adryazad.com
my thoughts, my creations, and what not….

nope.. this isn’t a post to reflect upon the stuff / incidents that occurred to me during the span of 2008. this instead is written because, after so many months of not reorganising my room, i finally decided to do so, chucking out some old stuff to make space for my new stuff which i acquired recently. I must say that i’m pretty pleased that i  did so because it looks so much better now.. haha and not to mention cleaner too.. yeah i’m a pig.

thanks to the year end sales that most stores have during this time around, i’ve finally acquired 2 items that i’ve been wanting to have for quite some time. yes, i’m normally a fan of the Shure SM58 legendary Vocalist mics. Yes i would have bought that instead, but i was totally blown away when the mess around sessions jammed at Sonic Station in Sri Damansara lately. They were using Wharfedale Pro DM4.0s (s denotes having a switch on the microphone).  Why was i blown away?? For  some odd reason, i found that my vocals appeared ‘thicker’ compared to when the studio was using the Ultravoice 8700 by Behringer.  No doubt that the SM58 could suit other vocalist better, but i find that the DM4.0s seems project my voice better. oh.. that and.. a Shure SM58 costs like RM420 brand new, whereas the Wharferdale Pro DM4.0s was going for RM195 for a set of 3, and it came in a hardcase…. only downside is… unlike the SM58 which is deemed to be indestructible / tough, these 4.0s are delicate, and one should never NEVER drop the microphones as they are sensitive creatures with sensitive inners..

Wharfedale Pro DM4.0s Microphones

*note that the SM58 holds it’s own ground, the DM4.0s it a more affordable solution that fits my vocal style.Like every other instrument, we MUST test it out before shelling out hard earned cash for them

Line 6 Toneport UX1

 i also got my hands on a Line 6 Toneport UX1 whilst getting my microphone. I’ve yet to explore its capabilities, but so far i’m in awe of the functions. The Toneport UX1 is a USB audio interface which as 2 inputs (a 1/8″ TRS input for Guitar/Bass and a XLR input for Dynamic microphones). The UX1 doesn’t come with +48v phantom power option, therefor, usage of a condenser microphone isn’t possible.

i’m not really a good guitar player, but i find that i’ve been practising more now with the UX1. Why?? well with the gearbox software, i get different amplifier models, effects pedals, a choice of cabinets to play on… and all these i can hear through my pc speakers or better yet.. EARPHONES! clear winner for a working dude that comes back at 7-ish everyday and have no chance to plug the guitar in to a Combo guitar amp… silent practice till late.. simply great…

i have yet to record any worth while samples with the toneport and microphones. but i’ll definitely put them up here once i do..

below are pictures of my room layout, with all my new goodies! spent a whole day yesterday cleaning and rearranging the room, since i was sick and couldn’t do anything.

  picture of space beneath my bed. Peavey amp belongs to Mr. Rueben Joseet, Red Yamaha Bass on loan from MR Shahreza from the mess around sessions. Marshall Valvestate Model 8080 which i finally sent for servicing after 8 years of inactivity, bongo stand with missing bongos.

My pride and joy, the only guitar that i own for now. Ibanez Artcore AGS73b in Transparent Flat Red. Awesome guitar for the price :D… Now i can begin to practice and learn how to play like my hero, mr BB King.

i’m waiting to collect my bongo’s back from a friend of mine, and pretty soon, the mess around sessions can come ovr for an acoustic house jam!

 now… if only i could have a pint of stout, draught preferably  …  it’ll be perfect..

cheers

call it being emo, call it being depressed, i don’t really. am not writing this in the search for a shoulder to cry on, on someone to listen. frankly speaking, this is mainly because i just feel like expressing how i feel. even if it is to noone. i guess life is full of ironies. no matter how trivial somethings are. and what i’m feeling now, could very well be deemed trivial. I haven’t written here for so long, as i felt that there was nothing i really felt like talking about, nothing to keep an entry about. that, and the fact that i’ve been rather busy lately.

