hello everyone I'm back.  Sorry if i havent been visiting this blog of mine for quite sometime.. Well I was busy.. busy working fulltime.. its draining..its dragging.. its boring...  but i just have to hold on... keep my self together and earn some money.

Anway, for the past nine months I've been working for 8hrs a days.. good thing i work at night.. I just love working at night because there's no traffic.. day job people are at home watching their favorite television channel watching the news. And as for me I'm just about to wake up to start a new day.    Well i'm more productive at night compared to daytime..  I just got used to it.

Okay enough about work.. Lets talk about the things that i've done for the past nine months I went AWOL.  Well working did secure me enough money to buy me some necessities for my audio recording needs.. After few months on my job I got  a Tascam US122 USB audio interface.  I didnt go for a pro-recording sound card solution because I'm much happier if I can bring my tascam where ever I go like performing on live sets or recording using different work stations, for example: a mac or  a pc. It also have a Native ASIO support which supports 24bit audio recording and a guitar port so no need to connect a direct box when recording guitar.  Few weeks before that I also got an Audiotechnica ATH-M30 headphones. I know i could've gotten a Grado SR80/60 or beyers or Senns.. but this is the only headphones that was available when I was looking for one. It closely ressembles a Sony MDR-7506 headphones.. And some reviews said that ATH-M30 sounded better than the 7506.. Well sorry I can't comment on that because I don't own a 7506 so I cant tell which is which..   Also acquired an AKG K66 open back headphone and an Audiotechnica ATH-M20.  And wait also got a good deal in buying a Sennheiser PX100 portable headphones and my gf gave me a  panasonic HJE50 in-ear earphones..  To tell you frankly I was quite obsessed with heaphones..  I was about to buy a Shure e3c few months ago. Good thing i stopped my self.  Well right now I'm planning on buying a good microphone and some economically priced studio monitors..   well i think I found the right and cheapest studio monitors.. the one from Samson Audio called the Resolv 40A. They are powered and they're just as big as any bookshef speakers.   Well I cant rely monitoring the audio with a pair  of heaphones as my ears starts to get tired when I use them for a long period of time.
Almost forgot.. I also upgraded my pc last july with a dual core processor..  Its not the best upgrade but i got the cheapest dualcore processor I can get and paired it with 1.5gigabyte of ram and 300gigabyte of storage in SATA II interface..  oh.. my upgrade was the best decision I've ever made.. to buy an LCD monitor..  It was a Samsung 940BW 19" widescreen with 1440x900(16:10) native resolution and 4ms response time. Many people I knew discouraged me of getting an LCD monitor because of that dreaded dead pixel problem..  I knew about that and took the risk involved..  My Samsung LCD runs at 35watts(max) compared to my old 17"CRT monitor which runs at 115watts.. In the long run the LCD monitor is economically cheaper to run.. and much less space it occupies. so I have all the desk space compared to my crt which occupies 40 to 50% more space.

Myspace band link:
http://www.myspace.com/thefantasylights

okay.. i'm gonna leave you with some pics of my gear.. 

messy.. unorganized.. cluttered.. well thats me.. (not my laptop!)


few days when i got my samsung 940BW



Peavey PV6 audio mixer and Audiotechnica ATH-M30


My babies... Audiotechnica ATH-M20, Audiotechnica ATH-M30, Sennheiser PX100 and the Panasonic HJE50 (hidden somewhere there).

It's been almost a month that I've been playing the faders of my Behringer UB802.  It was quite fun having this mixer. But I was expecting more from the UB802 mixer, but didn't lived up to my expectations. I know that i got a good deal buying the mixer before but there are some few major quirks.  HISS!!!   Yes, I can't stand the hiss this mixer is making.  At first I thought I could just ignore it. But the more I'm using it, the more I got frustrated with the hiss.  I really don't know if its a defect or if its just normal for this Behringer mixer.  I visited some forums to seek help with my mixer. To my surprise I'm not the only one experiencing this Hiss problem.  Although many may not notice the "Behringer hiss" trademark believe me its there.  Anyway, bye UB802.  I'll never buy or touch a Behringer product again... never!! 

