At updating. Life has been crazy the last 2 months and I've been meaning to update for a while and never really got around to it. Finals week is only a couple of days away. X( But then there's winter break!! :) Over the last couple of months I've decided computer science is truly something I want to pursue so I am quite happy with where I'm at.
Since October, lots of happened. Notably, gigantic party at my house for Thanksgiving and I bought some floor standing speakers on Black Friday the day after and was super super poor for a while. I realized they didn't work in the space I had in my room so I sold them to someone at a profit! :) Black Friday was great this year and I got some seriously good deals. hahah
On that note I've also gotten quite a few friends addicted to good sounding gear (yay!) and the beginning of a never ending journey of upgrading gear. (Until I get a Stax it'll never end XD)
Anyways, I guess I'll leave it here for now. Next post will include lots of pictures of what's been going on the last two months.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Chinese music + Judging debate + Fall break
So this weekend has been super hectic and have spent the majority of it judging high school debate. I guess one of the coolest things about debate is the atmosphere at competitions and judging debate brings back both good and bad memories. I got back to my dorm super late from judging yesterday night which was kinda not cool. :( Anyways, moving on... Fall break is this week. I have no idea what my plans are yet but even on break there is a lot to do this year. Sadly I'm spending the first part of it maxing out my hours at my job so I make maximum profit. Yay! :) Just time consuming...haha.
Which brings me to Chinese music... another time consuming thing, although I quite enjoy spending my time listening to music. Chinese music, in my opinion, is better produced and recorded at a much higher quality than most pop music produced in the U.S. today. I'm always finding new songs that I like and feel that most songs have more meaningful lyrics than crappy "top" of the charts music in the U.S. (Yeah, I'm looking at you Ke$ha and actually just most pop...blah). Even Chinese pop music sounds better. Anyways, two songs that I've currently been listening to on repeat that i'm addicted to right now are:
"Still In Love With You" 依然愛你 - 王力宏 Wang Leehom + Wong Fu Productions (woot!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StCtPtPtmkc&feature=feedu
(A couple of my facebook friends posted about this one and it's just ridiculously good.)
"A Beautiful lost" 遺失的美好 - 張韶涵 Angela Chang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV4_w5KUKFc&feature=related
(The lyrics for this one are really pretty if you understand the lyrics...feel free to comment here or PM me on head-fi if you want a translation) :)
Although both of these songs are super sappy, I'm going to emphasize the point that it's just plain superior to modern American pop music. Out of vocal music, female Asian singers are some of my favorite vocalists. I'm going to end this post here.
I think I'll spend my fall break just relaxing, listening to Chinese music, and sleeping. I'll update again at the end of break and post any exciting adventures during the break.
Till then.
Which brings me to Chinese music... another time consuming thing, although I quite enjoy spending my time listening to music. Chinese music, in my opinion, is better produced and recorded at a much higher quality than most pop music produced in the U.S. today. I'm always finding new songs that I like and feel that most songs have more meaningful lyrics than crappy "top" of the charts music in the U.S. (Yeah, I'm looking at you Ke$ha and actually just most pop...blah). Even Chinese pop music sounds better. Anyways, two songs that I've currently been listening to on repeat that i'm addicted to right now are:
"Still In Love With You" 依然愛你 - 王力宏 Wang Leehom + Wong Fu Productions (woot!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StCtPtPtmkc&feature=feedu
(A couple of my facebook friends posted about this one and it's just ridiculously good.)
"A Beautiful lost" 遺失的美好 - 張韶涵 Angela Chang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV4_w5KUKFc&feature=related
(The lyrics for this one are really pretty if you understand the lyrics...feel free to comment here or PM me on head-fi if you want a translation) :)
Although both of these songs are super sappy, I'm going to emphasize the point that it's just plain superior to modern American pop music. Out of vocal music, female Asian singers are some of my favorite vocalists. I'm going to end this post here.
I think I'll spend my fall break just relaxing, listening to Chinese music, and sleeping. I'll update again at the end of break and post any exciting adventures during the break.
Till then.
