The budgeting wizards of sound (For vocalists and guitarists) ...

To get a good sound more than just satisfying tunes is to get good affordable gear, I'm not being a (too) materialistic person, but hey..when you got the good sources, you got the good acoustic of sounds rocking in your own garage or bedroom.
Heres the list of recording products which give more-than-ever-redefining sound to give out satisfaction to you under-budget musicians out there.

Marshall Electronics MXLDRK Desktop Recording Microphone Kit.


The Marshall DRK Desktop Recording Kit is a fully self contained, universal tool kit providing music recording capabilities for all home and studio audio recording formats. Only RM360 for the whole tool kit. The downside of it, is that, you got to configure part of the plugin settings to avoid latency. Or you can settle to fit in a Karaoke mic which may have a satisfying degree to YOUR ears, but its quite good really..

You could get yourself a basic or good secondhand 16-channel mixer for RM80-200, which really depends how many channels you're willing to deal wth..
Or you can use digital mixers from recording softwares like Cubase, Cakewalk, and so on. But it is recommended to use external mixers, thats what a lot of people say..


-Spider HD-


-Line 6 Cab 412S-T-


Line 6 Spider II 30

For the guitarist, I would highly recommend a full scale payment of single cabinet amps like Line 6 Spider II cabinet with a Spider II HD which has a preamp recording with 12 amp models which really come in handy for a really long time than for the time being, which you will put RM1700 on the table for it or a Line 6 Spider II 30 amp which both of them have Celestion Speakers (Well, for those who want to go software should go for Amplitube, Cubase SX and a lot more for the effects.). Cheaper at CK Music if there is a promotional sale! And not to mention gig friendly.

The guitar itself really depends on the player's choice, enough said...(My choice is an Ibanez RG320F)

Remember, you get what you pay for, so try and plan your way out in your budget and get the most satisfying recording system as much as possible. It takes time..

1st minimal budget-RM1560 (Including the Spider II 30 amp, mixer and Recording kit)

2nd minimal budget-RM2110 (Including the Spider II Cabinet with Spider II HD and
Recording kit)

Overall budget-RM4330/ (Including the desktop and Spider II Cabinet with Spider II
HD, if you don't own a desktop)

Just to lower it down more, actually...its not necessary to have high end amps for recording, unless you're doing a professional career out of it. A 10-15 watt amp will do, as long as they have a rec-out. Which will save you up to RM2000+.

But to sum up an all-in-one solution, work for the money slowly in time and get the Yamaha MW12CX

I lack a lot in these things don't I? HAHAHA! Well, care to give me more info about recording because I know I got lots to learn.

'I'll give in more details about the audio interfaces'
(Blog post to be continued)

Love and light was what she said…

Life is a cycle like the world and learning from mistakes than to regret from them is what my mother once advised me. Moving towards the journey of life is what makes me reconcile, whenever I’m in pain, she was always there for me.

Firm but with grace, she tucks me into bed every night when I was young. She thought me how to love when I was 14 and I didn’t have the right set of mind to realize or to give in love like she did.
She inspired me to open up my mind and to feel free to speak my mind. My mother was like any other but with a superior guidance to help others to get through the hardships. And I knew she was a strong person in heart.

She guided me with her eyes which tell me about more than just right from wrong, but also about love without any vindication. She taught me everything. She taught me that immediate families are the most important and as a form of primary priority. I was naive to take it as a lesson, but she never gave up on me and she had faith by her side that I’ll be a better man as a young man my self today.

I still remember the time we had mother and son conversations which were most valued in my mind and heart than just a mere memory.
She had her heart opened up to listen and she advises me with rationalities in terms of what’s going on in my life, what are my hopes and dreams, just through out everything that every child wishes for. And I’m grateful to have given that chance to have a peaceful vowel exchange with my mother. So did my sister.
I will never know myself if I never gotten her as a mother. That’s wonderful.

