...it adds so much to things with so little effort..

Anyway...I've never said this before about at track I've done..but hope you like it?


Ahthankyew

88.2 but it wobbled on 1...

I seem to be losing 100-150g a day, so not bad. Might be able to put off the gym for a while longer as long as the diet itself is working.

Finally starting to setting into a period of peace now that exams and so on are done, still got some retakes to deal with but the never ending appeals from students are drying up and I will get a weekend to myself. I have a lot of marking to do but am fairly sure I can do them in 4 big sessions and still get some time to myself this weekend.

The Weather has turned spectacularly nice with sunshine and only occasional showers. So its looking good for the family visit next month. We're going to have a BBQ next weekend to kick off the summer but I need to find out where I can get gas for the BBQ, I think it must be nearly empty by now after occasional use over the last 2 years.

Also next week I have the Starrcase gigs, and will be doing a spot of practicing so I get my timing and solo's right. Sadly I am having to fill in on some Bass parts as Carlos won't be with us but am sure I won't make to  much of a mess of it since bass on my GR-55 is fairly easy..just play it on the guitar.




Ahthankyew

88.5kg and near the end

Of the academic year I mean...tomorrow my PR students do their exam...on Friday CT students hand in their assignments..I will try to gade the written exam on Thursday and get it done leaving me the weekend to worry about the CT..
There will be retakes though, hence the urgency in marking....but basically its almost done.

We also leave the Pakhuis, our home for 5 years and move into the main NHTV building next block so lots of endings in sight. A big party is planned for July 4th to celebrate our Game release party and the end of the era.


Diet is going well, more due to smaller quantities than the actual low carb/high protien concept but it is working, I am not constantly starving and snacking on roast beef or salami sausages is quite nice ;) I'd kill for a bag of chips though.

End of year also means Starrcase have our gaduation gig to perform, or in this case gigs, as its held over 2 days, and we have to do 2 sets...we're busy rehearsing and accomodating a late line up change but overall its going well. My singing is getting better so I am starting to feel less stressed about my 1st public tonsil exercises.
Wish I could get my Mustang Sally solo as good as my singing though, I seem to keep making mistakes in it...I almsot always improvise it and lose control sometimes...perhaps I should just learn something and stick to it.....but thats not really what soloing is about... :D It'll be all right on the night.
I hope!

Ahthankyew

89.1Kg :D GR-55 is still amazing and finances sorted

Weight is dropping but hard to say if its just water, though I am regulating my carb intake quite well. Trousers already starting to slip down without a belt so....

Used the GR-55 for the 1st time in anger at the StarrCase rehearsal, it was brilliant, I was able to add atmosphere and variety to our set, and the abilty to dial in some power by bringing in a Les Paul screamer on the PA while I played Margaret through the amp, made some of my solo's even better.

It was well received by the other band members but I am not so sure the Gadgets who like a more stripped down sound will like it. Cant wait to try Creams White Room with an organ backing the into riff :D

The mortgage is finally transferred, after months of faffing about with the bank, Bina and I signed the papers at the Notaris yesterday to close the old mortgage, remove her liability and transfer it all to me..That finally lets me take stock of the income/outgoing and make a few decisions.

I am sadly going to have to change my power company, I use Greenchoice, even though they are very expensive, at 190euros pm, they are 100% renewable energy, but as the new mortgage is going to cost 100-200euros per month more I need to cut costs .I expect another less green supplier will give me half price which will offset the extra costs somewhat.

Next task is to find a cheap little motor to get to and from band pactices..I am not mad keen on having a car, but given the amount of band work I am doing now I need to be able to transport my gear. I wonder if I will be able to keep my cycling up when a car is in the parking spot!!!



Ahthankyew

'kin hell..thats amazing

I am still trying to get my head round the GR-55, it is an AMAZING thing, really amazing, I updated the firmware on it today and got even more sounds which are just amazing. And the amazing thing is that these amazing sounds all sound perfectly like the instruments they say they do, amazing.

