We went to Burbank to check on the 1st mix of our 2nd EP. Things turned out alright but I am really not so sure how much I liked the small studio Jacob was borrowing from Ryan cuz it was a small garage and the computer was freaking slow. As bothersome as it was to have the computer stall ever once a while when I was listening, I have to say I am still glad Jacob is around to finish the 2nd EP for us. I don't know what we will do when he leaves....sighs...
Jacob's wrist was hurting just like I am having some problems with my right hand wrist. I think he got it from working way too much on the HI project. Over time work with stress is always bad. For my wrist...I don't know what the heck is wrong. One funny thing that happened when we were driving home was that we headed north instead of south, and ended up spending 50 min to drive home because of the direction mess up. Oh well....
I am also feeling kinda sick starting from last night. Not sure if it's the extremely dry air or something else....my throat just keeps on hurting through the night, and I am now feeling kinda dizzy like I am having a cold or flu. I hope it won't affect me when I listen to the mix tonight....hum....
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Jacob and Scott
I think I should never plan to sleep in. I can't even remember how many times it's been.....but every time I plan to make up some sleep I end up waking up by some uncontrolled forces.... Today I was woken up by Jacob's call this morning, and it wasn't good news.
Jacob is doing mixes for us these three days. He called in the morning to tell me that snare drum track (which Scott did the arrangement with) sounded phase-y. That means it does not exactly sync with other tracks and you hear phases of sound. Well...if that was the only problem then it would be easy. He only has to tell Scott and then have Scott print the track again then we can do the mix another day. The big problem was.....Jacob was fighting with Scott so he wanted me to call instead.
I would not mind calling Scott either since Scott knows I would never bug him to fix problems unless there is really a problem....but the situation is.....he was so fed up with Pastor Chen and got into a huge fight with Jacob because the PC project. (They wanted Scott to re-print whole bunch of stuff which Scott thought was stupid and a waste of time.) I really didn't want to get in the middle of the dirty situation and communicate about problems just because Jacob and Scott are not talking right now....cuz it wasn't news that everyone who worked with something related to PC projects would end up hating working for him.
However, since Jacob told me Scott would not pick up his calls.... I called Scott. I told him there may be some problems with the snare, and he said "no there is not, Jacob is crazy". I have to say I was a little shocked by the magnitude of Scott's annoyance toward Jacob cuz I have never heard him say things like that. He then complained to me about the whole HI and PC situation like I have never heard of it.....again.... (Come on....I worked there, ok? I know the pain in the ass...yeah....pain in the ass is exactly what Scott said....lol) Anyway.....this phone call kinda got nothing solved and I called Jacob and told him Scott said there is no problem (even though I doubt he really checked....)
Jacob was then frustrated and I explained to him how by me talking in the middle it won't get to prove the problem to Scott. I suggested him to just call and leave a message explaining the situation, and if by night time Scott does not reply then we can try to call him again using my phone since he talks to me. Jacob was reluctant but then he said alright. I was actually worried about the whole thing cuz I didn't want the mix to suck, but then there was not much I can do so I went to brush my teeth and cooked my coffee after all the calling and talking,,,
Around 15 min later Jacob called again, and told me he was able to get the right sound by pushing a bottom on the console and trigger an effect in the arrangement... so he was wrong about the problem. I was like....oh....that is great...make sure you tell or write Scott to tell him you were wrong and say sorry then. He was like "yeah I will"....I thought that was the happy ending....and then right after I hung up Scott called. He said "I checked the track, and there was something wrong. Jacob was right." I was like.....all....confused.....Scott told me he would re-print it and e-mail it to me so I can take it to Jacob tonight. I was like....that is cool with me.
I called Jacob and told him what Scott was gonna do and then I guess Jacob was kinda happy about it even though he figured out how to make it right.... Again right after my call with Jacob Scott rang again. He went "This is really odd....I have never encountered anything like this. I was trying to open the track in the OS 9 (or 10) which I did the arrangement with, and everything sounded just right. When I export it to the other version where I print the tracks with, it sounds wrong....but the original source was correct...." I then told him "It's ok....Jacob figured out how to do it and I will just tell him the original is fine. If we can just do it with the way he figured out then let's leave it at that. If there is any problem I will make sure to call you maybe tomorrow."
So that is about how everything got solved....back to where we started..orz....and it was surely a lot of talking, explaining, and arguing through early morning (when no musician is supposed to be in a good mood.) At the end I asked Scott "hey....are you gonna be talking to Jacob? Don't tell me you are just gonna fight with him from now on, k?" and then Scott told me " I will talk to him....He is still a brother in Christ and everything....but then ministry, work, friendship, and money should really stay separated from each other. Jacob gets all too personal with everything and that makes it difficult to work on their projects."
