Just The Wei I Am

Streamtuner is a directory software for Internet radio stations. A popular format for such stations is ShoutCast.

Checking out the Most Popular list, I came to Radio Paradise, which IMHO is an excellent station. Their tagline reads "Radio Paradise is Old Fashioned Radio for the 21st Century" and so it is. Helmed by a veteran DJ, built upon cutting-edge technology (music servers controlled remotely by laptop?!) The music selection is excellent too - "creative, eclectic, and diverse radio". Well, good music is self-evident and though I've never heard most of the songs he plays, they sound good! Non-stop and commercial-free too. This is good radio.

Listen to Radio Paradise! If you have a slow connection, listen to the narrow bandwidth version. Oh, Paradise is the name of the town, btw.

Happy listening.

After some looking around, I have identified my dream guitar.

The Fender Standard Stratocaster HSS, sometimes known as the Fat Strat. The unique thing about this (compared with other Strats) is the humbucker bridge pickup. Strats usually have 3 single-coils, but this one has 1 humbucker and 2 single-coils, hence H-S-S. This setup makes this guitar very versatile, and able to play many different styles. I like versatile things.

Oh, of course there are better guitars, but those would really be out of reach within the near future. This one is not cheap either, but the cheapest in its class, and offers good value for money. Next time, when I can afford it, maybe an Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster....

This morning, I carelessly dropped my guitar on the floor (carpeted, thankfully). The finish on the bottom front of the body cracked, about 2 inches long. Very very ugly sight. *haiz* I guess it had to happen one day.

It's just kinda ironic cos I'm one of those people who are careful and respectful with guitars (both others' and mine). In church, where there are a lot of guitarists, there are also a lot of budget guitars. People get used to not caring for guitars. Hmm, I try to take better care of mine, seeing that it's a low middle range model after all. Wax, polish, new strings, wipe after use. And I extend the same respect to other people's guitar, even if they may be budget ones. Take care not to bump the headstock, put it down gently, take off my watch when I play. Musical instruments should be respected.

Anyway, back to my guitar. The finish is damaged, but at least the wood seems intact. Which means that it's not so bad, I could send it to a luthier to put on a new coat. But if I redo the entire finish, I'm not sure if the guitar would look the same. Hmmm, I think I'll just see if I can just repair that patch.

Good people, cheer God! Right-living people sound best when praising. Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs!

Holy joy is the heart and soul of praise, and that is here pressed upon the righteous. Thankful praise is the breath and language of holy joy. Religious songs are proper expressions of thankful praise. Every endowment we possess, should be employed with all our skill and earnestness in God's service.

Some people know, but I haven't really mention that about 2 weeks ago, I finally fulfilled a longtime dream of owning an electric guitar.

Just to share, the first time I wanted to get one was in Sec 3. At that time, I listened to quite a bit of rock music, specifically alternative and a bit of grunge. Bands like Blur, Suede, Weezer, Dubstar. I hardly had any music knowledge back then, but was interested in making music. I experimented quite a bit with "Trackers" - computer programs for composing and arranging music. While I grew to understand the technology of music quite a bit, I never got far with the music of music part. Anyway, I guess I wanted an electric guitar back then, largely because of the rock music I listened to.

The next time I started to dream of having an electric guitar was around year 2 or 3 in NUS. By then, I was a Christian, and already knew how to play the guitar in small groups. Music - listening, playing, creating - was still something I loved. I started to dream of being able to do music beyond the small groups level. I still dreamed of being able to play the music that I listened to. And I thought, one day I will learn to play the electric guitar well enough to serve as a musician in church.

I'm still taking steps towards the dream! There's a lot of work to do before I can get there. This is a huge learning process. I've been reading up, reading up, understanding all about electric guitars - the history, the science, the techniques, the styles, the technology. There's so much more to learn! And practice is important too..

I still remember many years ago when I was stuck in my progress because I couldn't play barre chords. I knew that difficult as it might be, I was not going to get anywhere in guitar-playing unless I could play them. I prayed to God, that He would help me to master barre chords, just so that I could serve by playing guitar. Guess what? The next thing I knew, my barre chords rang true! Hee, so, Father, please help me with my effects, scales, alternate picking, palm muting and improvisations now! In Jesus's name I ask for these gifts! Amen! =D

(Regarding this entry's title: George Harrison of the Beatles has a popular song titled While my guitar gently weeps. If you know a bit about the song, it's somewhat influenced by Eastern spirituality. So while his guitar gently weeps, my Christian guitar shall joyfully praise the Lord! Heehee.. )

Been wanting/needing to get a pair of in-ear earphones for some time, to listen to music, and also for video editing. It's essential that they are the in-ear type in order to obtain the sound quality. But then that's about all I knew. I also knew that 1) earphones come in many different quality levels 2) you get what you pay for generally.