Well yeah but wow its complex. This is not a plug and play gadget by any means. I need to take a lot more time to get used to it, before I abandon my normal gear for the bands.
As is normal at the weekend I'm trying to do some school work so can't let it distract me too much.  ;)

I had a bit of a play around with creating my own patches last night using the free GR-55 floorboard software which is ermm amazing. But even so I found it hard to work out what I was doing most of the time, but I did get a cool clean pickup sound with a CTL pedal overdrive boost on it. But trying to do a drums patch worked for a while then stopped...so not quite sure how that works..

Playing drums on a guitar is freaking strange...and the pickup might need a bit more adjustment as it was triggering too many but even so...with practice this will be amazing. but trying to send the patch to the unit it went into a mad synth mode.

Hooked it up to my PA today to hear it clean and  wow. I thought my Adrenalinn III was an amazing pedal/box, especially when I got a control board for it. But this...its...just amazing!

Its going to be a while before I can post anything..It does work out of the box of course but I want to really get my head around it before I try anything recording wise.




Ahthankyew

92.1 yes...another diet

1st of the month so its a start point..Brenda, who has the most amazing dancers bod, has suddenly noticed that she's been eating a lot the last few months...mainly due to yours truly providing food. (She can burn water!!)

And she has therefore decided she has to shed the excess milligrams as soon as possible...meh

In support of her efforts which will probably succeed in about 3 days..I have agreed, to join her in a healthy low carb eating ....attempt :D

I'm going to get these excess kilo's off..about 20 of them...gulp.

sigh..here we go again..


edit I removed the orange background form Sabrina's HTML code....back to  nice white colour



Ahthankyew

Wow...thats just amazing

My GR-55 arrived today, and I have spent a few hours playing with it. In fact time has flown by and its now 4-30am I was just entranced by it.

wow...just ..just wow.. it took a little while to fix the pickup to Margaret, my Patrick Eggle which is my main giging guitar, but it wasn't a massively difficult task, I was worried I'd positioned the pickup a bit too high but I tried it...and boom it worked fine. I was playing guitar, 12 string guitar, marimaba, grand concert piano and a shed load of effects in no time

Its simple to use, though you do have to be careful to leave the strings cleanly and fret them as you pick, since even a small hammer can be detected but it quicky becomes natural.

I LOVE this gadget...still a lot of things to learn...like how to get normal pickups to go through the effects bank making it an all in one unit. But that is just a case of reading the manual.

Yes, this will be an excellent single pedal does everything box. Gimme a bit of time to practice and I'll put something up on Soundcloud this weekend.

Can't wait to use it at the next Gadgets practice, we have a new guitar player on board who is learning our bits and bobs but being able to do keyboard and other fx will make a massive difference.


Ahthankyew

See this is what I want to do...

Ignore the slightly dodgy singing, I think it was a rather impromtu session, but I am just incredibly inspired by this. Ever since I discovered loopers (Trace Bundy's Sweet Child of mine 6 or so years ago) I've been wanting to produce things like this. Its just genius.

His straight guitar playing is also pretty amazing. What makes it so full and well produced is his use of the Roland GR-55 synth to provide drums and other fill effects as well as his brilliant guitar
playing


.


As its been holiday bonus month this month, I bought myself my usual indulgence; one of these GR-55s (ebay bargain, saved 200quid) mainly to add some keyboard sounds to my band the Gadgets.


But though I knew it could do keyboard sounds better than I could with an actual keyboard, I was amazed going through youtube for some videos of the thing in action, to find this guys vids including a useful setup tutorial. It really is an entire band in his hands in real time. I really really wish I could do stuff like this. I can't ..yet!

But its made me realise I need to focus a bit more. I experiment with too many things at once. Drums, keys, software, vocal toys, pedals etc.

My guitar playing has improved a lot in the last year or so, playing with 2 bands, I may not be able to knock out a tune on demand, as I still lack the musical memory and can't sing and play at the same time (working on that though), but there are other things I want to addess in my playing.

I am locked into blues patterns too much but thats no bad thing really.

If  I have the structure of a song in front of me I'm finding I can hold my own with others and do a fair bit of improvisation in solos but I can't play along by ear.

I have also settled into a specific guitar and pedal arrangment for these which I feel is sonically "me" when I am playing in the bands. But band members are not always there when I want to play my own stuff in my own style and if I am honest I don't have my own style yet and I doubt they'd be willing to play it :D

So its time now to specialise and develop my own style. I am going to focus a lot more on looping and song structure with the GR-55 and RC300 and no other pedals or toys, I don't plan to do any solo gigs...ever!!!