The stories she told me about herself, my father, my sister and I were fascinating and I’ll never forget her vowels which will remain in my head forever. Whenever I’m confused about life, she was there to guide me like a light shining a path to the truth.
Love and light was what she said.

She may have left, be she is never gone. She’ll remain in our hearts and will guide us in our hearts whenever, wherever and whatever we are in this life. Mummy, this is for you.

Love, Papa, Krystyn, Prince and yours truly…

Music=My life

-My Guitar Heroes-

Yes, I live in an artistic world with the sounds of charisma persona and the world of music which revolves around me. I started out really rough and bad when I wanted to learn music. Having the loves of 'Fools Garden', 'Queen', 'Deep Purple' and all the classic stuff when I was 7 (But I was a boy band fan from those days, imagine how disgusting was that, thinking about it from now). I then enrolled for guitar classes when I was 9 and I hardly knew nuts for studying music for 2 years and call it quits and went for piano classes. I then finished three volumes of basic piano studies in 4 months and I then stopped my lessons because my interest in music began to thin itself and I didn't know what I want to be in my life (Meaning my ambition). At the age of 12 to 14, I started listening to other genres and different music ambiance like Linkin Park (which was one of my main favorites), Sugar Ray, Sum 41, Blink 182 and so on. Those were good old school bands during the late 90's and the upcoming year of Millennium. In 2004, I started to pick the guitar up once again and started to teach myself, in the end it wasn't an accomplishment and I left my old blue classical guitar to collect dust at the corner.

When I was in form 2, a friend of mine introduced me to 'SlipKnoT'. That was the band that turned me on to get into the heavy metal craziness. When I listened to the guitar solo patterns done by Mick Thomson (SlipKnoT) for the song 'Duality', that was the closure 'shock' of an idea that made me play the guitar once again, it was because of that very solo, it inspired me. Without that band, I could've picked up acting. Imagine me as an actor=Disaster. HAHAHAHAH! After form 3, I sold my old classical guitar in replace of a 2nd hand one which was pretty expensive (Say, Rm1900?) but my parents managed to get it for me for an offer from their friend for RM150! Thanks Mummy and Papa!

I was really fortunate and grateful to have it. And from there I started to really work on my musical progress in a year till now.
And I found ideas in my playing in the forms of inspiration and influences from music bands and guitar soloist. And they were my idea resources which are surprisingly unlimited! Before that, I felt miserable and kept thinking (Can I make up the possibilities to play as well as Carlos Santana, Ritchie Blackmore, Mick Thomson and Joe Satriani?). But there was a time I knew that every great player is still learning the ways of the works of the fret board and still practicing new riffs to come up with patterns. Improvision was the thing that improved my awareness around the fret board and had made my fingers kept maturing.



As the progress gets greater, so does the learning process and it gets pretty tough around the edges. I then started writing my own lyrics with all the lyrical ideas from subliminal and meaningful songs in a general state of whatever music comes passing me by. And I had thought (Why can't I make music as a career?). Thats what really got me sparked up. I then kept learning about the music scene in Malaysia and trying to know enough about the independent scene and all. The Melt Method was formed by Ezwan and I from the earlier years in 2005. We were considered inexperienced and very uncertain of where we wanted to start off to. Ezwan was a natural talented drummer and I just started learning how to really play guitar the hard way and also experimenting on amp modulators to get a sweet tone.

Newbies as we were, but Ezwan actually introduced me to bands I've never been open enough to know and thats how my music taste began to change. Talk about the time I kept believing Linkin Park was the best. (And they still are) Because of the lyrics.
I was mixed around with Ska&Reggae, Thrash Metal, and etc. We started out rough, I was writing and experimenting lyrics and composed guitar lines in my head which I can now write in musical theories a little..

As of now, I've accomplished my small goals, going into my first gig which turned out great. And I knew by that time..I have to maintain it..
I would like to thank a friend of mine from Y2k for giving me in depth tips about musical performance. He once said,"Don't give hell of what people think! As long as you did a great show that would be enough..."

I would continue my journey as a musician not to be known, but to be remembered...