Digidesign... DODOdesign?

I was once in awe with this beauty. A control surface that can control almost everything in Protools in realtime.

• 16 Focusrite Preamps (YUMMY!),


• automation of plugin parameters(MAGIC!),


• 5.1 mixing capability,


• and all these via 1 ethernet cable!

Yeah yeah yeah, I'm not a fan of Protools, but I don't mind bending backwards just to record/mix on this babe.

And now this babe has aged into this...

According to Digidesign, we can now 'upgrade' the old 16 Focusrite Class A preamps to the new 16 'high quality, low noise' preamps ??? And pay again if you wanna upgrade to Protools 7.4 ??? My poor baby has definately aged... the golden years are 'gone with the wind'...

Symphony of Destruction !!!

Hell Yeah! More than a decade ago, I was listening to the cassette 'Countdown to Extinction'. Now the the good ol' nasal Dave is still screeching in front of me! hahaha...

The interesting thing about such gigs is the simplicity of it. Clean stage free of any Jack Daniels, Jim Beams, TS9s, Wah pedals, only a setlist stuck right beside the mic stand. Even the FOH tent was unusually neat, with a serious lack of beer cans, and outboards effects and preamps, and compressors and.... Thanks to Yamaha's PM5D which effectively robbed any chances of eye-candy for gearslutz ! Arrrgghhhh!!!

*A night of horns*

What was interesting was that when I was in the moshpit, this young minah chick beside me was actually singing to most of the songs. Here's where I believe, music has no generation gap. :)Check out equipment list here. http://focalproaudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1350#1350

Avolites Pearl Programmers' Course '07

Thanks Tony for the arrangement and Dawn for the comprehensive course. For people with conventional background, this is hell lots of fun. And it beats going up the genie to focus the lights...

Guess who's on Pro Audio Asia '07 !!!

Yes! Self praise is disgrace! But do I look like I give a damn? So leave your sour grapes in your pocket and suck it up... :)

Focal presents... Drum Recording Workshop '07

Joshua Agilan - Drumstruck Studios

Hey Eugene, thanks for the pics!

It was quite amazing. To be in company of good fellas. The turnout was cosy, and therefore comfortable. From the positive feedback, I think that would warrant a couple of beers. By the way, Josh rocks man! and not to forget the rest of the speakers as well...

Hadaka: K!

Hadaka: K is the conclusive installment of the Hadaka series initiated by Yuen Chee Wai. Over three days, sound will be the medium of negotiation between the artists and their audience.

In the subtractive colour model used in traditional printing techniques, black typically appears to be one of the most important colour units. It augments characteristics the rest lacks. Black embraces a sense of mystery. Black tells of extremes. Hadaka: K is the culmination – a combination of all the processes of the previous Hadakas. It is so singular yet it is a multiplicity of colours. The 9 artists shall attempt to work, talk, collaborate, in creating, nothing. Yet everything.

The artists will participate in a daily open studio-styled workshop which members of the public are free to be witness. The night performance will feature at least three artists performaing in a relay, replacing one another in turn and closing in a final jam session.

The programme will not be revealed until the day of the performance. So there is always a fluid, amorphous energy. The audience joins the experience of discovery - like the workshop process the artists will be participating in. It also highlights the "uncurated" and democratic approach to the entire Hadaka, where every participant is a stakeholder.

The artists participating in Hadaka K: are Venza Christ (Indonesia), George Chua (Singapore), Dickson Dee (Hong Kong), Atsuhiro Ito (Japan), Jin Sang Tae (Korea), Otomo Yoshide (Japan), Vu Nhat Tan (Vietnam), Yuen Chee Wai (Singapore) and Zai Kuning (Singapore)

Hit for more details from Esplanade!

Very interesting concept where you actually get to see working relationships, between everyone that's involved in putting up this show, musicians, techs, engineers, and most of all don't forget equipments, cables and fingers....

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

Sypnosis:

Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) has lost track of time. From an early age, crucial moments of his life have disappeared into a black hole of forgetting, his boyhood marred by a series of terrifying events he can't remember. What remains is the ghost of memory and the broken lives of his childhood friends, Kayleigh (Amy Smart), Lenny (Elden Henson) and Tommy (William Lee Scott). Throughout his childhood, Evan was under the care of a psychologist who encouraged him to keep a journal, detailing the events of his day-to-day life. Now in college, Evan reads from one of those journals and finds himself thrust inexplicably back in time.

Evan comes to realize the notebooks he keeps under his bed are a vehicle, a way to return to the past to reclaim his memories. But these recollections only leave Evan feeling responsible for the damaged lives of his friends, especially Kayleigh, the childhood sweetheart he still loves. Determined to do something now that he was incapable of doing then, Evan purposely travels back in time, his present-day mind occupying his childhood body, in an attempt to re-write history and spare his friends and loved ones these traumatic experiences. By altering the events of the past, Evan hopes to transform the present. But every time Evan changes something in the past, he returns to the present to find his actions have unexpected and disastrous consequences. Try as he might, he can't seem to create a reality that allows he and Kayleigh to live "happily ever after."

I'm quite sure everyone wants to go back in time to make things better. Like B.B. King would sing about greener pastures, somewhere out there. But what defines the term 'better'? Something as simple as being able to breathe, walk and talk? Or would you rather have fame, power and wealth? If you are able to construct your own future, how much in detail would you construct every factor and variable? Would you schedule natural calamities/diseases to keep human population in balance? Would you program death so we will respect life? Would you still want to experience lost to treasure what you have now?

On the side note...

What makes you think certain situations are better when you have never experienced them yourself? If the grass is greener on the other side, why don't you make your side more colourful instead?