I couldn't agree with Scott more. Chinese people just like to mix everything together thinking if I am a friend with you, then you got to do everything for me for free. Ministries take people for granted and expects a lot of favors from people (in the name of God or so they think). The thing is...God does think people should get paid for what they work for. If you did not come to an agreement clearly with someone from the VERY BEGINNING....then there is no right for you to ask otherwise at the end. Chinese ministries don't respect who they work with, and don't nurture whoever work for the ministries.... so at the end whatever relationship people have with each other dries up and dies. At the end everybody gets burnt out one way or another.
I know how harsh Scott may seem for us fake Chinese, but I have always enjoyed conversing with him cuz he does not try to hide it. One just has to be as direct to him as he is, to make him realize he is not the only one who has principles. I like dealing with the "no hidden message" Scott much more than those fake Christian people who appear to be nice and then stab you in the back. Anyway.....very dramatic morning and yet good exercise of brain for me. There is one lesson I learned though.....being a musician....you just have to be the one who everyone likes. If you are the exact opposite....You will be famous in the circle in no time....just like the Chinese saying "bad things spread a thousand miles"........
Jacob is doing mixes for us these three days. He called in the morning to tell me that snare drum track (which Scott did the arrangement with) sounded phase-y. That means it does not exactly sync with other tracks and you hear phases of sound. Well...if that was the only problem then it would be easy. He only has to tell Scott and then have Scott print the track again then we can do the mix another day. The big problem was.....Jacob was fighting with Scott so he wanted me to call instead.
I would not mind calling Scott either since Scott knows I would never bug him to fix problems unless there is really a problem....but the situation is.....he was so fed up with Pastor Chen and got into a huge fight with Jacob because the PC project. (They wanted Scott to re-print whole bunch of stuff which Scott thought was stupid and a waste of time.) I really didn't want to get in the middle of the dirty situation and communicate about problems just because Jacob and Scott are not talking right now....cuz it wasn't news that everyone who worked with something related to PC projects would end up hating working for him.
However, since Jacob told me Scott would not pick up his calls.... I called Scott. I told him there may be some problems with the snare, and he said "no there is not, Jacob is crazy". I have to say I was a little shocked by the magnitude of Scott's annoyance toward Jacob cuz I have never heard him say things like that. He then complained to me about the whole HI and PC situation like I have never heard of it.....again.... (Come on....I worked there, ok? I know the pain in the ass...yeah....pain in the ass is exactly what Scott said....lol) Anyway.....this phone call kinda got nothing solved and I called Jacob and told him Scott said there is no problem (even though I doubt he really checked....)
Jacob was then frustrated and I explained to him how by me talking in the middle it won't get to prove the problem to Scott. I suggested him to just call and leave a message explaining the situation, and if by night time Scott does not reply then we can try to call him again using my phone since he talks to me. Jacob was reluctant but then he said alright. I was actually worried about the whole thing cuz I didn't want the mix to suck, but then there was not much I can do so I went to brush my teeth and cooked my coffee after all the calling and talking,,,
Around 15 min later Jacob called again, and told me he was able to get the right sound by pushing a bottom on the console and trigger an effect in the arrangement... so he was wrong about the problem. I was like....oh....that is great...make sure you tell or write Scott to tell him you were wrong and say sorry then. He was like "yeah I will"....I thought that was the happy ending....and then right after I hung up Scott called. He said "I checked the track, and there was something wrong. Jacob was right." I was like.....all....confused.....Scott told me he would re-print it and e-mail it to me so I can take it to Jacob tonight. I was like....that is cool with me.
I called Jacob and told him what Scott was gonna do and then I guess Jacob was kinda happy about it even though he figured out how to make it right.... Again right after my call with Jacob Scott rang again. He went "This is really odd....I have never encountered anything like this. I was trying to open the track in the OS 9 (or 10) which I did the arrangement with, and everything sounded just right. When I export it to the other version where I print the tracks with, it sounds wrong....but the original source was correct...." I then told him "It's ok....Jacob figured out how to do it and I will just tell him the original is fine. If we can just do it with the way he figured out then let's leave it at that. If there is any problem I will make sure to call you maybe tomorrow."
So that is about how everything got solved....back to where we started..orz....and it was surely a lot of talking, explaining, and arguing through early morning (when no musician is supposed to be in a good mood.) At the end I asked Scott "hey....are you gonna be talking to Jacob? Don't tell me you are just gonna fight with him from now on, k?" and then Scott told me " I will talk to him....He is still a brother in Christ and everything....but then ministry, work, friendship, and money should really stay separated from each other. Jacob gets all too personal with everything and that makes it difficult to work on their projects."