Monday, September 12, 2011
The Impact Zone and Amps
"Life is alot like surfing, when you get caught in the impact zone, you need to get right back up because you never know what’s over the next wave" - Bethany Hamilton (Soul Surfer)
Right now I feel this is the philosophy that I feel like I've been living by since moving into the dorms. At the dorms, I've felt a tiny bit overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that I have to do. I try and not get too stressed and take it step by step until the weekend. (Then I can finally have some breathing room! :)) Though the experience has been incredible thus far. Anyways, life is pretty stressful between classes, homework work, learning parkour and trying to eat healthy and bulk up a bit. I'm struggling but it's getting there slowly. At the very least thinking about the quote keeps me optimistic. :) The rest of my posters came and I'll throw pics of them up in a later post. (I have a gigantic banner hanging near my bed of Alana Blanchard surfing om nom nom) On a tangent, surfing is something I think I'm going to pick up again this summer....just need to figure out how to get out to California -_-.
Anyways, onto music (and Amps!) Lately, I've been feeling buyers impulse to get another amp (yeah yeah bad I know, and not a amp but another amp) Anyways, the amp isn't an amplifier in the traditional sense that it is for electric guitars. The one I want is actually for headphones. The one I've been eyeing for the last couple of months is the Schiit Lyr. (Yes, it's pronounced how it looks) It's a hybrid tube amp.
Gain: 10 (20 dB)
Frequency Response: 2Hz-200KHz, -3dB
Maximum Output: 40V P-P into 32 ohms typ
THD: Less than 0.1%, 20Hz-20KHz, at 1V
Topology: Dynamically Adaptive Dual-Mode Class A, zero feedback, noninverting, hybrid tube/MOSFET, single voltage gain stage, DC-coupled input and output
Tube Complement: ECC88 or 6BZ7 dual triode, 1 per channel (rollable to all 6922/6DJ8/ECC88/6BZ7 types and similar)
Power Consumption: 30W
Size: 9 x 6.75 x 3.25”
Weight: 7 lbs
Right now I feel this is the philosophy that I feel like I've been living by since moving into the dorms. At the dorms, I've felt a tiny bit overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that I have to do. I try and not get too stressed and take it step by step until the weekend. (Then I can finally have some breathing room! :)) Though the experience has been incredible thus far. Anyways, life is pretty stressful between classes, homework work, learning parkour and trying to eat healthy and bulk up a bit. I'm struggling but it's getting there slowly. At the very least thinking about the quote keeps me optimistic. :) The rest of my posters came and I'll throw pics of them up in a later post. (I have a gigantic banner hanging near my bed of Alana Blanchard surfing om nom nom) On a tangent, surfing is something I think I'm going to pick up again this summer....just need to figure out how to get out to California -_-.
Anyways, onto music (and Amps!) Lately, I've been feeling buyers impulse to get another amp (yeah yeah bad I know, and not a amp but another amp) Anyways, the amp isn't an amplifier in the traditional sense that it is for electric guitars. The one I want is actually for headphones. The one I've been eyeing for the last couple of months is the Schiit Lyr. (Yes, it's pronounced how it looks) It's a hybrid tube amp.
Isn't it pretty?
Anyways, the specs of this amp are ridiculous.
Headphone Impedance: 8-600 ohmsGain: 10 (20 dB)
Frequency Response: 2Hz-200KHz, -3dB
Maximum Output: 40V P-P into 32 ohms typ
THD: Less than 0.1%, 20Hz-20KHz, at 1V
Topology: Dynamically Adaptive Dual-Mode Class A, zero feedback, noninverting, hybrid tube/MOSFET, single voltage gain stage, DC-coupled input and output
Tube Complement: ECC88 or 6BZ7 dual triode, 1 per channel (rollable to all 6922/6DJ8/ECC88/6BZ7 types and similar)
Power Consumption: 30W
Size: 9 x 6.75 x 3.25”
Weight: 7 lbs
Yeah, tons of power to power Orthodynamic headphones! Also, the sound signature you can get from this has a fairly wide range due to the ability to use mainly types of tubes. The company has a great track record of customer service and is definitely something I'd definitely look into getting. The only set back is the price, at $500 it's a little steep (read a lot) for me right now and so over the next couple months I'll be saving up for one of these. The price to performance ratio from what I hear is definitely worth it and isn't quite to the point where the law of diminishing returns apply? haha
Monday, September 5, 2011
Long overdue update post
Life has been hectic with school starting and all. But with Labor Day Weekend, I thought that this would be a nice time to update on what's been going on with me. Well...three weeks ago I moved out of my house and into an apartment dorm for my sophomore year, and my living situation isn't too shabby if I do say so myself. :D
Some pictures of my humble little dorm:
Little bit messy but I've got a pretty adequate amount of room to store things.
