Foley, ADR, Walla

Do any of those word seem unfamiliar to you?

Since Eddie needed some help with some of those for school, I figured I'd explain to everyone a little bit about those.

When you watch movies, the sounds you hear, whether it's the dialog, the noise in the background, people talking in the background, and the sound effects, are usually not the sounds that have been recording on the set. Why? Sounds in the open are uncontrollable, which may lead to a lot of unwanted noise you cannot get rid of once everything is taped.

So what needs to be done?

Things have to be recorded in a studio.

Foley is all the sound effects in the movies recreated in studios, or foley stages. Footsteps, glass breaking, doors closing, and laser beams sounds are all example of those.

ADR stands for Automated Dialog Replacement. Sometimes when actors are on set, what they said on tape did not come out clearly. Maybe the wind blew on the mics present on the set, or their clothes brushed against the lavalier [mic placed on clothes] and created noise that ruined part of the dialog. They have to go in a studio and have to re-speak the lines that need to fixed. Imagine looking at you talking and having to dub over yourself. Not an easy task for everyone.

Walla is all the background talking. For scenes where a lot of people are present, it is usually in studios that the background talking is created. It is way too risky to record out in the open people talking and chit chat. The studio provides a controlled environment and everything comes out much cleaner.

Hope you learned something today!

The Studio Has Moved

Since my mother is now gone for two weeks in the Philippines, I decided to move all the recording equipment inside the house. The garage is way too cold at this point to consider staying in there when the house is free.

I also am taking advantage of the big TV screen. I hooked up the MacBook Pro to it, and I can now use two screens and look all fancy.

Something tells me things are going to get done now.

When you have your own little studio at home, you do what you can to make things work best. It's not always the most ideal place to have a studio, but I'm pretty happy of how things are turning out for us. Everything is working hard and putting their time in to make this album as best as it can be.

More updates in the future.

Yet Another Show

It's confirmed. Feu is having another show. This time it will be in San Dimas. We'll be playing with headliners Zeraga.

Here is the info:

Friday December 11 @ 7:30PM
661 Arrow Highway
San Dimas, CA 91773
Home Brew Cafe
Free

Hope to see you there!

Talk About Being Thankful

Coincidence? It's Thanksgiving week, and I get something to be really thankful about.

For those who didn't know, I've had the huge privilege and opportunity to intern at Hans Zimmer's studios. If you don't know him, Google him. But let me tell you movies like "The Dark Knight [Batman]," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "The Gladiator," and many others would have not been the same without his music.

I was offered a 5 week internship, and it ended this week.

Right when I was to turn in the key, I get hired as a composer's assistant. It's something I had never expected; I thought I'd never step foot on Zimmer Land ever again in my life.

I'm glad to be able to finally work in the music industry, and I couldn't be any more thankful about anything else but this. Like what, when you work hard and make things happen, some unexpected doors open for you. So keep fighting for your dream!

Mute Math- Backfire

Seems like Mute Math just came out with a very out of the ordinary and unique video. Hope you like it.

It's from their new album, "Armistice."

Providing Sound for a DJ

Quite a fun task I must say. Especially when it's a good DJ.

People may not realize it, but sound equipment is quite expensive. I've had the privilege to be able to invest in good speakers and a good mixer. And it comes in quite handy when for example a DJ needs a big room to be 'bumping' for a big party.

So, what do we do exactly? Obviously, we bring in the speakers and mixer, and all the cables and power supplies needed to supply everything with power and sound. Next step is to figure out how to hook up the DJ's equipment to the mixer. DJ equipment usually use RCA cables. Something you must keep in mind since most mixers only accept mic or line cables, and therefore adapters are needed.

It's good to have loud music, but I like to also make sure we don't submit hearing loss by the end of the night to everyone. I tend to make sure the levels are loud but not ear piercing. With a bit of EQ, it is easily taken care of.

Aside from being able making a little of money, doing gigs like these are always fun. Afterall, this is part of the entertainment business, and there's no more fun than being able to provide some entertainment to everyone.

Let's hope more gigs like these show up.

Stranger's Ears

I had a friend come over the other night, as I was digging myself into mixing some songs.

It was good to have an outsider's opinion and ears to give some insight about how the songs are sounding.

After hearing every song for hours every day, it's easy for our ears to tire out and miss out on small details.

Not only that, but it's always easy to be in our own little world, and having an outsider always helps getting out of the box and getting a clearer picture of the song, of the sound, of everything.