so what exactly is this irony that i’m referring to? well, i believe that it’s been a number of time when i actually wrote about music, and how i felt as if i’m so attached to. yes, no doubt i do sing in a band (and i can hardly wait for rueben to come back from perth, South Saturn Delta shall rise again). ok i sing with two bands at the moment, the original south saturn delta, and currently a group of us from a local forum has gotten together to form the ‘mess around sessions’, we’re a group of working guys who love music and use music as a way to blow off steam from our dayjobs.

hah! i strayed from the topic again. i’ve always wanted to be able to play the guitar, and sing at the same time. music of choice? rock & roll, funk, BLUES. have you ever heard BB King? With his raspy voice, and… man the way he plays that damn Lucille of his… sometimes makes me feel weird in the cavity where my heart is.. I wish i could play it like that. i don’t care if i didn’t know how to read notes, i don’t care if i don’t have any music background. i just want to be able to pick my guitar up, and play my heart out. Have you seen how guitarists close their eyes and let their soul sound out through the guitar. its breath-taking i tell you. and when i said guitarist, i’m not refering to Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, or Yngwie Malmsteen. NOPE not at all, i for one don’t fancy these technical guitarists. BORING. to me.. technical guitarist are like writers writing a novel with 500 pages in it, just to depict his day adventure to buy milk from the grocery store (kinda like me writing this), whereas people liek BB King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, JIMI HENDRIX and many more, seem to be poets, writing ‘pantun empat rangkap’ or a haiku if you must… (i’m not really well versed in this literature issues). yes.. they’re like poets who deliver a whole lot of soul, and feel in just a few selective lines.

i wish i could play like that. as a kid, i saw my brother join the school band, and play the trumpet… also an instrument i hope to one day be able to play… and my sister.. who was also in the school band where she played the clarinet ( i would want to learn the saxaphone too given a chance).. yeah.. clarinet for school and my parents bought her an organ and sent her for music lessons at the well known YAMAHA school of music. several years down the road, i believe at grade 5 ? 6 ? she decided to stop. It was then, that i came aware of the beauty of music, i was probably around 9 or 10. I told my parents that i wanted to learn music, as a hobby. and asked if i could go for classes. but i was turned down.

 ”ya.. you say you want to learn now. send you for a few years and later you’ll say you want to quit”

that was the answer i got. so nope.. i didn’t get to go for classes. and tried to supress this urge to learn. rarely did i approach my friends to teach me when i shifted here to Subang, and when i did, none really wanted to.

ironic it is, because, of the chances that my elder siblings got to embrace the wonderful world of music, but they gave it up. and i who did not get the chance, still have the need to pursue this dream. I bought my self and ibanez artcore semi-hollow this year. a RED guitar. with the internet, and books i’m trying to learn stuff myself. and man, the journey is tough. i’ve got friends that tell me,

“dude, i’ve been playing for 10 years… and it took me that long to learn how to improvise on the guitar, took me that long and i’m not even half there yet”

depressing… if i were to have started at 9.. i could have been a virtuoso by now..could have, should have, would have. IF only.. IF only. i’m 25 now, and by my friends scale of comparison, it’ll take me 10 years and i’d still not even be half way there… 35….. thats old..  but on the bright side, being 35 and knowing how to play the guitar half decently, would mean i’d probably be a rockin’ dad by then. awesome…

so, day by day.. i look forward to leave office on time. just to come home and pick up my red guitar, plug it in to the amplifier and try to play along to bb king. step by step, i read up on books to learn the scales and chords…  hopefully i’ll be where i want to be one day. the sooner the better, because, patience isn’t really my virtue, and perseverance is something i’m running out off.

but i guess we’ll see.

hi from abu dhabi! Sadly i’m only able to post from my N78 becaure i didn’t bring a laptop along. I don’t know how to space my post out correctly as i don’t really know the functions me my phone just yet.

Okay, i just found out how to do that. Apparently you got to press 0 tired times. Hehe.

Anyway, it’s my third day here. And i’m here work related issues. I’ll be back in good ole malaysia on the 11th .