One of the posters hanging in my room. The wall on the right is a little bland...gigantic vinyl banner coming soon. Go big or go home right? :D
Radiohead Poster!!! :D
Some pictures of my humble little dorm:
My workspace and current music setup for right now. (and DSOTM poster!) The lack of audio equipment is kind of disheartening but oh well hopefully that will change. Two more posters are on the way to hang in various other places around my room.
Anyways, dorm life is ridiculous but I love it! My roommates ended up not being crazy and being really chill people. Classes and work will be hectic and pretty intense this semester so updates will probably be limited but I'll do my best to keep updates current. Honestly though, on campus life is kind of boring so far and there hasn't been a whole lot to do.
Anyways, with no meal plan in the dorm I'm in guess I'm going to need to learn to cook a lot better *yikes*. I guess I've always to an extent been pretty interested in cooking, but am terribad at cooking, like really terrible. However, I'd say even in these short two weeks I've been on campus I've gotten better at cooking, so I'll take some time to post more pics of stuff I've made since being on campus. Part of the challenge is too cook healthy and delicious foods all year. Here's a sampling of some items I've made:
Small (~4 oz.) salmon burger on whole wheat buns.
Technically didn't made this but it's Greek yogurt with fresh blueberries on top.
4 oz. eye of round steak with leftover brown rice.
I guess I'll leave it on that note, next post will more specifically address the shortcomings (and pros) of the current speakers I have in my dorm and what I plan to do to solve it. Also, by then maybe I'll have the rest of my dorm decorated...which means moar pics!
Monday, July 18, 2011
2nd Job + Soul Surfer Review
So life has been crazy this summer! So much has happened. Most recently I got a 2nd job. My official job title is something like "IT- CS1020 lab aide". Basically all I do is sit in a computer lab at SLCC between the hours of 3-10 Monday-Thursday answering questions about basic things you can do with Microsoft Office. It's fairly easy and pays decently well. I wish I could go traveling or do something cool...but alas...
Anyways onto the review of the movie Soul Surfer. I went to watch this movie with no idea what the movie was about. (I'll try and do this with minimal spoilers)
Soul Surfer is the inspiring true story of a girl (Bethany Hamilton) who is attacked by a shark and finds the courage to get back on a surfboard. Bethany is played by the very talented AnnaSophia Robb. The movie starts with real scenes of a young Bethany learning to surf off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. The surfing scenes throughout this movie are really well done with the real Bethany Hamilton surfing in many of them. Bethany practices a lot with dreams of going pro. That is until she is attacked by a shark while surfing with family friends. The rest of the movie follows the daily struggles she has with normal things in life and eventually the strength to return to surfing to become national champion. She find this strength mainly through seeing things from a different perspective, family and faith in God.
The movie has many overt Christian references throughout the movie. I think this movie really only appeals to certain categories of people. I'm not the type of person that cries at any movie, though this one had me on the verge of tears (okay maybe I cried) at certain points. Although I don't think this movie will appeal to everyone, I feel that the story is very inspirational and that alone makes the movie worth watching. (Oh and all the spectacular surfing scenes off the idyllic Hawaiian coast. :)) Overall, the movie to me was very inspirational and an emotional experience. I feel like this had a lot to do with the music. What the movie lacked (not much in my opinion) was made up for by the music.