 But I am going to pretend I will and see if I can come up with a set of 10 songs that work within this structure and maybe, just maybe I will risk doing a performance. Its time to Master something and be really good with it.


I'm not abandoning my recording efforts, or my bands, but I am going to spend more practice time with me, the looper and the synth....it might be fun :D I might even sell off a few gadgets....hmmm maybe not.

Ahthankyew

I am still here

The strange colour is a small side effect to the post I put for my friend Peter's daughter who needed somewhere to host her tribute to her mum. It should go at the next monthly update, if not I will make a minor change to fix it but left it for now.

My mum hit 72 this week....she's still ticking, albeit with a few creaks and a lot more groans than I remember her when I was a kid. She and her 3 adult granddaughters (my daughte Danni and my 2 nieces Steph and Kelly) are coming over to stay with me in the Summer which will probably kill her, or me...4 totally different women in the house at one time will be interesting.

Been quite busy recently with work admin, exam prep and coding some work for students to use, which has been a total pain....at least next year I won't have so much hassle, but trying to fit in serious coding time with all the other admin stuff at work can be quite challenging.

But work has been good, finally getting on top of the admin has given me a chance to work with students more and the delivery of new Vita dev kits at the office opens up new learning goals for me.

I need to update my old scratchpad.net website now that I am officially a business here in NL, it should have my company details on there but it does not..I don't like doing websites myself and the host company's builder tool is useless, so am going to get a student to produce it. I can claim the cost back in tax (oh its good to have an accountant).

Not had a chance to work on my recordings either, things have been ticking over in a work/home/work/sleep kinda way. With Brenda working like mad to prepare for end of year exams we've not had much chance to do anything fun for a while. But I have had time to play with the bands and student jams and am really enjoying the release of work stess that provides.

I do need to make some changes to the studio upstairs though, not least get rid of the old broken tymble dryer in the middle of the room But also the mega pedal board needs to be retired, I've settled down to using certain pedals for most of my playing so the others are just gathering dust.. Time to unplug them and put them in a cupboard until I need to use them, which will clear a bit more space.

Logic Pro is still proving hard to master, though since I've not had a lot of time to practice I guess thats the main reason...holidays are coming though, and I may very well escape upstairs to avoid the cackling she devils who will be taking over. :D

But summer has finally arrived, for today at least..and that gives me a chance to go do some important shopping chores, new dryer, some duvets, cups cutlery at the dreaded Saturday Ikea...and shop around for a blow up bed etc for the visitors. Holiday bonus cash makes that all a little less painful too and has allowed me to treat myself to a couple of nice ebay bargains...guitar related :D


Ahthankyew

Posting this for Sabrina

'Missing Mom'

Who Is Mum?

• Fullname : Nor Amanah
• Age : 44 years old
• Birthday : 10 December
• She was born in Malaysia
• She has lived in Malaysia for her whole life
• Job : MD in an advertising agency

Note From Aaryan

A note from aaryan to you mama, mothers may a lot and us as children just hate that, because we hate it when they are right, but we learn to live through it and love our mothers till the end of time for they are the ones who brought us to this life and did not abandon us and that is why I will always love my mother. Your son Aaryan!

Note From ME!

I have lived with you all my life with you. You took care of me, watched after me and loved me. You would always be there when I needed you. For 15 years, not only were you my mother but also my father my best friend and my teacher. You were a single parent and had to do everything on your own but you still manage to find time for me and Aaryan. You made sure that we were always taken care of. I remember how worried you would be in the office. You had your own work to do but you still had time to help me with mine. You would come home and make me and aaryan help cook in the kitchen even if you were exhausted from work and we would be complaining. You did all this because you knew one day we would have to leave you and you wanted us to be prepared.
Now, I am here half way around the world from you. Somewhere totally unknown to me and I don't have you here to hold my hand and wipe my tears. I have to use everything you taught me I have to grow up and not depend on you anymore and mama I realise it is a hard thing to do. Sometimes I feel like I still need you, to tell me it will be okay and even if we are halfway across the world you still manage to do that. You are my hero mama and if I could be half a person as you then I know that I have succeeded in life!

