New Audio Order

Audio chats center on what's new, who is buying what, and sonic impression. Most stories received a spin to the already distorted stories. Though some are old news, they are nonetheless hilarious. A system didn't live up to the expectations, egoistic remarks and folks committed blunder mistakes top the chat topic. Negative story sells, says the newsmen. A wise man will exercise cautions and not to sink in to every story but by filtering them.

Some folks are smart not to make committal remarks in fear of backfiring one day. Which to buy, how to resolve certain matters and sonic impression, your questions will meet no answers. Nobody knows what he really think, anyway. Hypocrite. Perhaps these are good tactic or perhaps not. Treat people the way you want people to treat you. I have always impressed with folks clever use of EQ. The use of other's quote is one classic example. "XXX is rated Component to die for by so and so institutions, surely sounds good". Another example would be "How could it not sound good for there's a YYY in the link." Cheeky, isn't it? Marketeers have long cash in on branding, a good brand sells by itself.

Commencing the New Year, I certainly don't lament over the performance of my system. Being at top of the game is not my goal, anyway I don't have that much money to wage the challenge. Combing a pompadour doesn't make an Elvis, I only race against myself. I'm inspired to stretching my money on sound quality and stand to be the best at a price point. This is a fair dedication, everyone should have that honest mindset. Look, we got bills to pay.

All human activities are about money and self interest. Nobody knows exactly what the US is contemplating about New World Order in specific. I don't like the sound of it, it implies some will win and some will lose. It has always been like that. While what happen now at the world front is disturbing and worrying, the audio world is quietly mulling a New Audio Order, by default. The emerging of super expensive systems are increasing in number. The prices of these systems are intimidating. Given the system cost 2 million MYR, wages for middle level manager at 10k MYR, it works out 200 months of wages, a whopping 17 years of wages. Holly cow! That's the cost of your youthhood.

When have opportunity to listen to a super high end system, listen hard. Figure what are the areas profoundly superior than yours and try to improve from there on. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Your views are not needed here. Come on, you can't even come up the money for the equipment. The Chinese proverb says it right, the poor don't retaliates against the the rich, the rich don't retaliates against the authority.

Nevertheless, there's a time for everything. Misbehaviour at the wrong time is considered inappropriate. If you could afford a little decency, tolonglah. Even for me, I feel resentful seeing folks playing handphone during audio time, it is ok to excuse himself to answer a call but nothing more. I cut short the play time, it is my way of telling you pack and leave! The door is forever shut on you. Chatting during playing is a no no. You chat during a break, a tea session, not during playtime. Let the guy listens. Respect others and others shall repay the due respect.

If there's a classification, I'd camp on the realism school of sound. Most of my tweaking efforts for the past six months have been scaling down hi-fi virtues. I'm now not an aficionado of surrealism school of sound even though it is the mainstream. You will not second thought if piano a piano, violin a violin, bass a bass and any other instruments in live performance, you just don't. You accept what you hear as it is. On the other side of the fence, individuals have strong tendency to dictate their preferred tonality with their systems. Individual takes things very much in his hands embracing free spirited audioing. The inclination to dream like sound is very much the norm. Such phenomenon share similarities to photography where most of the images don't reflect the real thing. Colour is different, saturation is different, hue is different and etc. Let's just say they look prettier than actual, sound pleasing than actual.

Ambiance is an imperative of sound. We don't live in a total zero noise world, no we don't. Albeit impurities, ambiance gives life to the sound because it is part of the sound. Resonance enriches colour of the instruments, guitar, violin, piano, drums and so on, work under identical principals. So does the performance venue. Jazz at the pawnshop illustrates just that. I couldn't help feeling artificial with close mic in a dampened studio, the acoustic foams suck the life out from the music. The sound is infertile with shortened reverberations albeit crystal clear. The other issue is private take of multiple tracks and mixing. Musician interaction is critical to necessitate chemistry, I much prefer one take analog recording. Mixing robs musical wholeness, the multiple reverberations are tidied up. I heartily agreed with a friend who opined that a deliberate mistiming of play induces magic to the music, it has unexplainable enchanting qualities so to speak.