Anyways onto the review of the movie Soul Surfer. I went to watch this movie with no idea what the movie was about. (I'll try and do this with minimal spoilers)
Soul Surfer is the inspiring true story of a girl (Bethany Hamilton) who is attacked by a shark and finds the courage to get back on a surfboard. Bethany is played by the very talented AnnaSophia Robb. The movie starts with real scenes of a young Bethany learning to surf off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. The surfing scenes throughout this movie are really well done with the real Bethany Hamilton surfing in many of them. Bethany practices a lot with dreams of going pro. That is until she is attacked by a shark while surfing with family friends. The rest of the movie follows the daily struggles she has with normal things in life and eventually the strength to return to surfing to become national champion. She find this strength mainly through seeing things from a different perspective, family and faith in God.
The movie has many overt Christian references throughout the movie. I think this movie really only appeals to certain categories of people. I'm not the type of person that cries at any movie, though this one had me on the verge of tears (okay maybe I cried) at certain points. Although I don't think this movie will appeal to everyone, I feel that the story is very inspirational and that alone makes the movie worth watching. (Oh and all the spectacular surfing scenes off the idyllic Hawaiian coast. :)) Overall, the movie to me was very inspirational and an emotional experience. I feel like this had a lot to do with the music. What the movie lacked (not much in my opinion) was made up for by the music.
The music I'm choosing to review in this post is the Soul Surfer (Original Motion Picture Score) which can be found here should you wish to purchase it: http://www.amazon.com/Surfer-Original-Motion-Picture-Score/dp/B004XDYF7Y/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1310258684&sr=8-6
I'll start this review off my saying this is easily the best soundtrack of the year. The score was written by Marco Beltrami. I hadn't heard much about Marco Beltrami's work before this, only vaguely familiar with what movies he had scored. I feel like the music really went well with the movie and having bought it after watching the movie with every listen I feel the music connects me back to scenes of the movie as I listen.
This is what I feel the music should be doing. I find it depressing when the director of the movie feels the music is a secondhand thing (yeah, I'm looking at you David Yates) and the music ends up not being as good. Anyways back on track, each and every song on this soundtrack has unique flavor and integrates really well with the theme of the movie as well as being equally good on it's own (even without having seen Soul Surfer!) The use of Hawaiian chants was excellent, as well as some exotic instruments such as the ukulele. Mainly, the thematic tie in all the songs have to the main theme makes this an album that I consider "flawless." All the music is just so...pure is the best way to describe it I suppose.
The dynamic range throughout the soundtrack was excellent. I'm not going to review every song but I'll do the ones that stood out most to me. There really isn't a bad song on this soundtrack. The soundtrack opens up with the track "Main Titles". It starts off with a Hawaiian chant (translations can be found on Beltrami's website) with a beautiful piano solo and a showcasing of Hawaiian culture represented through a flowing melody and harmony. The next song "Turtle Bay Surfing" was much more upbeat with nice use of dynamics and a reiteration of the main theme. "Shark Attack" is the darkest song on this soundtrack and is mainly a Hawaiian chant which talks about "a terrible spouting from the deep sea, from the purplish-blue sea of Kane" with full on percussion going in the background. Many of the other pieces though purely orchestral were wonderful.
"Bethany's Wave" was my favorite song on this soundtrack. I can't really explain it but this piece was stunning, and in my opinion one of the most emotional pieces I've heard in quite a while. It showcases triumph over adversity, another reiteration of the main theme and a beautiful cello solo to boot! Although I abhor the quality of youtube video, I'll post a link to the video anyways. I feel this whole album deserves to be listened to at the highest quality possible (Not that I don't feel this about all music but this one is definitely deserving of hearing it how Marco Beltrami intended)
Bethany's Wave:
Every time I listen to this cd, I get tears in my eyes without fail. For those of you that know me, this may or may not seem weird. *shrug* Had it not been for a friend recommending this movie I don't think I would have ever found this soundtrack. This is a cd I'd recommend regardless of if you watched the movie or not.
I'll start this review off my saying this is easily the best soundtrack of the year. The score was written by Marco Beltrami. I hadn't heard much about Marco Beltrami's work before this, only vaguely familiar with what movies he had scored. I feel like the music really went well with the movie and having bought it after watching the movie with every listen I feel the music connects me back to scenes of the movie as I listen.
