diary of a madman

Some updates for you trolls out there still reading my blog.

I ditched my mac book pro for a dell inspiron 1420 (2.2ghz centrino duo, 4gb ram, 250gb hdd, geforce 8400 128mb video card), and took 1st runner up for the 10th XQRJ national song writing competition with Lara’s song of “Ai This Way”.

It was a pretty productive day yesterday, though it was rather irritating as well. The sound-clowns at NTU’s surf and sweat managed to fuck up our sound, and not know how to rectify it, and best of all, forget to bring a keyboard down. That meant our keyboardist had to sit out for the gig, and Ivan had to fill in her parts. But we still managed to put up one hell of a show, and the stage, we rocked. \m/

XQRJ at UCC was not much better, apart from the fact that we won. Too many goddamned Indian Chiefs, inadequete soundmen on stage, too many students on stage trying to boss us around, and fucked up monitors. My original plan was to use my 20″ k custom ride and my 14″ byzance hats, but I ended up only using my 14″ byzance hats and my yammie snare because I had all of 30 seconds to setup before the lights came on and we were live.

Zhang Pei’s song was amazing - it literally blew the audience away. The judges had nothing but praise for her during the comments section, but they did comment that her lyrics were a little simple - but hey, that’s chinese pop for you isn’t it? The 10-15 mins before the announcment of the top 3 winners felt like eternity to us (Gerald, Daniel, me)

We heard the Emcee call out our band for 3rd position, and we literally went crazy, flipping and jumping all over the place. The next thing we heard was the announcement for the grand prize. Before we could figure out wtf was going on, one of the organisers came to us and said “You’re 2nd!”

So yeah, we went crazy again. But we fucking deserved it after the amount of effort we put into it!

All I want for Christmas are really small items.

1. Etymotic ER25 musicians’ earplugs, custom moulded $150-$200
2. 20″ K custom medium ride $489 (on its way)
3. 12″ Pearl soprano maple snare
4. 16″ Paiste Signature Full Crash
5. Yamaha Flying dragon hihat stand
6. 2x boom arms
7. 80gb ipod video

If you can’t afford to get me my etymotics, feel free to get me the ER20 that isn’t custom moulded, yet is capable of reducing the noise by 20dB. All for USD$12!

Some photos’ll be up soon… as soon as I get my 20″ Zildjian K custom medium ride, 19″ Paiste Dimensions raw-medium crash, and a boom-arm for my other stuff. Oooh exciting I can’t wait.

Merry christmas to all you trolls out there too.

Since I got these babies, I haven’t had a chance to do a proper review on them. Since I’m really, really, really, bored now with nothing to do at 5.45am, and with my screwed up body clock, here’s a little review on the 14″ Zildjian K Light Hats.

Specification: 14″ hihats
Weight: Medium-thin over Medium
Finish: Traditional

Extremely sensitive and crisp pair of hihats, well suited for anything from a softer to a medium-loud mix. Even though this pair of hihats aren’t as loud or beefy as the 14″ K regular hats, they work well for anything louder as long as they’re sufficiently miced out. When closed, it sounds extremely articulate, with a crisp, dark response. The semi-open “slosh” sound isn’t washy or “crunchy” like some of the heavier hats, which isn’t much of an issue for me, seeing how I already have a pair of 14″ A custom regular hats. The “sloshy” sound when played open isn’t overbearing, but cuts through nicely without an obnoxious feel or sound. The “chick” sound when played with the pedal is extremely articulate, but falls short of being overbearing.

Overall, the $600+ price tag attached to this baby is well justified. This pair of hihats definitely aren’t suited for hard-rock, metal or similar genres, seeing how it lacks the beefy crunch some of the heavier hats possess. If you’re in the market for a new pair of hihats that’re articulate, crisp, and darker, do consider and try out this pair of hats.

“Wow dude you have like 13029834032892 hihats and 93020382 crashes and 38430 snares! You must be a damn pro drummer!”

Sentences like that piss the shit out of me. Along with sentences like, “I need two rides that sound different, one for heavier stuff and one for jazzier and softer stuff.” What’s with the big hoohah over hardware, equipment and gear? It’s not as though having more cymbals or more snares will make you a better drummer. True enough, having more cymbals and snares give you a wider palate of sounds to play around with… but how often will this come into play?

Zzz. When will people realise that its the skill of the drummer that makes the equipment sound good, and not the over way around.

GRRR.

Okay let’s start with the pleasant stuff - the 3rd floor STEAMboat. Really quite steam… a lot of dodgy talk and a lot of jiaowei around (literally, penis talk, aka rubbish).

I’ll not bore you with my uber l33t literary abilities, but I’ll let the photos do the talking.

The pre-STEAMboat preparations:

Ivan and Khairul hard at work to get the boat to steam:

More food:

Laremy’s feast:

Dodgy-ly:

KumsungmalongCORN:

Overall it was amazing, thanks to Laremy for organising this very steamy steamboat, and to everybody who came! (Especially the konfused korean who called me a cheebye, cheebye to you too HAHA)

Ok to the more kaopeh stuff - the NUS cultural activities club did a gig at Holland Village on Sunday as part of some program organised by the RCs there, and I was amazed at the turn out, more so at the number of annoying people who complained about the “noise level”. All of the kaopeh people were residents of a condo situated just behind our stage, and all of them were Chinese.