I couldn't agree with Scott more. Chinese people just like to mix everything together thinking if I am a friend with you, then you got to do everything for me for free. Ministries take people for granted and expects a lot of favors from people (in the name of God or so they think). The thing is...God does think people should get paid for what they work for. If you did not come to an agreement clearly with someone from the VERY BEGINNING....then there is no right for you to ask otherwise at the end. Chinese ministries don't respect who they work with, and don't nurture whoever work for the ministries.... so at the end whatever relationship people have with each other dries up and dies. At the end everybody gets burnt out one way or another.
I know how harsh Scott may seem for us fake Chinese, but I have always enjoyed conversing with him cuz he does not try to hide it. One just has to be as direct to him as he is, to make him realize he is not the only one who has principles. I like dealing with the "no hidden message" Scott much more than those fake Christian people who appear to be nice and then stab you in the back. Anyway.....very dramatic morning and yet good exercise of brain for me. There is one lesson I learned though.....being a musician....you just have to be the one who everyone likes. If you are the exact opposite....You will be famous in the circle in no time....just like the Chinese saying "bad things spread a thousand miles"........
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Why do you?
There are just way too many different ways to explain why our prayers don't get granted. Some say you have to be connected to the grape tree as a branch and be in Him to get your wishes granted. (As it was discussed form our prayer meeting last night). Some say you have to 1st seek his kingdom and then all others will be given to you....yeah....but seek his kingdom 1st. (Is it a way to distract us from what we really want? I don't know....)
Some say no matter how you know God knows all your needs, you should still ask. It's by asking that your prayers get answered. But again....some say God is not giving you what you asked because he has better plans for you.....So isn't it all confusing? Why would we want to ask something that is not the best for us...knowing God has a better plan? What is the point asking then? To think that we are not in him and not really doing what God wants so that we don't get our prayers answered? Then what about the Joseph situation? The Job situation? They didn't do the wrong things...and yet went through what they didn't ask for....
So do we pray because we want our prayers answered? We seek cuz we want to see God? or we just do it because we were told...even though we know things may not come as what we wanted? Some say we have to be childlike to enter the kingdom of God....but then do kids really ask much? So when we pray we should not ask things? since we don't know if things will be granted anyway and we don't want to mess up our faith by being disappointed? People say we should not be afraid to try a relationship cuz of the hurt we may have to go through...but then isn't it stupid to try it anyway when you know you will be hurt by the given conditions?
So who knows why our prayers don't get answered? I guess only God knows...and we can probably stop speculating since nobody has a sure answer ANYWAY....
Some say no matter how you know God knows all your needs, you should still ask. It's by asking that your prayers get answered. But again....some say God is not giving you what you asked because he has better plans for you.....So isn't it all confusing? Why would we want to ask something that is not the best for us...knowing God has a better plan? What is the point asking then? To think that we are not in him and not really doing what God wants so that we don't get our prayers answered? Then what about the Joseph situation? The Job situation? They didn't do the wrong things...and yet went through what they didn't ask for....
So do we pray because we want our prayers answered? We seek cuz we want to see God? or we just do it because we were told...even though we know things may not come as what we wanted? Some say we have to be childlike to enter the kingdom of God....but then do kids really ask much? So when we pray we should not ask things? since we don't know if things will be granted anyway and we don't want to mess up our faith by being disappointed? People say we should not be afraid to try a relationship cuz of the hurt we may have to go through...but then isn't it stupid to try it anyway when you know you will be hurt by the given conditions?
So who knows why our prayers don't get answered? I guess only God knows...and we can probably stop speculating since nobody has a sure answer ANYWAY....
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
What is that you ask in life?
Finally finished reading Proverbs today, and came across to something quite interesting which Agur wrote. (He was a descendant from Abraham's son Ishmael. He came from the ancient east which was supposed to be famous for the wisdom) In Proverbs 30:7-9 he said "I ask two things from you, Lord. Don't refuse me before I die. Keep me from lying and being dishonest. And don't make me either rich or poor; just give me enough food for each day. If I have too much, I might reject you and say, ' I don't know the Lod.' If I am poor, I might steal and disgrace the name of my God.
How much wisdom do we have to actually ask this kinda things for our lives?
How much wisdom do we have to actually ask this kinda things for our lives?
Monday, April 21, 2008
Billy vox tuned....
Went to tune Billy's vocal this morning..... Other than the computer getting stuck at one place three times (and every time we lost some stuff already tuned...and had to start over again) I guess things went alright. Kevin liked Billy's voice and said Billy has a lot of bass end in his voice. He also said he usually likes the untrained vocal cuz it's more natural and has more characters in it. I was cracking up inside cuz I wonder what he would say if I told him it was my hubby singing. Well....at least he liked it.....