I haven’t really walked broue much because well i’m still operating on malaysian time. Meaning i in to sleep at about 9pm local time (about 1am back home) and wake up at 4am local time (8 am back home). This means that i get pretty tired before the day is actually over.

I’ve always imagined the middle east to have rows and rows of stores and have countless of places to sit down and have tea and smoke shisha. But i haven’t found any! Perhaps i shall have to venture further…. I must come back with a shisha pipe! Apart from that things here are definitely more expensive! Argh i can’t seem to buy anything.

Anyway that’s all for today. See ya!

today i shall start a new category calling SsSssounds! i guess this would be somewhere that i post all my ‘non-talent’ vocals in and other stuff. Anyway to start off the category, i’de like to say that we’re looking for a replacement guitarist to take over jer who’s leaving malaysia for UK to continue with his studies. i won’t be able to pin point our influence because frankly we’re just a bunch of individuals getting together and having a blast making music together. However, here’s a list of songs that we have jammed together to roughly give you an idea…

•   audislave - like a stone
• metallica - enter sandman (i didn’t sing this.. i can’t seem to get the phrasing right… )
• beatles - come together
• jimi hendrix - all along the watchtower
• muddy waters - hooche coochie man
• beatles - day tripper
• guns n roses - sweet child of mine
• beatles - get back
• any chord progression you want and we’ll figure out a tune to it together. discovering our own sound is much more fun then doing covers! apparently we turned a 4 chord song into an emo song.. ahaha

either way.. its just a bunch of people just gettign together and having fun! woo! i’m so high on adrenaline now i don’t think i can sleep… h

hehehe

despite the fact that i woke up yesterday with my body feeling warm all over and feeling like someone was using a jackhammer on my head. i’m feeling pretty good today. got a letter from digi saying that somethings’ instore for me and i could pick it up next friday. so i guess friday i’ll let you know what it is! and trust me i’m bloody elated about how things are this week considering the past few weeks were horrible..

am definitely looking forward to making music with some guys i’ve met on the local musician forum, www.jamtank.net (you need to register to gain access to the forums). it’s been a while since i’ve felt this way, hell.. i’ll go as far as saying that i’ve never felt this good singing with a band before. not that the original South Saturn Delta was wrong for me or anything. but i truely believe that i as a person has seriously learnt how to kick back and just enjoy a jam session.  which is why i feel like i can sing better nowadays. (i’m not praising myself here.. its merely self evaluation.)

so yeah, i’m definitely looking forward to this sundays’ jam session with the guys. going to try to do some live recording and stuff. hopefully we’ll have enough material to record, but if we don’t, in the sprit of ‘BANTAI’ we will just come up with impromtu songs i suppose. don’t know why, but lately we’ve been infected by the semangat bantai.. whereby we just start playing chord progressions and i’d make up lyrics as we go. kinda liek a hit and miss things. but all in the name of fun eh?

cheers.

as the title says.. i see sleepless nights ahead. i wanted to replace the engine head over the weeked.. but without a doubt pushing the car back home from the nearby shell stationed sapped every bit of energy left from me. my limbs and joints hurt till glory over the weekend rendering me useless and bed ridden to get back my energy in to this growing old body of mine. wasted the weekend was however times’ a wasting and i should really get cracking at this tonight.

doesn’t really matter if i’m not going to get any help on this .. this would either be my downfall or up-rising. yes i’m stubborn.. i know that.. but that’s what makes me who i am.. and that my friends is just who i am.

or maybe i should just send it to the bloody mechanic.. blah..

god damn you streamyx… i couldn’t book movie tickets online, i couldn’t do my online banking, i couldn’t check my email. and when i felt like posting something here.. i couldn’t do it. And when i called up your customer line.. you said everything was fine.. DAMN YOU…

seriously.. do i look like a thug? a murderer? a psychopath perhaps?

photo courtesy of Kelvin

i looked to my left to be sure that no car was speeding down the road before i crossed it. i was walking around the business center opposite my home after work. the sky was getting darker, it was about 1950 hrs. i looked in front of me and there was a young chinese lady walking along the row where my house is. she wasn’t that attractive, so i paid her no attention and just carried on puffing away on my cigarette as i approached my home. just as i crossed the drain in front of my house.. she looked at me. her heart must have been pounding or something, because not only did she quicken her step, she actually bolted off. BOLTED OFF… as in RAN away from me. i was puzzled, but carried on walking to the gate of my home.