The Video

Just before I left you had organise a birthday/going away party. You had invited everyone important in my life. I was glad that they could all make it because they had played a big role in my life. Along with that party you had made an 11 minute short video for me. That video was beautiful and very touching. During the party was the first time I watched that video it had brought tears to my eyes. Everyone at the party was crying during the party and tissues were flying everywhere. I would like to share the video with everyone! VIDEO

Oh thats nice, but still working on it.

Its been a lovely peaceful week off work, I have chilled, and chilled a bit more. Went to see Iron Man 3 (was brill) and been doing some nice recordings while Brenda has been busy studying like cazy. I don't get why Tilburg University has different holidays from NHTV but it is a pain that we can't seem to get the same days off.

At least this week we have a couple of synced bank holiday days at the end of the week so we'll ty to do something in this wonderful summer weather that has finally arrived.

I have been working on some more recordings, and have been putting together a version of Fleetwood Mac's, Man of the World...but all acoustic. Its shaping up into one of my best efforts so far, but I have a bit more work to do on it...and sadly getting ready to go back to work takes priority.

I am going to do a full multi track version with 3 guitars, bass and drums and some fx. It will be my biggest project yet but it is also surprisingly simple with the parts being quite clear and distinct. It should be a good test of my slowly improving Logic Pro skills..(I still find it madly complex though, but it does have a lot of fantastic features)

I love that Peter Green song, so sad and melancholy but so powerful and yet so damn simple, He really was a genius in his prime, he could do more with the 4 note intro to Need your Love so Bad than most modern guitar heroes do with 100. I might start a muscal project to do all the old Peter Green era FM songs....should only take a decade or 2.

I wish there were a PG tribute band I could join...maybe start, hmm the lack of singing might be a problem...however....I am going to try and take some singing lessons..I got in contact with a local singing teacher who is clearly mad and we're going to have a test lesson...he thinks eveyone can sing to some degree...I might shake that viewpoint somewhat...but if cant hurt to at least find out what my limits are ...no comments about opening my mouth please.




Ahthankyew

urgghh

I am just starting to get the hang of Logic Pro, starting...its really complex have done a couple of tracks now, this is the best so far, though can't really find a foolproof way to do vocals yet. I do really really hate the vocal on this, I did about 20 takes but just didn't get there. I do like the basic arrangment of this though and the solo at the end, is actually the same acoustic guitar doing the ruthm but run through a crunch blues setting to great effect. Ahthankyewe

What did I miss?

3 days of feeling poorly, fever, sweats, headache, snotty nose, general crappy ness... Finally broke this morning..and fingers crossed no mega cough, just a bit of phlegm. Hopefully a quiet day in and I should be back to work tomorrow. I don't really understand why colds here seem to be so harsh, a theory some of us on Facebook were suggesting was the lack of decent cold cures to suppress the worst symptoms before they add complications. The standard cure here in Holland is...paracetamol with caffeine and Vit C.. So you'd get the same result from popping some pain killers with coffee and eating an orange. Ie not much, though the paracetamol will keep the headache and fever under control that's about it. At least in the UK we get nice Beechams with all maxxed out goodies plus decongestants to dry you up and that for me is the killer. The runny nose and chesty cough needs to be kept at bay or it results in a motherfucker of a chest infection. The last one had me coughing for 8 weeks.. I'm going to get some UK cold meds to stock up my medicine drawer. And looking forward to getting out of the house again, been cooped up snoozing most of the time. Ahthankyew

Marking causes Colds...discuss

I am getting on well with the marking, RSI is bad but manageable, but I now have a cold...only a few weeks after recovering from the last one. My friend Soeren pointed out on Facebook that there may be a correlation.

He may have a point...Marking sucks my will to live, leaving me vulnerable to cold attacks.

What other horrors await my weakened immune system!!




Ahthankyew

productive weekend

Might as well make the most of it, marking hell next week and am I determined, RSI or not to get my grading done in record time

Anyway after doing a Tom Jones number I thought I'd have a go at a classic. The singing is variable of course but I like my own arangment of this... different and certainly something I might try and do better in future.




Ahthankyew