I finally got some supplies to make my own cables.. bought some few meters of high quality mic cables and some cheap xlr connectors.. i got a pair of xlr connectors for 60 pesos while other stores were selling it for 99 pesos each.. :) when i finished soldering up the wires and connectors i finally connected my mixer to my computer.. i still havent figured out a way to configure kx driver for ASIO recording.. then just a while ago every thing was doing well.. i can monitor the audio from my mixer using ASIO.. :) it was great.. i was getting very low latency values compared to the ASIO4ALL software.

After configuring everyting, i tried recording some tunes with Sonar from my nylon guitar recording it via condenser mic. i have never done this setup before because i didnt own a pre amp for my condenser mic back then.. now, i was so glad that the outcome was pretty good... my 16a condenser mic did a good job picking up my nylon guitar.. the nylon guitar sounds so clean and crisp unlike my previous test... :)

I did test it by playing my favorite Field Mice song called "September's Not So Far Away" It was not really a clean recording. you can hear my dog barking and some noise from the television.. hehehe

here's the link:

test audio

For a while now i've been over to different shops in Raon to find a decent and cheap audio mixing console.. I haven't been there for a couple of months now and I was told that there are cheap mixers there for sale.. I've been dying to use my condenser mic properly.. I haven't really fully utilized its full potential.. Its quite a good mic but not quite close to the Shure SM57 that's still in production for over 30 years now.. to harness my mic's full potential I need a mic pre amp with a +48v Phantom Power.. where can I find this mic pre amps? they are readily available here in some audio specialty shops but it's still very expensive.. that's why i'm resorting to a much cheaper alternative rather than buying a mic pre amp I could buy an inexpensive audio mixing console with 2 XLR mic inputs with pre amp and +48v phantom power with 6 Line inputs.. in the long run a mixing console can be more flexible than a mic pre amp only device.. because i can use the mixer in different purposes..

Last two weeks ago i started hunting these mixers on an online bidding site.. i wasn't that impressed by some sellers items.. i was hoping to find a much cheaper alternative.. visiting some shops i found out that there are quite a few budget mixers from phonic, peavey, behringer and maudio(korean brand).. so far the cheapest i found was the phonic MU502 5 channel mixer with 1 XLR mic input.. but unfortunately i just called up their distributor and told me that the MU502 was out of stock and new stock will arrive this december or next year.. Samson MDR624 link and the Behringer UB802 link were now both on the top of my list. I tried to download each and every manual, brochure, and spec sheet of these two models. then I saw the Peavey PV-8 Mixer link with 4 XLR mic inputs and 8 channels in the shop where the samson mixer was sold, my jaws just dropped.. it was clear that the PV-8 will be my first choice.. though it was more expensive.. after asking some questions to the sales person regarding the warranty of this product.. i was shocked to hear that they were only giving me 6 months warranty for this expensive mixer.. and so with the warranty of their other mixers like the Samson MDR624...

I was very disappointed.. so i went to the other shop.. the one that was selling the Behringer UB802.. when i entered the shop i saw a big banner saying "SALE ON ALL ITEMS!" I asked the person incharge of the store if the mixers are also included.. and he said "yes!" He grabbed a calculator and slashed away almost 900+ pesos from its retail price.. also asked about the warranty... He told me that all Behringer products sold in his store got a one year warranty. I test drived the new mixer and was pretty happy with it... i thought it was really a bargain because i got a full one year warranty and big discount.. with no doubt i bought the mixer.. with a big smile on my face.. :)

I got my economy bedroom studio up and running for quite a long time now.. a good quality cheap condenser mic, a MIDI keyboard, a MIDI interface, a good quality aux input, a guitar, a drum machine and etc.. I cant afford buying brand new stuffs to support my lust in making music.. so what I did was to find a cheaper way to get the stuffs i need by occasionally visiting thrift shops and second hand shops.. I bought two nice keyboards there at a bargain price, both are still working perfectly.. second was to read alot of Buy & Sell ads. I got my drum machine there at a very reasonable price.. the owner was selling it because he dont know how to use it, so I downloaded the manual of the net and after a few hours i was making some beats. As for the midi interface and AUX input I'm using a Live Drive II from Creative Labs. I bought it online from a fellow tipidpc member at a very reasonable price.. considering its really hard to find this item here in country nowadays..