she then turned back and looked at me. i just laughed out loud and muttered, “i walking home also people run away”…

i don’t really know if i should be amused by what happened or be disturbed by it. i wonder if it was because of the darker tone skin i have. i began to wonder if she had seen a person of the same race in the similar proximity as i was.. she would have bolted away as well. well i can’t really blame her for doing what she did, after all, crime rate is escalating around this area. but this is definitely something i’d recall for a long long time..

bah…

so we were at the cashiers counter near the toy department in jusco pyramid, and by we i mean me and the better half. anyway, she got in line to pay for my boxers stuff, whilst i went around looking at board games that they sold. i was especially interested in the risk board game that was on sale as it brought back many memories of arvind, kevin, lionel and i playing till the wee hours of the morning.

as i was examining the board game from afar (yes i only look at things from a minimum of 3 feet away = 900mm = 1 yard), my ears were drawn to a conversation that was taking place between one of the salesperson of the store and a middle eastern family. it was a father, mother and daughter i believe. anyway, the daughter was eye-ing a toy bicycle with a girl cycling it. i only remember it very vaguely but i believe this was how the conversation went.. and i think it was something to do with batteries

this come with batteries? the middle eastern chap said (an image of him is forever etched in my mind because i can clearly see his THICK mustache as i type this)

no no this no batteries.. but i offer you this…. (picks up a pack of rechargeable batteries and hands it to mustache man)

this has charge??? (pointing at the batteries)

no no this one no charge.. you have to go home and charge….

i want batteries… no charge…

ohh no charge? then you use this batteries (hands him a pack of energizer batteries instead)

i spent a few minutes eaves dropping on their conversation before she was done with the payment.

charge? no charge? and that donned on the sales person was that he was referring to rechargeable batteries or non-rechargeable batteries..

DUMB ASS..

it’s been a while since i actually wrote something. quite frankly, it isn’t because i didn’t have anything to write about, nor is not having time an excuse, more accurately i just didn’t feel like writing.

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her :my mom asked me what do you work as.. and i explained to her what you did .. then she said.. ok la.. at least i know he’s working…
me :ok.. but you know exactly what i do for work meh?
her :yeah…

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her :then  she asked me what your surname was….

me :HAHAHAHAHAHA *i burst out laughing non-stop…* then what you said..

her :uhmm.. i said … dunno…. but later on i told her about it anyway.

me :then what did she say after that?

her :she said that it was your choice….

me :and then i was still laughing hysterically… thinking about the ’surname’ issue.. lol

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anyway, had a company trip to phuket lately.i recall when getting off the plane, we were saying… phuki saya sudah marii… phuki i’m here! no i didn’t get no phuki.. hahaha.

the island was all right i guess. perhaps i sorta expected more from the beaches on phuket itself, but the water was probably only on par with the beaches found on langkawi. to get nicer beaches with clearer water and softer sand, one has to venture to the small islands around phuket. besides that, i think the most enjoyable part about phuket was probably ROCK CITY. i mean, how could i resist from walking into a club that was rock oriented. live band was great, and clearly the management didn’t hold back on setting the place up. sound equipment was top notch, and the environment was superb. if i ever go back to phuket one day, that would definitely be where i’d hang out every night. cheap drinks and good music. simply awesome.

some pictures from phuket. yes, they’re edited and yes i suck at taking pictures. tell me something i don’t know.

payung dan kerusi

payung tertutup

vincent and his harem.. haha

you know its damn bloody hard taking a picture on a speeding boat.. no 1.. its hard to get things in frame… no 2.. my eyes hurt after awhile because i kept banging my eye with the view finder everytime the boat skipped over a wave..

the polly..with her disney hat..

water!!

other pictures are up on facebook. don’t really feel like spamming this place with crappy pictures