C2AGE RAVE 2014

Day 2: 11th May 2014

To be honest I can't remember much about C2AGE this year lol, probably coz I didn't walk around the event. I was spending most of my time practicing with Kaoru and other Harmonia ACG members at some empty area. I have heard a lot about C2age recently (for last year and this), especially about the stage management which I don't wanna speak of them here (feel free to message me if you guys wanna know more in detail lol).

 

I've had a pretty bad experience for my solo performance this time, and FORTUNATELY our duet performance was quite a success so I felt better and trying to forget about what happenned during my solo.

 

Kaoru and I (and Alissa) reached quite early in the morning because we were told that the sound check will start at 8am. BUT! The soundman only reach around 9.15am WTH, and worse the reason he gave us was kinda hard to accept -- having breakfast. We were slightly pissed off because we haven't even had our breakfast yet, and we reached on time because we are responsible people and would never want to cause trouble to the organisers. But obviously the other party doesn't have the same mindset with us.

 

Anyway, here's some photos we took:

 

My OOTD.

 

 

Me and my best duet partner -- Kaoru!! I just love pairing with her and I'm looking forward for more collaborations to come~ We rarely have any good pictures together so I really like this photo ^^

 

 

Thanks Erin for supporting our duet performance~ Waiting for the day we go sing K and go hyper together and scare Adam off lolol.

 

So some insights on the problems we faced as a performer during the event. Besides the late arrival of the soundman (who don't even feel sorry for being late), their sound engineering and arrangements was a total mess! Okay let me list them down:

 

1. There's no monitor speakers (as usual), and the only speakers available were facing outwards, way in front of the stage blasting outside. So obviously those around the stage and ON the stage could hear a thing. We politely asked to push the speakers behind, and were rejected because they said the vendors complained about the speakers being too loud. I know. It's confusing. Why would you push forward your speakers towards the vendors if they are complaining about the volume being too loud? Won't it be better to push behind so that people around the stage could hear better, and the vendors won't get blasted? I don't know. Ask them.

 

2. The sound engineers keep adjusting all the settings DURING our performances. Our performances thus sounded instable due to all the adjusting. And so I don't know what's the point of having soundchecks.

 

3. The sound engineers told us "We can't guarantee that you guys will be able to hear ANYTHING on stage, so if you guys can't hear, just sing". Apparently they think of us as some genius so perhaps we should  be feeling proud about it.

 

One sad part is that I had to stop my solo performance half way simply because I couldn't hear a single thing. Not the music, not my voice. Luckily the audience seems to understand our difficulties and still supported us nevertheless. Thank you very much.

 

I'm really glad that after all complains and persistency in asking them to push the speakers backwards, they FINALLY did it reluctantly. Therefore we had quite a success in our duet performance! I enjoyed singing "For the first time in Forever" with Kaoru so much, one of the most joyful songs I've ever performed~

 

Some of the on-stage photos, thanks a lot to Joee for the photos. And for coming all the way to support us!

 

LOL Guess I was being kinda hyper on stage haha.

With my lovely partner Kaoru~

This duet performance was one of our best! And our first attempt on Disney songs. Wish we could perform more of these songs real soon~ We worked really hard for this performance, practicing every morning before I start work (Kaoru was working night shift so we practice after she finishes her work and before I start work). I'm really glad that at least our hard work paid off, if we had those speaker issues again I would probably rage.

 

I'll end the post with a video of one of our duet performance on that day. This is the one where we performed "For the first time in forever" from Disney Frozen. I did not upload all performances from C2AGE this time hahaha, and even for AMG this year there's no recording LOL. Actually not just that, I realised most of my performance this year were without recordings hahaha, wonder what happened to me.

 

Red Box Sing with Class, Sunway Pyramid

17th August 2014

Went for this RedBox singing competition around 2 weeks ago. I first heard about this from Johan in our J-singing gang group chat, and was feeling rather half-hearted about joining. But in the end I was half-dragged into signing up because Kaoru, Zie Aun and Johan pulled me to register right after AMG event. Can't say that I'm not free to register haha since I was also waiting for Animenz piano concert with them.

 

Too bad the Sunway branch only have 3 positions left, Kaoru had to join the Bukit Tinggi's batch while Zie and Johan participated twice (one with me at Sunway, another at Bukit Tinggi). I didn't really prepare for this competition and I was having flu on the competition day hahaha. Nose block! Anyway, we were asked to reach 45minutes before the competition starts (7pm) for sound check.

 

One of the highlights of this competition (the main reason I joined) is that we will be using the Shure Vintage mic to compete! It is kind of a rare chance to use a vintage mic (unless I buy one myself lol) to perform so I was pretty excited about it! The champion will get to win themselves a vintage mic + RM500 cash voucher (if i'm not mistaken), but I doubt I'll win la, thats why I'm only excited to try out the mic haha.

The prizes. Everyone who participated will get a consolation prize of RM50 RedBox Cash voucher.

Most of us were still not used to the mic, since we only get around 1-2mins to test it out. I was pretty amazed by the standards of the contestants though! All of them sang really well and I enjoyed the 2.5hours of music ^^.

The judges. I'm feeling a little bad for not remembeing any of their names lol.

 

I participated with Wonderland by FLiP, a song I've performed for several times with my band. Slightly regretted picking that song because it's really hard to do a great performance with no heated audience (and three pair of eyes -- the judges staring). This song is better suited for band performance and people having fun together haha.

 

Nonetheless I still enjoyed a lot singing with the vintage microphone! It has good resonance and the effect is amazing. I would probably consider to get one after getting a good dynamic microphone for my stage performances.

 

After all contestants sang, we were given a 10-15minutes break for the judge to make their final decision on the winner. We used the time to chat around and getting to know new friends who love music!

 

Choy Peng, who is a blogger. She sang Utada Hikaru - First Love~

Precious Group Photo! Thanks a lot to Kaoru and Kenji for supporting us~

A big congratulations to Johan for winning the First Runner-up ^^ He got RM200 cash voucher so I guess he's gonna spend them by going to redbox a lot lol. I'm more of a LoudSpeaker fan recently, their prices are much cheaper, with SUPER COOL song selections, and even their food taste good!! Sorry to say but RedBox food kinda sucks.

 



 

 

My RM50 consolation cash voucher haha. Am probably going with either my family or Sacchin, although I would be happier if it's a LoudSpeaker voucher hahaha. To everyone who joined and participated, gokurousamadeshita! I'm sure we all tried our best and you guys are awesome as usual! Hope to join more of these competitions to further improve myself, broaden up my network and to spend time with friends who love music ^^.