This is what I feel the music should be doing. I find it depressing when the director of the movie feels the music is a secondhand thing (yeah, I'm looking at you David Yates) and the music ends up not being as good. Anyways back on track, each and every song on this soundtrack has unique flavor and integrates really well with the theme of the movie as well as being equally good on it's own (even without having seen Soul Surfer!) The use of Hawaiian chants was excellent, as well as some exotic instruments such as the ukulele. Mainly, the thematic tie in all the songs have to the main theme makes this an album that I consider "flawless." All the music is just so...pure is the best way to describe it I suppose.
The dynamic range throughout the soundtrack was excellent. I'm not going to review every song but I'll do the ones that stood out most to me. There really isn't a bad song on this soundtrack. The soundtrack opens up with the track "Main Titles". It starts off with a Hawaiian chant (translations can be found on Beltrami's website) with a beautiful piano solo and a showcasing of Hawaiian culture represented through a flowing melody and harmony. The next song "Turtle Bay Surfing" was much more upbeat with nice use of dynamics and a reiteration of the main theme. "Shark Attack" is the darkest song on this soundtrack and is mainly a Hawaiian chant which talks about "a terrible spouting from the deep sea, from the purplish-blue sea of Kane" with full on percussion going in the background. Many of the other pieces though purely orchestral were wonderful.
"Bethany's Wave" was my favorite song on this soundtrack. I can't really explain it but this piece was stunning, and in my opinion one of the most emotional pieces I've heard in quite a while. It showcases triumph over adversity, another reiteration of the main theme and a beautiful cello solo to boot! Although I abhor the quality of youtube video, I'll post a link to the video anyways. I feel this whole album deserves to be listened to at the highest quality possible (Not that I don't feel this about all music but this one is definitely deserving of hearing it how Marco Beltrami intended)
Bethany's Wave:
Every time I listen to this cd, I get tears in my eyes without fail. For those of you that know me, this may or may not seem weird. *shrug* Had it not been for a friend recommending this movie I don't think I would have ever found this soundtrack. This is a cd I'd recommend regardless of if you watched the movie or not.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Little bit about me and my interests.
Hi,
I'm Randall DZM.
I'm 19 years old, Asian, and absolutely love music! As you can probably tell this blog will mainly be dedicated to my experiences with music, music equipment and the like. I'll try and keep this updated as much as I can. Also, with every post I do, I'll try and include a short review of some current music I'm listening too from my collection. I guess I'll explain a bit how I became interested in this hobby.
Note: I'm gonna ramble on for a bit now and this post may get boring (I'll try not to do this with future posts.)
I've always been interested in music and began to be introduced to popular music during my junior high years. At this time I began looking for a more portable option to listen to my music. I've never really been a fan of Apple (or windows for that matter) so during mid 8th grade, I picked up my very first mp3 player; a Sansa Fuze. By the time I got to my freshman year, I was like any other teenager using Skullcandy's and listening to low quality rips of music.
Towards the end of my freshman year after having been through multiple pairs of Skullcandys I decided to look for some better IEMs (In Ear Monitors (they are essentially a fancy name for earbuds)- more on this in a later post). That search lead me to Head-fi and the beginning of my addiction to Hi-fi music. Growing up, my parents owned a mid-fi system that I preferred to anything I listened too. This quickly became a reference system for me to compare my portable setups too. I began to realize there was so much I was missing and how much better music could sound. The only problem with this was I didn't really have a way to move this setup around due to the size so my focus shifted to a portable setup. Throughout high school, my tastes in music began to change partly because of this realization. Many would say this was a turn for the worse, as I started to stray away from popular music and started listening to less well known bands and older music. Popular music just didn't interest me anymore, though there are exceptions and I still do listen to a tiny amount of what is considered to be mainstream music. Not only that, my music collection grew a tremendous amount during my 4 years of high school. I also began to explore the different equipment that makes hi-fi music possible. I now firmly believe in buying cds (it supports the artist too! :) ) and ripping to lossless file formats.