Saw a nice-looking Philips on Sunday and was almost going to buy it. Thank God I didn't! I did the proper thing (that I usually do before buying things) - online research! This research led me to the Crossroads MylarOne X3 sold at Jaben Network, which is on the 4th floor of Adelphi which as you know, is the mecca of singapore audiophiles.. (I was commenting to KC, 'hey let's go and look at stuff we'll never be able to buy!', and 'I don't think we'll find Sony sold around here')

It's a guy thing, I guess, but the sight of all those gorgeous vacuum tubes does stirs something primal inside. You know what, maybe I'll try using my Pod XT Live to amp music playback... I think it might just work. I mean, guitar tube amps are tube amps. Everything is tube amp tube amp. And Line6's amp modelling is good right? So I can play music through my Pod instead of those $10,000 amplifiers and in theory, it should be pretty good too... heehee

Anyway, back to the earphones.. Yup I bought the Mylar X3. The owner Uncle Wilson is very nice, threw in another earphone (cheap but very good Sennheiser) as a gift. The Mylar is also cheap but very good, but in a higher league altogether.. It's been compared to 'branded' earphones priced more than 2x its price. Don't you love internet forums? Unbiased reviews from ordinary people like you and me..

I'm no audiophile, but I can tell these are better than anything I've used, headphones or earphones. It's funny because with the Mylar X3 I'm hearing things on my music tracks that I've never noticed before. It makes studio recordings sound less perfect, in a good way.

For example, listen to acoustic guitar playing, I can hear more fret noise, even some buzzing during fast passages. i.e. buzzing caused by the guitarist. It's all recorded but you can't hear these details if your phones aren't clear enough! Listening to a sax melody, I could notice the breathing dynamics. And I'm really happy with the bass end of the spectrum. Can hear bass runs clearly with distinct notes. The thing about bass is, it's not just about whether the phone/speaker in question can thump. It's about whether they can thump clearly!

The Mylar X3 really makes it sound like the musicians are nearby. Maybe I exaggerate or maybe it's placebo effect, but all in all, they sound good!

Got this on Saturday. Will enthuse about its quality later. Was fun bargaining. The earphones (in-ear monitors, to be exact) are the pair I got some time ago - the Crossroads Mylarone X3.

"Marvin The Album" (Yes, all 3 words are the name of the album) by Frente! (yes, the exclamation mark is part of the name of the band) is one of my favourite CDs. It's one of the first CDs I bought in my life, when I was 14, and I have loved it since.

Angie Hart's beautiful voice and the band's wonderful acoustic playing has always made this an uplifting album. Much more than their next album, the darker "Shape", which I also have but listen to much much less.

Today, I listened to "Marvin The Album" again after a long time of not doing so. I wanted to hear how it would sound on my Meizu M6 and Crossroads MylarOne X3 combination. The M6 is lauded as a portable player with high quality internal components, making its output sound better. The X3 is an in-ear monitor (earphone that goes into the ear canal) that is lauded for its clarity in music reproduction, with good instrument separation (the ability to listen and focus on individual instruments in a musical recording). Both are excellent value for money. If interested, check out Jaben (blog, forums and online shopping) for information on the X3 and MeizuMe for the M6. Of course, if you're my friend, just ask me lah!

Back to Frente!... I had already encoded the CD in lossless FLAC format so that I can play it on a portable player. Deciding that I would do The Listen tonight, I plugged in the X3, and switched on the M6 with anticipation. I knew it would sound good, but I wonder how good?

The result: Very very good! This is my favourite CD for the most part of the last 12 years, and I've honestly never heard it sound so good. I had shivers down my spine by the time of merely the 4th bar of the first track. Angie's voice sounded so.... poignant. The piano was so.... musical. On the next track, one of their best, "Labour Of Love", the folk guitar was introduced to the album, and it sounded great! The choke-strum was solid, and I could hear the impact as flesh met string strings. The harmonics sounded as the closing notes sounded brilliantly bell-like, just as they should. On "Lonely", I heard a percussion instrument I cannot identify that I've never notice for there on the track.

The bass playing on all the tracks was clear and not muddied, with distinct notes. And it is a very excellent arrangement, a very melodious and inventive bassist. I have to admit that I've never been able to listen to the bass on this album properly. I think this is the one biggest improvement the M6/X3 has made to my appreciation of this album.

"Marvin The Album" is still one of my top favourites, and now I get to listen to it with a new-found appreciation.