I really enjoy visiting 2nd hand shops and thrift shops.. Out of the blue you'll just find anything like old records, old films canisters, a vintage coca-cola mug, tripods and more.. Just recently while passing through some shops i found a rare 1978 Yamaha CS-10 monosynth (image). It was still in very good shape.. no knobs were missing, no keys were locking, and the markings are still intact. There were some traces of rust on the edges but it still looks great.. the one who's selling it was asking Php9k for the synth.. Though I know I can't really afford it, I was just quite glad to have found one that is good shape..... :)

I just thought of finishing this song that's been bugging me for quite a while now.. its not really finished.. still a very rough mix.. i'm still planning on adding some more instruments and changing the drum track.. anyway the current drum track was just like a guide or a metronome to help me sync up with the the other tracks..

anyway here it is.. let me know what you think about it..
just right on the link and select "save target as"
untitled_track [rough mix]
untitled_track [zip compressed]
untitled_pre_accoustic [zip compressed]
enter aperture for the password of the zip file

 These past few days were very dull. I was just in the process of finishing this new song I made last weekend but it ended up to nothing.. I think I need to take a break or do something else for a while to give me some more ideas to finish it.. It was not always like this, because when I used to create a song few years back it was just like picking apples from a tree.. But now, I was spending a lot of time just to finish this new one.. It was frustrating, really..

Maybe I would just give it time.. Maybe watch some more films... or sleep it over....

I got this idea few years back.. by creating an audio file of Before Sunrise for my mp3 player.. Anyway my first attempt was recording the audio from the my very old VHS tape of Before Sunrise.. It was quite okay.. because I dont have any choice so the audio was quite clear enough but it got some noise and few pops because it came from an analog source.. I did enjoyed it.. but was not that happy with the quality...

Then came along the dvd... it was quite hard acquiring a copy of Before Sunrise years back because Warner Philippines didn't give a damn of releasing a dvd copy years back. Fortunately, I got a brand new region 1 copy of Before Sunrise from a Pinoydvd member link . Although it was abit pricey but I bought it anyway.. but now after Before Sunset was released I can see a dvd copy of Sunrise and Sunset almost every where.. :)

After acquiring a copy of the dvd last year, I almost forgot to rip the audio and convert it to mp3. And just this month I finished making the audio files of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. I tried sharing it to the Sunriseandsunset yahoo group user and it was quickly downloaded by before sunrise fans and was being hosted.. :)

Anyway, feel free to download the files here..

click here for the link

Many years back I had this obsession about building a perfect media center for our living room.. it must play almost every media I feed in to it.. like videos, music, pictures, stream radio via the net.. well fortunately I made one.. its an AMD K62 PC with a 400mhz processor speed.. it was connected via ethernet port.. it was okay.. it was running windows 2000 pro OS.. it didn't last that long because it just feels like a PC connected to television.. it lacks intuitive controls and you need a mouse and a keyboard to get around with almost any obstables of windows.. after a few months it never returned to the living room..

Well after a few years, then came the those DVD players that can play MP3 files and WMA.. and there came those dvd players that can play videos encoded in Divx, Xvid and almost any Mpeg 1 and 2 encoded files.. it also plays audio files like mp3 and wma.. well I thought we were gonna be happy with our Philips divx player... actually we were happy with this player becase i can put around 6 full length divx/xvid movie inside a single dvdr.. and you can also burns hundreds and hundreds of mp3s to a single dvdr.. but there was still this certain limitation to this player.. it also lacks the flexibility that I've been always looking for.. it was like a dead end.

Then few weeks back.. We were deciding on buying a console gaming platform.. well it was no contest.. cause we've always wanted to own an Xbox. Well.. after days and days of looking for an Xbox over the net.. we found the perfect one for us.. though it was a second hand unit.. but it got with it some enticing specifications.. it was a modified xbox.. it clearly came from an avid console gamer cause while looking at the controllers it was clearly and roughly used.. though I never mind a used controller because these xbox controllers(duke) are built to last... it also came with a 160GB 7200rpm hard drive that came with 42 xbox games in it.. when we got it.. it was like heaven owning one of these machines.. then I tried playing with it more.. I mean tweaking with it more and modifying system settings etc.. sadly.. I have this habit of taking things apart and see how it works.. i opened up the controllers and the xbox case to see whats inside.. im just happy seeing the internals of electronic devices.hehehe. while playing with the xbox I saw this XBMC program included in it. I tried running it and I was just blown away by this XBMC program. XBMC stands for Xbox Media Center which was developed via XDK or the Xbox development kit. Nope, it was not developed by Microsoft. With XBMC the possibilities are endless. You can stream videos from the web or your pc like Divx, xvid, quicktime, mpeg, realvideo, vp6, wmv and other popular video codecs. you can stream audio files like mp3, ogg, wav, aac, mp4, wma and more..

