Monday, December 9, 2013

"Clarity" by Zedd - An Acoustic Cover

So I heard this song in the radio alarm one morning last week. Shazam-ed the tune and found this song. I've been listening to it repeatedly throughout the week and decided to put it into a cover. So here it is, "Clarity" by Zedd.

https://soundcloud.com/justincredible-2/clarity-by-zedd-acoustic-cover

Friday, May 10, 2013

Project 513: Another Day

https://soundcloud.com/justincredible-2/project-513-another-day

This song was inspired by listening to the synth parts of The Wanted's "Glad You Came". I initially thought of doing a cover of it but I got distracted. Oh wells... it happens.

In this song, I used a few drum and synth samples from both Garageband and online. My keyboard is an M-audio Keystation 49e played through the recording software (Garageband). I duplicated the tracks with the distorted synth to make the sequence precise. For the first bar of the intro, I tried finding something smooth. The "Planetarium" is the closest sound I can find (sort of like the intro to Katy Perry's "California Gurls").

Unlike my previous electronic composition, "Another Day" has a unique pattern. In "A Sight of Paradise", I used the pattern of intro->verse->Chorus->verse->Chorus->Bridge->Chorus/Outro. The new song goes: Intro->Verse->Chorus->Verse->Bridge (or Pre-Chorus)->Chorus->Verse/End. The unusual-ness of it gives a sort of trademark. Me and my wild ideas, right?

Monday, January 28, 2013

A Prospect for the Future: The Orange Tiny Terror

It's ORANGE; it's TINY; it brings TERROR. That's right! It's the ORANGE TINY TERROR!!!
The first time I heard about this amp was from a friend of mine (Brian Rochili-->his Soundcloud: SOUND). It was my first few months here and I was looking for an amp. He suggested various ones including the Tiny Terror. I listened to the sound samples on YouTube and fell in love with the sound it produced. However, I was still skeptical that a small 7/15 watt amp is able to impress me like it did. I just HAD to try it for myself.

(The Orange Tiny Terror featuring the choice of 7 or 15 Watt output)

It wasn't until the next summer when I tested out the Tiny Terror in Singapore's Yamaha store (Plaza Singapura). I started out small at first while strumming a few chords. Then, I turned up the gain and started rhythmically palm-muting the strings on the E minor. It was pretty tight! Not thinking further, I dropped the tuning of the 6th string to a D and played a few riffs from my then-favorite songs (Avenged Sevenfold, Metallica, Disturbed, etc.) This time, I was truly AMAZED at the capability of this tiny amp. It was able to handle my hardcore-ish playing and I loved it! But hold on...what about the clean channel?? I saw no switch and was immediately disheartened at the single channel disadvantage. I thought that the amp was only capable of high gain tunes. Boy, was I wrong!! I turned down the gain to 12 o'clock (or less) and turned up the volume. GOLLY! It's also clean as a whistle!! I began strumming and finger-picking easy-listening lines. It was incredible!!!


I would've bought the amp right then and there if it wasn't for the second thoughts and considerations. For one thing, I didn't have any cabinets (back then). In my mind, I've always thought that combo amps were the best. But hey, people grow don't they? :D Another setback was the price tag. Sorry Jessie J, but this time it IS about the MONEY. I spent too much on pedals that time. I bought my Fulldrive 2 MOSFET, Jekyll and Hyde, and Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 the year before that. So I surpassed my musical budget for a whole two years already. I decided
that I would recover from that first, then consider the Tiny Terror. Well, two years had gone and here it is! I should probably go on another music shopping sabbatical for another two years with this spending. But it's worth it!!! The Orange Tiny Terror is a must-get item for all of y'all who love rock guitar like I do! Clean? British? Alternative? Metal? It's all in this tiny box! Oh, did I mention it also uses tubes? ;)


(My Orange Tiny Terror plugged into the Peavey VSS20's cabinets to create a stereo sound. Poor VSS20 Head, you might say... I'm sure I can find a good use for it! :D)