Studio Recording Offer @ Fastlights Studios

As some of you might know, I was away to Spain and Portugal during the last two weeks of July. It was a very different experience, unlike other parts of UK. Will update about the trip if I have the time.

So, right when I came back from my Spain/Portugal trip, I pretty much rushed through to edit my tracks for Animangaki 2012(AMG) performance; as well as preparing songs to record for my first studio recording experience.

The studio recording deal was an offer I randomly saw at FB – RM50 for 3 Karaoke tracks recording (3 hours) + editing + mixing. It was quite a deal as I think the normal price to record a karaoke track is RM180 with sound engineer and editing. Studio ambience was fine (recording and working room), except that there was no sign board, door locked always and the whole place outside the working room was empty with not much lights, no furniture as well. Plus there’s only one sound engineer there, so it would be better for females to have someone to accompany if you would like to try out this studio ^^.

I have to say the tracks I recorded are only of average quality as I have only 2-3 takes (some small parts maybe more) per song, and there’s a time constraint of 1 hour per song. Perhaps I’m just not used to it as I usually have more than 50 takes per track when I do home studio recording. Editing wise I’ve learnt some stuff thanks to the helpful sound engineer and I believe after more practice I should be able to edit my own tracks better in the future.

To sum it up this recording deal should be suitable for songs that require minimal editing (clear vocals not much effects) and vocalist who can sing perfectly within very few takes (or for those who just wanna have fun recording some songs ^^). If I’m not wrong there should be more recording deals during festive seasons (Christmas, Valentine’s day, Chinese New Year..etc) and I won’t mind trying out for festive songs to have some fun again~

Do check out Fastlights Studios FB for more information regarding studio service and packages:

https://www.facebook.com/fastlightsstudios

Unboxing Samson C01U

I've been wanting to get myself a USB studio condenser microphone for years. And so after surveying, reading all sorts of net reviews and sound samples (and with the help of my friend), I finally found this lovely model to get along with - good quality with reasonable price~

Unboxing and fixing it took some time, and am overall satisfied with the sound recording test. 

 >> Box includes: C01U microphone, USB cable (long enough to stand and sing while attaching it to the computer), tripod desk stand, black pouch (some sort of plastic feel), and also a audio software.

I tried recording some songs partially to test out the recording quality and am so far satisfied ^^. Details are captured well and the tripod desk is more stable than I thought. But I think having a Popfilter is necessary to reduce the "pop" sound. After putting the Popfilter the recording sounds so much cleaner. I wonder if it's the mic or the filter, but there's no background noises (fan, air, etc) so I don't have to worry much about the recording environment.

Wanted to get myself a mic boom but it's already out of my budget, so I decided to purchase the Samson Shockmount first as it's quite a popular product.

Gonna play around my new gadget and hopefully record more song covers~

Kawaii Loli Attack Summer Edition

Yes I know it has been long since the previous update, but fear not, Minori is back from her busy exam schedule!!~~ And will have more time for music now ^^

First of all I would like to promote a international online electronic music event organized by a friend of mine Raev Loli from Italy~

Drum Rolls.....

~Kawaii Loli Attack $uMm&r EdItIoN~
"Kawaii Loli Attack $uMm&r EdItIoN is the 2nd edition of the electronic music event Kawaii Loli Attack, which takes many music genres from lolicore, noise and breakcore to j-core, hardcore and speedcore." (got them from their FB event page)

Date and Time: 21 June 2012 at 8:00am until 24 June 2012 at 9:00pm in UTC+02
Venue: www.RadioAnonOps.com

Here's the event poster and schedule:

As you can see there are many DJs from around the world gathered for this magnificent event. So do listen to your favourite DJ sets today~

*Am involved in recording of some vocal samples for this event so am quite hyper about it ^^*

Enjoy~~~

Blog Reform!

It has been almost a year since I last updated this blog (which is pretty bad) >_<. Since I don't really have the patience to dig out all the stuff that happened for the past year, I decided to give this blog a reform! With brand new blog design which I've cracked my head into doing it. I know it's not difficult but I suck at computer stuff so am really lucky to have friends to help me on the template design part ^^.

Along with the blog reformation, I've finally created my own fan page (!! after so many years), which is related to my music and stage performances. Hope that I can spread my love towards music to more people around the world, and also get to know more people through the page~ And since I'm working more on music for this year, am gonna use this blog and the page to keep a record of my music related works and collaborations.

So, by all means, feel free to check out my new FB page:

http://www.facebook.com/jasmineminori

Stay tuned to more blog updates~

炭水化物/糖 無し ダイエット～

As I have said myself in Twitter, I wanted to write a post about Low Carbohydrate Diet~. I've been recently (erm, around more than one week?) taking up a low carbs diet. Let me first start of with the intro. It's more likely a weight management program that controls carbohydrate and sugar intake in order to control weight. This diet is the easiest to take on, at least for me because I always eat really less rice, but I do love pasta and some of the cheese cakes, so it's a bit of trouble also. Basically if you did not take any carbs for all 3 meals for a week, weight will loss around 2-3KG, which is my ideal la. If it's inevitable to take on one of the meals you can also reduce weight, but slower, but will not increase.

Food NOT to take in low carbs diet is of course: rice, pasta, noodles, desserts, etc.. and it's because all these foods contains sugar (carbs is one of the sugar, I'm sure all of you already know). Food that is OK to take is: meat, eggs, cheese is fine, and whatever that has no sugar or carbs. But of course, don't la eat meat, chops and steaks for all the meal. To really follow a low carbs diet, one should take salads and light foods, and drink more water.

As most of my friends have known, I don't really eat breakfast, so one of my meals is obviously low carbs, safe to say zero carbs. Not eating breakfast is not good as well, but should replace it with sufficient intake of water. I could control my lunch rather easily as I used to be either in uni or at home. I would either take up salad or some vegetable chinese soup in uni:

My salad from Subway!~ I totally fancy them coz they have veges, TONS of olives (gotta request), and of course some meat which are not fried, just poached. For four days, I actually took the same salad and vegetable soup from the chinese restaurant for my meals. I could not stay zero carbs too long as my dad is the 'rice' kinda person, so he would want me to eat rice or at least noodles for some of the dinner. But still, for a week, I have at least 3-4 days of zero carbs intake; and the rest of the days only one of the meals with rice/noodles. As for drinks, I'll look behind the labels, and my limit of sugar level is 7grms. For teas and coffees I take them straight usually so am fine ^^.

My lunch today: scrambled egg (perfect after watching a whole night of youtube and bunch of recipe) + sausages + baked beans. Better with fruits ^^. **I know scrambled eggs sounds easy, but i'm not really good in cooking so gotta do enough research ma.

Pasta has the highest carbs/sugar level, and I really craved for some after one week. It's totally fine to reward yourself with some of the carbs meal after several days of proper control, so I plan to take my favourite pastas maybe end of the week, or next week~ I can't wait to eat pizza or burgers too, to make up for it, i may spend days focus on not having carbs.

Another good thing about low carbs diet is that it helps improve on skin condition and constipation. That is provided you take salads and soups instead of meat everyday la. I conpletely heart this diet because it can help me control my weight (even if not reducing, at least maintain) and my skin becomes better after the tons of veges I ate.

Peeps who can't live without rice (as much asians do) will feel difficult to go on this diet, but there's always so many other diet plans that suits you, just gotta search them up~ Good luck to all and enjoy your meals~