It's great that we can accomplish so many things by ourselves. It is also rejuvenating to let someone new step in and spread a little bit of their own twist and taste to freshen things up.

Showtime

Last night turned out much better than expecting in terms of my expectations of how the show would turn out.

First off, the sound system provided was amazing. Huge speakers stacked on top of each other. You couldn't miss a beat.

The church staff was so nice with us. For the first time, we didn't have to worry about the set up as much. We just had to show up and plug in. Well almost at least.

Christian did an amazing job. He was the one who set up the sound system and took care of the front of house; in other words, the sound in general.

It was great exposure. I have no idea how many people total turned up. 100? Maybe more? Coolest part was being cheered on for one last song at the end.

Let's not forget to mention our friends and family who took their time to come out and support us. That was awesome.

Feu at Faith Community Church

Here's a gig I'm quite excited about.

Most of the times, we've been playing gigs in Chris' backyards, or in bars where obviously only people over 21 could go.

So, we get to play outside of good old Baldwin Park, a place where anyone could go and it doesn't involve playing on grass.

Don't get me wrong, I love playing at home, at Chris' house, but there's a point where you need to get out of the nest. This is a chance to reach audiences that have never heard about us also.

Another thing I'm excited about; it's at Faith. I've been involved there ever since I moved to the US. I started off by joining the high school band that would lead worship every weekend. If it wasn't for this church, I would have never been introduced to playing rock music. Joining the high school group was what inspired me to get a band of my own, writing my own music. This leads me to say that, without Faith, there wouldn't be Feu. This is why it means even more to me to be able to play here.

I got the chance of getting our music to the ears of Joe Romero, whom eventually invited me and the band to play at Epic, the high school and college services that take place on Thursdays.

Here's the info for tonight:

1211 East Badillo Street
West Covina, CA 91790

It starts at 8pm on the dot. We're the only band playing.

I hope to see you all out there!

"The Crave" Teaser

Chris has been bugging me about getting a new teaser out. I finally gave in and decided to put out our new song "The Crave."

In this video, you can see a little how we miked the drums. Follow the cable!

It is not the final album version.

And... I'm quite disappointed of how YouTube destroys sound quality...

It's okay. Once the album is out, you won't have to rely on teasers.

Enjoy!

P.S. To stop the music, just go on the bottom of the blog and pause the playlist.

Album Title

Since things are getting closer and closer to finalizing the album, it came across that we should choose a title for the album.

It's now been about a good couple months we've been working on it. Back at the beginning, it would have taken us hours to figure out such a fragile task. Now that things are getting clearer, it was a matter of minutes until we agreed on one.



Announcing Feu's album title: Unstoppable



Release date is still nowhere to be anticipate. We hope to get it all done soon though.

Choir Recording Session

After all the trouble, the internship almost getting in the way, and the laptop crashing the night before that is, we were finally able to run a choir recording session.

I had struggled my way through my illness to lay down as many vocal tracks as possible, to make it easier for whoever would come in for the session. Let's just say that I have plenty of re-recording to do once my voice is completely back.

For some reason, I knew the turnout would be bad. I had a gut feeling that I would fail at trying to get people together at my place to form a choir. It had been several weeks already I tried to reach different people from different places. But against all odds and against all my efforts, only a very few came to show up early afternoon. I had hoped for a good 15 or 20 people, but merely a few showed up at first. After finally spending my last efforts texting people and making some last phone calls, about a dozen turned out at my house.

The session went relatively well. I had to teach the parts to everyone, make sure it was on beat and on pitch. Since everyone was being miked and we didn't have some kind sound booth, everything had to be recorded acapella, which made everything a little bit harder.

But it came out just fine. Everyone was really cooperative and patient. Though it was a small choir, I hope I'll be able to pull off what I had in mind with the songs.

It meant a lot for the dozen people to come out today, and put their time and effort into this. We're all very thankful for everyone single person's support.

Technology Issues: Chapter Two

Seems like what had to happen, just happened again...

My laptop decided to crash, once again. But it has decide to crash at the worst point of time... the night before we have the choir recording session.

It was bad enough I thought I was going to miss the session itself, now that I was reassured I could attend it, the computer pooped out on us.

I wonder if I'm going to have to invest into a new computer soon...

Once I get a job, and that hopefully at the studio, it's something I'll be able to look into. In the meanwhile, I'm stuck with no being to sleep until that baby starts up fine.

Cross fingers!