Though the XBMC build included in my xbox was quite an old release(2003). It was still very useful.. When I was learning more about my xbox. I learned that xbmc is still alive and everyday there are new CVS builds being released from different xbmc developers.. and yes it was open sourced. Each builds of xbmc came from different developers, each of them maybe better than other builds.. Right now I'm using the T3CH build release which was pretty stable. And most all of the XBMC users agree that the T3CH releases are quality builds.. And will not ruin your xbox..

The hardest part of XBMC was making your xbox recognize your pc.. Yes, the xbox has a builtin Ethernet port so you can connect it via LAN and connect it to your router.. the ethernet port was there because of xbox Live and system link for linking two or more xbox for multiplayer gaming.. Then when the xbmc was released it was fully maximized to stream every media content and configure your xbox remotely via ftp. For me the ethernet port is the life stream of xbox.. even if the dvd reader of the xbox gets broken you can still use it because of the ethernet port.. i rarely use the dvd reader of my xbox cause you can load games in to its hard drive.. it loads faster than playing it with the dvdreader.. Streaming videos from your pc was not that easy because you need to reconfigure your subnet addresses to make your pc vissible with xbox.. and there are still lots to configure like the .ini files.. but after a few hours of trial and error you will eventually access your pc via samba shares.. the fun part is browsing your pc files from your xbox. when you find the files you are ooking just press a button and you can play it at once..

Navigating with xbmc was very intuitive. While playing audio files you can load visualizations that are similar to winamp.. remember those milkdrop visualizations for winamp? Yes, its there.. :) There are RSS feeds that you can manually configure to display news from bbc, cnn and other rss feeds available.. Anyway there are still alot of features that I can discuss but there are so many.. I even made xbmc my default dashboard so every time I turn on my xbox, xbmc will load... (it was a scary process but it was well worth it!) :)

To wrap it all up, the xbox was really made as a gaming machine.. but with xbmc it changed the way people look at the xbox.. it was a full fledged media player.. Running only on a mobile pentium 3 700mhz processor it can play almost anything you can feed with it. Though the xbox will be replaced with the new system called xbox360 this November. but, I assure you that this xbox will remain in my living room for years to come.. :D

It's been quite a while that I haven't posted here in my blog site. Just been very busy fixing the ups and downs of life. I've always intended to make use of this site to say what's inside my head also talk about film that I've watched so far.. Or films that have touched my life and films that I couldn't help watching allover again.. As for the previous post here in my blog I'm a Before Sunrise/Sunset fan.. Why I liked the film is because of the simplicity and authenticity of it. There's a part of us that always wanting to find a Celine or Jessie in our lives.. By watching this film we can escape through all the harshness and dullness of everyday life. Though I'm not saying that I live a dull life. But its becoming duller and duller everyday because of everything thats happening around us. And watching films are the only way escaping it.

Yesterday I watched a film called 3-Iron by a Korean director named Kim Ki-duk. It was about man who momentarily passes time by entering houses of strangers which are currently on vacation. He wanders around the city and post leaflets to people's door at day time.. after a few hours or so, he'll come back and look for doors with leaflets still attached to the door and try to lock pick it.. as soon as he enters he'll try to take a picture of himself close to a family portrait and check their fones for messages if they are really on vacation. He'll try his best to make himself at home like tidying the place up, doing the laundry, try fixing broken objects, cook food and sleep at their beds.. I like to tell you more about this film but I'm already very tired at the moment.. All I can say is that this movie moved me in someway.. Im also planning on watching it again to get hold of details in the movie.. Silence was always beautiful..