Kevin showed me some stuff he and his wife did, and to be honest I got a little jealous. His wife has a very sweet voice which cna get powerful at times when needed. They do commercial music and also has a rock indie band which has several records out already. It is indeed very convenient to have a spouse who can sing well and work together with. They can just do everything in their own studio and get everything done by themselves.....including the arrangements (instrumental recordings), the vocal recording, the tuning, and the mixing....I guess I am already lucky that my hubby can sing for me so I shouldn't complain since I can't sing myself....lol....Next time I am just gonna write something that fits him more....yeah...have to try at least....
Alright....time to eat....now we just have to wait for Jacob to mix stuff.....
Kevin showed me some stuff he and his wife did, and to be honest I got a little jealous. His wife has a very sweet voice which cna get powerful at times when needed. They do commercial music and also has a rock indie band which has several records out already. It is indeed very convenient to have a spouse who can sing well and work together with. They can just do everything in their own studio and get everything done by themselves.....including the arrangements (instrumental recordings), the vocal recording, the tuning, and the mixing....I guess I am already lucky that my hubby can sing for me so I shouldn't complain since I can't sing myself....lol....Next time I am just gonna write something that fits him more....yeah...have to try at least....
Alright....time to eat....now we just have to wait for Jacob to mix stuff.....
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Recording....
For some reason I couldn't keep on sleeping this morning and woke up around 8:20. That is really odd since today is Sun and I was actually tired last night. I guess my sleep was probably too good in quality I didn't need that many hours? just felt kinda odd...
Yesterday was the big day which I had to record Billy for the 4th song we are gonna have on the 2nd EP. I have to admit I was kinda frustrated through the recording session. 1st of all I was already annoyed at the fact that he doesn't really count rhythms right, and then I was more ticked off when he repeats mistakes repeatedly....but the fact is....I think I am just more strict with "my" people and more nice and friendly with people who I don't care much about....lol....
Billy actually didn't do all that bad at all. I guess my song was just a bit too hard for him to sing cuz his range is not that wide, and definitely too hard for about 95 % of singer to count (cuz most people who sing don't count anyway.) Samuel was funny cuz he asked me if I auditioned the guy I was gonna get married to and made sure his voice was pleasant and acceptable. I guess I didn't really have to do that since I heard Billy sing before, but seriously never thought I wanted to record him someday even though his voice is kinda nice. (But if I married someone who is tone deaf I would probably die....)
Anyway...I think I was scaring Howard cuz he probably never saw me being that frustrated in recording sessions. I guess I am pretty calm when I produce most of the time and people who I produced always thought I am fairly "nice" even though very picky.....kinda feel sorry for both Billy and Howard now, but too bad I thought Billy can still do better with the talent he has....We will see how it sounds like after I tune him on Mon and mix the song in the future then....sighs....hopefully it will sound decent enough and hopefully we will have more songs for him to record someday....Fingers crossed...
Yesterday was the big day which I had to record Billy for the 4th song we are gonna have on the 2nd EP. I have to admit I was kinda frustrated through the recording session. 1st of all I was already annoyed at the fact that he doesn't really count rhythms right, and then I was more ticked off when he repeats mistakes repeatedly....but the fact is....I think I am just more strict with "my" people and more nice and friendly with people who I don't care much about....lol....
Billy actually didn't do all that bad at all. I guess my song was just a bit too hard for him to sing cuz his range is not that wide, and definitely too hard for about 95 % of singer to count (cuz most people who sing don't count anyway.) Samuel was funny cuz he asked me if I auditioned the guy I was gonna get married to and made sure his voice was pleasant and acceptable. I guess I didn't really have to do that since I heard Billy sing before, but seriously never thought I wanted to record him someday even though his voice is kinda nice. (But if I married someone who is tone deaf I would probably die....)
Anyway...I think I was scaring Howard cuz he probably never saw me being that frustrated in recording sessions. I guess I am pretty calm when I produce most of the time and people who I produced always thought I am fairly "nice" even though very picky.....kinda feel sorry for both Billy and Howard now, but too bad I thought Billy can still do better with the talent he has....We will see how it sounds like after I tune him on Mon and mix the song in the future then....sighs....hopefully it will sound decent enough and hopefully we will have more songs for him to record someday....Fingers crossed...
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Cutest thing....
Practicing the song which we are going to recording on Sat was quite tiring....so I guess we needed to find something fun to do afterwards. Billy dressed Hades up as a Mexican and I got some photos of him just to show what we do at midnight....orz.....
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