I wonder what happened to tolerence within the community. Nobody complains when there’s a Chinese funeral, and we all know how noisy and loud it can get at unearthly hours of the night. Nobody complains when its Chinese New Year and bazaars blast cheesy chinese music daily. So why complain about a 2 hour performance?

What amazed the most was the fact that the police actually responded to the complains. I’ve made numerous police calls regarding dodgy characters loitering at my block’s void deck, delinquents playing with sparklers and vandalising public property, and the fastest response time I’ve had to date was 1 hour +.

That’s two police officers, defenders of peace and public safety, talking to Rosli, our band director. I do not condemn the police for taking their jobs seriously because we were obviously a public nuisance and making old people in the condo suicidal. Oh maybe we made some little kids pee in their pants and interrupted some adults’ love-making session. This is why our parents are required by law to pay taxes in order to pay for their salary.

But anyway, I’m going for breakfast and I’ll end my kaopeh session here. More photos:

The gear I had to lug from KR all the way to YIH where the band room/bus pickup was at:

And this is the drumset that we used. A yamaha stage custom with the older lugs (resembles a recording custom), my yamaha maple custom absolute snare (14x5.5, 6ply maple), 14″ k light hats, 15″ k dark thin crash, 17″ a custom crash, 22″ a custom ride, 10″ k splash and my yamaha dfp9310 double pedals.

Okbye.

Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip ‘em to the lonesome end.
Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell.

Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip ‘em to the lonesome end.
Saturn ascends, comes round again.
Saturn ascends, the one, the ten. Ignorant to the damage done.

Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.

Wear your grudge like a crown. Desperate to control.
Unable to forgive. And we’re sinking deeper.

Defining, confining, controlling, and we’re sinking deeper.

Saturn comes back around to show you everything
Let’s you choose what you will not see and then
Drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again
Spits you out like a child, light and innocent.

Saturn comes back around. Lifts you up like a child or
Drags you down like a stone
To consume you till you choose to let this go.

Give away the stone. Let the oceans take and
Transmutate this cold and fated anchor.
Give away the stone. Let the waters kiss and
Transmutate these leaden grudges into gold.
Let go.

New addition… say hello to Mr. Maple Custom Absolute with noveau lugs! (Pictured with 14x6.5 Pearl Sensitone Custom Alloy snare for reference)

All links open up in a new window/tab
Maple Custom Absolute #1
Maple Custom Absolute #2

Just felt like posting up the total amount I’ve spent on my drumming so far. If you’re about to call me a show off, or a goddamned attention seeker, but the bottom line stays - I have the goods and you don’t, so suck it up and fuck off. Otherwise, feel free to ask me questions about anything related to my equipment.

Drumset:	Tama Stagestar (Jetblack) (SGD$800)
Snare:	14x5 Phattie Custom Maple Snare (SGD$760) 14x6 Pearl Sensitone Custom Steel Alloy Snare (~SGD$400)
Cymbals:	14″ Zildjian A Custom regular hihats (SGD$420) 14″ Zildjian K light hihats (SGD$610) 15″ Zildjian K dark-thin crash (SGD$350) 17″ Zildjian A Custom brilliant crash (SGD$290) 22″ Zildjian A custom ride (~SGD$550) 10″ Zildjian K splash (SGD$210)
Peripherals:	LP Jamblock (SGD$72) LP Low-pitched blastblock (SGD$70) LP Black Beauty Cowbell (SGD$66) Yamaha DFP9310 double pedals (SGD$610) Tama multi-clamp (SGD$72)
Grand total:	SGD$5,280
Older stuff that I had:	14″ Paiste Soundformula hihats (~SGD$370) 16″ Zildjian Avedis Thin crash (~SGD$250) 18″ Zildjian Avedis medium crash (~SGD$300) 20″ Istanbul Alchemy Professional Sweet ride (~SGD$210) 9″ Zildjian K custom hybrid splash (~SGD$210) 13″ Zildjian Avedis Newbeat hihats (~SGD$420) 14″ Sabian AAX Stage hihats (~SGD$480) Pearl P-2000B Eliminator single pedal (~SGD$198) Yamaha FP9310 Single Pedal (~SGD$200) 14x4 Yamaha Absolute Maple Custom snare (~SGD$530)

I’ve excluded the total amount spent on older hardware, cymbals and pedals, my drumsticks, my stick bag, my practice pad and my various drumheads used over the years. At the same time, I expect the total amount to increase significantly when I am finally able to justify blowing SGD$190 on a 16″ Istanbul Sultan crash, and another SGD$290 on a 20″ Istanbul Sultan ride.

It’s over and I can start on my PS essay, along with the various revisions, at last!

Nah, just kidding. I’m not that glad its over actually… was having a lot of fun jamming and practicing with the band (affectionately known as The Marblows), disturbing Janelle, kajiaoing Sherri, and annoying the living shit out of everybody else who happened to be around me during our tech runs and rehearsals. Heh heh heh so much fun.

Photos’ll be up when they’re er.. up, but great job guys, we rocked the fuckin’ house down (or in this case MPSH) and did a perfect job for the finale! Looking forward to working with you guys more often again in the future!