My current collection spans roughly ~240,000 songs and 3TB of storage. I do most of my listening on my portable setup as i'm out and about a lot. When I get the chance though I try and listen on my home setup. My portable setup consists of a source (Cowon s9), Amp (Pa2v2/Homebuilt), and IEMs (Head Directs RE0's.) The sound is absolutely stunning and in my opinion a portable setup doesn't get much better. I'll be reviewing the different components in later posts as well as a review of how it sounds altogether in more depth. The more deeply I delved into this hobby I realized the more I felt the compulsion to upgrade my setup. When this happens I plug in a pair of stock apple ibuds and listen to some of my music while reminding myself of the law of diminishing returns, then plug back in my headphones/IEMs and enjoy what I have. After all, that's what this hobby is really all about to me; enjoying my music. (That isn't to say I don't upgrade, I just upgrade less often now XD) Once in a while, I'll also post my informal impressions on movies I watch.
Wow, that post ended up being much longer than I intended and probably sounds really boring. I swear future posts will be more interesting. :P
Next up: My musical progression from past to present + informal review on the movie Soul Surfer.
I'm Randall DZM.
I'm 19 years old, Asian, and absolutely love music! As you can probably tell this blog will mainly be dedicated to my experiences with music, music equipment and the like. I'll try and keep this updated as much as I can. Also, with every post I do, I'll try and include a short review of some current music I'm listening too from my collection. I guess I'll explain a bit how I became interested in this hobby.
Note: I'm gonna ramble on for a bit now and this post may get boring (I'll try not to do this with future posts.)
I've always been interested in music and began to be introduced to popular music during my junior high years. At this time I began looking for a more portable option to listen to my music. I've never really been a fan of Apple (or windows for that matter) so during mid 8th grade, I picked up my very first mp3 player; a Sansa Fuze. By the time I got to my freshman year, I was like any other teenager using Skullcandy's and listening to low quality rips of music.
Towards the end of my freshman year after having been through multiple pairs of Skullcandys I decided to look for some better IEMs (In Ear Monitors (they are essentially a fancy name for earbuds)- more on this in a later post). That search lead me to Head-fi and the beginning of my addiction to Hi-fi music. Growing up, my parents owned a mid-fi system that I preferred to anything I listened too. This quickly became a reference system for me to compare my portable setups too. I began to realize there was so much I was missing and how much better music could sound. The only problem with this was I didn't really have a way to move this setup around due to the size so my focus shifted to a portable setup. Throughout high school, my tastes in music began to change partly because of this realization. Many would say this was a turn for the worse, as I started to stray away from popular music and started listening to less well known bands and older music. Popular music just didn't interest me anymore, though there are exceptions and I still do listen to a tiny amount of what is considered to be mainstream music. Not only that, my music collection grew a tremendous amount during my 4 years of high school. I also began to explore the different equipment that makes hi-fi music possible. I now firmly believe in buying cds (it supports the artist too! :) ) and ripping to lossless file formats.
My current collection spans roughly ~240,000 songs and 3TB of storage. I do most of my listening on my portable setup as i'm out and about a lot. When I get the chance though I try and listen on my home setup. My portable setup consists of a source (Cowon s9), Amp (Pa2v2/Homebuilt), and IEMs (Head Directs RE0's.) The sound is absolutely stunning and in my opinion a portable setup doesn't get much better. I'll be reviewing the different components in later posts as well as a review of how it sounds altogether in more depth. The more deeply I delved into this hobby I realized the more I felt the compulsion to upgrade my setup. When this happens I plug in a pair of stock apple ibuds and listen to some of my music while reminding myself of the law of diminishing returns, then plug back in my headphones/IEMs and enjoy what I have. After all, that's what this hobby is really all about to me; enjoying my music. (That isn't to say I don't upgrade, I just upgrade less often now XD) Once in a while, I'll also post my informal impressions on movies I watch.
Wow, that post ended up being much longer than I intended and probably sounds really boring. I swear future posts will be more interesting. :P
Next up: My musical progression from past to present + informal review on the movie Soul Surfer.
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