SPARS code was introduced for commercial CD in the early 80s. Three alphabets printed on the back cover represent the signal mode used in recording, mixing and mastering. Common CD SPARS code are AAD, ADD and DDD where "A" for analog and D for digital. The first "A" is recording in master tapes while the "D" in digital files, similarly for second and third alphabet for mixing and mastering. Don't take it from me, Allan Sides, the multi awards winner of Oceanway Studio recording engineer can attest to that. AAD to me sounded the best format for lesser digital glare. The point is, getting the most A in SPARS code, AAD or ADD for pure musicality.

And finally, upstream is where "make or break" is. Despite the promise of up and oversampling, the number is getting great. Chop, chop, chop, haa... haa...... (karate grunt) slice, slice, slice. I remained skeptical for its application in red book. The technology does more harm to the music. Called me an old goat, I love R-2R, multi-bit conversion. Well, it doesn't matter if you resonate with my views, as long you're happy with your system, go live happily.

The beginning

Dust off 2015, new year, new beginning. Have the long break do any good to you? Thirst for more success, hunger for more fidelity?

At 20s, you better be. There's a long road ahead of you.
At 30s, you should be. Time and tide wait for no one.
At 40s, you ought to be. Jump at the opportunity.
At 50s, you could be. Doesn't matter.
At 60s, just stay healthy.

Seeing my ex-colleague losing a job at 50 is mind disturbing, for God sake, he makes the most money for the company. Dear friends, this is a tale of working class. Alas, the government talks about retirement at 60s, this is not realistic in private sector. Private sector will try all means to get rid of you well ahead of your time, making way for hungrier young employees. Killing two birds with one stone, boosting internal competition and everybody has a shot at the top, this is a healthy corporation culture. Corporate politics is the side effect. You get to spend time on politics in order not to be wash out. In addition, the book will be looking good too. To some extreme cases, female work force is asked to delay reproductive plan by offering all paid up egg storage facility! In a world of capitalism, everyone has to go when a corporate is not making money.

Are we heading to recession, bank is tightening credit, new project sales is stalling, car sales dropped, less customers at the restaurant, all signalled the weakening of economy. We are now combating rising cost of doing business, rising inflation in a shrinking market. Currency war, many countries deliberately revaluing its currency to boost export, and Malaysia, Ringgit plummeted by default. Ringgit is the worst performing currency in Asia Pacific.
  
Audioing is getting expensive. Thinking of catching a real deal in pre-owned market? It stays as a wishful thinking. Pre-owned High End stuff is likely to be taken out of the country, leaving a vacuum in local pre owned High End segment. The whole scenario is out of the frying pan, into a fire compounded with low spending power. Cables, tweaking gadgets and music will do well in bad times given the fact that they don't have that much to spend on electronics and speaker.

Despite the above, shouldn't we spend more time on music? I picked up Eb Duet debut album "The beginning" released on 11th November 2015. Fresh from the oven,so it seems. The duo is Eve Wong, the vocalist and Billy Ho, the guitarist, identical to Double Take. Eb Duet started off as performer at private and public event. Eve has a full and smokey voice that you wouldn't expect from a petite physics. Luckily, she doesn't have a peculiar English articulation given English is not her mother tongue. The selection of songs is standard jazz where the market is floated with similar offerings from recording companies. Another mediocre too will break the bank and a failed effort.

The voice and style are the quality that will stand out amidst the crowd. Outstanding recording quality is a bonus, especially the micro dynamic is noteworthy. Eb Duet must have a lot of gut doing these numbers, I found myself mesmerizing Eve's voice. Good efforts from the Studio B and Mobile Recording, the album projected a strong rock solid "presence", the SET sensation on human voices. In all honesty, I prefer Mobile Recording track 6 and 9 than the rest of the tracks by Studio B. Track 6 is recorded in a house and track 9 in a hotel, the ambiance sounded more natural as opposed to more clinical inclined with Studio B. Well, that's me. If I am going to nitpick, the cello and the lower frequencies could be better recorded. It sounded a little murky and lessen in that region. And dump the organ, play the piano please.

The arrangement is simple enough, smooth flow of music and you don't want complicated virtuosity to mess things up. Just prepare the stage for the vocalist to deliver the song will be fine. A great number of instruments are used, guitar, bass, organ, cello, brush and chimes, adding colours and dimension to the songs.

All in all, "The beginning" is an album worthy to collect. The album can be had at Rock Corner and CD Rama at a promotional price of RM41.90, first press.