Songs

We're currently finishing up some songs, working on lyrics and melodies and what nots.

Some songs are coming together fairly well.

We're pretty excited about getting everything done rather soon.

My illness has been slowing us down very much though. With no voice, no vocals can be recorded. I don't understand how I can be sick for this long...

Website

For those who don't know, Feu has had its own website ever since June. Thing is, in June, there was only three of us, and Mario was our drummer. And it hasn't been updated since then.

So if you go on www.feuband.com you'll find an out of date website. But it looks kick butt.

Why?

Because my friend JET is an awesome web designer. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to work on it since then.

He contacted me earlier this week about updating the website and making it user-friendly so we can start running the website ourselves. Hopefully I get to meet with him soon and we'll get to work on that as soon as possible.

In the meanwhile, you could still go on our myspace, or find us on facebook.

www.myspace.com/feuband

Video: Short Clip of a Drumming Session

My mom... she can give us a good laugh sometimes!

When the Body Fights Back

Having two internships, school, recording an album on nightly basis, all of that mixed with lack of sleep and poor eating [if any] = sick.

Ah yes! You can only push your body so far. When you push it to its exhaustion point, it gives up on you. At least if you don't take care of it.

I've been so caught up with everything, it seems as if I forget to sleep and eat. It truly didn't bug nor bother me, until the body fought back with a bad cold.

Blah! It's only a cold. Big deal.

So I thought. Until I was asked not to come in the internship in Santa Monica in order to not get anyone sick. Then it got bad enough to the point I had to to bail on the other internship. Worst of all, I didn't have a voice. I couldn't record any vocals, nor could I sing well for the choir concert. Way to go.

It's almost been a week now. Let's hope I recover soon.

Please take care of yourselves!

Artist From Across an Ocean: Air

Someone was looking through a pile of CD's laying around my car and came across an album of Air. It ended up that person liked it after listening to it. Good!

Who is Air? A French duo who captured my attention ever since I saw them live at the Rock Werchter Festival in 2007.

Their style would be more categorized under electronica. They have a lot of instrumental songs. When they do sing, it's in English [lucky you!].

Here's one of their song, "Kelly Watch the Stars" from their album Moon Safari.

Mt San Antonio College Fall Choir Concert

For the very first time of my life, I've taken part of a choir concert. But this time, I was part of the choir.

I've been stuck many years behind a piano. Whether it was doing classical piano and piano recitals, or playing for jazz band, or playing for the string orchestra, or playing for wind ensemble, or playing for a choir. It was time I stepped away from that and joined a choir group.

And so I did. This semester, I was part of Mt SAC's concert choir.

I've been to a couple of the concerts in the previous years. But being part of the program gave me another insight of it all.

The concert went well. I guess there was plenty room of improvement. But that's okay. The music was pretty hard I suppose for everyone.

The highlight of the night definitely was being able to watch the Chamber Singers. Chamber is the top choir at Mt SAC. They've gotten many awards, including Choir of the World a few years ago. Directed by Bruce Rogers, their work keeps awing me. Their performance left me speechless. It even brought tears to a friend of mine. Now THAT'S music. Music that can touch you that much.

If you ever get the chance to, you should check them out. It's simply an amazing experience. Even if you aren't into classical music, this group will change the way you look at it.

Album Update: Drum Recording Pics

Drums are finally done being recorded. Amen! I get my room back and we get to move on. We're very close to being done recording. I can't wait till I get my voice back...

Delay In Blogging

I apologize for the lack of update this past week.

With the two internships, the daily [or nightly] drum recording, I haven't had the chance of finishing the blogs and didn't want to publish a half done blog. Thank God for the "Save Now" button.

So since now I'm sick stuck in bed, I've got plenty of time in my hands to finish up all the blogs and actually publishing the posts.

I'll be posting pictures and maybe a teaser some time this week.

Double Checking

After EQ'in everything correctly, we started to notice a difference of sound between songs. The last songs we recorded sound much better than the first ones, since we changed the EQ.

It was a good thing that we double checked every single song. If we hadn't done so, we'd have to go through the trouble of setting up the drumset once again.

Doing so, we were able to pin down the songs that needed to be perfected and decided to re-record them.

Since no money is on the line, we get to do such thing. If we were paying someone by the hour, that mistake could have been very costly.

We want to make sure we produce the best album we can. So that's why going through this all over again doesn't really bother us. But it does take a lot of time and work. In the end, I'm sure it'll pay off and we'll be glad to have done what we're doing.